Reports of the demise of regular FourThirds are now running rampent across the Internet. What is the truth? Will Olympus cease development after the E-4/E-5 production run? Evidence is mounting which shows that this rumor just might have some truth to it. Olympus has a long-standing reputation of abandoning product lines, with the classic OM system being a prime example. As FourThirds never did gain the traction and the universal acceptance so promised, it only makes sense for Olympus to cut losses and move on to something else.

But does "abandon" seem a little harsh in this case? Possible. It is believed development of FourThirds will continue, but not with the aggressiveness of previous years. It makes no sense to have two or three lines of Micro FourThirds cameras, the E-3xx, E-4xx, E-5xx, E-6xx, E-xx and E-x series of FourThirds mount cameras. Olympus has been taking the insane approach to shotgunning products but never giving the pro or serious photographer the time of day. After all these years we've ONLY had the E-1 and E-3 on the market. For being mortal enemies with Canon, Olympus has done a perfect job of forcing us to buy Canon cameras.

Olympus is introducing a new high-end camera, possibly two this year which are supposably targeted at the professional but unless they have a clear path of progression, we must assume that this really is it for any major release to the top-end of the market using exclusively the FourThirds mount. This, however, doesn't mean that it's the end of the line for FourThirds. Zone-10 believes that this may be the final product which is completely independant from Micro FourThirds and will progress towards a hybrid approach with MicroFourThirds.

Very specifically, FourThirds DSLRs with moving mirrors and mechanical shutters will be ceasing. Future cameras will most certainly have the Micro FourThirds mount as the mirror chamber will be eliminated and high-res electronic viewfinders will be the norm. All normal FourThirds lenses will be supported going forward through either an adaptor or through a modular extension on the front of the camera which will not only mount the lenses, but may provide additional functionality such as a beam-splitter for phase-detection auto-focus.

Regardless, Zone-10 is NOT predicting the end of FourThirds, just the merging of the technologies using modular construction and adaptors. Micro FourThirds is hampered in auto-focus technology by being forced to use contrast-detect auto-focus. Performance for professional applications MUST use phase-detection auto-focus. Until sufficient performance increases in contrast-detect occur, Olympus is forced to retain the longer mount-to-sensor distance for placement of either a mirror or beam-splitter to the auto-focus sensor array.

Ken Norton