Olympus Medium-Format Camera Rumour

Recently, my world has been a little shocked, with the news that Olympus are planning a Medium-Format Camera. The rumours are that they are planning to achieve this without substantial increases in size. If you are already an Olympus user, then the news continues to get better as the new camera model will still be able to use M4/3 lenses.

The world’s first truly stackable camera sensor.

While on my recent trip to Japan, I was honoured to be shown around the Olympus headquarters in Shinjuku and got to speak to the head of R&R, Mr. Miyagi about the recent innovations Olympus have been making. Mr. Miyagi explained how camera manufacturers have always been restrained by light having to hit the sensor. However, light can be bent and manipulated and Olympus are planning to use nano-fibre-optics to transfer light, from the lens, to the sensor. This may well be a genuine game changer in camera technology and has massive implications on the industry as a whole.

Larger than full frame?

As you can see from the image below, M4/3 is clearly much smaller than its full-frame rival. What Olympus has managed to do is to stack four of these sensors on top each other, which has made an effective sensor size that is approximately 1/3 larger than full-frame. The light simply hits the nano optics and is redirected to the corresponding ‘fold’ on the sensor.

These sensors are connected using NFO (Nana-Fibre-Optics). While this may increase the physical depth of an Olympus camera, the width and hight should remain constant. Native lenses will remain useable, as the initial entry point for light retains a M4/3 aspect ratio. Mr. Miyagi continued to explain how Olympus are not restrained by just stacking 4 sensors on top of each other, and as long as the numbers remain a square (Ie. 4, 9, 16, 25…) then sensors can get, theoretically, infinitely larger.

Goodbye Sony, Canon & Nikon

While the ‘big three’ have been focusing on Full-Frame cameras and mounts, Olympus have been doing something different. This leap in technology is likely to push Sony, Nikon and Canon way back into the bleachers.

The future is looking bright for Olympus, and I cannot wait to get my hands on one of these cameras.

Thats all folks, and remember you heard if first on pagespics.com.

Take care and keep clicking, Chris