Yesterday I had lunch with Toshiyuki Terada, who manages the 'SLR' product planning team at Olympus in Tokyo. One of the most interesting things he said was that Olympus hopes its Pen-brand Micro Four Thirds hybrid cameras will act as a stepping stone to propel some people into the heady world of DSLR photography.

This is interesting because the primary stated objective of the Micro Four Thirds system camera platform, which was co-conceived by Panasonic Lumix and Olympus, is to attract photographers who want something better than a compact camera but have baulked at the prospect of upgrading to a DSLR.

A hybrid camera like a Micro Four Thirds model, shares many attributes with a DSLR, like interchangeable lenses and a relatively large sensor and higher image quality than a compact camera. Olympus now sees the possibility of Micro Four Thirds being a nursery where budding new photographers' enthusiasm for full-blown photography will be developed, eventually seeing them lured into the DSLR scene.

So far Micro Four Thirds cameras have proved popular among established photographers as a less bulky alternative to their trusty DSLR. In some ways hybrid cameras are compromised compared to DSLRs, so maybe the idea of a hybrid being a stepping stone to the world of DSLRs has some interesting logic to it.

You can read my full account about lunch with Terada san at our sibling site, [URL="http://fourthirds-user.com/2010/03/lunch_with_olympus_manager_of_slr_product_planning.php"]Four Thirds User[/URL].
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