Next Four Thirds Camera

Four Thirds photographers are waiting for a new camera to be announced on Photokina this fall.

As a current Olympus E-3 camera owner I would like to write my wishlist for the next Olympus (semi)professional camera:


- ~12 MP sensor. I would like to keep the file size small. Instead of increased pixel count I would like to see...

- More dynamic range! I especially hate the limited highlight headroom on E-3 files.

- Better high ISO quality. A stop or a stop and a half would be just fine. I'm fine with noise when it looks like grain.

- Lighter anti alias filter.

- DNG file format.

- Better button placement. On E-3 I have to stretch to reach AEL. That's just twisted. Otherwise I'm quite happy with the button layout of E-3. The buttons could be a bit more tactile too. Rough button surface and real "click" when pressed down would be magic. On E-3, DOF-button has the best feel - way better than shutter release!

- I also like the Canon's back wheel and joystick (I love changing focus point with joystick!). Maybe Olympus could make E-P2's scroll wheel water resistant and place it to the back of E-3 replacement?

- Brighter LCD-display with better resolution (Maybe OLED?).

- More quiet shutter. Always a nice thing to have.

- Quieter AF-lock signal. Signal sound is disturbingly loud to my taste. I have turned it off, but I'm now lacking a proper AF confirmation, as the AF area blinks red when AF starts, not when AF locks. Maybe the AF area should lit up red when AF starts and turn off when AF is locked?

- Voice recording for making notes.

- Even better low light AF. Better C-AF performance.

- Working auto ISO even with flash.

- More fluent life-view mode. Now it takes a while to wait for mirror flipping up and down.

- Accessories! Splashproof flash and more SWD lenses. Maybe 17mm F1.4 lens plus a medium telephoto smaller and lighter than 35-100mm F2 (35-100mm F2.8 SWD?).

- Lighter body and accessories. I like the E-3 size without battery grip, but I would not mind carrying a lighter bag.

- Natural looking in camera HDR (double exposure?) or a way to take 3 shot bracketing with 0, +2, +4 EV values with only one press of shutter release.

- Am I the only one who would like to hang the camera so that the lens is pointing downwards? I would like to see neck strap attachment that would allow me to carry my camera lens down.