After a few months of only having dirt on Olympus’ shady upper management and their meteoric fall from Japan’s corporate culture graces, I am happy to report some good news coming from the eastern imaging giant. Apparently, the gears were still turning in research & development while the upper crust was falling apart…

The Director of Marketing, Mr. Ogawa,  announced in a December 19th 2011 interview (just a warning, the original article is in Japanese) that the company is producing a new MIL camera that will have an “epoch-making” viewfinder. Apparently the designers at Olympus have witnessed the impact made by the form and viewfinder of the Fuji X100 and the advances made with Sony’s NEX-7, and as a result they wish to follow and expand upon those advances in photographic technology. Ogawa states Olympus recognizes the advantages of electronic viewfinders and the classic feel of optical viewfinders, and they are creating something that is completely unique in form and function. When pressed further about details on the technology, his response was “All I can say is, when you look through the viewfinder, you’ll understand…”

So what does this mean in terms of what the end product? Anything you see right now on the subject is going to be pure speculation as Olympus is keeping tight lips on the matter, but you can expect two things:

1. They want to further the PEN series with this camera. It is going to retain the same µ4/3 mount as the series, and you can probably expect a styling to resemble their classic PEN line. Whether it will be a rangefinder or SLR form based model is to be decided.
2. It will be completely different from other present solutions in the market. They are learning from the NEX-7 and the X100, but it will not simply be a clone with a different mount.

Be looking for a major announcement (something as ground breaking as the original PEN F announcement) from Olympus about this camera very soon!

(Via Petapixel.com, via 43rumors.com, via techradar.com)