Olympus aims digital camera at pro market

Olympus is to take a shot at capturing the interest of professional photographers this June with a digital single lens reflex (SLR) system based on an open standard developed with Fuji and Kodak.

Although official announcements are not due to be made until the summer, Olympus used the CeBIT trade fair to show a prototype camera, lenses and accessories for what is called the Four Thirds system.

At the moment there is no open standard in the digital SLR camera market, meaning that bodies and lenses from different manufacturers are incompatible.

The Four Thirds system is designed to maximise digital image sensor performance, and establishes a common standard for lens mounts.

This will ensure compatibility between lenses and bodies even if they are produced by different manufacturers.

"The lenses will have a chip inside that will 'talk' to the camera, so it doesn't matter if a photographer uses an Olympus lens with a Kodak body or vice versa," an Olympus spokesman told vnunet.com.

Olympus also believes it has been able to bypass the image quality problem associated with digital SLR cameras.

Andy Parker, Olympus's marketing communications manager, explained: "In the past, photographers have had to use standard SLR film camera lenses with digital SLR cameras.

"To make them compatible, manufacturers have had to increase the image sensor size, but this leads to loss of colour definition.

"We have overcome this by starting from scratch with the cameras so we aren't using two different technologies."

Lenses for the system are also smaller and lighter than those currently used for 35mm and APS SLR lens systems.

For example, the Olympus prototype 300mm telephoto lens will, the company claims, offer equivalent performance to a 600mm lens on a 35mm SLR camera.

Olympus also chose CebBIT to launch two new entry-level cameras, the 2megapixel C150, which will sell for £140, and the 3megapixel C350 zoom, which will sell for £250.