Impress Japan had an interview with many of the Japanese camera manufacturers and I thought I’d talk about that with some opinion included.
As also seen here, here, and here.
My news and opinion in video format on Youtube:
The full interview in Japanese:
https://www.impressjapan.jp/pr/monitor/1112_dcm/271201_free.pdf
Companies in the interview:
Pentax, Ricoh, Canon Fujifilm, Nikon, Sigma, and Sony.
Points of interest:
Olympus:
Eventual E-5 SLR replacement.
Canon:
Interested in small cameras, but not necessarily ones with interchangeable lenses. Has a focus on sensor sensitivity rather than mega-pixels (just look at the 1D X with its 18MP).
Sigma:
DP series additions coming. Mirror-less format lenses coming.
Sony:
Smaller e-mount lenses to better fit their mirror-less cameras. Talk of electronic shutters.
Nikon:
Replacements for the D3 and D700 coming. Compacts should have a focus on ergonomics and control to have more benefit over cell phone cameras.
Fujifilm:
Focus on high-end compacts like the x100 and x10. Improvements in AF speed coming. Offering a mirror-less camera with better image quality than full-frame (somehow…?).
Pentax:
100% viewfinders in the entire SLR range. Focus on high image quality with further reductions in size (I assume like their K-7/K-5 series did compared to the K10/K20D series). Hints at the possibility of mirror-less cameras with full-frame and medium format sensors. He thinks that cheaper SLRs will eventually be replaced by mirror-less cameras for various reasons.
Ricoh:
GXR Pentax mount module. I thought that would be a good idea here. More zoom lens modules for GXR. A dedicated black & white compact camera.
Those are some interesting possibilities!