I am making a huge gamble on what the next Olympus ‘E’ is going to be.  I am certain that Olympus is not going to abandon its FT line of lenses and would go as far as stating that it’s going to be its core.  I’m making such a huge gamble that I did what is thought as unthinkable nowadays: buy the FT Olympus 35-100 f2.  Granted that I paid much less than what a new Panasonic 35-100/2.8 is going to cost new, the idea may seem, again, silly nowadays.

Now it would even sillier that I’m using it on…an EP-2 and on an EPL-1.  Yes, you got that right: just downright insane.  The thing is really nose heavy (at about 3.5 lbs!) and makes my arm sore after hand-holding it for less than half an hour…and using it to take photos of my two-year-olds I get a keeper rate of probably less than 5%.

But.

The lens is just phenomenal.  Note that this is a zoom lens.  At f2, there is very little veiling, and unlike most zooms (even with some primes) where the true acceptable performance starts at one-stop down, this lens already performs at its best a f2.2!  not f2.8…f2.2!

Olympus would need to somehow repeat the success of the EM-5, and to do this it should have features that would make one easily choose the next E vs the EM-5, price notwithstanding.

• The camera will be mirrorless and will have that recently announced digital viewfinder made by Epson.  I would think that it would also have a hybrid VF a-la Fuji X series but that maybe too much.
• Magnesium alloy body and weather-sealing similar to the E-5.  I may have the form-factor of the E-Volt.
• The camera will have a slightly larger than FT sensor.  Olympus will reveal that the FT lenses (especially the SHG line) are actually spec’ed to cover slightly larger than FT (but would still be smaller than APS-C)
• To make this happen, the camera will have a FT mount natively and somehow will have an adapter to mount MFT lenses.
• Having a larger sensor would Olympus/Sony to have an expanded ISO (with ISO 100 as the minimum, vs 200 in the current generation of Olympus MFT cameras)
• No Art Filters…because, you know, fuck Art Filters.
• Built-in Flash
• Dual SD Slot
• Control the camera via Bluetooth
• Real buttons and dials instead of that stupid touch screen navigation that does not work with gloves.
• Olympus will probably tack on support for 1080p 60fps video recording just because they’ll be crucified by not supporting any form of hi-def video.

Of course, I clearly have no basis for this list except my insanity.  You would have to agree, though, that an E having these specs would be a hit.

The Micro Four-Thirds format have always had a soft spot in my heart.  Olympus and Panasonic has made the level of interest (both consumer- and professional-level) go through the roof in the format when they introduced its first camera in the line-up back in 2008 which paved way to the advent known as the MILC format that we know today.  It’s because of the MFT success’ forged the slew of “me too” MILC formats from other camera manufacturers.