Image on top: The 1 inch compact camera from Sony.
It’s always nice to see how the high end compact cameras (with fixed lens) are evolving. They sometimes offer a great alternative to our Micro Four Thirds cameras because of the ulterior size advantage. My sources told me that Olympus/Panasonic will release the new LX5 and [shoplink 19904]XZ-1[/shoplink] successor within the next 2-3 months (probably July). One rumor I heard many times is that they will both use a larger sensors. This is not a big secret. A couple of months ago Techradar (Click here) interviewed Yoshiyuki Inoue (Panasonic Senior Engineering Planner) who said “one aspect that is being given serious consideration for the camera that replaces the LX5 is increasing the size of the sensor, Panasonic’s Mr Uematsu even joked that it could have a 1in sensor like the new Nikon V1.”. Today Sony unveiled exactly an one inch RX100 camera -> Price and specs at Amazon US (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). So it’s possible that this is the kind of high end camera we will see soon coming from Olympus and Panasonic too! I think it would be a great solution for all of you looking for an extremely compact camera with zoom lens. Don’t you think?
P.S.:
LX5 at [shopcountry 21136].
XZ-2 at [shopcountry 19904].