The "MICRO" Project Basic Concept 1 & 2

Basic Concept 1

1. Body and manufacturing process
We plan to use magnesium extruding for a metal shell structure, different from conventional DSLR. This body will be of high physical strength and of airtighteness, because of minimum number of joints in body, while it may be costly.



2. Why such a tough body?
Since Micro Four-thirds is designed as more handy than four-thirds lineup, we believe the camara should be operational at any place. It goes beyond a handy camera: it must be splush-proven, dust-proven, and even water-proven.

Oly positions Micro Four-thirds as bridge between DLSR and compact digital camera. We interpret this as combination of excellent picture quality of E-system and of portability of μ series.

As shown later, our Micro Four-thirds body and specialized ZD lens will be of 10-meter water-proof, requiring no special housing materials.

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Basic Concept 2
We hereby explain our concept of finder.

1. Installment of EVF (electronic view finder) and its location
Acknowledging a variety of opinions on desirability of EVF on micro four-thirds, we conclude that EVF, even if small, is indispensable to ideal micro four-thirds digital cameras that are supposed to offer, under its philosophy of "go find day-to-day wonders," easy-to-use finders born naturally from our eye contact point.

This said, we propose that its location should be up-left corner, departing from the 1st commercialized model of Panasonic G1. We also propose reflaction-type EVF, to ensure downsizing.



Here are two reasons for which we prefer up-left EVF to center EVF.
a) Holding and operationability
Up-left EVF gives sufficient space between face and right hand to ensure operationability of very compact body.
Furthermore, we believe such location should help stabilizing photographers' grip.

b) Benefit from snapshooting with right-eye and right-hand forefinger
By positioning EVF at upper-left, photographers will show half of their face to photo subjects, to avoid unnecessary tension between photographer and its subjects.
Also, photographers' noses will not touch LCD display if located at center of the body.

2. Installment of LCD View and its location
In contrast to our proposal of EVF positioning, LCD display will be best positioned at the center of the body. To be more precise, LCD display should be placed straight against optic axis.
When using LCD view, photographers do not attach their face to LCD. If they were to stretch out their arms, they will easily put the display just in front of their face. This position is also suitable for using the camera with tripod.

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All in all, our ideal micro four-thirds digital camera locates
- EVF at upper-left corner;
- LCD straight against optical axis


Going forward, we will reveal our concepts of user-interface that will be located at right-hand side of the body. This is the integral part of key functionality, and pls look forward to our next updates.