Originally Posted by TaoMaas
I'm in the group who would like to have a small, pocketable back-up to my DSLR so I'm going to be curious to see how Micro 4/3's works out for Olympus. I think the primary market for this camera is going to be folks who are fairly serious about their photography because I just don't think the advantages of this camera over a good p&s will be that appealing to the general public. If Olympus can prove the marketability of a camera like this, then that increases the chances that Pentax will try to develop something similar, IMO.
I may be wrong here, but my prediction is that the micro sized point and shoots such as the Optio S10 will get engulfed by cell phone cameras. I was shocked just this weekend to see how many people are already using cell phones to take "important" pics when hiking up
grandfather mountain. For the most part, people that buy those things know nothing about photography and just want to be able to press a button and get a picture. As quality of cell phone cameras increases eventually that market will see no need to buy a separate camera.
That leaves super zooms, bridge cameras and SLR's. SLR's will always be around for the pro's and purists, but I could see this new "digital rangefinder" type of camera totally wiping out the super zooms and small sensor bridge cameras once people see an IQ comparison between a M43's and something like Canon S5 IS.
I do think the APS-C SLR's will go the way of the Dodo though. These small rangefinders will eat into sales of entry level SLR's, and the people that don't mind the bulk of an SLR will want the ultimate in IQ...which as of now is FF. I just don't see where APS-C SLR's will fit in.