Back in January 2005 Olympus and Panasonic signed a joint development agreement for DSLR cameras. Now Matsushita (who own the Panasonic brand) and Olympus have announced plans to jointly-develop new DSLRs based on the Four Thirds System, which was established back in 2002 by Olympus and Kodak, and present them at the PMA Show in February 2006. Olympus already have two Four-Thirds DLSRs, the E-1 and new E-300 (look out for my review soon…), but this would be the first digital SLR for Panasonic, and more good news for the Four-Thirds standard.

“Matsushita said it planned to develop a digital SLR and sell it under its own brands, which include Panasonic, expanding its product lineup beyond compact models and helping it achieve its goal of having 10 percent of the global digital camera market in two years.  “Launching a digital SLR will do much to strengthen our brand in the digital camera market,” Fumio Ohtsubo, senior managing director at Matsushita, told a news conference.”

Website: MSNBC - Matsushita, Olympus to develop digital SLRs