Sony announces plans to take on Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four Thirds cameras

The PMA 2010 photo trade show is officially underway and without the Canon machine present, Sony is generating the biggest buzz so far. Like Fujifilm, Olympus, Nikon, and even Canon among others, the company already announced its new products ahead of the show. But today, Sony held a press conference to tease us with some not-yet-existent "concept" products. Most significant is a compact interchangeable lens camera system that will compete with the existing Micro Four Thirds cameras from Olympus and Panasonic as well as the long-awaited and yet-to-ship Samsung NX10.

Though Sony is calling the new camera an Alpha dSLR, it won't be a "Single Lens Reflex" camera at all. Like the Olympus, Panasonic, and Samsung models, it will be a mirror-less (and therefore more compact) camera with a dSLR-sized sensor. Like the NX10, the Sony model will use an APS-C size sensor that's larger than the sensors in the Micro Four Thirds cameras. Besides that, and the fact that the new camera will be capable of shooting AVCHD video, Sony didn't provide many other details. And of course, the body design may certainly change significantly from the concept models (pictured above) being shown off at the show (remember the original Olympus Micro Four Thirds concept?).