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Olympus Air A01

The Sony QX line sounded like a good idea—advanced lenses and imaging sensors talking talking to a mobile phone wirelessly. The former handles focusing and imaging, the latter display and user interface. Nevertheless, most users thought that carrying an extra device to take better photos was just as annoying as carrying an extra camera to take better photos.

Apparently there were fewer users who thought this in Japan. While the initial Sony QX10 and QX100 modules had integrated lenses, the more recent QX1 model had a standard E-mount, accepting the same lenses ad the brand's mirrorless NEX cameras. The Olympus Air A01 follows the QX1 in including a M43 mount, making all of the Olympus and Panasonic mirrorless system lenses available. One of the more interesting things given the market is that Olympus has also announced the "Open Platform Camera" and "Hack & Make Project" providing an API for developers to interface with the lens. This isn't the first time Olympus has tried to create an open system—the Four Thirds lens system was originally an open specification as well, while the current Micro Four Thirds system was closed and proprietary. It'll be interesting if the "Open Platform Camera" is something that we continue to see, rather than a short-lived experiment.