For the full frame DSLR.

One of the thrilling aspects of the just announced Olympus E-M5 Mark II MFT SLR (see previous column) is the HR mode which blends 8 images into one 40mp file, delivering the resolution of a Nikon D800/810 in a pint-sized MFT body. Olympus has downplayed the significance of this technology, and there are some practical limitations. It takes one second for this magic to happen so moving subjects will mostly not work.

But Oly is clearly not resting on its laurels and seems determined to extract a quart from its pint pot. Click the image of General Manager Setsuya Kataoka below to read about the thrilling coming enhancements in a fine DP Review interview:

Click the image.

Simply stated, Oly proposes to make this a much speedier process, delivering the blended composite in 1/125 second. The miniscule sensor movements involved are truly an engineering masterpiece.

Given that the E-M5/II sample blended images linked in the previous column are better than those from the Nikon D810 (same resolution, no moiré effects), this seems to announce the death knell of the DSLR flapping mirror behemoth and its ridiculously large and heavy optics. The warbler is about to boot the cuckoo from his nest.

Another no less exciting possibility is that of a minimalist variant without all those wretched buttons and dials.

I am on the waiting list for the E-M5/II. So what if it’s rapidly obsoleted? Oly deserves my dollars for its development effort. The genius of Maitani, the designer of the OM1, lives on at Olympus. Not since Oskar Barnack and Walter Mandler at Ernst Leitz have we seen anything like this.