What is a Compact System Camera?

Mr Findlay in action - photographed by Anna - Olympus E-P2

A Compact System Camera (CSC) is a digital mirrorless interchangeable lens camera system.  A CSC does not use a mirror box or pentaprism like a DSLR camera, allowing smaller bodies and lenses to be designed.  Despite the diminutive size of some these cameras many of them have advanced feature sets that can be found on high end DSLRs, with the added benefits of being lighter with improved video operation and the ability to use high quality legacy lenses from many manufacturers.

There is no industry standard name for CSCs.  They are also referred to as Mirrorless Cameras or in the US as Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Cameras (MirrorlessILC).  Pansonic has recently created a new category with their GH3 camera called DSLM (Digital Single Lens Mirrorless).  The Panasonic GH3 camera has the same form factor as a DSLR but like all CSCs it does not have a mirror box or pentaprism.

What is a Micro Four Thirds camera?

The Micro Four Thirds system (MFT or M43) is a CSC standard created by Olympus and Panasonic.  The MFT system derived from the Olympus and Panasonic Four Thirds DSLRs and was not built around a legacy 35mm film system like other DSLR cameras.  It was the first digital interchangeable lens camera system to use a mirrorless design. 

Of all Compact System Cameras, MFT is currently the largest system.  Many manufacturers are making lenses for the system and more companies are signing up to produce MFT products.  The vast array of MFT cameras and high quality lenses available makes it one of the most exciting and enjoyable systems to use.

Why is it called Micro Four Thirds?

The name of the system stems from the size and shape of the image sensor used in the cameras, which are referred to as 4/3 type.  To give an idea of the shape, old analogue TVs had a 4:3 aspect ratio screen, which is squarer than the 16:9 aspect ratio wide screens of digital TVs.  Olympus and Panasonic DSLR cameras use 4:3 image aspect ratio sensors instead of the 3:2 aspect ratio that other DSLR cameras use.  It was concluded that their digital camera system was better optimised using this shaped sensor.  The Olympus and Panasonic DSLR system standard was named Four Thirds.  They then developed a compact mirrorless camera format using the same sensor from their DSLRs and in 2008 the Micro Four Thirds system was announced. 

That’s the summarised version of the story.




My Olympus E-P3 Camera