Image courtesy: Photoscala

Mobile01 went to the GRD 5th Anniversary Party in Tokyo and they interviewed many RICOH employees and photographers. Unofficially they got the information that RICOH will launch the new Micro Four Thirds sensor module for GXR system during 2011. Their goal is to move Micro Four Thirds fans to the [shoplink 100059]RICOH GXR system[/shoplink].

This is not the first time we hear that RICOH is preparing a Micro Four Thirds module. Ricoh has already shown a “mysterious” Expansion Unit on their road map but without specifying what kind of mount it will use.

DC.watch.impress interviewed Mr. Eguchi (Hoya’s Marketing Director of the Imaging Division). He confirmed that Hoya-Pentax future mirrorless sstem will not use the Samsung NX-mount. I guess this is the end of the Pentax-Samsung partnership. Also the latest sensors of the Pentax K-x and Pentax K-5 are from Sony.

And here we are with the next Nikon mirrorless rumor. This time from Digitmes:

“Japan-based camera brand Nikon expects its new mirrorless DSLR-similar camera will help expand its market share in the interchangeable-lens camera (ILC) market in the Asia Pacific to 40% in 2011 and 50% in 2012, according to the company.

As Sony and Samsung Electronics have both recently entered the DSLR-similar camera market, Nikon pointed out that the DSLR-similar cameras should not cause damage toward the sales of traditional DSLR, instead the model has helped increase consumer acceptance of ILC.

According to figures from GfK, Taiwan’s ILC shipments in 2009 were about 108,000 units and the forecasted volume for 2010 has already increased from only 140,000 units in early 2010 to about 160,000 units currently, a significant growth.

In the first half of 2010, affected by tight supply, Nikon’s share in Taiwan’s ILC market once dropped to only 25%, but as the company is working on resolving the issue, the company is expected to grab 35% of Taiwan’s ILC market by the end of 2010.“

In a DC.watch interview Mr. Goto (Nikon) said that “If the lens system and body are not smaller in total, the whole meaning of reducing size is lost. If it was up to him to make such a thing, a mount smaller than the F would be chosen. It’s a new genre of camera…something that no maker is currently making. It is not targeted towards people who use cameras in their work, some will look at this product as a really fun to use camera.“

Photoscala published the new Ricoh GXR roadmap and there is one surprise. Ricoh will offer a new expansion unit. But nobody knows yet what mount it will offer!

Photoscala made this nice graph to show us the future NEX lenses from Sony. As you see there is also a Wide angle prime from Zeiss!

Sounds like Nikon will present their mirrorless “Q” camera at Photokina (next week). I don’t know if they will release a real camera or just present the new system with sme prototype. Anyway, there is a long Nikon mirrorless patent history that leads us to believe the sensor will be smaller than APS-C. I guess on Monday we will know more!

Leica Camera Forum has been invited for a „Leica Design Preview“ at Photokina. Leicarumors believes we will see a Leica EVIL system. The administrator from LeicaCameraForum will be there on Monday evening (photokina’s eve) to report live from Cologne and says “Don’t make any other appointments for Monday evening (8 pm CEST), ut some beer in the fridge and follow the Leica Forum twitter feed!“

Mirrorlessrumors doesn’t believe that there will be a new Leica mirrorless system. ANyway it is better to not miss their Twitter Live report :)