When the Micro Four Thirds system was developed by Olympus and Panasonic in 2008, the two companies conceived the Micro Four Thirds Standard Group as an open consortium that could be joined by anyone interested in developing products for the system. In the meantime, several well-known companies such as Fujifilm, Kenko-Tokina, Sigma etc. have joined the group (and have partially begun developing products for the Micro Four Thirds system.) Yesterday, Olympus announced that the following five companies had just joined the MFT Standard Group:
- Black Magic Design (creator of the Black Magic cinema cameras)
- JK Imaging (who are currently developing an MFT camera for Kodak)
- Photron Limited (manufacturer of high-speed digital imaging systems)
- SVS-Vistek GmbH (professional machine vision components and systems)
- ViewPLUS Inc. (advanced imaging-related equipment)
Black Magic Design has already created a cinema camera with MFT mount, and JK Imaging is currently developing an MFT camera for Kodak. As for the other companies, it is not known how they are planning to contribute to the MFT system. Possibly not at all — while Fujifilm has joined the MFT Standard Group a while ago, they never committed to the standard by developing any MFT products.
