Back in August, we reported on Samsung's intention to challenge the Micro 4/3 market with a "hybrid" system combining interchangeable lenses with a mirrorless APS-C body featuring an electronic viewfinder. Yesterday at PMA, Samsung officially introduced their hybrid system, named the NX series, stating that the first model would be available in the second half of 2009.

Details remain sparse regarding the NX system. However, using the hot shoe to estimate size, the prototype model being shown at PMA seems to be quite compact. In fact, disregarding lens size, it looks to be smaller than the current Micro Four Thirds models from Panasonic. I've resized the Samsung prototype photo below to demonstrate this.




As impressed as I have been with the Panasonic G1, it seems to me that Panasonic could have had even more success with that model by further exploiting the ability to go as compact as possible. The Sigma DP line shows just how small an APS-C sensor camera can be, and a Micro Four Thirds camera should be able to be made even smaller. With Samsung bringing competition to Panasonic and Olympus in the EVIL/hybrid market, I expect that 2010 will be the year that we see large sensor, interchangeable lens compact cameras come to the forefront.