The fresh trend of Micro Four Thirds shooters is on the rise, thus it shouldn't come as a surprise that more glass-makers are jumping on the MFT bandwagon. Joining the likes of Panasonic, Olympus and Kodak as part of the Micro Four Thirds Group, is a trifecta of third-party lens manufacturers: Tamron, Kenko Tokina and ASTRODESIGN. Following closely behind rival Sigma, the newcomers are looking to make a dent in the four-thirds universe. Better late than never, right? There's still no sign of these optics being available for you to stack in your camera bag, but the news just came in, so it shouldn't be too long before you can get some extra glass for your shiny new GX1.

C-Mount lenses (commonly used on 16mm film cameras) have already found a bit of new life on Micro Four Thirds cameras thanks to adapters, and it look like the compact lenses are now also found another fan in the form of Japanese camera manufacturer Kenko. It's now showing a new compact camera that will apparently accommodate C-mount lenses directly, and be available in Japan this summer for ¥32,000, or about $370 (it's not clear if that includes any lenses). Details are still fairly light beyond that, unfortunately, but it looks like you'll at least have plenty of lenses to choose from if the company's display at the Tokyo International Gift Show is any indication.