This week the photography news started heating up a little in the product category.

Olympus / Panasonic Micro Four Thirds format

Earlier this week, Olympus announced a future Micro Four Thirds format; a camera spec that will eliminate the mirror and viewfinder from the body yet will continue to mount interchangeable lenses (though of a new type). So, a thinner body that is no longer an SLR. Some have called it a digital rangefinder -- though purists are not likely to accept that. Is this smaller format what street shooters have been waiting for? The Micro Four Thirds still shares the same sensor as its larger cousin. Panasonic will be sharing the same Micro format but neither has yet to announce an actual lineup.

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Nikon P6000 has only Windows-proprietary RAW support

Nikon fans were initially cheered by the announcement of a new compact that seemingly challenged the technical prowess of Canon's G9: a pocketable whiz that offers stellar RAW output. But now it seems the most critical part of the Nikon P6000s specs -- its RAW output -- will be tied to the proprietary Windows Imaging Component (WIC) graphics format -- a media layer that supports Windows' own metadata and 'seamlessly' provides direct access to any codecs needed.

As Gisele Hannmeyr concludes:

...under WIC, all access to RAW data including decoding and demosaicing is provided by, and controlled by, the codec. This means that WIC is useless to independent developers like Adobe whose business is to make RAW converters that works independent of the camera manufacturers software.

But the bad news doesn’t stop there. WIC means that when you no longer have access to the magic codec, you no longer have access to your RAW data.

Finally, Mac and Linux users will not be able to access the RAW data. Anyone who is leery of using a format that is dependent upon Microsoft's future resolve had better think twice.

Read more here >>

Japanese photographers beaten

Following the recent Islamic separatist attack on a police station in China's northwestern region that killed more than a dozen officers, Chinese police roughed up two Japanese journalists who had been sent to cover the story -- and subsequently the Olympics.

More in the USA Today >>

Finally, in the somewhat amusing but embarrassing category:

Video: Photographer interrupts Obama speech to demand pledge of allegiance

You have to see it and not cringe. Presidential candidate Barrack Obama had just begun a speech on energy alternatives when a loud voice came up from the behind the cameras demanding that Obama start the town hall meeting with the pledge of allegiance. Obama gamely accepted and it turned out to be a nice moment. As for the person who demanded it -- it was photographer John Quinn who -- while patriotic -- violated one of the unwritten rules of journalism, that you do not become the story; you report the story. Quinn reportedly no longer works for Bloomberg.

Video here on PDNPulse >>.