Yesterday I wrote about Nikon's upcoming mirrorless entry and suggested that the 2.7x crop rumor may be correct. I tried to point out why Nikon might have picked such a size.
A few of you managed to anticipate today's post: so what sensor is that?
At present, I don't know of a 2.7x crop sensor. Other than the m4/3 sensors, there's a huge gap in available sensors between the high-end compacts and the APS/DX DSLRs. Pentax punted and just used an existing compact sensor for the Q. Meanwhile, Sony picked APS for their mirrorless. So let's look at who has already chosen and doesn't need a 2.7x sensor: Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Ricoh, Samsung, and Sony. Canon could use one, I suppose ;~). As could Nikon.
The implication is that Nikon has something up its sleeve and that the sensor may be home-grown. A D3100 sensor scaled to 2.8x would be about 5mp, for what it's worth. That's getting very near the point it would turn a few heads. Imagine an 8-10mp camera that fits in your pocket with D3100-like performance. That would certainly get some attention, though I doubt that Nikon has progressed that far that fast.
But here's the thing: m4/3 sensors haven't moved the bar since they first started being produced. DX/FX, both from Nikon and Sony, has moved the bar quite far and will be moving it further soon. What if--and please, this is a what if, not a will--but what if Nikon was able to put a 10mp+ sensor into a Coolpix P7000-sized body that had an m4/3 level of image capability? I believe that's in the realm of possibilities.