According to the apparently fake document, first posted on the FourThirdsPhoto Forum, Olympus is pitching the new model as a competitor to the Nikon D200 and the Canon EOS 30D.

The person who posted the document has since claimed he received it from three different sources - one of which was an Olympus employee. The document mentioned that sometime in October September time we all will be seeing much more of the perfect Olympus E-P1 DSLR Digital Camera.This 27 page document giving you every single detail about this camera from Olympus but was sadly removed at the request of Olympus themselves. The E-P1 DSLR will feature a 10 megapixel sensor; eleven-point autofocus, swivelling LCD, dust reduction, and weather sealed extra battery plus, image sensor stabilization and splash-proof body.

The company said: “We are not in a position to comment on any of this information but what I can say is that Olympus has not released a presentation on any new SLR body following the launch of the E-410 and E-510.”

“We are devoted to developing the E-1 successor model in order to make an announcement and launch the product within this year. Further details will be provided when the dates for the announcement and product launch have been fixed. Product specifications cannot be released until the official announcement of the new product.”