batterytypehah!
Lord of the Dings
I think when this is said and done, only the medical business will survive, and the rest of Olympus will be the next Yashica. I really can't see a scenario that brings anything good for us RF/RF-ish shooters.
ian paterson
Member
All very upsetting news at Olympus. I for one have loved my PENS for their style, build quality and (E-P3) efficiency. I hope they survive and continue their legacy of following their own ideas and producing innovative and classic camera systems.
Personally - I'm still looking for the same thing I was looking for 2 years ago. A compact and stylish metal body with an APS-C sensor and built in EVF (would settle for the hybrid VF now though). This accompanied by a decent choice of compact primes with the occasional zoom would be perfect.
Fuji have the sensor/body/VF but no interchangability.
Olympus have the body and lenses but no VF or APS-C
Sony have the sensor/VF but poor lenses and unappealing bodies
etc etc etc My money would be on Fuji coming up eventually with the goods but who knows. In the meantime I'll carry on shooting and thoroughly enjoying the E-P3 with primes. No point in wishing away the time waiting for the perfect camera - it may never happen!
Personally - I'm still looking for the same thing I was looking for 2 years ago. A compact and stylish metal body with an APS-C sensor and built in EVF (would settle for the hybrid VF now though). This accompanied by a decent choice of compact primes with the occasional zoom would be perfect.
Fuji have the sensor/body/VF but no interchangability.
Olympus have the body and lenses but no VF or APS-C
Sony have the sensor/VF but poor lenses and unappealing bodies
etc etc etc My money would be on Fuji coming up eventually with the goods but who knows. In the meantime I'll carry on shooting and thoroughly enjoying the E-P3 with primes. No point in wishing away the time waiting for the perfect camera - it may never happen!
Trius
Waiting on Maitani
Ian: Well put. When it's time for me to pull the trigger on a small digital, if the E-P3 (or its successor) is still available, it will be at the top of the list. If another maker has a competitive product with fast prime availability, consideration will be given of course.
gilpen123
Gil
At least I got the 45 1.8 before they become extinct.
Ernst Dinkla
Well-known
Some years ago I had my doubts on the 4/3, M4/3 standards but the EVIL APS and the Nikon sub just do not have the same appeal. Olympus actually has very nice cameras in this category. The sensor quality can improve in time and the size of the lenses will always be smaller than the APS lenses of similar specs. Olympus has the sensor stabiliser that no other EVIL sub; APS or M4/3 model has. Panasonic widened the market with the M4/3 mount video cameras and will stay in this market. It would surprise me if the Olympus camera range and the brand name would disappear. Fuji, Cosina, any obscure Chinese firm or better a reputed German lens maker could take over this part of the Olympus business.
Ernst Dinkla
dreilly
Chillin' in Geneva
I wouldn't count micro-4/3 or Olympus out yet. I think here at RFF, most of us start with 35mm as our baseline (not to mention...rangefinders!) and 4/3 and m4/3 has always been a hard sell with the 2x crop factor. But I bet most of the people buying cameras today have no idea about full-frame cameras and crop factors on smaller chips. To an extent I get this: you look for a camera that has a good set of lenses. For some that's fast primes, others that's zooms. M4/3 has both now, and it's a robust lens family, far ahead of Nex at the moment. To me the crop factor has really been mitigated by fast primes (even for APS-C cameras with the more recent batch of bargain-priced "fast-fifty" equivalents from Nikon, Sony and Pentax.
Anyway, my point is that most of us HERE look at these cameras as potential carriers for our M glass. Few others even know what that sentence means. M4/3 still has the most robust overall CEVIL system. Sony might be the camera of tomorrow (eh) but it's still today for them. What's sorely lacking--and would be a home run for either Olympus or Panasonic, though it's the former that has the track record to pull it off--is a pro-level m4/3 body. I remember a while back someone at Olympus saying that they were waiting for all the technologies to ripen to the level that the pro body would really represent something akin to their pro 4/3 bodies like the E-5, in other words viewfinder and autofocus capabilities up to DSLR standards. The VF-2 was already pretty good, and Sony is showing what can be done with EVFs. The focus on the E-P3 and new range of lenses is closing the gap as well. Now they need to finally get a less noisy sensor, and wrap it up in a weatherproof body. In that sense the Nex 7 has the edge, but where are the lenses? The cart is coming before the horse.
Anyway, my point is that most of us HERE look at these cameras as potential carriers for our M glass. Few others even know what that sentence means. M4/3 still has the most robust overall CEVIL system. Sony might be the camera of tomorrow (eh) but it's still today for them. What's sorely lacking--and would be a home run for either Olympus or Panasonic, though it's the former that has the track record to pull it off--is a pro-level m4/3 body. I remember a while back someone at Olympus saying that they were waiting for all the technologies to ripen to the level that the pro body would really represent something akin to their pro 4/3 bodies like the E-5, in other words viewfinder and autofocus capabilities up to DSLR standards. The VF-2 was already pretty good, and Sony is showing what can be done with EVFs. The focus on the E-P3 and new range of lenses is closing the gap as well. Now they need to finally get a less noisy sensor, and wrap it up in a weatherproof body. In that sense the Nex 7 has the edge, but where are the lenses? The cart is coming before the horse.
Ernst Dinkla
Well-known
An M4/3 camera that should compete with Nikon or Canon Pro models is not something I see necessary to give M4/3 more credibility. If M4/3 has to find a pro market it could be that market where Leicas once were used but that market may not exist anymore. There could be a market just above phone camera news gathering but that one still has to compete with phone camera omnipresence, fast phone/internet connections and the phone camouflage. Think of what is happening in North Africa and the Middle East. I do not see another pro niche. Even the pro video/movie market gets its dedicated cameras at a pro affordable price that will make video DSLRs strange hybrids in that market. Canon made that step where Red paved the way. Sony and Panasonic fill in the gaps there.
The C-mount, coverage of C-mount lenses and their size could well be a better argument to get an M4/3 camera than the M lens arsenal is. The last will find its way to APS models and miss the sensor image stabilisation there but reduce the crop factor. More third party lens designs originating in the 35mm movie industry will appear for M4/3 and they have their qualities. A new M4/3 Cartier Bresson may appear, his Leica had a third party f/1.5 Sonnar mounted if I recall it correctly. Whether the new HCB can live by selling his pictures is something else.
Ernst Dinkla
The C-mount, coverage of C-mount lenses and their size could well be a better argument to get an M4/3 camera than the M lens arsenal is. The last will find its way to APS models and miss the sensor image stabilisation there but reduce the crop factor. More third party lens designs originating in the 35mm movie industry will appear for M4/3 and they have their qualities. A new M4/3 Cartier Bresson may appear, his Leica had a third party f/1.5 Sonnar mounted if I recall it correctly. Whether the new HCB can live by selling his pictures is something else.
Ernst Dinkla