The future of Olympus

[Graham_of_Rainham]

A very interesting News Feature by Chris Cheesman of Amateur Photographer

"the imaging division will be under threat if the company fails to complete a restructure of its business in favour of mirrorless system cameras."

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/photo-news/539998/olympus-boss-feared-scandal-would-finish-company

[Glee]

The future of Olympus

Interesting and fairly typical of any business that needs to forward plan. The bit I do not understand is whether or not there is a market for Olympus in DSLRs, the article suggests not, at least in terms of volume sales. It is also true that compacts sales have suffered and even the m4/3 is not as strong as business would like so even a strong commitment to M4/3 may not be enough in its self.

Olympus is not alone in experiencing tough times, many will have seen the mighty NIkon is also feeling the pinch on its margins and the V1 series, their only mirror less not doing very well in terms of expected sales.

I will be sorry if Olympus do not produce a new DSLR, sorry in the same way that I am for many other things that have not evolved and have suffered manufacturing extinction. For example I was gutted when apple dropped system 9 and moved from power PC to intel.

I would have probably bought an E30 or an E620 had they been available new at the time I was looking to replace my Nikon 50. I bought a pen because the E5 was at the time beyond my means. Today it would be the OMD as a first choice because I never accrued expensive 4/3 glass and I had the freedom to choose, and I actively chose M4/3 because it made more sense to me in terms of meeting my needs.

It is true I am excited about m4/3 technology more than DSLRs. i may be wrong but it feels like M4/3 is continuing to develop at a faster pace than DSLRs and it also seems to have more potential for further development.

If M4/3 had DSLR like auto focus for hight speed sports etc, better low light and in the case of Olympus a good quality zoom or two, what would be the rational for a DSLR? why would you do it? I have a DSLR that I rarely use because for most situations it has nothing to offer that I can not achieve equally well through using my OMD.

I understand there is a great sense of being let down when you support a company by buying into a product only to see the product and your investment diminish once it is discontinued. I have often felt as if I am like one of the dwindling few such as the bring back steam, reopen the canals lobby because these things have relevance and are part of my biography, and there for have meaning and value to me. I see no such appeal, or nostalgia from subsequent generations unless out of loyalty to parental values.

I guess I embrace M4/3 because I want to continue the journey forward and the enjoy generational success while remembering where it started and enjoy it because I was a part of it.

if you were to draw a chart on their qualities/attributes you would get a bell curve distribution suggesting most cameras relative to each other are in the range of average and very few are exceptional, and usually too expensive for most.

[snaarman]

Re: The future of Olympus

I've served my time with cameras that had mirrors and pentaprisms. Compared to a nasty and approximate rangefinder the SLR was a great step forward.

However SLRs are not perfect. You need to ensure the mirror is aligned perfectly, or else the image will be mis-framed. You need to be certain the focus screen is in exactly the right place or else the image will be out of focus when it looks right in the viewfinder. PDAF isn't perfect, if the autofocus module isn't aligned then all your AF images will be slightly out.

All of this has to be made close to perfect in each camera shipped, which makes for an expensive product.

With this in mind I am not that sorry to see the back of the ground glass screen, the mirror and all the other flying plastic inside a camera. An excellent electronic viewfinder coupled to a fast image sensor is the right way to go IMHO. What you see in the viewfinder really is what you get on your memory card* Eventually we will get rid of the mechanical shutter as well (about time!)

So - the future beckons and all is wonderful?

Well, all this still leaves those fabulous 4/3 top pro lenses with no body to drive them. It may be that the much rumoured E-M1 will be able to drive those lenses fast enough to satisfy everyone. Time will tell.

Pete

*There is a snag with an EVF when it comes to evaluating DoF. You might think the lens is wide open until; you press the shutter - but you could be wrong. Often the lens is stopped down to restrict the light hitting the sensor and the EVF. When you press your DoF preview button (and you do have a DoF button set up, don't you..) the lens might actually open up

[OM USer]

Re: The future of Olympus

Whilst I agree that the reduction of mechanical complexity in favour of cheap (!) electronic wizardry is the way to go, Pete has actually hit upon a current problem with the implementation.

There is still a mismatch between a continuously open shutter (to allow live view/preview, focussing, etc) which can overexpose the sensor between frame reads and the shutter speed that allows the sensor to achieve optimum exposure. The current solution is to stop down the aperture as Pete described.

Maybe in the future we could see electronically controlled variable neutral density filters (something like a LCD panel in front of the sensor maybe) and faster sensor read rates which should overcome this (no more rattlesnaking!).

As to those 4/3rds lenses. Even though it does not affect me directly, the ability to see them focus quickly on a camera with an up to date sensor must be good for Olympus (even if only from the PR aspect) and hence good for the longevity of the remainder of the range. Even better if the technlogy helps MFT lenses focus quicker and/or more predictably on future cameras.