Olympus is out...

[bfitzgerald]

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53165293

It's not unexpected, perhaps accelerated by the Covid outbreak. It's far from clear if the investment company will keep making products, who can say. I think this is the start of the clean out, more are probably going to follow.
Again out yesterday, not a single camera in sight. I wonder at times if the only solution to "small compact and light" is a good phone.


I enjoy using cameras, but if I am realistic a lot of what I do can be done on a high quality phone. Not all but most

[bakubo]

It will be interesting to see how things work out with Olympus and JIP. With the very poor camera business overall I would not be surprised if Olympus cameras are a thing of the past. I haven't been particularly interested in any of the more recent Olympus bodies, but I have 4 Olympus m4/3 bodies and 2 Panasonic m4/3 bodies so I really don't need anymore unless they all stop working. The ones I have though I still like very much:

Olympus PEN-F, E-M10II, E-M10, E-M5
Panasonic GX7II (GX85/GX80), G3

After 8.5 years of using m4/3 I still have found nothing I like better for the kinds of stuff I like to shoot and am not jonesing for new, updated m4/3 gear. But if after we get past this coronavirus mess travel for whatever reason becomes much more difficult than it was before and I decide that I will shift to another photographic interest where size/weight are somewhat less of a consideration then something like the new Nikon Z5, 24-200mm f4-6.3, and 24-50mm f4-6.3 (to have one small lens) looks quite attractive.

[ValeryD]

...
Olympus PEN-F, E-M10II, E-M10, E-M5
Panasonic GX7II (GX85/GX80), G3
....
where size/weight are somewhat less of a consideration
.....

Henry! Compare to Sony cameras, what you can say about size/weight and quality ?

[bakubo]

Just in the last week or two Olympus has released info about a new body and new lens that will come out soon. Probably this month. Maybe the last stuff? E-M10IV and 100-400mm f5-6.3 IS:

https://www.43rumors.com/ft5-leaked-ima ... w-e-m10iv/

https://www.43rumors.com/funny-leak-you ... on-canada/

https://www.43rumors.com/ft5-first-leak ... 3-is-lens/

https://www.43rumors.com/ft5-leaked-ima ... 3-is-lens/

[ValeryD]

Just in the last week or two Olympus has released info about a new body and new lens that will come out soon. Probably this month. Maybe the last stuff? E-M10IV and 100-400mm f5-6.3 IS:

https://www.43rumors.com/ft5-leaked-ima ... w-e-m10iv/

https://www.43rumors.com/funny-leak-you ... on-canada/

https://www.43rumors.com/ft5-first-leak ... 3-is-lens/

https://www.43rumors.com/ft5-leaked-ima ... 3-is-lens/

Thank you Henry! But I more respect your opinion, not the some one!

[bakubo]

Just in the last week or two Olympus has released info about a new body and new lens that will come out soon. Probably this month. Maybe the last stuff? E-M10IV and 100-400mm f5-6.3 IS:

https://www.43rumors.com/ft5-leaked-ima ... w-e-m10iv/

https://www.43rumors.com/funny-leak-you ... on-canada/

https://www.43rumors.com/ft5-first-leak ... 3-is-lens/

https://www.43rumors.com/ft5-leaked-ima ... 3-is-lens/

Well, Olympus did announce those 2 a few days ago. It remains to be seen if that is the last hurrah or if JIP will get Olympus into shape and they will continue as a camera company.

[bakubo]

Interesting article in English published in Nikkei Asian Review Deputy Editor, Masamichi Hoshi:

Olympus exit foreshadows a Japan camera sector shake-up

Smartphones, overzealous competition and coronavirus undercut proud industry

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Electr ... r-shake-up

[ValeryD]

Thanks Henry! There is some information for thought. I'm leaning more and more towards a good zoom phone though.

[bfitzgerald]

I thought it was quite sad the company has a long history. I am not entirely shocked as we've known their problems for some time post scandal etc. I'm not overly confident JIP will be re-enterprising the camera division, could be wrong we'll find out soon enough. On the article about excessive competition - perhaps from phone makers. I can't say I find the camera industry to be very competitive in recent years, hence their rather rapid decline since the virus outbreak. Occasionally the odd fake cashback turns up (by that I mean price ramp a month or so before offering money off to comply with legal requirements), otherwise bar a few exceptions prices are up quite a lot.

If I were gambling I'd say Pentax has a rocky future. Some also say Sony might eventually pull the plug, even though they are doing well market share, the volumes are down so much that they can't make up the difference in margins.

I believe the root problem for these Japanese companies is fairly obvious, they are very resistant to change. To the point they seem to have lost what was happening to the industry over the last 5+ years. They just carried on with the same plan somehow hoping it would eventually work. Nikon is also looking pretty weak, in this day and age nothing can be ruled out!

A friend picked up a budget Xiaomi phone, not too pricey £150 odd. I played with it, surprising how good even a phone like that is now, and UWA lens, good DR, decent main camera, even the fake DOF effect is looking a lot more realistic. Reality is with camera gear being so prices, very few will justify the expensive and bulk compared to a pocket PC with a decent bunch of cameras built in. Perhaps if the camera makers had the benefit of a crystal ball, they'd have started making phones a while back and cashing in on the photo side of that ;-D

[bakubo]

Strangely, I just heard that the E-M10III has been updated to the E-M10IIIS. It restores lots of the features that Olympus disabled in the firmware that were available in the E-M10II. Should just be a firmware update to the E-M10III though. The E-M10IV was just announced a couple of weeks ago also.

[bfitzgerald]

Micro 4/3 is suffering from the same thing Fuji X is - it's a price problem
There are budget bodies around, that seemingly don't generate a lot of interest or at least I don't know too people using them.
The higher end offerings are more exciting, at a price which is near to full frame (or even higher). It's fairly obvious that most people if they are going to lay down £1500 odd or near that, are going to think twice about a crop format camera.

Once you go much above £1000/$1000 on crop it becomes questionable if it's worth it. Not just bodies but lens investments, unless you're a dedicated video or sports user. I don't know much on micro 4/3 lens prices or quality, some of the Fuji X ones I tried and I wasn't that blown away to be frank, some pretty odd rendering going on there and it didn't look nice. That aside if I built up a Fuji X system other than a blow out XH1 deal, you're in XT3 OK price with no sensor IS, or the expensive overpriced IS XT4. It doesn't add up at all - and some of those Fuji lenses are overpriced IMO

I don't think crop or APS-C is dead, but it's time the industry worked out that there has to be a cost incentive for buying into these formats. I give Olympus some credit for including IS in lower priced bodies, then they go ahead and make a larger than FF OMD EM1X, which just boggles the mind why they did that. Writing was on the wall for some time now sadly.

[bakubo]

...
Olympus PEN-F, E-M10II, E-M10, E-M5
Panasonic GX7II (GX85/GX80), G3
....
where size/weight are somewhat less of a consideration
.....

Henry! Compare to Sony cameras, what you can say about size/weight and quality ?

The only Sony cameras I own are the A700, A100, and RX100. So, different types of cameras than my various m4/3 cameras.

The only thing I can say about Sony quality is just my personal poor experience with all 3 Sony cameras. All of them after a fairly short time developed control wheel problems (skipping, etc.). My RX100 rear control wheel developed a problem not long ago where turning it had absolutely no effect. I finally was able to get it working again by pressing hard on the wheel edge and simultaneously turning it around and around. My experience with my A700 though tells me that the problem will likely return and over time the "fix" will stop working.

I realize that many people have no problems with their Sony gear. All I can say is what I have experienced. After almost 5 decades of owning SLRs, p&s, DSLRs, mirrorless ILCs, and digicams from many companies the only company that has given me problems is Sony. Weird. As I said, I realize that many people have no problems. And, of course, I realize that some people have problems with Canon, Olympus, Pentax, Panasonic, etc. that I have not had problems with.

[ValeryD]

Everything is exactly the opposite for me.
All cameras, SLR, without SLR have died with success, only Sony remained. I really liked Canon, but alas, they ordered to live long. Although now Sony a77-2 has begun to create problems with the internal AF drive, sold it for spare parts ... So I'm looking at what to buy in return, or a new a77-2 (I really like this camera) or a serious cameraphone. For work I have A99-2 - super camera...

[bfitzgerald]

Everything is exactly the opposite for me.
All cameras, SLR, without SLR have died with success, only Sony remained. I really liked Canon, but alas, they ordered to live long. Although now Sony a77-2 has begun to create problems with the internal AF drive, sold it for spare parts ... So I'm looking at what to buy in return, or a new a77-2 (I really like this camera) or a serious cameraphone. For work I have A99-2 - super camera...

What was wrong with the internal AF motor?
Stocks are low on many models you'll have to dig around for an A77ii new. At this stage we don't know if it's just the production problems or they've pulled the plug. You can still get the A99ii, but at that price it's a questionable purchase for me and many others.
As you've already got one, and it does well enough on crop too won't that do on it's own?

I've kept the A99, the 77 and 77ii and at the moment I have the A57 but I put it up for sale it's not sold yet. I kept the original 77 (that I bought new). I could have sold them as used prices went up quite a bit, but I've decided that the way forward for me is wait it out. Covid drove used prices up on bodies quite a lot (less so lenses from what I can see not A Mount anyway more stuff turned up!)

There is quite a lot of A mount gear out there, once things calm down I expect prices to tumble on used bodies. For me the original A99 is plenty more than I need, despite narrow AF coverage it's good enough for me. A77ii I use for video and it does the job fine, the A77 is kinda the back up - not that there is any work around much the marathons I was due to shoot are all postponed due to Covid.

Anyone who has stayed with A Mount is probably better off sticking with it and picking up used gear. Someone here got an A7iii and adapter, it's not ideal however something is better than nothing. I wouldn't consider that model unless the price dropped significantly, or a better adapter came out, usable but not great - hence the criticism of Sony on the LEA4, it's hardly appealing for A Mount shooters

[ValeryD]

..........

What was wrong with the internal AF motor?
............

The internal autofocus motor just stops working, if the motor is built into the lens, everything works fine. I sold the a77-II for parts because it has about 188,000 clicks ... I don’t know, it’s not a big deal right now, I am using an a57 + SAL160Z or Tamron 70-300 as a spare camera. Basically, I have one DT lens left - this is the SAL1680z. Sony E format is not for me, I won't spend a lot of money on a new set of E-lenses, adapter and old A-lenses that are not very suitable choice for reportage photography. I tried ... Better to change the whole Sony to Nikon D780.