43 Rumors

Hey Admin! Thanks for a very great site! Im not sure where to post this question but I guess this is as good as any. We both know the XZ-1 camera which was announced earlier this year. I bought it and has been mostly happy about it but there are a few issues. Video is subpar or you could call it crap tbh. Another issue is the lack of control for NR. Im wondering if you could do me and others a little favour of asking your sources as to why Olympus hasnt fixed the above issues AND if they know if a fix is coming at all? Both should be able to fix through firmware right?

Thanks!

Now Olympus have no choice, they either come out with a convincing denial about what is reported to have been said with a material plan for reassurance, or they ‘capitulate’ telling the world the reality about where they now stand.

Olympus will give up 43 for m43 sooner or later – this isn’t a huge surprise. The future is without mirror. And than you don’t need the space within the camera as before. It will be interesting what Nikon and Canon will do.
Olympus might even give up 43 and m43 if they don’t sell better. The financials of the camera devision really don’t look good. How long can a company keep a money loosing business?

* PROTECT OUR HG & SHG LENS INVESTMENT *

This is a message I do want to hear loud and clear from Olympus. Whether it’s by a mirrorless PEN camera or through a classical DSLR design like E-90, E-9 iteration, it’s a lesser problem. Electronics should be the current and future enabler. If not handled by Olympus themselves, outsource it to a more entrepreneural manufacturer.

It is a big mistake in the first sentence. Russian journalist Dmitry Kroupsky talked with Watanabe, not me. I only sent the link.

“…Watanabe also said me that many leading managers and bosses use E-5 personally so understand anxiety of simple users very well.”

Of “simple users?” No doubt a bad translation, but at least they “feel our pain” as Bill Clinton used to say.

Of course they don’t feel our pain having to put up $1700 USD for an E-5, but that’s another issue….

A hint for Oly: put that new Panny 16mp sensor in the old E-620 and E-30 bodies, along with True-Pic VI, and put them on the market for your old E-system users to buy. The cameras are darn near perfect the way they are, just toss some video into the mix, and call it a day.

Another hint for Oly: none of the Pens are a true replacement for a DSLR, not one of ‘em. Especially not for the E-620.

Olympius

I am not convinced, for various reasons. They have one IR AF patent, there are reports of the 12-60 working passably well, they are in touch with Fuji, which has CDAF on sensor.

The ‘capitulated’ might mean that the dSLR division won’t receive any further funding, those going to the Compact one.

Converting the ‘big zooms’ however is the same problem for all companies, notably for those trailing behind.

This will be long, but I’ll bet it expresses the sentiment of many 4/3′s users out there. Reads a bit like an AA session!

I bought into 4/3′s for both the bodies and the lenses.

Bought first an E-510: perfect size, great grip, superb OOC colors, IBIS, a dust buster that really works, excellent build. Shot “only” 10MP, and what an excellent 10MP they still are! It came as a two lens kit, 14-42mm and 40-150mm, with best-in-class optics providing a 35mm equivalent range of 28-300mm. Price? $600 three years ago.

Loved this combination and still use it most every weekend.

I went onto buy the 70-300mm and 9-18mm, both excellent lenses at their price points (combined cost on Christmas sale $700 Dec. ’08), expanding my 35mm equiv range to 18-600mm. Astounding given the cost.

Bought an E-620 body prior to a trip last year, sale price $465. It’s features are still shamefully unmatched by any one Olympus mFT offering: fully articulated LCD, built-in flash, viewfinder, many quick buttons, in-body lens correction, good DR. All in a very compact DSLR body of excellent build. Only now are Canikon catching up two years after its intro with the D5100 and T3i, but I’ll take my E-620′s colors any day.

I fully intended to go on and buy the 50mm for its pro resolution and either the 14-54 MkII or 12-60 for their superb optics. May have even picked up the excellent 35mm macro given its great performance at phenomenally low price. But their “let them eat cake” announcement last September that their small FT DSLR users should now just buy mFT’s without a suitable replacement froze my buying plans.

Here’s the deal: Olympus did nothing wrong in design and execution of their small-bodied DSLR’s which former OM users as myself viewed as our digital upgrade path (I never had any interest in their clunky larger bodies, so out of character for Olympus).

They did everything spot on right in creating what is still far and away the best 3-tiered (standard, HG, SHG) lens system in the industry, and it will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Where they fell down completely was in failing to promote properly the above features on TV and on the internet. They always lived in a vacuum, unhearing their users input, not messaging their strengths in any, never mind a consistent, manner.

It’s been a great ride, Olympus, and I and many others will continue using your superb 4/3′s equipment for a long, long time given it’s durability.

As for mFT, I’m a bit bitter it pulled the rug from under a great system without offering a true alternative. And you and I both know you’ll likely never duplicate the quality of the HG and SHG lenses in it. But it’s what is left, so perhaps you can now listen and at least throw us a bone with a full-featured body (think E-620 put on ultra-slimfast) and one HG lens: 12-50mm.

Admin, send this onto Olympus. And I’m glad to hear they’re execs are still using their E-5′s in their ivory castle . Apologies, but like I said, we 4/3′s users are disappointed, and for good reasons as stated above.

Now I’ll move on….

“Before buying my E-5 I had a similar dilemma to yours, but since neither Canon nor Nikon seem to have convincing glass I was thinking about Pentax.”

quotes like this show clearly that most acquired wisdom nowdays it’s based on ‘let me google this for you’ half-wisdom from fanboy-forums. obviously people just try justify their investments instead of actually trying something else in a store (still my no. 1 recommendation, stop reading silly reviews, and give the cameras a try at your local shop) and bring your memory card too…)

ironically enough, if you switch from oly to pentax, pentax is most(!) lacking for good zooms, and the only usable lenses are primes, most of them limited ones. Olympus e-system is mainly about High quality zooms. So not a good idea, except if you like the idea of going back to primes, then the K-5 + some superb primes, might save you from a jump to fullframe.

Otherwise I can’t think of one lens which is not at least on the same level in the canon/nikon fullframe camp
I’d say it again, if you buy in the E-5 price- and HG/SHG lens-league, you’re better off with fullframe, it will
Cost you cheaper (overall if you think of a system with let’s say 3 lenses) IQ will be significantly better, and your wallet will not suffer as much + your purchases are, in contrary To Olympus, future proof. Believe me, I’ve been there before.

Now, I wouldn’t switch from 4/3 to aps-c sensors either…

The m43 system as it is, makes more sense to me, as the 43 system ever did.

Well, I am japanese, and can imagine he thougt a japanese expression “o-te-a-ge”. This means “hands up”. Of course this is a gesture which stands for “capitulate”, but with some humor.

Once this said, engineers can reset themselves and begin to climb the mountain from another path. I hope so and am actually very sure about that.

If I had 4/3′s gear, I would be pissed and disappointed….

But after that, I’d sell every last bit of 4/3 equipment I had as fast as I could…
while it still has some value.

It’s a real shame.

You need to look at this in perspective. All camera companies have had lines that have ended – especially as we went into the AF era. I bought into M42 originally because I thought it was a open widespread standard. Look at all the companies: Leica has changed mounts, Canon has gone through R, FL, FD and EF mounts, Nikon is perhaps the only exception, though even then backwards compatibility has limits.

This issue is the thing that is ultimately holding Canon and Nikon back from developing into mirror-less. If the relatively small 4/3 community feels this strongly about this, what would the much larger Canikon communities feel if all their glass were becoming redundant. If in the end CDAF focussing is the way to go, a lot of investment will end up being written off.

However the main thing is that in the mean-time all this kit can be great fun to use and produce great photos. If you are a pro, you’ll probably wear the equipment out first anyway and if you are not you can just enjoy it. I actually bought into the OM system after it had become redundant – and had many years of real pleasure from using the OM-2 and and OM-4s (all second hand). With digital the issues are slightly different – but in the end you cannot see this type of equipment as a lifetime investment. Now that lenses are electronic devices they necessarily have a somewhat limited life. The only way around this is classic pure-mechanical systems.

Those who used the OM system will also remember that Olympus went on producing some OM kit for years after it had obviously ceased being actively developed and I think the indications are that, assuming they survive they’ll do the same here. But no-one can expect them to invest much money in it – and more than Canon invests money in cameras to use R-mount lenses. If you want them to go on supporting 4/3 to some extent – buy their m4/3 cameras so they regain profitability and can afford to do so!

Here is a new mirrorless camera that 1) can mount interchangable DSLR lenses, 2) has an unlimited number of features, 3) has a somewhat open OS for custom app development, and 4) is much smaller (and less ergonomic) than even the Pens to allow extreme ease in putting the camera in a pants pocket or purse.

http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/iphone-slr-mount/

The camera is practically approaching Nirvana for those who think ergonomics are not important in mirrorless cameras.