Mr. Terada interview at Dpreview.
Well known Olympus Manager Toshi Terada got interviewed by the Dpreview team (Click here). Here are just a few interesting points:
- The OMD helped to increase sales in the yet not so mirrorless enthusiast US market.
- He also said “Direction-wise, we’d like to produce products for Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds within this year. Because we have to provide a product for users with SHG and HG lenses. And there are people using E400, 500 and 600-series DSLRs, we have to provide products for them to keep enjoying their photography.”
- A future high end compact camera from Olympus may have an 1″, 1/1.7″ sensor. Certainly not APS-C because it’s impossible to make a compact camera with that sensor size.
As you can read no real big news here. I still have my very personal suspect that Olympus could merge FT into the MFT system soon. And there may be just one High End camera by end of the year merging the advantages of the two systems. Compact size and full reliable and fast autotofocus for all MFT and FT lenses.
TheEye
5 months ago |The OBS* is near, far, or somewhere in between.
*One Beautiful System, copyright lmqø-M 2013
Miroslav
5 months ago |So far, OBS has been marketing BS
.
Let’s hope it’ll become a reality in 2013. MFT is more than 4 years old, there was a lot of time to develop an effective solution.
Ross
5 months ago |Maybe they should have employed you then.
TheEye
5 months ago |I can lie somwehere on a beach in the Caymans Islands with the best of them!
Miroslav
5 months ago |I am not in that field of engineering, but I believe that if they set aside two or three junior engineers, gave them that sole task and resources needed they would come up with a solution by now.
Olympus and Panasonic surely started working on m4/3 in 2007 or earlier and I suppose that even I, starting from almost zero, would do something in six years. I know what can be done in a month’s time, let alone a couple of years. And you should take into account that Sony and Nikon have very effective PDAF systems for their mirrorless cameras, so it’s not something that no one has done before.
caver3d
5 months ago |So, how do you know they haven’t come up with a solution? They are talking about launching a 43 (or 43/m43)system of some sort in 2013. That means they are close. This is not an easy challenge, and one that junior engineers can solve by snapping their fingers. I would rather Oly do it right then try to rush out something fraught with problems. The rest of you can switch to Canikon. For now, I am very happy with my E-M5 and E-5 systems. After all, the major factor in good photography is YOU.
Esa Tuunanen
5 months ago |> And you should take into account that Sony and Nikon have very effective PDAF systems
And Canon one which doesn’t do any good…
Even after developing working solution quite a lot of time is needed for thorough testing and finalizing of it before it can be put as part of product going to be released. (complicated by Olympus being limited to others manufacturing sensor for them)
Also hardware specs/features of coming cameras are no doubt finalized something like half year or earlier before the release because there are prototyping and testing needed.
Sure I would have liked to have that mirrorless hybrid AF camera capable to fully using high quality 4/3 lenses year ago but still it’s better for me in the long run that when they release it it actually works.
Because unlike in case of Canon’s hype-AF Canikonist mass media would take Olympus apart for it not working.
tom
5 months ago |There is a difference between a hybrid PDAF/CDAF system and a pure PDAF system. Four-Thirds support needs the latter. Nex supports it through an adapter, using the SLT technology. Has anyone done pure PDAF on sensor? A flipping mirror solution is certainly doable, but it may not be easy to do so elegantly.
Mr. Reeee
5 months ago |Exactly.
Sony managed to make a NEX adaptor for their A Series lens with fast AF and full control, so why not Olympus and Panasonic? The NEX adaptor is a bit bulky, but I doubt many users would want to slap big-ass Four Thirds lenses on an EPM2 or EPL5. But, then NEX cameras are pretty small, too.
Stu5
5 months ago |It’s not a bit bulky… it’s huge!
Anonymous
5 months ago |Are the writers at your site non-native? “both system”
W. C.
5 months ago |People make errors. Doesn’t affect the meaning. Don’t lose sleep over it. Life goes on. Get over it. Just make sure to hold your knife and fork properly at mealtime. Or else. The cutlery police will be after you.
admin
5 months ago |Please read the about us section to know who I am. Unlike other sites this is an amteurish website written by me non native english speaker. I speak other three languages perfectly. But not so good in english.
caver3d
5 months ago |admin – You should be ocngratulated for speaking 4 languages. Some on this forum can only speak one. I can only speak two. You are doing a great job. And, not to worry, we understand your English very well.
Esa Tuunanen
5 months ago |> Some on this forum can only speak one.
And even writing that one badly seems to be quite normal in many forums.
JimD
5 months ago |Ditto
Matt
5 months ago |Kudos to you. It’s a wonderful site.
YouDidntDidYou
5 months ago |@Anonymous
Non-native to where exactly?
Ulli
5 months ago |let the “natives” write in a different language for a change!
Es
5 months ago |Do you mean the admin is not a Native Indian?
Sqweezy
5 months ago |Can anyone explain the appeal of Four Thirds in today’s market? Micro Four Thirds is all about compact size and weight for both bodies and lenses. But why would anyone want Four Thirds today when you can buy a similar sized and priced product with a much larger sensor? Are new E-x bodies aimed only at legacy users? I can’t imagine any new customers buying into it when there are much better options to choose from.
Dummy00001
5 months ago |“But why would anyone want Four Thirds today when you can buy a similar sized and priced product with a much larger sensor?”
EHRMEGERD IT HAZ NO LARJE SENSORZ!!!
Lenses. To get the same IQ of an average 43 lens, you need much larger and more expensive lens on APS-C or FF.
“Are new E-x bodies aimed only at legacy users?”
Yes. Since most of the 43 lenses are out of production now.
Robbie
5 months ago |Snore….(picking my nose)
It’s at least appealing to existing 43 users, if you don’t like, no one is forcing you to buy one.
Sqweezy
5 months ago |I was merely asking a question. Never did I express a preference for it or not. I only asked because it seems new users would find Micro Four Thirds has an advantage of smaller overall camera size relative to sensor size. Thanks for your thoughts.
Mr. Reeee
5 months ago |How about GREAT lenses?
Some of those Oly 4/3 lenses are supposedly fantastic. BIG, but fantastic.
Esa Tuunanen
5 months ago |> Some of those Oly 4/3 lenses are supposedly fantastic. BIG, but fantastic.
Shorter focal length lenses were sure forced to be big by heavily retrofocus design but higher grade longer teles aren’t big:
Zuiko 90-250mm f/2.8 weights 3,3kg.
Same field of view and speed lens for 35m retro format is Sigma’s 200-500mm weighting only 16kg and with price tag of 15000€.
Es
5 months ago |When m4/3 gets lenses like the
50-200mm f/2.8-3.5,
12-60m f/2.8-4.0,
11-22mm f/2.8-3.5
150mm f/2.8 macro
I’ll consider switching.
lmqø-M
5 months ago |Lens is sharp from F2, and also SHG lens is sharp out to corner.
E-X camera body is solid so EOS-1Dx and D4 but half size.
Ned
5 months ago |Olympus researched the requirements for the optimum clean sheet digital design. They evaluated the way light hit the sensor optimally and created a mount twice the diagonal of the sensor itself. This relationship was scaled up to the maximum sensor size before the lenses became too large. If the same ratio was adopted with 3:2 format the mount and lenses would be even more huge than they are now. It is as pure as that. 4/3 was the optimum optical clean sheet digital design. Apsc and 35mm sized are legacy hangovers from the film era, where light did not need to hit the film chemical square on to achieve acceptable results.
Dummy00001
5 months ago |So hybrid 43/m43 camera is going to be at least announced this year.
YouDidntDidYou
5 months ago |“In Japan, the work to encourage people to buy a second lens has been a success. The 45mm lens has sold well world wide, and in Japan, not only DSLR-type of users, but also Step-up users have purchased it.” this is where Olympus mirrorless are far ahead of the competition, many Panasonic Lumix users (ordinary consumers) that I meet in the real world still just have the kit lens only.
Maybe Pentax Q is doing well in additional purchased lenses, but I suspect Nikon 1, Samsung NX and Canon EOS-M are not, Lumix and Sony NEX are doing a bit better in this regard I think.
“we have to promise total AF performance in future.” the next mft big innovation coming soon?
Also Toshi Terada has read the smartphone consumer really well, which bodes well for future Olympus offerings….
btw Panasonic are back in profit for the latest quarter
Matthias
5 months ago |Oly could sell a lot more lenses if there would be some better zooms then the kit lenses in the price range of 600, 700 $…
bart
5 months ago |A few higher-grade zooms in that price range would attract me for sure.
However.. I don’t think my needs are similar to the needs of the large majority of camera buyers (consumers, amateurs, professionals all grouped together)..
Rather, I think any parent with enough of an interest in photography to get a serious (non mobile phone) camera should be directed at the 45/1.8. Why? Oh, every parent seems to want nice portraits of their kids.. with a m4/3 camera, the 45/1.8 and a little practice, they can get very pleasing results, way beyond what they’ll ever manage with the kit lens of any camera, and quite makes the point to such people as to why getting extra lenses optimized for certain kinds of photography really gets them results.
Rinaldo
5 months ago |This future compact will have 1″ or 1/1.7″?? Didn’t get it…
Tropical Yeti
5 months ago |What I can conclude from interview is:
A slight direction in their policy about 4/3 system (they will provide something for E-400, E-500, E-600 users – before they were directing them towards micro4/3. This of course means a new 4/3 compatible body along these lines And it should be in this year)
And most probably a flagship model should also be expected (altough no indication when) since that is what SHG lens users are expecting.
However no info if this will be OVF cameras. I think not.
Putting together Olmpus’ pieces of info
- exhilaration about their upcomming EVF,
- hints they will provide good AF with 4/3 lenses)
and fact, that Olympus is company which would benefit hugely with sensor phase contrast AF, and indeed this technology is slowly coming to its prime time, this can only mean they have a working PDAF solution.
So my guess is mirrorless 4/3 cam soon (and probably another one later)
Whether it will be a hybrid one, there is no suggestion (except their statement they strive towards one beautiful system).
bart
5 months ago |“A slight direction in their policy about 4/3 system (they will provide something for E-400, E-500, E-600 users – before they were directing them towards micro4/3. This of course means a new 4/3 compatible body along these lines And it should be in this year)”
Those 2 things aren’t exactly mutually exclusive.
Put differently, creating an m4/3 body that properly works (including AF) with 4/3 lenses will work for this, and still ‘send’ users of the e-xxx bodies to m4/3
It is also very likely that this is what will happen, a ‘traditional’ E-system DSLR isn’t very likely.
bonzoo
5 months ago |Please dont waste R&D on a new 4/3 camera… Hybrid ist the way to go
Anonymous
5 months ago |isn’t this the guy that says every year how 4/3 is still important to Olympus. But nothing ever happens.
amalric
5 months ago |LOL it’s getting v. cruel, there at DPR’s 1022 forum. They just get enthused at the prospect of getting a small 4/3 body, only to discover soon that it will have an EVF, like a moronic Sony
I am not sure that use of ginormous 4/3 telezooms will be enough for those white hunters.
They also need to look at themselves in a mirror . Will they get one?
Terada reminds me of an ancient greek prophetess: his words must be deliberately allusive and obscure, year after year.
Does anybody believe that there will be a boost in the sales of 4/3 lenses, if the whole of Olympus’ success was in selling one additional 45 m4/3 lens? ROTFL
Hail to the American market!
c0ldc0ne
5 months ago |“Terada reminds me of an ancient greek prophetess”
You remind me of the Greek god Eris.
Mr. Reeee
5 months ago |+1000
To say the least…
Esa Tuunanen
5 months ago |Nope, he behaves like modern egoistic school bullies not properly disciplined by parents.
bart
5 months ago |Hey, I’d really like a 50-200/2.8-3.5 or very similar for m4/3, but that will still be a big lens simply because of laws of physics.
Its not a lens that is typically used for ‘single handed shooting’ (eventho it can be done on for example an E-30/3/5), rather, its a lens for 2 handed shooting, and makes something like a monopod a really nice thing to have around.
I’ve actually used that lens on an E-M5, and on a monopod its totally fine, even without the HLD-6. With HLD-6, its actually quite ok without monopod still, better then on for example an E-620.
This applies even more to for example the 90-250/2.8
So.. they could create a 50-200/4-5.6 instead to make it smaller, but why would someone pick that over the already existing lenses? To get 200mm at f5.6? Actually the currently existing 7x-300 lenses will already do that.
Alternative (which I bet they’ll go for in the end) is to make it a bit less long, say a 40-150/2.8-3.5 or such. Also fine with me, if the price and performance are right, I’ll surely consider it.
But.. there is a bit more to this. Quite a few people who use 4/3 have also invested in lenses like the Sigma 105 or 150mm macro lenses, or one of the ‘regular’ fast primes (30/1.4, 150/2, 300/2.8 etc). Switching to m4/3 will either mean losing AF, or having to invest a lot more on new lenses. By providing proper compatibility, it is much more attractive for such people to migrate to m4/3 instead of selling off all their stuff and switching to an entirely different system.
Steve
5 months ago |I don’t know if you’re trying to be funny, but it won’t be the American market investing in 4/3.. They barely know about M4/3. You better blame Europe.
Joe Otto
5 months ago |After 30+ years with Olympus I left last year. Got tiered of waiting for a new 4/3 body and the poor management.
Matthias
5 months ago |I don’t want to buy a new body to have some nice lenses, just buyed a E-M5 a few months ago, and then I said to myself, that will be the last body I’ve buyed for the next years, so bring out some nice zooms for mFT, Olympus…
amalric
5 months ago |A system is mostly about lenses. 4/3 lenses, HG and SHG are optically the best zooms.
Unfortunately being almost the same size of FF 135 they don’t have a chance to compete now, unless you already own them.
So what is the prospect of their sales? There is something dysfunctional about the 4/3 project that was corrected with m4/3.
Why go back, since it is so difficult to sell additional lenses, despite they are now much smaller?
Call it quits and provide a new pro camera that can work with new lenses, and if anything, adapt 4/3 lenses.
Instead we are always getting hints at a revenge of the 4/3 system. Does it even make economic, or practical sense, in the digital age?
Betiko
5 months ago |May be the new camera will be something hybrid(m43/43) and will combine the advantages from both standards.
-
5 months ago |At the same size and even some more weight you have typically 1 EV brighter lenses with the SHG oder quite long (4x-5x), semi-bright zooms (HG). However at the same time you could put a 75 MZuiko or a 20mm panny on this hybrid camera – and still make gorgeous picture at half the weight to cary. I see a lot of potential in the idea.
Mr. Reeee
5 months ago |I’ve gotta agree with you there.
Es
5 months ago |I’m a 4/3 user and I completely agree. The SHG lenses really don’t make much sense.
However, some years ago I found the best setup for me to be one of the smaller bodies and HG zooms. I now have an E-620, 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 and 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 – an excellent picture taking machine that I’m looking to part with only because I hike a lot and need something lighter. But I can’t get these zooms on m4/3, and the APS-C equivalents are either simply not that good or are much heavier or have worse range or are much more expensive.
That setup was really the sweet spot for me and quite a lot of other people.
Anonymous
5 months ago |It’s a really good setup, but it’s too heavy
Sorry but do you know see the irony there
Esa Tuunanen
5 months ago |> Unfortunately being almost the same size of FF 135
You better reserve time for both opthamologist and shrink if you see Zuiko 90-250mm and Sigma 200-500mm similar in size…
JOERT
5 months ago |… every year or at the same occasions the same annoying statements from OLY. Nothing more as a rallying call to patient loyalists. Well, now it is finally high time to get a reliable solution for 4/3 equipment. With other words: Move your ass OLY! Otherwise the customer voice / money goes in a other direction.
John H
5 months ago |If sensor capacity keeps expanding at current accelerating rates, it won’t be long before a high quality 3-layer 4/3 sensor will put out 3×18=54 MP. At that point, FF sensors will be over-sized, so-called 1 inch sensors will be in “enthusiast” cameras, M4/3 will be “semi-pro” and 4/3 will have the status that FF is starting to lose. Just as the Nikon 800e made medium format (Mamiya, Hasselblad) obsolete, so a 54 MP 4/3 sensor will make FF obsolete. Those sensors will probably come from SONY … because they may finally be getting some competition from Hitachi. 3 years? 4?
amalric
5 months ago |Yes, you make a fine point. Increase in small sensor performance means that m4/3 is becoming the big kahuna. Lens makers are beginning to flock to it, because they see the $$$ coming.
So even 4/3 lenses are becoming a minor consideration, especially since you can have a SNR that can tolerate slower zooms. Sigma and Tamron, Metabones entering the fray allows Oly to concentrate on high tier primes, and face together with Sony, the coming sensor wars.
It’s quite a different world from when 4/3 sensors was launched. 4/3 was always niche, m4/3 is rather the opposite, it tends towards universal. None of this could have been possible without the Sony sensor, and its high SNR.
Comversely heavy zooms are just a no-no, negating the size advantage.
Timccr
5 months ago |I’ve been thinking the same thing except I reckon a bit longer than 3 or 4 years. It maybe suggests a nice upgrade roadmap. So how can I figure out how good current lenses will be on a 54MP sensor?
amalric
5 months ago |I don’t know. From 1022 I gathered that 4/3 lenses were rated for 20 Mpx.
There’s not lenses forever anymore, unless you decide that enough is enough. Can your eyesight make out more than 20 Mpx? I doubt it
With 54 Mpx one might as well buy only one lens, an ultrasharp FishEye, and magnify at will
.
5 months ago |Quote: “Certainly not APS-C because it’s impossible to make a compact camera with that sensor size.”
It may be impossible *right now*, but unless they attempt it they will never gain the technologies or techniques required to achieve that.
Why not try to leapfrog the competition by doing a 4/3 sensor in a compact body? (with fixed focal length, large aperture lens.)
How small could the camera be made *right now* with their current technology/tooling (with a 4/3 sensor)? If it is ‘compact enough’ they should build/sell it and iterate/miniaturise the next version (slightly smaller) as soon as they can.
This is typically what Sony (and Apple) do. (In cases such as the cassette Walkman, iPhone slimness etc.)
Are there any visionaries like Maitani left at Olympus?
Hendrik Mintarno 葉俊賢
5 months ago |I have no comment on the bridge camera for 4/3 and m4/3. My only wish for Olympus is BLACK color prime lens w/o additional cost!
PEN
5 months ago |“A future high end compact camera from Olympus may have an 1″, 1/1.7″ sensor. Certainly not APS-C because it’s impossible to make a compact camera with that sensor size.”
Has he spoken to their part owner, Sony? The high-end Sony RX1 P&S with 35mm f2 is FULL-FRAME and a little smaller than the Olympus E-P1 with 35mm f1.8.
Mr. Reeee
5 months ago |I can’t wait for Sony to release an RX1 body with interchangeable lens capability for their A Series lenses.
Couple that with lens adaptors for Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax and Leica mount (even old screwmount) lenses and it would be a killer system. I have a bunch of 135 format lenses that I’d love to use with something like that!
MarcoSartoriPhoto
5 months ago |@mr. Reese actual RX1 has a lens that literally sinks into the camera body and it’s coupled with the sensor: to make your wish come true I think Sony should redesign the camera. I won’t buy it because I’d like it to have an integrated evf. I would buy a fixed lens fat sensor “pocketable” camera like this.
Craig O. Affidy
5 months ago |If Sony can make the RX1 and decently compact as it is, then certainly Olympus could make an APS-C RX1-like camera in a compact size. I mean, they are Olympus and compact is kinda their thing, ya know.
SteB
5 months ago |What I would like to see is Olympus and indeed Panasonic move towards electronic first curtain shutters. I have had this in my Canon 40D for quite a long time. It is very important to certain aspects of my photography. The reporting of these shutter shock problems has caused me a lot of concern and has stopped me moving to m4/3. This is because it occurs in a critical shutter speed range to me. Lag induced by anti-shock is no good to me, it is what makes the live view of say the 40D useless to me for certain things.
The other problem to me is the lack of electronic adapters for using my Canon EF lenses on m4/3 cameras. I am now having to consider getting a NEX camera this year purely because of these problems. Ultimately I have always seen m4/3 as my future because it is the ideal compromise. Luckily when more electronic, and cheaper adapters become more readily available, having cameras for more than one system will become less of a problem. Unfortunately I have found it tricky balancing a Canon EF system and 4/3 system for the last few years. It is backgreaking carrying it all around.
I desperately wanted to like the idea of an EM-5 and 60mm macro. This is my dream combination. Unfortunately the shutter shock problem, the lack of teleconverters, the restricted video options, lack of focus peaking and longer extension tubes or teleconverters has put me off. These are all problems which needn’t exist with a bit of forethought. I don’t like it when people start telling me how these things are unnecessary. Maybe not for them. I got attacked on Dpreview for pointing this out. The camera manufacturers need to understand that if people don’t cater of all photographer’s needs, then it just forces people to look elsewhere. At one time systems manufacturers used to try catering for everyone, now it is just about following the most popular things for maximum sales. In the past no one would have had a system with such gaps. M4/3 is more complete than others, but there are glaring gaps.
I think 1 inch sensors are probably the sweetspot for larger sensored compacts. Whilst 4/3 is the sweepspot compromise wise for ILC cameras.
Anonymous
5 months ago |Yep agree. Electronic sensor as big a priority as bright zooms.
Esa Tuunanen
5 months ago |> The other problem to me is the lack of electronic adapters for using my Canon EF lenses on m4/3 cameras.
No doubt adapter makers would fast make such adapters for every mirrorless system if Canon and Nikon just opened specifications of their (nearly Apple) closed and proprietary mounts.
http://www.thephoblographer.com/2012/07/24/kipon-developing-fully-coupled-ef-adapter-for-micro-four-thirds-and-nex/
Steve
5 months ago |Sounds like a load of dog poop to me. It seems to me that Olympus wants to give you all the “Bells and Whistles” camera, with everything included, but the know it’ll be a larger MFT camera, maybe even bigger than the GH3, so they mask it by saying they’re still supporting Four Thirds users.
Cut the crap Olympus. Four Thirds is dead. It’s almost like they want to move away from MFT and return to FT just to distance themselves from Panasonic.
In a perfect world, Fuji, Leica and Panasonic would form like Voltron and give us a $12-1500.00 Rangefinder like body with all the good stuff to rule them all.
J-F
5 months ago |I bought into the 4/3-system in spring of 2008, going for a E-520 to take photos of my wedding. I also wanted a compact DSLR body with the option to use hq lenses as well as a sub 1000 Euro “low cost” UW-housing, that didn’t weigh to much when traveling to distant diving locations.
I was aware that the E-system was somewhat behind in sensor performance, but as with all things technical I asumed that a new higher performing boddy was going to be released in the not so distant future. I was actualy prepared to buy a new body after 2 years time, but any suitable camera newer showed up. The E-5 was to bulky and pricy, the warious m4/3-offerings all lacked in autofocus capability with my lenses or didn’t offer much of sensor improvement.
So now 5 years later I’m siting here watching my two young kids grow up without having an upp to date camera to document their daily progress with.
All in all, I probably have above 7k$ us invested in Olympus 4/3 gear, split between land and underwater usage.
So, Yes there is a need for a new 4/3 E-5xx E-6xx replacement body.
Anonymous
5 months ago |You have a need. But it is not commercially viable for Olympus. The rd on producing that gear wasn’t justified by the sales. So they stopped.
Terada is a dinosaur chewing a dry old bone.
JOERT
5 months ago |… your point of view is clearly to understand. In case the situation turns into M4/3 or something other without any compatibility, we talk about waisted personal investments. At least a bridge solution for further usage should be the intermediate solution. Btw. I think there is a general lack of continous improvements at OLY-site. It seems to me, that they jump into and out of systems as they want. Do we talk here about real customer care? May be they have learned from the past – time will tell.
Anonymous
5 months ago |You know what Olympus, let the 4/3 proponents split into a separate company and they can build new 4/3 gear to their hearts content. And then go bankrupt.
amalric
5 months ago |That’s the best I have read so far.
4/3 users are steeped in the 1960s. Big zooms and fast cars -the A66. ‘Easy Rider’ and ‘On the road again’. Shootin’ bustards from the car’s window, and driving with the other
M4/3 has a totally different ethos, urban/Asian. So let’s split companies. See if they can make their own money. Then we’ll talk again about One Beautiful System – OBS, LOL.
Erik Aaseth
5 months ago |“M4/3 has a totally different ethos, urban/Asian”
Well, there’s a whole big world out there, outside that little pavement of yours, Amalric. There are other priorities, other needs. Why can’t you just accept that, w/o getting hostile and annoying? Just spare us for this endless praise of your own inflated ego. If someone rather prefers something like a bigger camera body than your girlish glittery matchbox, so be it. Facts of life, only. Relate!
Now go do your manicure, maintaining your pink painted small nails, will you?
amalric
5 months ago |ROTFL, please have these 4/3 gentlemen be moderated, or else let them earn their bread in a separate forum.
Or should I say, pigsty?
Am.
admin
5 months ago |Guys please calm down. DOn’t make my live harder by keeping an eye on eveyrones comment. Have a baby crying all the time but sometimes I think he is much more easier than manage than some discussions here
Abraham
5 months ago |street
5 months ago |+1000
Abraham
5 months ago |Am,
Unlike many here, I dont think 43rds was a mistake at all, the biggest error was getting stuck with less than competitive sensors. If m43rds didnt have this new sony sensor, it would fall to the same fate as 43rds.
I think a 43rds system is more than reasonable, most people bash the SHG lenses and use them to justify the failure of the system. However in my opinion, and many Olympus users, the HG line, in particular the 14-54, 12-60, 50-200, 50mm macro and the EC-20 and EC-1.4 etc. Were the bread and butter. Take the 50-200, and compare it to a FF lens such as the 70-400 from sony, or the 100-400 from Canon etc. It has a lot of benefits, the faster aperture pulls back 1 to 1.5 stops of light vs the other two, it is cheaper and smaller. The 14-54 (28-110)or 12-60 vs say the 24-105 f4, they pull back a atop at the wide end, and on par at the long end while haveing superb performance and being cheaper… the 50mm macro vs any 100mm macro for FF, being a stop faster and cheap and smaller etc…
The SHG lenses are for those who chose the system, and want uncompromising IQ from their chosen system, they are superb lenses by all accounts.
Now m43rds is a different set of compromises, consider the Panasonic 12-35 vs the Olympus 12-60, the 12-60 only really loses a half stop of light through the range while offering better corner to corner performance for sinilar apertures, and it is cheaper to boot… 50-200 would probably stack up very well vs the 35-100, while cheaper and with a longer range… But they have focused on size while compromising absolute image quality.
I now own 3 m43rds bodies, and a slew of lenses, along with my 35mm macro, 50mm macro, 12-60, 50-200 and the samyang 85mm f1.4 all for 43rds mount, with the 9-18, 17mm f2.8, 40-150, 45mm f1.8, 25mm f1.4, SLRgear 35mm f1.4, mmf3 etc. While I would buy a m43rds body with no complaints that would AF my 43rds lenses without compromise, if they cant do that this year, I would buy a 43rds DLSR, and I would have no complaints. I can use my larger system when I need to with my versatile and fast zooms, or I can use my smaller more portable system when I want to with my nifty little lenses etc.
There is plenty of room for both systems, and the development of one only opens possibilities for the other.
amalric
5 months ago |You must live in a separate reality, since you are speaking of dozens of lenses, while the typical m4/3 owner uses only one additional lens (the 45mm) to the kit lens – like Terada metioned in the interview.
It has always been assumed, even when Oly still had the E-xxx, that sales of the lowly models wpuld finance the production of HG, and SGG lenses for the happy few.
However there are so few of them left – some hundreds, not even thousands, in the whole planet – that this business model has completely failed. Oly and Panny are now producing for the millions an entirely different product line, and that is the business model that must succeed.
Oly went bankrupt with the 4/3 system – it never paid for itself. And you are proposing more of the same failure?
That is what sensible people here fear most: that from a successful company Oly might again go in the red because of the blackmail of a few past customers.
Especially those who built castles in the air with SHG ultraexpensive glass, so large and heavy, that nobody needs them anymore, with the m4/3 new sensors, their high sensitivity, low noise and 5-axis IBIS.
Nobody is going to pay for a few affluent, selfish amateurs who are willing to wreck the company for a second time. So let’s call bygones, bygones, and call it quits.
Abraham
5 months ago |Am, I do live in the same reality as you, but I sell my images. Terada does speak of the average buyer, who is easy to please to some degree, but is also influenced by the potential to upgrade.
Imagine how many times we hear that lens system of Canon and Nikon, such as Tilt and shifts being a reason to buy into the system… Those lenses prescribe to less than half of one percent (possibly even less) of the total Canon userbase, just as the owners of SHG glass show off the potential of the top tier lenses Olympus makes.
But, you can be both rude an condescending with your posts. Only Olympus knows the numbers and they seem to be choosing to respond to their 43rds userbase. To think you either have more information, or know better than a company that has been producing cameras for close to a hundred years is quite astonishing.
So yes, water under the bridge and all that, I will enjoy taking my pictures with my chosen equipment, and you can enjoy taking pictures with your single lens.
amalric
5 months ago |Despite your stalking you made me have a good laugh with your piccies:
http://alatchinphotography.com/product-shots/?product=paslode-nailgun
The Pan is even better
You need a 3000 $ lens for THAT?
Yes we live in separate worlds, thankfully
Oilymouse
5 months ago |Big yawn at the overdoing of smileys in most of your posts – or are you trying to appear like a maniac?
Amalric, you are certainly able to produce appropriately critical comments at times. However, the majority of us refrains from commenting at just about everything like a polemic machine gun, effectively hijacking threads with personal sentiments. Take it to DPR: this forum should be different.
And don’t go judging other people’s photographs, please. That’s just wasting forum space with irrelevant opinion. It will never lead anywhere, as you can see yet again.
bart
5 months ago |“Despite your stalking you made me have a good laugh with your piccies:”
Yes Amalric, everyone is stalking you, really, anything happening on this planet is about you, why do others even exist? Oh, its just so they can stalk you and ensure you feel as important as you really are!
Abraham
5 months ago |who said I own a $3000 lens. You need a reality check.
Lacunapratum
5 months ago |amalric does not seem to own much SHG glass. These are just wonderful lenses. I am talking especially 150mm and 300mm, but also 50mm and 14-35mm. If you love photography, working with them is pure joy. I would be extremely happy about a new E-style body with the new Sony sensor: dream fulfilled.
Boooo!
5 months ago |Amalric never owned an E-x or E-xx body. He also never owned a HG lens. He also likes taking photos of children in trains.
lmqø-M
5 months ago |Also 7-14mm F4
Anonymous
5 months ago |Yeah you can have a go at the individuals, but you won’t change the simple, boring fact. Four Thirds isn’t commercially viable.
amalric
5 months ago |Commercial success follows camera evolution. dSLR was only an intermediate step between Leica RF and LiveView digital.
dSLR however lasted so long – half a century – that for many, those who have little imagination, it is still v. difficult to understand that what they have has been superseded.
Oly and Panny had to discover it to their own expense, since 4/3 was making no headway. So commecial success didn’t come from cheapening, but from the return to camera basics. Not surprisingly the flange distance of m4/3 is most similar to Leica. The Metabones’ Speed Booster is the cherry on the cake, because it shows the potential of the format.
Interestingly we have just discovered that the anonymous trolls here are mostly 4/3 users in disguise, who don’t dare to show their identity . Stranded fish left belly up on the beach of camera evolution
Lacunapratum
5 months ago |Shouldn’t be too much of an ordeal to take the E-620 electronics and stick them in an OM-D body and just extend the lens mount a little. I’d love that camera. I’d personally prefer it over any adapter solution.
4/3 wasn’t a success because the sensor technology wasn’t there and Olympus’ wonderful engineers and designers were suffering from a crappy leadership that sucked all the R&D money up to finance their sinister stock market games. Today there is a new start and a new Olympus. I personally would be delighted to see a 4/3 revival.
amalric
5 months ago |Isn’t it ridiculous to have the unwashed clamouring to go back five years in the past – the E-620! – without having any photography to justify the claim?
The selfsame who pollute this site with vicious personal attacks?
Mr. Terada should be very careful not to raise false expectations for a defunct system, just to save a few pennies, like this site, which is unable to moderate the whiners and the lamers.
Oly should be very careful not to repeat the mistakes of the past, unless it wants Sony and Fuji to reap the benefits of mirrorless. Delude at your own peril – LOL!
Lacunapratum
5 months ago |Not trying to win an argument. Just stating: the Olympus E-system is a marvelous system with gorgeous cameras (e.g. E-5 and E-620) and superb lenses, from the 7-14mm to the 300mm and everything in between. I even enjoy the 9-18mm for the E-system. All it needs is a new generation sensor. Glad Mr. Terada pointed Olympus in the right direction and looking forward toward Olympus’ brilliant future, both on an E-system and m4/3 level.
solar
5 months ago |Lacunapratum,
Do not worry about this fools comments. The more you respond the more you feed the trolling nature of his lifestyle. He tried similar posts on Mu43 and was chastised and defeated; then returned here to continue to intentionally antagonise and offend others with his own views.
The real agenda with this troll is that he is jealous of those who have the funds to buy what they want, when they want. Behind every post is a not so well hidden agenda of pure jealousy because he cannot have what others have. Instead of remaining civil and appreciating others personal situations and their hobby, and learning from their posts and experiences, he reduces everything to a financial argument. Those that have better gear than him are stupid, wasteful and/or foolish.
Those that own HG and SHG lenses are stupid. Why, because these lenses are costly. His argument on Mu43 was the same for those who bought the new Pany M43 zooms. Ignore him ,and he may go away. Many here already adopt the practice of ignoring him, but his incessant posts intended to antagonise eventually hooks a new fish, and it starts all over again.
amalric
5 months ago |There is no way that 4/3 can survive without going mirrorless. The reason is not only size, but also AF. PDAF is obsolete, or at best residual, compared to CDAF’s precision.
CDAF requires NO mirror. I know: I have used TWO E models, and 4/3 lenses.
Those models couldn’t use properly CDAF. LiveView was bad.
PDAF v. often resulted in backfocus, and needed time consuming calibration. OBSOLETE TECHNOLOGY.
So mirrorless was the natural evolution, doing away with the Mirror Box, and thus *allowing a better performance* in a smaller size.
What sense would it make now to revert to the original flange distance, when the AF system is obsolete? What will you put in the redundant space of the mirrorbox?
Meanwhile *FF 135 is decreasing in price*, so Canon declares the other day that *APS is obsolete* and that they will discontinue it soon.
Once you can have a FF camera around 1500 $, where does that leave 4/3? 1200 $?
For a new buyer it doesn’t make any sense at all to buy an Oly 4/3, even at 1200.
Thus I contend that past 4/3 users have put themselves in a corner, and cannot even read the writing on the wall.
Terada has put himself between a rock and a hard place because he must prepare 4/3 users to accept either a v. expensive small camera, unable to take m4/3 lenses.
Or a camera that will be able to take both formats, but will have to do away with an OVF.
Terada knows v. well that dSLR traditionalists HATE to lose the OVF. And yet he also knows that above 1200 $ there is room only for FF cameras.
So how to even sell a profitable 4/3 dSLR at 1200$? How many units? With what profit margins?
NONE. Remember: 4/3 NEVER PAID FOR ITSELF. Always in the red.
Even when the E-xxx model were selling for a 500 $ price. NO PROFITS.
On an individual scale, 4/3 users are fighting their rearward battle because:
a) they don’t want to lose an OVF
b) they want a big camera
c) they want to keep using 4/3 lenses
I predict they will lose the first two, and earn an adapter to m4/3, exactly like Sony did long ago.
This is only a fading courtesy towards past users, they should be grateful for. It won’t last forever.
Lacunapratum
5 months ago |Thank you very much, solar! I appreciate your human insight. Even in the anonymity of the internet it’s important to read between the lines and to separate the constructive users of the forum from the trolls. I believe this is a great forum. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! Hopefully, amalric will get a new pair of glasses soon…