Thom Hogan just shared his toughts about the new product announcements. I copied only a part of the text related to Olympus and Panasonic. I strongly recommend you to read the whole post!
“Panasonic: the big news was the GH2
, which looks like a winner (disclaimer: I’m shooting almost all my video these days on a hacked GH1). Coupled with new lenses, the LX-5, and a the other new Panasonic compacts, and taken together with the recent G2, Panasonic seems to be running engineering at full tilt. I’m curious, though. 18mp in a m4/3 body seems a bit ambitious. I’m hoping that Panasonic has made a noise breakthrough at the sensor level, not taken to more post processing noise reduction. I’ve always thought Panasonic’s engineers seem more like actual camera users than those at other companies, so I have high hopes for their new offerings. I just wish they’d quit crippling certain aspects in their designs (like video bandwidth).”
“Olympus: the E-5
seems like a warmed over E-3. The 4/3 pot was therefore stirred, but it didn’t produce a sauce any different than before. No new m4/3 bodies, though some lens action was visible. The big story was the prototype of YALSC (Yet Another Large Sensor Compact). Or is it a large sensor compact? Hard to say from what little info was revealed, but the use of the Zuiko name on the lens and the way it was discussed, the prototype is at least in the G12/P7000 category, perhaps better. Personally, I’d rather have seen Olympus concentrate on fixing the user interfaces on their m4/3 bodies (especially after another trip to Africa with them and constantly fighting the controls, which tend to set random things when you’re not looking). I suspect Olympus is in a lull between major offerings. They spent a lot of engineering energy on the E-P1, E-P2, E-PL1 set, and it’ll be a bit before the true second generation of m4/3 bodies appears. Shame, that. As Panasonic and Sony seem to be slowly getting more momentum in the arena that Olympus pioneered.”
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- Panasonic Lumix 12.5mm f/12 3D G Lens for $249.95 at Amazon (Click here)
- Panasonic Lumix 14mm f/2.5 G Aspherical Lens for $399.95 at Amazon (Click here)
- Panasonic Lumix 100-300mm f/4.0-5.6 G Vario Aspherical MEGA OIS Lens for $599.95 at Amazon (Click here)
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Comment from Dan #2: @ Brandon: who's Thom Logan? ;)...
Comment from Nik: I like every aspect of the E-5, except f...
Comment from Paulus: Thank you so much for your ingenious and...
Comment from Brandon: Edit: "supervised" should be "supersized...
Basiliskos
2 years ago |What is YALSC (Yet Another Large Sensor Compact)?
Guy McLoughlin
2 years ago |People are dismissing the E-5 before they get a chance to see how good the IQ is. ( very few good sample images to be found on the web )
Nik
2 years ago |I like every aspect of the E-5, except for the video implementation, or lack there of.
If this camera had 1080p at 24fps, or even high bit rate 720p with frame rate options, it would be a no-brainer for those of us invested in the glass.
The MJPEG could be good, since the E-5 has a good JPG processing engine. Maybe the video will maintain the desired Oly look with the wonderful blue.
If the video has a high bit-rate, 720p could possibly produce quality moving images, especially with the HG/SHG lenses.
It seems like a solid tool, I just wish it had more refined video stats. I don’t plan on selling my Oly gear, and would love to eventually buy a 150f2…
Daywalker
2 years ago |Wayne? Who ist Thom Hogan? I know Hulk Hogan, but Thom Hogan???
furb
2 years ago |is it me or is there no way to use the red focus assist beam from the FL-50 or FL-36 with the E-PL1?
I don’t think there is even a strobe focus assist on the E-PL1?
Duarte Bruno
2 years ago |Thom Logan likes the GH2 and me likes Thom Hogan.
Terence A
2 years ago |So where’s the body only option???
Ulli
2 years ago |he would have prob liked the E-5,if it was released 2 years ago, that should prob say enough…about Thom.
Dana Curtis Kincaid
2 years ago |Here we go… You know, not everyone wants, REALLY, an EVF and a plastic body and a still camera that’s really a video camera.
If I really, really wanted what Panasonic has in the way of cameras I’d have gone that way already. I’m just kind of sad that Oly probably thinks, because of boards like this, that we all want electronic everything mommy-cams to protect and to serve and do everything but point the camera.
I don’t like the GH series. Thanks anyway. The things are too… IRobot for me.
MK
2 years ago |There he goes, there he goes again defending Olympus $1700 antique camera. I can’t believe you didn’t quote someone to put this together.
Steve H
2 years ago |I really do like the E-5, but it’s just missing innovation.
- Why not a new sensor? If Panasonic isn’t going to make a weather sealed camera, why not put the GH2 sensor in the E-5? Or the GH-1. Or something designed specifically for Olumpus’s NEW line of cameras, not the old line. I just can’t believe the IQ is that much better. But, maybe it is. I guess we’ll see.
- 1080p video, not the 720p that my phone can do
- Wifi. Why the heck not?
- As Thom Hogan said, programmable. Look at what programmability did for the iphone and droid…
If Olympus wanted to totally blow the market away and be truly innovative, they’d have done the above. Look how excited people got about the GH1 and the whole video hack. If Olympus wanted to really really be innovative, they’d take some clues from that.
Inge - M.
2 years ago |Olympus wild come but a GH2 sensor in a new camera by the is not a E-x but a E-Mx(mondular camera).
Dana Curtis Kincaid
2 years ago |PS – Who the frak is T. Hogan?
Now, if you had said that Hemmingway had gotten out of his grave, gotten a haircut, and endorsed these cameras in Steve Job’s living room then I would have been imprssed. However, he hasn’t.
I might listen to Gaga, if she endorses the cams. Maybe. Also Madonna. Pet Shop Boys. But again, who is this guy you speak of?
Henrik
2 years ago |“I’ve always thought Panasonic’s engineers seem more like actual camera users than those at other companies,”
—
But Thom, it’s the other way round.
Dana Curtis Kincaid
2 years ago |Hello MK! Hope you are having a GREAT day. Is’t it amazing that people can still take great pix with antiques that actually have no electronics at all. Now a glass-plate camera that can take HD video, that’s got to be the next wave!
I can still take pix with a Contax G, or an Oly E-520, or even an LX-3, though I’m sure the antiques will quit any day now… Lol lol lol.
BS Artiste
2 years ago |It is always funny to hear some photographers complain about a camera having too many features and too much technology. Very few photographers still do Matthew Brady-style wet plate photography because most photographers value the technological improvements of the last 150 years.
In most cases, if you do not care for a particular feature in a camera, then just ignore that feature. Maybe that feature is useful or helpful to other photographers or allowed enough of the consumer market to purchase large enough volumes of the camera that make the per unit cost low enough for you to buy the camera. Without including features to attract a mass market with high production volumes, the purchase price of cameras would be much more expensive.
Dana Curtis Kincaid
2 years ago |BS – the problem with feature creep is that it tends to make your Ferrari, good or nearly perfect at one thing, into a Pontiac Aztec.
For marketing purposes Four Thirds is morphing into Micro. A perfectly useful and high quality group of lenses is morphing into a slower, higher-distortion lens set that costs about the same. The higher distortion lenses now need software to straighten out the distortion. You need better IS to compensate for the slower apertures. You have to go with EVFs because an optical VF at this size and price point is going to suck.
So, you tell me. What, besides size, did Micro Four Thirds get us? Really.
BS Artiste
2 years ago |@Dana Curtis Kincaid – “So, you tell me. What, besides size, did Micro Four Thirds get us? Really.”
Besides size, nothing. However, I am not a Micro Four Thirds user, and I really don’t want a smaller interchangeable lens camera than my E-30. If I want to carry a smaller camera, then I would just carry a prosumer point-and-shoot. If I have to carry a kit and three or four lenses, then my E-30 is plenty small enough. For changing lenses to long telephoto zooms, the Pens are too small ergonomically for the long lenses.
The tradeoff for the smaller lenses of micro four-thirds seems to be slower lenses (assuming that the price is around the same amount). Faster lenses need more optics and weight, which may match better with four-thirds than micro four-thirds.
In the next few months maybe Oly will have the pro-grade micro four-thirds body with the same focusing speed, flash write time, size and ergonomics of current four-thirds D-SLRs. Also, to get a large enough consumer mass market penetration (to sell at a reasonable price), such a camera likely now needs high end video.
I’ve got nothing but time on my hands while waiting on development of equipment (and taking photos
).
Dana Curtis Kincaid
2 years ago |And don’t say, Micro Four Thirds got us technical innovation! Anything you can do in Micro you could do in Four Thirds in an E-620 sized package, with an established base of lenses. Sony is using the Alpha/Minolta lenses in the new no-mirror D-something cameras.
Paulus
2 years ago |Innovation leads often to crises.
Crises and Change are often a basis for further innovation and improvement.
But do not get nervous.
Look at Olympus in 2011.
There will be a very successful come back –
Olympus will rise like a phoenix!
Dana Curtis Kincaid
2 years ago |I’m not worried, as this is not zero-sum. I’m saving up 2 buy into Leica when I am 50.
I just… I like Four Thirds, and I like the big Alpha full-frame cameras. I’m just not feeling the Micro stuff yet.
BS – Been thinking of an E-30. U like?
BS Artiste
2 years ago |I do like my E-30, although I might not be the best person to ask. I am an amateur just learning to handle more sophisticated photography capabilities.
The E-30 is pretty fast, and I think it has the same sensor as the E-5. However, the E-30 is not weather sealed.
Paulus
2 years ago |I like Four Thirds too – especially the lenses! And I agree with you – the E-30 is a fantastic camera.
But I also like Micro Four Thirds for traveling and video (and silence – no shutter noise and shutter vibrations.
And I want the creative possibilities of so many lenses I just can carry if traveling by plane.
So I want all improvements in one professional Micro Four Thirds System in the future!
And I bet on the fact that a professional weather sealed Micro Four Thirds Camera will have nearly the size of an E-30.
Dan #2
2 years ago |Hogan is a Nikon man through an through. I would never expect him to praise a competitors thorough bred. Waste of time reading this really.
Bob
2 years ago |Who is Thom Hogan? When you look at his site, it’s like coming to Nikon’s marketing department. Is he a Nikon marketing guy?
Brandon
2 years ago |First, people, if you’re online figuring out “who Thom Logan is” is but a click away. What web-savvy adult posts a question on a forum, even rhetorically, without at least trying first? It’s depressing…
Second, Kincaid, do you ever post something not a knee-jerk, reactionary defense? Do you have any contemplative depth?
BS Artiste was right on the money. And in regards to m43… size is everything for real-world usability, the products success is everything 43rds wasn’t (which keeps Oly alive you know), and if you still don’t see the potential, in a digital world, for EVF in just a couple years, yet you still tout the investment-worth of lenses you presumably value beyond a couple years, then there may be no hope for you and your total lack of vision.
Already 2.5 mp EVF are right around the corner. Exceeding the ability of the eye to distinguish between EVF and OVF is almost at hand…2 measly years and you can have an EVF that:
A) Can instantly show you not only what’s in front of your camera, but what your camera will actually produce from that, be it various color settings or even B&W, various resolutions, formats, crops, you name it. All before taking the photo.
B) Can project an image as large as the OVF on a Nikon D3, or even a medium format camera. Why not? No pentaprism to worry about. Nothing prevents making an EVF as large as you want. Build-in the current best display available, which may already be supervised, but if not: just stick in a magnifying lens. OVF have diminishing light and increasing distortion to discourage this, but the EVF path is clean.
C) Can be used in moonlight, just like the camera shoots. An OVF is virtually useless in many situations, but the EVF just continues forward, keeping pace with the lens and camera.
D) Can multi-task, displaying info much more elegantly than currently. After all it’s digital: it can be programmed. Upgraded. Improved upon. Even customized. Each generation better in a way not even remotely possible before. It isn’t static.
I’m sorry you post here so much, but never with anything insightful.
Paulus
2 years ago |Thank you so much for your ingenious and creative extrapolation of the potential of Electronic View Finders (EVF)!
Brandon
2 years ago |Edit: “supervised” should be “supersized”
Post-note: clearly I’ve decided the best way to contend with a heckler is to heckle.
Dan #2
2 years ago |@ Brandon: who’s Thom Logan?