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Mert
11 months ago |https://us.buyolympus.com/digital-cameras/e-system-dslr.html
cL
11 months ago |http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_digital_slr.asp
mahler
11 months ago |It is strange, how Olympus tries to talk life into an almost dead system. They have a record full of contradicting statements since Photokina 2010.
I don’t know any dealer, who still has the E-system at display or in stock. I cannot imagine, that someone takes the risk buying a 2,000+ $ lens, not knowing, if the system will still exist in one or two years and which will see a constant updates of bodies with current technology that is able to utilize the potential of the lenses.
Calumet, for instance, does not even bother to list Olympus at sll despite of the success of the E-M5.
All in all, the management seems to extent its questionable financial politics to the customers, by painting the real situation brighter than it is.
Olympus imaging can only survive with high quality small system cameras. Wit high quality, I mean something substantial better than the E-M5 with its ergonomic flaws and quality problems (loosing paint, bad eye cups) and lackluster performing zoom lenses. They must stop their pathologic dogma to retro design and deliver bodies like the E-5 in a smaller form factor.
lnqo-M
11 months ago |Why is this strange, if you say Olympus HG and SHG lens is dead for E-M5 not have fast focus, and E-M5 is bad, for this is is to small.
Well maybe E-7 is natural anyway.
The Master
11 months ago |I’d agree with a lot of what you said, about 4/3 and the skeptical dealers. Who’s to blame them, after all the silly moves Olympus has made, that still cost them money on a daily basis. Most notably, recently, in only releasing chrome lenses.
However, I think the one thing they have done right is the body style of the OMD. Many people, myself included, have been waiting for a small basic camera, without a fancy grip with a chrome strip in it, with good image quality and performance, that we could shoot with comfortably and also add a grip to use with longer or heavier lenses. Where Olympus failed is in their deceptive greed, which seems continually to bite them in the ass, as far as I’m concerned. I’m talking about intentionally making the OMD difficult to hold without the grip, so they could con people into buying a grip, that many of us didn’t want. Heck, if they would quit acting like pecker heads, they could be leading the camera industry and everyone would want to buy and carry their cameras.
Fafhrd
10 months ago |>>It is strange, how Olympus tries to talk life into an almost dead system.<<
Miracle Max: Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.
Inigo Montoya: What's that?
Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.
jeffharris
11 months ago |Neither the E30 or E620 are listed anywhere on the Olympus (USA) site. There are accessories and lenses only. Does that mean they’re semi-available or only sorta-discontinued?
TheEye
11 months ago |There’s a warehouse full of bodies (E-30 and E-620, etc
) in the Cayman Islands…
blohum
11 months ago |They’re currently listed on the Olympus UK site along with the E450…
http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/dslr_6749.htm
craftysnapper
11 months ago |Yes, but you cannot buy one even on Olympus’s online store.
What they are really saying is the equivalent of a car maker saying that a ten year old car is not dicontinued even if you cannot buy it because they still have the tools to make it.
And I thought it was only politicans that were untrustworthy.
lnqo-M
11 months ago |Very straight so i experience by M.Zuiko 75mm F1.8, i have wait two month now.
donald
11 months ago |yep – no roadmap = no investment from me.
Used to have a E-3 and 150/2, 14-35/2, 7-14/4 but the dynamic range and AF speed/tracking was not remotely competitive.
If they re-engineered the lenses to update the AF to the latest SWC motors and the E-7 could track moving targets , I would be open to getting some long lenses. But I think the E-M5 wouldl be a better platform to target long lenses at.
Dummy00001
11 months ago |> “We haven’t discontinued the E-5, E-30 or E-620“.
We just don’t sell them anymore! (Except the recent E-5, of course.) Well, at least not in Germany:
http://geizhals.at/de/?cat=dcamsp&asd=on&asuch=olympus%20e-30
http://geizhals.at/de/?cat=dcamsp&asd=on&asuch=olympus%20e-620
There is one(!) lonely offer for the E-620 – at 1999€!!!
Michael Chapman
11 months ago |I live in Sydney, Australia and the rep here personally told me that they are discontinued, so somebody is talking shit.
Ragnarok
11 months ago |The buyers did.
amalric
11 months ago |At Olympus there is an age gap problem. A top manager, in his fifties explained that some of them still see dSLR as the best Olympus makes.
By comparison the E-M5 was designed by five people in their early thirties.
There used to be two separate design teams at Oly, One for dSLR and one for compacts. The Pens were designed by the latter. That in my view explains the resistance to discontinue the 4/3 line *despite it is economically unsustainable*.
They must clear the warehouses from expensive 4/3 lenses, but clearly they don’t have the money to re-design them for dual use, which would be the lasting solution.
Therefore I believe in deeds, not words. Those who dream of a revanche are by now old men who don’t take well disruptive technology.
Sales speak better than words however: mirrorless is the only growing sector at Oly camera division. If they wanted to adapt 4/3 lenses to it, they would have to rebuild them with silent linear motors. *But they don’t*
Instead they are issuing HG primes, which are better suited to the new format.
That’s all there is really. There might be a tweener sometimes, but it will still be a kludge, because 4/3 lenses were NOT designed for mirrorless.
Don’t even dream that they can have the same AF perfromance of native lenses.
Watanabe is a good PR, but even he can’t disguise these *facts*. Therefore his message will keep being ambiguous, in order to protect Oly’s image of a company which cares about its customers.
But it is only an exercise of damage control by massaging old men egos.
st3v4nt
11 months ago |nice conclusion
Christian
11 months ago |FT-lenses are the best Olympus ever produced and much better than mFT-lenses. And I seriously hope that the FT-lenses will work on future FT or mFT-bodies. I have no use for unsealed primes, but need fast weathersealed zooms.
Rickey
11 months ago |My 4/3rds system takes awesome photos now …. Why won’t it take awesome photos 30 years from now? There will be an E7 and with the new sensor, I am set for life……
lnqo-M
11 months ago |Agree.
Gianca43rds
11 months ago |30 years from now your camera shutter will be long dead.
Good luck finding a 4/3rds camera body replacement then.
st3v4nt
11 months ago |This news did show that Olympus (at least the older generation) still reluctant to admit that 4/3 is a dead end, they refuse to fully support m4/3 because for them the 4/3 is their life achievement. Meanwhile the consumer get confuse where exactly is Olympus plan going to….are they go for m4/3 or did they hold on to dying 4/3.
That’s way up until know we haven’t seen any m4/3 hybrid AF or simple proper PDAF to CDAF adapter. The reason behind it is not due to the Olympus inability to do R&D or lack of human resource, but because the top level older generation refuse to do it since it will become the 4/3 demise.
amalric
11 months ago |One possible explanation, is the loss of OVF. I used to have it too, but having E-xxx cameras, which have it very small, it was no great loss.
But surely people who have used big OVF all their lives, feel that with EVF they will enter and unnatural world. They are the same who despised Live View.
On the contrary, using an EVF allows one to tweak an image *before* the shot and thus get an exact result. Those who loathe it are the same RAW slaves, that think they will work after the shot.
Again it’s a generation gap that explains that diehards won’t let go. They are still suspended in the world of reflex and prints. A different, fading world.
cL
11 months ago |Very bold assumption, that OVF people are the same one who hate LiveView. I like OVF because I need BOTH OVF and LiveView. EVF is just LiveView in smaller screen and better shielded against sunlight. When LiveView won’t work (very strong light or very dim light), EVF won’t work very well either. So I need both.
amalric
11 months ago |Just by this, I can tell that you have no real world experience of m4/3 EVF. Because the EVF2 has a magnification as big as the OVF of the E-3 or the E-5. And it shows what the sensor sees, not what you imagine it does.
It actually works BETTER than an OVF in low light, because it acts as a light intensifier and can cope with high sensitivity sensors, while an OVF can’t.
So here’s the demonstration that people in denial usually foment lies.
Agrivar
11 months ago |Well said.
ha
11 months ago |Yes, check e.g. http://www.pekkapotka.com/journal/2012/7/17/wildlife-with-e-m5.html
blohum
11 months ago |The quality of the EVF is fine, the only irritation for me is the lag in it turning on… when your daughter is standing front of you looking cute that second of lag is enough for her to get distracted and your chance is gone!
cL
11 months ago |The day I got Panasonic G1 a few years ago is the same day I returned the camera. Wonderful in day light, unusable in low light. The reason I need an OVF is because LiveView is super noisy in low light, which makes MF impossible. I was trying to shoot the moonrise once, and I just couldn’t see anything in LiveView except noise.
I always turn off light boost feature because it will give inaccurate color rendition. Inaccurate color rendition is the reason why EVF is useless under extremely bright sunlight. That’s also the criticism for Sony NEX-7′s EVF. User said the color is so washed out, it’s useless.
I am sure the technology of EVF has improved since. I do know the advantage of EVF (I used to use an EVF camera, Canon S1). Whether EVF has improved to the point to fit the requirements of professionals, that’s another issue. I am not arguing EVF is bad, but OVF has its own place under certain situation. I use LiveView all the time since I am a tripod shooter, by the way, so I am not against LiveView/EVF. But sometimes OVF is just more practical, especially when you’re handheld using AF.
Bart
11 months ago |And the G1′s EVF doesn’t exactly compare well to the current generation of EVFs used by Olympus. Sure, the G2′s EVF is a bit larger, but in all other aspects it simply sucks in comparison, as do the EVFs in pretty much all other Panasonic cameras.
There are definitely cases where OVFs still beat current EVFs, but, the G1 is not going to give you a very good idea about this at all.
mahler
11 months ago |You must have had a different camera then. The G1 finder was THE reason I bought the camera: it was large and bright. Sure, in low light, it was a. bit noisy, but far from unusable. It was easier to focus than a DSLR OVF, because at least you could see sometthing due to the boost.
The E-M5 EVF is even much better than the G1 EVF, it can fully replace any mid class OVF and has still advantages over OVFs of high end cameras.
cL
10 months ago |Yes, the HUGE EVF (compared to my E-620) was also one reason why I bought G1 (the other reason is the very nice grip). It looked like a HDTV in that viewfinder and I thought why would anyone not like that.
That honeymoon period ended very soon when I started to use it practically. The finder was very noisy even in my home’s dimply lit hallway. Near pitch dark moonrise place? Forget about it.
I was in Yosemite, and I put my E-620 on a tripod. I could see some trace in the OVF (AF was completely useless, because the lack of contrast), but in LiveView is nothing but black and noise. I gave up, because while I could see things OVF, but E-620′s OVF was too small for MF. I usually use LiveView/EVF to do MF (magnified MF assistance is very useful, but since it’s nothing but noise, so there was no point shooting.
So yeah, if you want to shoot something in pitch dark, large film-camera SLR like OVF is the way to go. That was a day I wished I had a FF since the beginning of my owndership of E-620 (I rarely find 4/3 sensor insufficient, if you know what you’re doing). Pitch dark scene does benefit from large OVF of FF and lower noise of bigger sensor (but OM-D is drawing that close).
Oh, and nobody said anything about extremely bright sun light…. Is OM-D’s EVF better than NEX-7′s when it comes to color accuracy?
Bart
11 months ago |As so often you are badly informed and come to the wrong conclusion as a result.
In low light current EVFs totally kill night vision, so no, they are not by definition better in low light, depending on the situation they may be better, or much worse.
Also, while the EVF of the E-M5 is much better then the OVF of an E-xxx camera in size, this isn’t the case when compared to an E-3/5 for example.
So, it totally depends on what ‘low light’ you are talking about and what 4/3 camera you compare to. Such small details of course get in the way of your stupidly black/white world view, but reality doesn’t come in black/white only.
Boooo!
10 months ago |His conclusion is based on owning a pentamirror E-xxx with kit lenses. He has no idea what f/1.4 or f/2 on a pentaprism E-x looks like in the viewfinder.
fdsf
11 months ago |I am a bit of a convert to EVF , as a long term FF user I was used to big bright viewfinders and I still prefer them overall. Even with the latest EVF options it is still like looking at a TV as opposed to looking through a window. However for those used the smaller viewfinders in the likes of the E620 { the smallest i have ever used }EVF is a clear winner.
Excluding the “video” look EVF has advanatges in every other area , the manual focus zoom is an excellent feature as is the ability to see the effects { roughly} of different camera settings .I am hoping that the next generation of EVF tech { maybe in the upcoming GH3} will have higher resoloution, faster refresh rate and most important to me better low light performance
I actually find EVF use in low light to be very far from ideal { I have the E-M5 and GH2 } .
Fred s
blohum
11 months ago |RAW slaves? Call me weird but I enjoy processing the RAW files as much as taking the photos in the first place!
Ross
11 months ago |It’s possible that you may compromise your shots because you are going to work on the RAW file anyhow, but if you were in the habit of always getting the best settings for JPEG & also saving for RAW as backup, you may find you need to do less RAW file tweeks afterwards. I know that a bit more can be extracted from a RAW file, but not a lot more from Olympus files (because the JPEGs are generally using most of the data available).
TheEye
11 months ago |If you intend to do any PP, a 16 bit tiff offers you a lot more malleability compared to a 12 bit jpg. It depends of course on what and under what conditions you shoot, and on the PP that you have possibly planned. Image-making doesn’t stop necessarily with the push of the shutter release button.
mahler
11 months ago |Tweaking the JPEG engine with the worst possible device, the camera screen, is undoubtedly the worst way to photograph. Not only that JPEG tweaking distracts you from composing and taking the shot, you can’t even judge the optimal sharpening based on the screen.
It is a tale that Olympus JPEGs are so phantastic that you can’t get much better results when shooting RAW. In my experience it is worth to treat E-M5 files with LR 4 , because the results are so much better than with the in camera JPEG engine.
Rob S.
11 months ago |I never opposed live view and was one of the first to buy an E-330, which, for me, remains the best implementation of live view in a DSLR made so far.
But current EVFs simply can’t do what the SLR viewfinder was originally made for and still excels in: to precisely visualise in-focus and out-of-focus areas of the image. To precisely focus manually, you at least have to zoom-in, thereby losing both potentially precious time and the big picture, if not use the vision-impairing focus-peaking crutch, too, on cameras which at least offer it (focus peaking without zoom-in is not enough for achieving precise focus with current Sony cameras).
Of course I know that only fullframe DSLRs tend to offer optical viewfinders with good manual-focusing properties. But the E-3/5 with its huge finder is good at it, too, and for most small-sensor DSLRs there do exist (at least DIY) options to replace the default screen with microprism and/or split-screen features, which should make even a “lesser” Four Thirds DSLR the better option when it comes to manual focus.
bart
10 months ago |Hi Bob, I think it is a bit more complicated then that.
Manual focus with a modern dslr, even a full-frame one, takes practise, and unless you have near perfect vision, takes time, even with an E-3 or 135 format camera. For many people, the ‘zoom to focus’ takes less practise, works without perfect vision, and consequently can be as fast .
‘Zoom to focus’ quite works like using a medium/large format camera with focusing back and a loupe, but much faster. This can give an accuracy that a regular slr-style OVF can’t match without additional magnification. Those viewfinder magnifiers do exist for a reason.
Matteo
11 months ago |I Use two E5 with 7-14,35-100,150 and 90-250 and is a very good System
i dont understand why many peoples Who don’t Use e5 are critics versus the 4/3 System
I suppose they are not good photographer
For these peoples i suggest to Buy a full frame camera
don knizi
11 months ago |Well, with that amount of disposable income I guess it’s fantastic. With these lenses I also would not bother for a compact mirrorless body.
I am still looking for a future replacement body for my E-330 for single handed shooting, as I need the left hand to hold a mirror (intraoral shooting). Without a solid grip it is impossible to handle the weight of the camer + 50mm F2 + ringflash/flash controller.
fdsf
11 months ago |The problem with FT and these lenses is that they are far too heavy, far too large and far too expensive. The E-5 has pretty poor AF compared to simalar priced Canikon models.
If you are happy to carry that amount of weight you might as well get a FF camera which gives you a number of advanatges regarding image quality. Now I am not challenging the quality of these lenses they are amazing.In the UK the Olympus 7-14 F4 lens costs more than the Nikon 14-24mm F2.8 lens , It doesnt make sense that you can get a faster lens that is designed for a sensor 4 x larger for less money.
Fred S
Mick
11 months ago |Well, Akira Watanabe seems to have a good sense of humour. Or his English is as bad as of good old Maitani son. Or some journalists had deaf ears during the interview and wrote what they wanted to hear (you may wonder how many times this happens).
Anyway an E-7 (with optical viewfinder!) with the OM-D E-M5 sensor would be fine – especially if being packed in an E-1 shaped body.
Pixnat
10 months ago |>Anyway an E-7 (with optical viewfinder!) with the OM-D E-M5 sensor would be fine – especially if being packed in an E-1 shaped body <
Salivating… I would sell everything I have to get it
More serioulsly : it will be the best move for Olympus, and it's a big possibility. Oly recycled the pen an OM bodies, why not the E-1
Ram
11 months ago |Should he also have added “Neither are we continuing the Four Thirds”?
Ram
Matthias
11 months ago |“We haven’t discontinued the E-5, E-30 or E-620″? What’s this? A joke? I’m glad that I didn’t spend much money for FT lenses…
abucci
11 months ago |some of the olympus 4/3 lenses are truly excellent pieces of camera equipment. be nice if they could somehow make these lenses more compatible with the m4/3 system or even start making m4/3 lenses that are as good or better thanthe ones they have now (love to see a m4/3 version of the 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 II)
Zetton
11 months ago |I think the statement was incurred by the happen of EOS-M.
but think cool. the difference btw E-n series and OM-D is …. (theoretically) phase AF or contrast AF, and optical finder or EVF, only.
same sensor. the mirror is not the matter
then, like EOS-M, if Olympus will make mix AF OM-D (m4/3), most of “the problem” will be solved for Olympus users.
Declaring the continue of E-n series shouldn’t be the solution.
To make complete compatibility to 4/3 phase AF lenses (existing) on m4/3 body will be the solution.
EOS-M did it. (same sensor size, same phase AF so far)
NIKON 1 too (but too small sensor = bad)
no more “words only”, Olympus.
Act now, do something.
don’t postpone the action and decision anymore.
NEX strikes m4/3 with “not APS-C”. and alpha phase AF lense can be compatible via adapter .
EOS-M will strikes to, but “no phase AF adapter” than NEX.
single NEX is already enough, but EOS-M will be added as an enemy.
phase AF, phase AF, phase AF, phase AF! hay, Mr. Watanabe!
lnqo-M
11 months ago |What is problem, what by use M4/3 lens on m4/3 camera,…is this stranger.
don knizi
11 months ago |@Zetton
I struggle a bit to get your point but as far as I get it I agree: There needs to be some sort pf phase detection AF which would instantly allow full speed AF of 43 lenses on m43 bodies. A sensor implementation would be great and I believe there are some speculations from forum members that Sony may deliver such a sensor.
SteveO
11 months ago |“Akira Watanabe, manager of the SLR Planning Department at Olympus”
His title says it all, manager of a group that hasn’t done anything since 2010, and even then they simply dropped an E-P sensor and some minor tweaks into an already dated body.
I feel for him, must be like being the Maytag repairman, lonely in that big empty building and he feels the need to just say anything to justify his continued employment. I wonder if Olympus’ new board is even aware he still works there?
“Watanabe said Olympus is responding to calls from E-system users who want to be able to use ‘high-grade’ lenses.”
No kidding, they actually hear us on Mount Olympus?
“‘I need to make it clear we are now developing a model to fully utilise Four Thirds lenses,’ he said.”
Hmmm, wouldn’t that simply be called an E-7 with E-M5 sensor/processor popped in?
Let Watawhatshisname continue his tired little smoke and mirrors dance, it’s a sucky economy and he needs the work.
amalric
11 months ago |An E-7 I think too. Although if there was a sizable share of the market they could innovate and to a translucent mirror and EVF a’ la Sony.
The fact that they haven’t come up yet, after 3 or 4 yrs, with no innovation in the dSLR side shows that there was never much market for 4/3 in the first place. Panny drew the consequences and retreated.
APS i still there and it hasn’t budged. If anything it is losing MShare to Mirrorless.
So whatever Watanabe can say, the facts are known. There will not be a coming back to 4/3, and this is further shown by the fact that there is no roadmap, and that the lenses are not being re-engineered for CDAF.
PDAF on sensor I believe, is just another wishful thinking, because it is imprecise, and thus at best a complementary thing to CDAF. 4/3 lenses will never be as fast on a m4/3 camera as a native m4/3 lens, besides the problem of being too big for the format.
So Watanabe and alii can’t really count on new sales of 4/3 lenses. What gives?
A play of smoke and mirrors.
lnqo-M
11 months ago |The best Olympus can do is, made new lens for M4/3, look on 12mm, 45mm, 60mm macro and 75mm this is not lens for only fun.
Corina
11 months ago |Of course they didn’t discontinue the FT system.
However, what they did was:
- stop development of new bodies;
- stop selling existent bodies; from my own experience, it happened literally over-night, by pure chance the night before I was to buy a E-30.
- create confusion on whether there will be any road map at all for FT cameras, therefore confusion among people who investe in FT lenses
It takes a fool to equal all those listed above with FT being discontinued, doesn’t it?
Rob S.
11 months ago |The wording doesn’t sound as if an E-7 with E-M5 sensor was necessarily meant, but that it might as well be a professional-level (above E-M5) Micro FT camera with a perfectly performing (at least at E-5 level) phase detection AF adapter for FT lenses.
ljmac
10 months ago |Perhaps what he actually means is that these lines have not been discontinued – in other words, we can expect new bodies in these form factors soon.
Ab
10 months ago |The success of the OMD could very well lead to new bodies in the lower tiers for 43rds.
However it may be nice to see them compete again in the DLSR catagory. As we have no idea how many E-620 or E-30 users there are out there and how many are still in use, there could very well be a market for low runs of those bodies.
Of course the big issue here is that E-620 buyers bought in on size and price. If they release a “pro” OMD around the size of a 620 with a grip to bulk it out… due to the “pro” designation and specs it would be priced outside the 620…
The best bet is an E-7 with a compelling reason for both E-30 and E-3/5 users to upgrade to and a body smaller than an E-30 and larger than an E-620 with a mid tier pricepoint for E-620 users to upgrade to…
The best future point is a merged system with 1 OVF body in my mind. Having said this the AF would need to be solved on m43rds bodies.
Again, it is no surprise with the success of the OMD that Olympus is considering releasing the E-XXX and the E-XX again.
DELTA-KAPA
10 months ago |Not Olympus FourThirds DSLR system is an “almost dead” system, but the “mirror system” and all DSLR systems going to be soon an “almost dead” system. So owners from the FourThirds DSLR system are in the best way prepared for this “death” because they gonna have the easiest and fastest death to suffer and they gonna be capable to use their high quality equipment further. I bought my equipment when this “almost dead” of the system “started” because I sow reliability and sustainability in this FourThirds DSLR system in a phase and age o chances.
Jocuri
10 months ago |I hope so my E 620 its becoming old