PRESS RELEASE

Olympus Puts Purchasing Power In The Hands Of Consumers With Robust New E-Commerce Site

The Olympus Store’s Live Chat and Advanced Search Make Online Shopping Fun and Easier Than Ever Before

CENTER VALLEY, Pa., August 9, 2010 – Today, Olympus Imaging America Inc. is proud to announce the launch of the Olympus Store, a new, e-commerce website that makes shopping for Olympus products fun and easier than ever before. The site is easy to navigate and helps consumers find the right product by giving them access to knowledgeable customer care representatives, through live chat, e-mail and phone support. In the future, the e-commerce website will offer consumer reviews and recommendations on what products would best fit their lifestyles. At the Olympus Store you will enjoy a hearty shopping experience, utilizing the site to research and purchase a wide selection of products, including digital cameras, lenses, underwater housings, audio devices, binoculars and limitedly available accessories, allowing you to capture it all.

The Olympus Store has a variety of other features to make shopping simple, including:

* Advanced search capability to find the right product in a flash;
* An account dashboard to keep track of multiple orders and view past order history; and
* A wish list that enables visitors to choose and highlight their ideal Olympus presents, making gift shopping a breeze for their friends and family.

“Through every step of the purchase process, the Olympus Store makes shopping fun and easy by giving people all the facts they need to make an informed purchase,” said Dan Mastellon, vice president—operations, customer care and repair, Olympus Imaging America Inc. “With Live Chat, visitors to the site can instantly communicate with a customer care representative who will answer questions and help with selections. The site also lists accessories that can sometimes be hard to find making it a one-stop shopping experience for our customers.”

To access the Olympus Store and start the e-shopping adventure, please click here: https://us.buyolympus.com/.

Found via Photographyblog

The release of the Sony NEX cameras boosted the mirrorless market share up to 40% (in Japan). Interesting to see that MicroFourThirds didn’t gain any market share but they also didn’t lose anything because of the NEX cameras. Does it mean there is still room for growth? It would be nice to know the market share in Europe and US (My guess is that it is 15-20%).

Let’s see if Photokina will boost the mirrorless success story…

Source: Mirrorlessrumors

The japanese company Inon just announced a new waterhousing for the [shoplink 14828]Panasonic GF1[/shoplink]. It has a corrosion-resistant aluminum alloy body (diving limit is 75m). You can use the Inon compatible flash (Z-240, D-Series 2000, S-2000, D-series 180, Z-220 series). And all Panasonic lenses are supported. The full kit price (with grip and lights) is $2,200!

Source: DC.watch

Oktrends analyzed photography from a numerical angle. They collected the data from the dating site OkCupid, one of the largest, and most interesting, datasets on the web. This article aggregates 11.4 million opinions on what makes a great photo. Their goal was to see how to take a photo to gain “attractiveness”.

The result? You are more sexy if you take the picture with Panasonic MicroFourThirds cameras!

Source: Blog.okcupid.com

There are son many reasons to visit Venezia and now you have even one more! Gianni Galassi will expose his pictures mostly taken with the [shoplink 14828]Panasonic GF1[/shoplink]!

We are close to Photokina so read the Gianni Gallassi wishlist for the next MFT camera: https://www.43rumors.com/gianni-gallassi-wishlist/

In the fiscal first quarter (April-June 2010) Olympus sold 18% less cameras than in the quarter before. The result is not surprising if you consider that there have been no new FourThirds camera for a year now. “Only” two MicroFourThirds cameras, the [shoplink 14830]Olympus E-P2[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 14832]Olympus E-PL1[/shoplink] have been announced since July 2009. 43rumors expects at least two new Olympus cameras to be announced at Photokina (E-5 and a new Pen). Let’s see if that will stop the sales loss.

Source: Photoscala.de (google english translation)

Good morning!

Sorry guys if I am failing to answer your mails or posting your links to video or articles. I have been very busy lately so if I forgot something please resend me your message.

I am currently working on a lot of bugfixes and new features:

Camera Database:
– BUG: The camera database doesn’t scroll when you are inside an article. On homepage the scrolling works.
– FEATURE: New logo will be made soon
– FEATURE: Press release, reviews and user reviews will be added for every camera and lens
– FEATURE: Also an adapter list will be added

Social features:
– FEATURE: Avatar will be shown in the comment system
– FEATURE: Every user will have the possibility to create a photographic album.
– FEATURE: Forum and Wiki will e added with the next verison of buddypress (expected to be released in few weeks)

Other stuff:
– FEATURE: There has been a reader suggestion -> SHould we add an Artist Database? A list of important photographers that actually do work with MicroFourThirds cameras
– BUG: Better pagination with numbers (1,2,3…)
– BUG: we have a major problem with the 43rumros database. An important plugin is causing slow loading times. That’s probably the biggest challenge for us :(

I am very busy at this moment but still working on new rumors. We are currently experiencing the famous “silence before the storm” ;)

So don’t worry, there will be hot rumors soon!

Bye