Finally we got the detailed CIPA camera and lens shipment data for the whole year 2023. It contains a lot of interesting data:
Shipment of cameras (fixed and interchangeable) did drop by 3,6% in terms of numbers and increased by 4.9% in terms of value.
Shipment of mirrorless cameras increased by 18,6% in terms of numbers and increased by 10,9% in terms of value.
Shipment of DSLR cameras did drop by 36% in terms of numbers and increased by 28,9% in terms of value.
Shipment of fixed lens cameras did drop by 17,4% in terms of numbers and increased by 8,9% in terms of value.
Shipment of interchangeable lenses did drop by 0,9% in terms of numbers and increased by 6,7% in terms of value.
What does this tell us? The decade long decline stopped. In terms of value both mirrorless and lens sames increased quite a bit. So overall we can look forward to a 2024 that should have a similar pace like 2023 had. And this is good as manufacturer now don’t have to fear the market will shrink further.
Jermey Grey posted an interesting “optimistic” article about OM Digital. I am only going to report the key message:
The OM-1 Mark II has landed with more of a whimper than a bang. It’s a great camera but there’s not much new about it. However, the rush to pass judgment on what the lack of novel features means for the future of OM System and Micro Four Thirds at large is premature.
Despite what appears from the outside to have been a relatively smooth transition, it is imperative to understand that any disruption to research and development or engineering time has a cascading effect.
Production and manufacturing tasks, even if they’re only briefly stopped, cannot be instantly restarted. A disturbance to camera and lens development has repercussions that last years.
I remain optimistic, perhaps naïve, that photographers have not seen much of OM Digital Solutions’ meaningful work. We’re approaching the time frame when OM Digital Solutions’ product teams will be wrapping up work they began when Olympus completed the sale of its photo business, and that assumes that the transitional period was as smooth inside OMDS as it appeared from the outside.
I hope that photographers will stay patient for just a bit longer. The wait may very well be worth it.
The new OM System OM1 Mk II is more or less the same camera that the orignal was. Ergonomically speaking, a few of the buttons where shifted around. The company also rubberized the dials to make them easier to turn and manipulate when you’re in the cold or rougher conditions. Aside from that, OM System packed a few new updates to the camera on the inside. Quite honestly though, these updates sound like they could’ve been firmware updates. And that’s why we’re saying that the OM System OM1 Mk II is the world’s most expensive firmware update.
It’s time that we as a photo community mourn the loss, remember it, and move on.
Apart from the larger buffer (hence the 128 ND filter) and the rubberized dials, all the “features” [of the OM-1 Mark II] could of course also be added to the OM-1 via a firmware update. According to my information, this FW update is also available, they just prefer to sell the OM-1 II. There will only be a firmware upgrade for the OM-1 if the shitstorm from long-time users gets too big, otherwise it will remain stowed in a drawer.
But now let’s come to the official OM Digital explanation that Jordan shared in this video you can watch from minute 13:40. Basically he says that most of the new features are only possible thank to the new RAM module. So these software updates could not be added on the OM-1 anyway:
It’s a bit hard for me to ascertain what’s the truth. Of course it sounds reasonable that more RAM will allow you to deal with more data. And maybe that was a bottleneck on the OM-1 to improve autofocus, add complex AI features, improve the stabilization and add video features.
But I guess we will never REALLY now for sure what’s the final truth behind all of this…
