Amateur Photographer (Click here) published an Interview with ex-CEO Woodford. There is an interesting part concerning the camera business. W. thinks that “The camera business is stronger than it’s been for several years but we have to see where Olympus’s future goes“. And Woodford hinted that he would have felt differently had he been in charge three or four years ago.

Woodofrd also sees a bright future for high-end superzoom compact cameras.

And than he talks about the mirrorless system: “I am a great believer in product… we make world-beating cameras, wonderful lenses, sexy-styled bodies. We can do that – that’s what I’ve learned as I’ve got closer to the camera business.” However, he expressed frustration that Olympus did not have more resources to invest in a market that is becoming ever more competitive, and now pitching up against the likes of camera giant Nikon in the CSC arena. 

Just my two cent: I fully agree with him! Olympus (and Panasonic) created a great system but missed to bring more innovations. And now cameras like the Sony NEX-7, Nikon 1 and Fuji upcoming LX are bringing some REAL innovation (hybrid viewfinder, built-in EVF, High ISO quality and so on). But I don’t want to sound to negative. I think the m43 sensor size is the best choice to keep a good quality-camera size balance. And we also have some incredible nice lens other companies cannot offer. But I would lvoe to see less camera reiteration!

Everyday there are more and more true (or false?) news about the Olympus fee scandal. As usual take all news with a grain of salt. It’s so hard to understand what’s REALLY happening behind the scenes. There might be some kind of “obscure” interest that we are not aware of. The only thing I hope is that Olympus can soon take action to stop the never ending negative media reports.

The New York Times (Click here) writes that “In a memo prepared by investigators and circulated at a recent meeting of officials from Japan’s Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission, the Tokyo prosecutor’s office and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, officials say they are trying to determine whether Olympus worked with organized crime syndicates to obscure billions of dollars in past investment losses and then paid them exorbitant sums for their services.” and “The memo says investigators believe that over half of that amount has been channeled to organized crime syndicates, including the country’s largest, the Yamaguchi Gumi. The memo does not make clear whether Olympus knew about those links. But if confirmed by investigators, an association with organized crime could prompt a delisting of Olympus shares from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, under the exchange’s rules.”

There is another huge surprise coming out via Z3n.tv (Click here) reports that Goldman Sachs earned $26 million by short selling “approximately 830,000 Olympus stocks the day before Woodford was dismissed“. As you see there are so many obscure interests behind the story! If we really would put a Lupe on all companies and banks we might discover that the whole finance world is a mess. But as I said many times, I am a small writer living in the middle of the alps. My only hope is that Olympus employees will not be affected by that mess.

The japanese blog Egami (Click here) found a new Olympus patent desciribing the new “Liquid Lens” technology. I saw similar patent from Sony and Samsung in the past that’s why I can tell you the advantages of such lenses:

-non-movement glasses for zoom or AF
-less glasses inside the lens
-faster electrical response
-non-motor on the glass
-silence AF mode

In summary you can make much smaller lenses (perfect for pancakes) with ultra fast and silent AF. I hope Olympus will release such lenses as soon as possible!