Tony writes:

The past year has been disasterous for camera manufacturers, and it looks like some of them could go into bankruptcy in the next few years. Nikon and Olympus each reported 3 straight quarters of losses. Sony & Fujifilm don’t report the profits and losses for their imaging departments, but it can’t be good. Pentax and Panasonic seem like afterthoughts to their bigger parent companies… and nothing is getting better any time soon. First, I go through every major manufacturer and discuss my take on whether they’ll still be making camera gear in 3-5 years. Some of the predictions might surprise you. But what really happens if your camera manufacturer decides to shut down? It’s happened before, so I take a look at how the process unfolded and what it means to end users. Do you need to sell your gear immediately because resale value plummets? Can you still get your cameras repaired?

Three portraits with three unconventional lenses

IBC 2020 latest show to be cancelled, go virtual as organizers fear ‘many unknowns’ (Dpreview).
Family photography with the Olympus PEN camera (Olympus Imagespace).
The Panasonic AG-CX10 is the 4K Camcorder You Want (Explora).
What’s your favorite feature on Olympus camera? (Red35).

Plenty of news on the facebook OMD group, Panasonic FF and the GH5 group.

Olympus released the full fiscal year report. Overall the company revenue grew 4% despite the Covid 19 outbreak. Olympus says:

Excluding this impact, both revenue and operating profit were in line with forecasts

In the Imaging Business:

Revenue Declined 8% due to difficult business environment, lack of new products in 1H caused by the restructuring of manufacturing bases, and COVID-19 impact in 4Q. Operating loss decreased due to absence of restructuring expenses recorded last year and improved SG&A efficiency.

Olympus also saw “a solid start of new product “OM-D E-M1 MarkIII”introduced in 4Q“. Regarding the forecast for the Imaging Business Olympus writes:

Some dealers are moving toward resuming business but still many regions are under severe outing restrictions. Online marketing (such as utilizing SNS) will need to be strengthened
Expect demand in end consumer market to take more time

In the digital camera field of the Imaging Business, if the market contracts more sharply than anticipated, the Olympus Group may be unable to adequately counter the resulting sales decline with the restructuring measures currently implementing, and this may adversely affect the Olympus Group’s earnings.

43rumors note: Call me crazy but I expected worse results. On a less optimistic note….I believe the upcoming year will be terrible too in terms of sales. Future Covid-19 outbreaks will create future mess in production and distribution.