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Olympus up for sale (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter alanrharris53
- Start date
Apparently being sold to JIP. More info here: https://www.43rumors.com/it-happened-olympus-sold-the-imaging-business-to-jip/
I think it's hard to know at this point how things will shake out. The market for higher end stuff like long telephoto lenses is also not much impacted by the shift to cell phones, so it may be one of those areas that remains profitable. I think that is the general trend now among camera companies--a shift to enthusiast or specialist gear rather than cameras for the casual photographer.
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Chosun Juan
Given to Fly
Olympus to sell imaging business by the end of the year
https://www.canonrumors.com/industry-news-olympus-to-sell-imaging-business-by-the-end-of-the-year/
Difficult to see how this will play out for the best .... ? :cat:
The one advantage that ILC's have over cellphones is large(r) format long telephoto lenses. They are also expensive to develop, and have comparitively smaller markets. I hope the PRO 150-400 f4.5 still makes it to market.
The other competitive pressure from smartphones is computational photography. Olympus's management were on public record saying that they didn't see the need to go down that route. I thought that was a grave mistake. Perhaps the new entity can come up with the hardware and software to capitalise on this area ..... really, it's the only way I can see M43 being able to compete long term.
Chosun :gh:
https://www.canonrumors.com/industry-news-olympus-to-sell-imaging-business-by-the-end-of-the-year/
Difficult to see how this will play out for the best .... ? :cat:
The one advantage that ILC's have over cellphones is large(r) format long telephoto lenses. They are also expensive to develop, and have comparitively smaller markets. I hope the PRO 150-400 f4.5 still makes it to market.
The other competitive pressure from smartphones is computational photography. Olympus's management were on public record saying that they didn't see the need to go down that route. I thought that was a grave mistake. Perhaps the new entity can come up with the hardware and software to capitalise on this area ..... really, it's the only way I can see M43 being able to compete long term.
Chosun :gh:
Well at least we still have Panasonic where there has not been rumors of sale that I am aware of.
Niels
marcsantacurz
Well-known member
Too bad for Olympus cameras. One of my first cameras was an OM-1 (the first was a Minolta I used at my school).
I'm not sure where the money will come from to keep pushing the technology. MFT sensors have been stuck around 20MP for a long time (I think that's equivalent to 80MP full-frame). Even if they cannot push resolution much, work on noise and speed and colors would still need to be done.
Anyway, the E-M1 series was a very nice small telephoto kit. It wasn't for me, handling wise (at least the E-M1II), but I still admired it.
Marc
I'm not sure where the money will come from to keep pushing the technology. MFT sensors have been stuck around 20MP for a long time (I think that's equivalent to 80MP full-frame). Even if they cannot push resolution much, work on noise and speed and colors would still need to be done.
Anyway, the E-M1 series was a very nice small telephoto kit. It wasn't for me, handling wise (at least the E-M1II), but I still admired it.
Marc
Just hope they don't relax with new developments now
But Panasonic sold their sensor business for a pittance to a Taiwanese shop late last year.
https://camerajabber.com/panasonic-sells-its-sensor-business/
So the shakeout is perhaps just beginning.
I doubt anyone is making money in cameras right now. Samsung looks smart for having exited the business early.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Shouldn't this be in the photography related items for sale section? 3
John
John
NoSpringChicken
Well-known member
On the 'Olympus E-Group' site the majority of members who have expressed an opinion say they will be keeping their Olympus gear, at least until they know what it happening. Some are even investing in new Olympus equipment for the future. I am not intending to 'jump ship' as long as my gear continues to work, as I can't see anything which appeals to me and I couldn't really afford to change systems.
It does sound as if the potential purchasers could just be asset strippers but hopefully not. It is going to be tough for all camera makers to survive in the future.
Ron
It does sound as if the potential purchasers could just be asset strippers but hopefully not. It is going to be tough for all camera makers to survive in the future.
Ron
iveljay
Well-known member
I've been using Olympus since 1966 alongside most other makes at various times (need to make sure you're not missing out on something).
Main points a) size and weight, people not intimidated or threatened by little cameras and you didn't damage your back carrying them, especially cross country birding.
b) Reliability, I lived near an Olympus service place so an annual checkup of the film OMs a minor hassle, not that one ever broke anyway.
c) Useful innovation, an OM707 linked with an F280 flash unit provided a unique capability at the time and got me out of numerous situations where I needed accurate fill in without having to think about it and produced sharper and more consistently focussed photos than my manual OMs or a newer Pentax I got later, mistakingly thinking newer = better. Many of the initial reviews of the 707 were pure fiction.
The E-1 was a great camera - later Es too big, (I bought an E-3, but never really liked it). so I welcomed first the Pens and then OMDs so now lots of OMD and compatible stuff like fish eye extreme wide angle lenses or the odd Panny lens + an E-P5 with hinged accessory digital viewfinder for low down macro use.
A bright red TG with its simple solution to ring flash and focus stacking completed my needs.
So I decided that I had a viable setup about two years a go and stopped updating or adding stuff as little new was emerging that was worth spending money on from my perspective.
Just about anything vaguely to do with the arts is stagnating worldwide If it can't be done with an App on a smart phone - no one wants to know about it. I'm a luddite here too - I have real musical instruments!
Main points a) size and weight, people not intimidated or threatened by little cameras and you didn't damage your back carrying them, especially cross country birding.
b) Reliability, I lived near an Olympus service place so an annual checkup of the film OMs a minor hassle, not that one ever broke anyway.
c) Useful innovation, an OM707 linked with an F280 flash unit provided a unique capability at the time and got me out of numerous situations where I needed accurate fill in without having to think about it and produced sharper and more consistently focussed photos than my manual OMs or a newer Pentax I got later, mistakingly thinking newer = better. Many of the initial reviews of the 707 were pure fiction.
The E-1 was a great camera - later Es too big, (I bought an E-3, but never really liked it). so I welcomed first the Pens and then OMDs so now lots of OMD and compatible stuff like fish eye extreme wide angle lenses or the odd Panny lens + an E-P5 with hinged accessory digital viewfinder for low down macro use.
A bright red TG with its simple solution to ring flash and focus stacking completed my needs.
So I decided that I had a viable setup about two years a go and stopped updating or adding stuff as little new was emerging that was worth spending money on from my perspective.
Just about anything vaguely to do with the arts is stagnating worldwide If it can't be done with an App on a smart phone - no one wants to know about it. I'm a luddite here too - I have real musical instruments!
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I must admit I've started using a little Panasonic TZ80 for most bird photography. I can put up with a lot of ISO noise in order to always have it available. For normal photography, my phone is easily good enough. I can see why camera sales have dropped.
Adey Baker
Member
I have three Olympus bodies + 6 lenses (including one Panasonic) covering 12mm to 300mm and the 1.4x converter so I don't 'need' much more.
The 2x converter would be useful on occasions and I was interested in the rumoured 100mm macro but my 60mm macro and 300mm+1.4x/2x cover most close-up situations anyway so my main concerns will be continued reliability of the bodies (and lenses, of course) and availability of batteries. My original EM-5 and its battery are still working OK.
Of course, we don't know how it will all pan out. The new company may continue with most of the range, cut down to just the biggest sellers, change direction completely or just asset-strip and close the rest down. Time will tell.
The 2x converter would be useful on occasions and I was interested in the rumoured 100mm macro but my 60mm macro and 300mm+1.4x/2x cover most close-up situations anyway so my main concerns will be continued reliability of the bodies (and lenses, of course) and availability of batteries. My original EM-5 and its battery are still working OK.
Of course, we don't know how it will all pan out. The new company may continue with most of the range, cut down to just the biggest sellers, change direction completely or just asset-strip and close the rest down. Time will tell.
iveljay
Well-known member
I must admit that my long lens requirement turned into a Nikon B700 a few years back on the grounds of weight.
I am sure that while I do have a relatively modern smart phone (Pixel) I would use it for photography, if I could see the screen, being long sighted to the degree everything just beyond arms length is sharpish to very sharp, I don't generally wear glasses, so a camera with a dioptre adjusted viewfinder works, things that rely on a screen don't, except when using the TG in microscope mode I need glasses to find the subject - so have them then anyway. I actually use an old Nokia as my actual mobile phone as I can use that by touch, its smaller and lighter and it doesn't need constant charging.
So cameras of the M5/M10/PenF size along with the smaller lenses work for me hence Olympus and did 54 years ago with my first Pen D2 with its f1.9 lens. Not everything they did suited me, but much of my old Olympus kit was still in use long after the stuff I bought to replace it had fallen to bits or been discarded.
As a company they have served my needs as my life evolved and without them it is unlikely I would have got into serious photography - so whatever the future I'm glad they were around when I needed them.
N.B. I have a drawer full of smashed, twisted, missing lensed and scratched beyond use pairs of glasses, not counting all those littering the country having been lost in ditches and the countryside in general, having been convinced on and off that I should carry a pair on the off-chance I might need them
I am sure that while I do have a relatively modern smart phone (Pixel) I would use it for photography, if I could see the screen, being long sighted to the degree everything just beyond arms length is sharpish to very sharp, I don't generally wear glasses, so a camera with a dioptre adjusted viewfinder works, things that rely on a screen don't, except when using the TG in microscope mode I need glasses to find the subject - so have them then anyway. I actually use an old Nokia as my actual mobile phone as I can use that by touch, its smaller and lighter and it doesn't need constant charging.
So cameras of the M5/M10/PenF size along with the smaller lenses work for me hence Olympus and did 54 years ago with my first Pen D2 with its f1.9 lens. Not everything they did suited me, but much of my old Olympus kit was still in use long after the stuff I bought to replace it had fallen to bits or been discarded.
As a company they have served my needs as my life evolved and without them it is unlikely I would have got into serious photography - so whatever the future I'm glad they were around when I needed them.
N.B. I have a drawer full of smashed, twisted, missing lensed and scratched beyond use pairs of glasses, not counting all those littering the country having been lost in ditches and the countryside in general, having been convinced on and off that I should carry a pair on the off-chance I might need them
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Some apparent good news. It looks like Olympus has just issued a press release suggesting their lens development will mostly continue as previously announced. With the 150-400 zoom shipping this winter, and a longer macro lens (which I'm probably more interested in myself) still planned for development. They also say the EM-1x will receive a firmware update to facilitate autofocus on birds.
https://www.43rumors.com/olympus-wi...new-8-25mm-f-4-pro-lens-added-to-the-roadmap/
https://www.43rumors.com/olympus-wi...new-8-25mm-f-4-pro-lens-added-to-the-roadmap/
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iveljay
Well-known member
Olympuses latest email to its user community confirms the above along with a Beta release of sw to allow me to use my EM5 II as a web cam. A quick test got it working on Zoom in local mode. Think I prefer seeing me in lo res though! Available on Olympus web site:
OM-D Webcam Beta
(English only)
OM-D Webcam Beta is an application to use OM-D cameras as a Webcam by connecting the camera to a computer.
Compatible with following camera models:
E-M1X
E-M1 Mark III
E-M1 Mark II
E-M1
E-M5 Mark II
Tested but not guaranteed to work with WIN 10
Tested but not guaranteed to work with following applications:
Microsoft Teams
Zoom
WebEx
Skype
OM-D Webcam Beta
(English only)
OM-D Webcam Beta is an application to use OM-D cameras as a Webcam by connecting the camera to a computer.
Compatible with following camera models:
E-M1X
E-M1 Mark III
E-M1 Mark II
E-M1
E-M5 Mark II
Tested but not guaranteed to work with WIN 10
Tested but not guaranteed to work with following applications:
Microsoft Teams
Zoom
WebEx
Skype
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The "easy" fix is to wear them all the time. They don't get lost if you're wearing them.
iveljay
Well-known member
If you wear reading glasses all the time you tend to cause accidents, i.e. everything beyond the front of your car bonnet is pretty invisible.
The problem I have is lack of accomodation, so all I need are inexpensive reading glasses and can generally manage for most of each day without them, I do attempt to keep them with me by either pushing them back over my head but forget they are there and a) crush them against solid objects damaging my head. b) feel them flying off when up a ladder and dissapearing under a pile of junk, etc., or had them on a cord and tried to hang myself.
Much of the damage to the glasses was therefore caused by me 'wearing' them. Anyway its hereditary, many of my forebears were great reading glass manglers as well.
Back in the days when the odd tyranosaurus could still be found, I did use ground glass to focus some of my early cameras, the floating frames on crf cameras and later the magnificent viewfinders on the OMs compared to the gritty glass on an early Exactas etc., convinced me that the days of peering at a flat bit of glass were over, and I have no great desire to go back to those days.
Anyway back to the matter in hand, I have owned Rollei, Meopta, Practica, Minolta, Konica, Ilford, Kodak, Polaroid, Voiglander, Zorki, Agfa, Yashica cameras amongst others over the ages, and they have either ceased camera manufacture or had their names licensed by very different organisations. Minolta perhaps lives on inside Sony, but we have been seeing the photographic 'pond' drying up for some years, Olympus just being the latest, perhaps.
The problem I have is lack of accomodation, so all I need are inexpensive reading glasses and can generally manage for most of each day without them, I do attempt to keep them with me by either pushing them back over my head but forget they are there and a) crush them against solid objects damaging my head. b) feel them flying off when up a ladder and dissapearing under a pile of junk, etc., or had them on a cord and tried to hang myself.
Much of the damage to the glasses was therefore caused by me 'wearing' them. Anyway its hereditary, many of my forebears were great reading glass manglers as well.
Back in the days when the odd tyranosaurus could still be found, I did use ground glass to focus some of my early cameras, the floating frames on crf cameras and later the magnificent viewfinders on the OMs compared to the gritty glass on an early Exactas etc., convinced me that the days of peering at a flat bit of glass were over, and I have no great desire to go back to those days.
Anyway back to the matter in hand, I have owned Rollei, Meopta, Practica, Minolta, Konica, Ilford, Kodak, Polaroid, Voiglander, Zorki, Agfa, Yashica cameras amongst others over the ages, and they have either ceased camera manufacture or had their names licensed by very different organisations. Minolta perhaps lives on inside Sony, but we have been seeing the photographic 'pond' drying up for some years, Olympus just being the latest, perhaps.
