Future of Olympus


2 divergent views. While there might be a GH6 with a new sensor and Olympus flagship camera and lenses in the offering. An unknown Sharp m43 camera, what is the way forward?

Recorded live stream 2hr. 38min. long.



10 things OM DIGITAL SOLUTIONS must do.

 

Last edited:
I don't know about you guys, but I seemed to be receiving much more product announcement leaks from Sony and M43 Cameras (Olympus & Pana) and maybe Canon then other brands like Fujifilm, Nikon, Pentax, Leica etc.
 

OMDS has appointed Jimmy Cheng of Red35 Photography Youtube video website based in UK, as an ambassador.

Robin Wong has not been appointed. Or at least not yet.

Peter Fosgard of Helsinki, Finland says he will be appointed as ambassador after recent talks with OMDS officials.

Probably that means OMDS has written off the Malaysian market in view of its money troubles with 1MDB.

Ambassadors sign a CONTRACT with the company for a period of about a few years.

You can assume they are PAID either directly or indirectly.

Don't expect ambassadors to say anything critical about how the company is run and whether its products are not as good as the competition.

It may be forbidden under the terms of the contract.
 

Last edited:
Previously Ricohflex claims that Olympus doctored the sales figures when there is a report that it has sold the most number of cameras in Japan. Olympus do sell truckloads of the EM10, especially in Japan.

And here is the probably the reason:

Is Ricohflex going to say that Olympus paid DPreview to say good things also?
There is hardly any advertisement by OMD in DPreview and anyway, OMD does not have a huge advertising budget like Sony!
 

  • Haha
Reactions: Blu-By-U
Of course we will need to use a bluetooth ear piece with it,
but I think most people will not use it as a phone, but just as
a small tablet to send out, view and correct photos with 4G/%G connection.

It is probably something like the Zeiss ZX1, but instead of a fixed lenses,
it has a M43 mount :)


:oops: I can imagine o_O sticking the camera with the 150-400 to your ear.:D
 

EM10 Mk4 follows the rule of Small, Light , Cheap. Which is good. No more Olympus OM-D E-M1X nonsense.
DP Review is probably trying to help resuscitate a dead Olympus Camera Division (now divested to OMDS) as an act of good deed.
From the various user comments, you can already perceive better deals.
Fuji XE4 or XE3 or XT30
Canon RP (on special sale day)
Nikon Z50
Sony A6300 or A6400
Although some of these alternatives may cost a bit more.
But they have a "Longer Runway" (current popular terminology in Singapore).
That is to say, some of them have a MUCH bigger sensor and a far better system future for growth, should the user wish to do so.
Whereas the EM10 Mk4 is an end game product from a company that has collapsed and was divested.
Buyers of the EM10 Mk4 should be aware that if JIP decides to scrap OMDS (purely from a financial no-sentiment point of view)
then their EM10 Mk4 will essentially be a DEAD system.
Sure, EM10 Mk4 will still work even if OMDS dies. The fan boys insist.
Still, if you buy just a low cost camera and 1 or 2 lenses only and do not care about system growth.
It probably can be considered. You choose.
 

Last edited:
Ricohflex, I think you got yourself very confused.

Whether JIP scraps OMDS or not, any Olympus cameras will NOT be essentially a dead system. There are tons of Olympus & Panasonic lenses available, where the range is much wider than Sony APS lenses or Nikon Mirrorless lenses. (eg. Olympus 150-400mm F4.5 with TC 1.25 and the Panasonic 10-25 F1.7). You will not be able to find a 300-800mm F4.5 or a 20--50mm F1.7 equivalent in any Full Frame range of lenses. These lenses may not be useful to everyone but if it is a range you want, you would look at it first before even looking at the camera body or sensor.

Go and google on the tons of updates and developments OMDS is coming out. JIP is seriously putting in tons of effort and unlikely to suddenly scrap the whole OMDS within these 2 years (which may actually outlast Nikon or Pentax or Ricoh, if you ask me).

An example is the link below. OMDS do not have to allocate resources to do such updates if it is penny pinching and look at only the bottom line. Obviously it want to continue to build up the OMD brand and continue it as a business. Whether it succeed or not in this tough camera environment is another story, but I sure hope it succeeds :)



EM10 Mk4 follows the rule of Small, Light , Cheap. Which is good. No more Olympus OM-D E-M1X nonsense.
DP Review is probably trying to help resuscitate a dead Olympus Camera Division (now divested to OMDS) as an act of good deed.
From the various user comments, you can already perceive better deals.
Fuji XE4 or XE3 or XT30
Canon RP (on special sale day)
Nikon Z50
Sony A6300 or A6400
Although some of these alternatives may cost a bit more.
But they have a "Longer Runway" (current popular terminology in Singapore).
That is to say, some of them have a MUCH bigger sensor and a far better system future for growth, should the user wish to do so.
Whereas the EM10 Mk4 is an end game product from a company that has collapsed and was divested.
Buyers of the EM10 Mk4 should be aware that if JIP decides to scrap OMDS (purely from a financial no-sentiment point of view)
then their EM10 Mk4 will essentially be a DEAD system.
Sure, EM10 Mk4 will still work even if OMDS dies. The fan boys insist.
Still, if you buy just a low cost camera and 1 or 2 lenses only and do not care about system growth.
It probably can be considered. You choose.
 

Last edited:
If this is true, there will be a new break through for M43 and Olympus.
Canon is facing a lot of heat issues with using 8K video on the R5 due to the sensor size.

Part of the reason why Panasonic GH series is so popular is due to its unlimited video time beyond 30mins limit on other cameras even without 8K.
If Panasonic GH6 can do 8K without heat issues, it will be exciting!

 

A glimpse into the near future of Olympus ....


I only do not agree on the last part by the author, no I do not wish for a 100mp M43 camera?
No, it is not sour grapes, I bought a Sony A7R3 with 42mp for my son and I have not used it yet as a prefer my EM5 mk3 for my kind of activities.
Anyway, 100mp will make the price sky high.... how many people actually go for the Sony A7R4 (60mp) or the Sony A1 (50mp).
Yesterday just heard an experienced photographer choosing the Sony A7R3 instead :)
 

A 100mp m43 sensor will certainly wow people if the noise problems are solved. This could be possible if current image sensor enggineering improves but already over 40mp or 50mp sensors have resolutions that the human eye cannot see but is advantageous for bird/wildlife, macro and astro photography. I think the next level of breakthrough is about to appear as ceo of OMDS said.

For tech geeks..

 

Do we really need 100mp? I would go for higher dynamic range and less noise anytime.
 

Never say never..originally image sensors gather light from the front side but sony solve major problems by making sensor receive light from the back ( BSI ) just like if you cannot enter through the front door try the back door. A creative solution...thinking out of the box.

Samsung created 100mp phone camera sensor but has not solve all the photographic problems...give them time and I don't mean computational jazz. Granted camera phone will not replace professional tools.
Sony and others are also trying. The applications for such sensors are wide ranging. Photography is just one application. Let's say there is a 40mp m43 sensor the quality gap gets closer to 35mm FF sensor.


Do we really need 100mp? I would go for higher dynamic range and less noise anytime.
 

It is almost NEVER.

After all, how many people even bother to talk about the Phase One XF IQ3 camera with 100mp when it was in 2015, let alone thinking of buying one?

And how many photographers bother to go down to Sony showroom to checkout the 64mp A7R4?
Is resolution really the most important factor?

Never say never..originally image sensors gather light from the front side but sony solve major problems by making sensor receive light from the back ( BSI ) just like if you cannot enter through the front door try the back door. A creative solution...thinking out of the box.

Samsung created 100mp phone camera sensor but has not solve all the photographic problems...give them time and I don't mean computational jazz. Granted camera phone will not replace professional tools.
Sony and others are also trying. The applications for such sensors are wide ranging. Photography is just one application. Let's say there is a 40mp m43 sensor the quality gap gets closer to 35mm FF sensor.
 

Pitachu, different sensor formats have their uses. For instance a digital medium format is favoured by professionals who need the resolution needed in fine print media like glossy lifestyle magazines or art galleries that want fine art reproduction of artwork.

The phase one 100mp camera system was introduced in 2018.
The heart of the system is the digital back which can be attached to existing manual medium format film camera that makes it "viable". Paying only for the digital back but if you buy the whole phaseone system it costs a whopping USD$65K. Now how many professionals have high paying customers? It is also slower to operate in the studio not much use in street photography for example, not that you would use phaseone for it.

Compared to the recent Fujifilm
100mp camera costs only Sgd $10k which is much more affordable plus improvements from their 50mp models. If has faster autofocus and you can actually use it for street photography. It has already many lenses for professional use plus manual lenses that can be adapted since it is mirrorless compare to the phaseone camera which is essentially a DSLR. Take care of the big mirror slap.

Considering the sony 7r4 price one might better go for medium format. Plus 60mp files need a fast computer to process so potential owners have to factor in the price of a new computer averaging about $3k which bring the price of ownership to about $10k..gosh.


It is almost NEVER.

After all, how many people even bother to talk about the Phase One XF IQ3 camera with 100mp when it was in 2015, let alone thinking of buying one?

And how many photographers bother to go down to Sony showroom to checkout the 64mp A7R4?
Is resolution really the most important factor?
 

You don’t actually need a 100MP sensor to resolve 100MP.
Using sensor shift (depending on the method) you’re not only improving on colour info per pixel, when the sensor moves you’re increasing the spatial sampling of the lens.

So a lens capable of resolving over 100MP will work much better when doing sensor shift high res work even with much lower MP sensors.
 

Thinking out of the box. Since Oly can do a sensor shift to increase the mp, Would it then be possible to increase the sensor size by that 2 pixel length and width?
 

I think the sensors are not made by Olympus, but if there is a good reason, it probably can request the manufacturer to do it.
Just trying to understand, why do you want it to increase by 2 pixel?

I think the Sensor shift for high res photos work, but I seldom used it.
Thinking out of the box. Since Oly can do a sensor shift to increase the mp, Would it then be possible to increase the sensor size by that 2 pixel length and width?