[ lament ] - four thirds is dying
- Thread starter cimman
- Start date
so you're hinting the m4/3 pro would be able to use 4/3 lenses more effectively?
Hinting or hoping
*cough* Does it matter? The 14-35mm for m4/3 will end up much smaller, with the 150mm being around 10cm long. And all the pro m4/3 bodies and lenses will be weather sealed. That's as far as I know. Anything else, I'll have to wait for a later date and then ask them guys down at "that place".
NazgulKing
Senior Member
They should just release a visoflex system and be done with it. This lack of direction from the company is just evidence that the marketing dept is run by monkeys.
maybe they should hire the marketing folks from McDonalds, they're brilliant at marketing. If anyone can push hamburger volumes with Hello Kitty toys, they're good.
microcosm
Senior Member
Ha ha ha... this is hilarious!
I have some personal opinions on this.
After all the hype about 4/3 and the excellent lenses created, Olympus could not sell enough of the lenses to general mass. The bodies (less the sensor), are excellent in many areas. It worries people as major manufacturer would like to give something every year to their consumers, whether entry, mid level or high end users, to look forward to.
Here now, Olympus are selling more m4/3 bodies than before as users buy them to use with their Leica, Zeiss and other manual focus lenses. m4/3 lenses simply cannot make it, neither does the sensor in the Pens worked that well. Olympus, in my humble opinion, is basically selling bodies and some lenses (which are inferior to the 4/3 lenses, but delivers great performance/price/weight ratio).
History does repeat, when Olympus stopped their OM system. They are perhaps buying time to sell more m4/3 to fund the development of 4/3 bodies and lenses. They are also not intending to replace their excellent 4/3 lenses in less than 5 to 8 years. They might just come out with another range of fast zooms at F2.8 instead of F2.0 to decrease the weight.
After all the hype about 4/3 and the excellent lenses created, Olympus could not sell enough of the lenses to general mass. The bodies (less the sensor), are excellent in many areas. It worries people as major manufacturer would like to give something every year to their consumers, whether entry, mid level or high end users, to look forward to.
Here now, Olympus are selling more m4/3 bodies than before as users buy them to use with their Leica, Zeiss and other manual focus lenses. m4/3 lenses simply cannot make it, neither does the sensor in the Pens worked that well. Olympus, in my humble opinion, is basically selling bodies and some lenses (which are inferior to the 4/3 lenses, but delivers great performance/price/weight ratio).
History does repeat, when Olympus stopped their OM system. They are perhaps buying time to sell more m4/3 to fund the development of 4/3 bodies and lenses. They are also not intending to replace their excellent 4/3 lenses in less than 5 to 8 years. They might just come out with another range of fast zooms at F2.8 instead of F2.0 to decrease the weight.
http://www.nwpphotoforum.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=35995#Post35995
Some info from Olympus USA.
Some info from Olympus USA.
well, from the interview, it does look like Olympus is not abandoning the 43 system. However, it does confirm that Olympus is putting most of it's resources into micro four thirds and leaving four thirds alone or at the least, a skeleton crew to man the development, thus to say four thirds is dead, is of course, not true. To say it is dying is still apt.
I for one, will not offload all my four third lenses on the market. My four thirds bodies still have a lot of life in them and as long as they're functioning, my lenses will be utilized.
Just as an aside, my Sigma 30mm F1.4 lens is one of my best lens in my current collection. Don't compare this with lenses that costs several thousands, but anything below a thousand, this is a fantastic lens to get, beautiful bokeh, you can get shallow depth of field easily, very constrasty, very sharp (once it's perfectly focused of course) and colors are wonderful.
At F1.4, focusing is very critical, maybe too critical. Stopped down to F2.0, you get more keepers and still have shallow depth of field. Too bad Olympus didn't come up wtih a lens like that.
I for one, will not offload all my four third lenses on the market. My four thirds bodies still have a lot of life in them and as long as they're functioning, my lenses will be utilized.
Just as an aside, my Sigma 30mm F1.4 lens is one of my best lens in my current collection. Don't compare this with lenses that costs several thousands, but anything below a thousand, this is a fantastic lens to get, beautiful bokeh, you can get shallow depth of field easily, very constrasty, very sharp (once it's perfectly focused of course) and colors are wonderful.
At F1.4, focusing is very critical, maybe too critical. Stopped down to F2.0, you get more keepers and still have shallow depth of field. Too bad Olympus didn't come up wtih a lens like that.
NazgulKing
Senior Member
I think some of the newer M4/3 lenses aren't too bad. They cost much more, but really, you pay for what you get.
NazgulKing
Senior Member
To be frank, the only reason some people are sticking by Olympus is the strength of the brand, albeit they seem to have a habit of shitting on their customers every decade or something.
Looking at the financial results of Olympus' Imaging System Business, sales drop about 17% (FY2010) and 16% (FY2011) from previous years after adjusting for foreign exchange changes.
Sales of Imaging products peaked in FY2008 when Olympus launched the E-3, E410 and E-510. After adjusting for FX changes, sales of imaging products in FY2008 is double that of FY2011. FY2008 is also the only year when operating income is more than 10% of its sales. For FY2007 to FY2011, it has 2 operating loss years, the most recent in FY2011 (and the biggest). The last 10 FY has seen 4 years of operating losses of the imaging business.
Sales of imaging business shoots up in FY2004 when E-1 is launched, tracked back in FY2005, FY2006 and increase moderately in FY2007 when E-330 and E-400 are launched. Sales peaked in FY2008 with the 3 SLR launched (E-3, E-410 and E-510).
It seems to me that Olympus is trying to emulate its successful E-System growth back in the FY2007 and FY2008 by building mFT bodies (EP3, EPL3 and EPM3). However, back then users have no choice but to buy FT lenses as manual focus lenses back then are not as popular as currently nor as practical without adapters. With availability of XXX lens mount adapter to mFT, many people like me are buying old lenses to use on mFT instead of buying the high quality primes (there aint a few months back). Or, another group of users saying "hey this is a fun toy", where they will unlikely to buying many lenses, maybe except the kit, a tele zoom and a 17mm. The sales of FT lenses seems to have come to a retarded point, leading to the drop in overall sales of the imaging business.
I suspect Olympus may come out with the high grade standard zoom, a macro and a tele prime, before they will introduce replacement for their FT lenses with SWD motors. Before these, it will have to come out with a new sensor which will be from Kodak or another company than Panasonic. Olympus will continue to bleed and with the competition like NEX from Sony, I am not sure if it will survive with FT. It may take another 2 to 3 years for the FT lenses to be targeted for replacement.
Sales of Imaging products peaked in FY2008 when Olympus launched the E-3, E410 and E-510. After adjusting for FX changes, sales of imaging products in FY2008 is double that of FY2011. FY2008 is also the only year when operating income is more than 10% of its sales. For FY2007 to FY2011, it has 2 operating loss years, the most recent in FY2011 (and the biggest). The last 10 FY has seen 4 years of operating losses of the imaging business.
Sales of imaging business shoots up in FY2004 when E-1 is launched, tracked back in FY2005, FY2006 and increase moderately in FY2007 when E-330 and E-400 are launched. Sales peaked in FY2008 with the 3 SLR launched (E-3, E-410 and E-510).
It seems to me that Olympus is trying to emulate its successful E-System growth back in the FY2007 and FY2008 by building mFT bodies (EP3, EPL3 and EPM3). However, back then users have no choice but to buy FT lenses as manual focus lenses back then are not as popular as currently nor as practical without adapters. With availability of XXX lens mount adapter to mFT, many people like me are buying old lenses to use on mFT instead of buying the high quality primes (there aint a few months back). Or, another group of users saying "hey this is a fun toy", where they will unlikely to buying many lenses, maybe except the kit, a tele zoom and a 17mm. The sales of FT lenses seems to have come to a retarded point, leading to the drop in overall sales of the imaging business.
I suspect Olympus may come out with the high grade standard zoom, a macro and a tele prime, before they will introduce replacement for their FT lenses with SWD motors. Before these, it will have to come out with a new sensor which will be from Kodak or another company than Panasonic. Olympus will continue to bleed and with the competition like NEX from Sony, I am not sure if it will survive with FT. It may take another 2 to 3 years for the FT lenses to be targeted for replacement.
Sure. We went from OM-series to IS-series to E-10/E-20 to E-system to micro E-system.
OM-series made a huge difference in the way professionals thought about and used their 135 format cameras. You no longer had to have a huge Nikon body.
IS-series made people gasp and laugh, but worked reasonably well.
E-10/E-20 continued IS-series but in the digital world.
E-system promised much, brought some good.
Micro E-system promised less, brought less, became cult-like.
If they can't make it work, with things like the 12mm lens being disappointing, they'll just close the photography division.
Similar threads
