WHATS NEXT FOR M43, after Olympus, what future is left?


For those who is interested to find out OMDS future plans, can read the article below.

I was right. I already met quite a few users who uses both Full Frame and M43, choosing the most appropriate set up depending on what kind of photography they are doing. Both has its pros and cons.

 

If OMDS is concentrating on wildlife photography, then it is betting the company on the wrong horse.

In reality, photographers buy systems and products based on Sunken Costs and Momentum of their own Existing Systems.

They do Not buy based on the cuteness and lightness of an item, regardless of brand.

If they own a Nikon system, they will buy Nikon equipment when they need to take wildlife photos.
Likewise if they own an existing Canon system, they will buy Canon equipment.

Wildlife comprises 13%. This is very small. This self imposed market segmentation barrier will kill OMDS.
Betting the company's future on this is actually an act of surrender.
In so doing, OMDS has acknowledged that it is just Not Good Enough in all the other genres of photography.
OMDS has conceded that big and important 87% market territory to other brands such as Fuji, Sony, Canon, Nikon.

This is a chart from 2013. Assume tastes of photographers have not changed much by 2023.

Credit: digital-photography-school.com

poll-july-2013.jpg
 

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@ricohflex You are so ignorant. SInce when OMDS segmentize itself to be a Wildlife only camera?
OMDS says it focus on features for Outdoor photography, which include landscape, sports and Macro etc

Look at what their website says:

Look at what other reviewers say on using OM-1 for landscape

OM-1 is great for Sports and Macro too!
 

@Pitachu, you have said your piece and there is no need to reply to Ricohflex as he sounds like a broken record. Waste of time if he is of one track mind. I have said all I have said, no need to repeat and let time be the answer. :)
 

So we are having antiques. A part of History :)
 

Make the correct decision and you avoid disaster. At the cross roads, Sony calmly brainstormed.
Sony was wise enough to reject M43 in 2008 and create their own Sony E mount originally meant for APS-C but later Full Frame.
Sony was wise again to move on from APS-C mirrorless ILC to Full Frame mirrorless ILC in 2013.
Instead of locking themselves in a dogmatic LOSER obsession to forever stick to a smaller sensor. (e.g. the now-dead-Olympus & OMDS)

M43 is like a dwarf that can only grow to a certain short height for life. This M43 flawed limit to growth was recognised by Sony.
Which coming back to thread topic - explains why M43 has NO future in the long run.

 

The truth is that Sony has actually tried almost every format, and probably the only company that can afford to do so!
I am a great of Sony Cameras as well and owned the RX100, RX10 (using 1in sensor smaller than M43) A7 IV
I skipped Sony APC series because I think the handling sucks. I prefer buttons and dials instead of so much menus.

Olympus / OMDS, being a much smaller company has to make a choice. Does it want to follow Panasonic footsteps and venture into Full Frame (which did not have much success as predicted as Sony, Canon and Nikon almost have the whole market share already).

Instead, OMDS prefers to play on its strengths of M43
1) Using the 2x focal multiplier, it can make much smaller telephoto and macro lenses
2) Provides a wider range of depth of field while allowing more light in
3) Very High IBIS compared to FF cameras
4) Much higher FPS compared to FF

OMDS realized that 20mp is reasonably sufficient for its users and decided not compete with FF in this area but instead use other ways to provide higher resolution when it is needed.

It is not an obsession or loser mentality to stick with smaller sensor. That is your mentality, thinking there must be a winner and there must be a loser. It is actually offering choices to photographers. Otherwise how do you explain that couple of Canon / Sony / Nikon users that also have a OM-1 to shoot birds and macro?

And in case your head is still stuck in the ground like an ostrich, OMDS probably has released more lenses for its users compared to other brands even though 43 already have a very range of lenses compared to other brands of Mirrorless lenses!


Make the correct decision and you avoid disaster. At the cross roads, Sony calmly brainstormed.
Sony was wise enough to reject M43 in 2008 and create their own Sony E mount originally meant for APS-C but later Full Frame.
Sony was wise again to move on from APS-C mirrorless ILC to Full Frame mirrorless ILC in 2013.
Instead of locking themselves in a dogmatic LOSER obsession to forever stick to a smaller sensor. (e.g. the now-dead-Olympus & OMDS)

M43 is like a dwarf that can only grow to a certain short height for life. This M43 flawed limit to growth was recognised by Sony.
Which coming back to thread topic - explains why M43 has NO future in the long run.

 

Since the inception of M43 in 2008 with the 2 founding partners namely Olympus & Panasonic.
How many other big camera manufacturers have joined in to make a wide range of camera bodies for M43?
From 2008 to 2023. Total 15 years.

The answer is ZERO.

Somewhere in this is a lesson. If M43 was good, every manufacturer will be rushing in to join.

Nobody else wants to hitch their company fortunes on to this broken wagon train.
With a market share so small that it cannot be reflected on the pie chart and has to be included in a generic group called "others".
Especially after the well publicised ruin of Olympus Camera Division, who else dares to get on this M43 sinking ship?

Another 15 years later from today, i.e. 2038 will there still be M43?
No idea.

The world has to progress. Better products / formats / genres are created to supersede the obsolete.

Otherwise the world will still be using 5¼ inch floppy disks in 2023.
5¼ inch floppy disk was useful in the year 1978.
Just like M43 was useful in 2008.
 

@ricohflex, I don't think Sony was wise as it dawned on them that stills photography is a profitable business. Noting that it's history was in digital video by introducing Mavica in the 1980s. So it partnered then Konica Minolta and then in 2006 acquired it and all it's photographic IP and also inherited the A mount from Minolta . Minolta already had several cameras in development so sony continued with it.


Sony introduced it's Alpha series A100 and introduced it's SLT series to try to disrupt the DSLR dominated by Canon and Nikon. As a fact both canon and Nikon had dabbled in SLT ( single lens translucent mirror which does not flip up when taking photo to have higher frame rates). In addition to prove themselves Sony introduced the mirrorless fullframe A7 in 2014 while still producing the last SLT A68 in 2016. Sony lost the race with SLT but won big time with FF A7 all along adopting the apsc E mount. The A mount had to take into account of the fixed mirror so had to drop it in favour of E mount to make it more compact. No body even Sony knew it will be a success but fate and technology won the day with canon and Nikon throwing in the towel when DSLR sales was not improving. So Sony had played 10 years with their SLT technology before calling it a day. Where as Olympus/ OMDS is still around since 2008 and it says a lot , will OMDS win, who knows as even canon had 4 mounts like the R, FL, FD and last generation EF before going mirrorless with their R mount. So good bye Sony A mount.



Make the correct decision and you avoid disaster. At the cross roads, Sony calmly brainstormed.
Sony was wise enough to reject M43 in 2008 and create their own Sony E mount originally meant for APS-C but later Full Frame.
Sony was wise again to move on from APS-C mirrorless ILC to Full Frame mirrorless ILC in 2013.
Instead of locking themselves in a dogmatic LOSER obsession to forever stick to a smaller sensor. (e.g. the now-dead-Olympus & OMDS)

M43 is like a dwarf that can only grow to a certain short height for life. This M43 flawed limit to growth was recognised by Sony.
Which coming back to thread topic - explains why M43 has NO future in the long run.

 

The reason why they did not join is Canon, Nikon & Sony are big boys and all along wanted their own proprietary lenses mount
as Camera manufacturers made more money from lenses than camera bodies. And by having their own proprietary mount,'
they lock in the customer. M43 users on the other hand, had so much more choices in lenses from Olympus and Panasonic.

Meanwhile, what happens is
1) Canon tried to mimic M43 with a small camera using APS Sensor (EOS-M series, remembered?)
2) Nikon tried the same with its V-series (remember)
3) Sony tried to come up with a tiny FF camera and resort to a pancake lenses to mimic the convenience of M43 cameras (the Sony 7c).
I went to test the 7c with the pancake kit lenses and was so shocked that the quality is way below that of my M43 lenses.
Although I was relieved that the 7c image quality is pretty good when I swapped the lenses with the G master 24-70 lenses,
the whole setup feels so unbalanced and front heavy (dont take my word for it, go to any Sony showroom and try yourself)

What happen to those users who have bought the EOS-M and Nikon V cameras instead of M43?
Not only are they restricted to a few miserable lenses as Canon & Nikon do not have confidence in their own systems,
Canon & Nikon abandoned them without even a word of apology. Even a dealer who is my friend cursed at them as he was stuck with left over stock and Canon say cannot return one!!!!!!! Sony abandoned their A-series. Canon and Nikon abandoned their DSLR series when they announce they are stopping production for DSLR and going to focus on mirrorless. Is one investment safeguarded for purchasing Canon, Nikon and Sony?

Olympus and Panasonic, on the other hand, has stayed on to what they believe in and both of them are still releasing lenses and firmware updates after all these years. So actually those who want a smaller camera system and has chosen M43 had a much better deal and the last laugh!




Since the inception of M43 in 2008 with the 2 founding partners namely Olympus & Panasonic.
How many other big camera manufacturers have joined in to make a wide range of camera bodies for M43?
From 2008 to 2023. Total 15 years.

The answer is ZERO.

Somewhere in this is a lesson. If M43 was good, every manufacturer will be rushing in to join.

Nobody else wants to hitch their company fortunes on to this broken wagon train.
With a market share so small that it cannot be reflected on the pie chart and has to be included in a generic group called "others".
Especially after the well publicised ruin of Olympus Camera Division, who else dares to get on this M43 sinking ship?

Another 15 years later from today, i.e. 2038 will there still be M43?
No idea.

The world has to progress. Better products / formats / genres are created to supersede the obsolete.

Otherwise the world will still be using 5¼ inch floppy disks in 2023.
5¼ inch floppy disk was useful in the year 1978.
Just like M43 was useful in 2008.
Since the inception of M43 in 2008 with the 2 founding partners namely Olympus & Panasonic.
How many other big camera manufacturers have joined in to make a wide range of camera bodies for M43?
From 2008 to 2023. Total 15 years.

The answer is ZERO.

Somewhere in this is a lesson. If M43 was good, every manufacturer will be rushing in to join.

Nobody else wants to hitch their company fortunes on to this broken wagon train.
With a market share so small that it cannot be reflected on the pie chart and has to be included in a generic group called "others".
Especially after the well publicised ruin of Olympus Camera Division, who else dares to get on this M43 sinking ship?

Another 15 years later from today, i.e. 2038 will there still be M43?
No idea.

The world has to progress. Better products / formats / genres are created to supersede the obsolete.

Otherwise the world will still be using 5¼ inch floppy disks in 2023.
5¼ inch floppy disk was useful in the year 1978.
Just like M43 was useful in 2008.
 

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Dpreview is dead. It really shows photography gears are losing steam and going down hill. Who really cares about FF, APSC or M43..?
 


Dpreview is dead. It really shows photography gears are losing steam and going down hill. Who really cares about FF, APSC or M43..?

I think you are over reacting. Dp review.com is a print website as well as on YouTube. Young people are not so much into reading so it's no surprise and their ad revenue is falling I guess hence the shutdown. They may return in another format on YouTube? The owners probably thinking of retirement.

Chris and Jordan probably have to move on too as that is reality. It is really YouTubers who had disrupted the photography print websites. Still I would say some shakeup and consolidation of the business will happen.
 

Cameras will only die when smart phones can do this..

52763302006_97b41e80e5_b.jpg
 

I guess it comes at a time when Amazon as the parent company is not doing that well and DPreview itself is no longer receiving as much revenue.
I really enjoy DPreview and hope that someone will take over.



I think you are over reacting. Dp review.com is a print website as well as on YouTube. Young people are not so much into reading so it's no surprise and their ad revenue is falling I guess hence the shutdown. They may return in another format on YouTube? The owners probably thinking of retirement.

Chris and Jordan probably have to move on too as that is reality. It is really YouTubers who had disrupted the photography print websites. Still I would say some shakeup and consolidation of the business will happen.
 

Maintaining a server with that amount of data is expensive as well as the maintenance of an office and staff. and if it does not generate revenue, any profit making establishment will terminate it. This clubsnap may in the future also close if revenue is not generated.

Think there is a need for members like @ricohflex, to keep the interest running. Just look at this thread 24 pages/ over 400 post and god knows how the number of views. and the generation of advertisement revenue it generated. If not for him, this mft thread would have to be buried long time ago.
 

Maintaining a server with that amount of data is expensive as well as the maintenance of an office and staff. and if it does not generate revenue, any profit making establishment will terminate it. This clubsnap may in the future also close if revenue is not generated.

Think there is a need for members like @ricohflex, to keep the interest running. Just look at this thread 24 pages/ over 400 post and god knows how the number of views. and the generation of advertisement revenue it generated. If not for him, this mft thread would have to be buried long time ago.

In a way have to agree @ricohflex despite his negativity is helping clubsnap to keep interest going. Every action has a reaction. We love you ricohflex. :D
 

Chris and Jordan going over to Petapixel in may 2023!

 

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