Industry News: Olympus to sell imaging business by the end of the year

[Groundhog]

A sad day ... I always loved the design of Oly cameras, just couldn't get myself to go down from APSC to an even smaller sensor size.
If they would have made an APSC or FF sensor one I would probably jumped ship.

Still love my OM2n and Pen-FT cameras and shoot them quite regularly with the awesome Zuiko lenses - just have to bury any hope for a great digital successor to those.

 

[IcyBergs]

Guys at DPReview must be losing their minds

 

[AlanF]

Dang! Got an Oly Tough about a year ago to replace my well used Canon D10. Figured it was time for a more versatile little camera to use on the beach and in the water with he grandkids. Serves the purpose, can do RAW (with some menus) and yields "OK" IQ. Never gonna use this as a replacement for my DSLR but it is good for what I need.
The sadder issue is the potential loss of the Micro 43 format.

The Tough will last for years - a great little piece of kit. Sad about the demise of such an innovative company.

 

[AlanF]

Bye bye Panasonic GH series... M43 is dead!

Don't gloat.

 

[Kit.]

Sad, but not surprising.

 

[Stuart]

Its a shame for the consumer channel, Olympus sponsored many many exhibitions, shows and ambassadors - all that must be in doubt with the JIP streamlining to come. Fuji went straight to consumer skipping the middleman - its dire news for retailers and magazines too who rely on advertising.

 

[ScottyP]

Pentax will die. I would not be surprised to see Nikon fold.

 

[Sporgon]

With so many events being cancelled, it must be a tough year for pro photographers (I'm not one). I would assume that it will then lead to less purchasing of pro gear.

I wonder how many genuine pro photographers - who weren't sponsored to do so - were using M43. Not many I would think.
IMO Olympus did a great job of making the camera and their systems seductive, but at the end of the day a Canon M series would spank it really and was half the price. Looking at those corporate figures the tiny percentage of turnover against the margin and number of employees makes ditching the imaging business a no brainier really.

 

[Sporgon]

Pentax will die.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. They are owned by Ricoh now and there are more about than you might think.

 

[Kit.]

Pentax will die.

Pentax died 12 years ago.

 

[joestopper]

With so many events being cancelled, it must be a tough year for pro photographers (I'm not one). I would assume that it will then lead to less purchasing of pro gear.

I disagree.
Physical events i.e. exhibits for new product presentation is becoming less and less attractive.The pandemic just accelarated this trend. There are more efficient ways to announce new products where anyone can participate without traveling.

 

[joestopper]

2020 is the year where Canon demonstrates full committment to mirrorless. This will lead to a shakeout. I am wondering how long Nikon can keep up.

 

[herein2020]

The Tough will last for years - a great little piece of kit. Sad about the demise of such an innovative company.

I'm not so sure, I needed an underwater camera for video work and the Tough couldn't match the GoPro's specs. The Hero 8 black has 4K60FPS (the tough is only 4K30FPS), tons of underwater accessories, and what was most important to me was the incredible Hypersmooth 2.0 feature. What was also surprising to me is that if you shoot the Hero 8 using the flat profile it actually color grades pretty well in post. I just leave everything in auto with an ISO limit set to 1600 and a manual white balance at 5300 or 5600 and the footage exceeded my expectations.

Hypersmooth is one feature I would love to see implemented in all cameras that have video features, it really is game changing for stability.

I wonder how many genuine pro photographers - who weren't sponsored to do so - were using M43. Not many I would think.
IMO Olympus did a great job of making the camera and their systems seductive, but at the end of the day a Canon M series would spank it really and was half the price. Looking at those corporate figures the tiny percentage of turnover against the margin and number of employees makes ditching the imaging business a no brainier really.

I think Panasonic with their MFT GH series is still great for pro video work. I'm still using it nearly daily for paying video work especially for industrial projects where my larger C200 wouldn't make sense or would be overkill. For most of my small business video work I shoot with the GH5 for everything from events to social media promo videos. I would not use MFT for pro photography at least not in this stage of my life but I can definitely see the appeal of ditching the heavy FF Canons for something much smaller that still produces footage that clients are willing to pay for.

One thing that most people don't talk about with MFT is the terrible highlight rolloff when shooting wide DR video scenarios. Everyone wants more DR but IMO pleasing highlight rolloff is more important which is one place where the GH5 falls apart and is one of the reasons I am really looking forward to the R6.

 

[herein2020]

I disagree.
Physical events i.e. exhibits for new product presentation is becoming less and less attractive.The pandemic just accelarated this trend. There are more efficient ways to announce new products where anyone can participate without traveling.

I think 20Dave meant events like concerts, sporting events, social events, weddings, car shows, etc...And he is correct, those types of events have definitely fell through the floor. For people like me my video business is actually busier than ever...corporate customers and small businesses are accelerating their video and audio footprint to reach customer's who aren't willing to travel to their physical location, to send video messages to their employees, to complete their next video advertising project, etc.

Photography on the other hand seems to have fallen through the floor, and I'm turning down any photography project that involves more than 1 or two people in the same room at the same time (i.e. birthday parties, weddings, ceremonies, etc).

 

[Don Gutierrez]

I still don't know what Olympus's unique selling point is (was). But betting on small format without anything unique hastened their doom. I will however give them credit for their wonderful OM cameras and lenses from yore.

There was a lot of unique selling points early on, in fact much of the current mirrorless landscape came because of tech that Olympus helped pioneer. A lot of their technology had trickled down from their medical imaging division and it launched the way forward for their camera division, with many other companies such as Sony following suit.

Heck, Canon's EOS line was their way of taking on the Olympus name, being a nod to greek mythology and a shot at Olympus.

I never owned Olympus, but I'm sad to see them go, and we're less without them being around.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

2020 is the year where Canon demonstrates full commitment to mirrorless. This will lead to a shakeout. I am wondering how long Nikon can keep up.

Nikon does a lot more than cameras, and their financial condition is secure. Canon has also moved away from cameras and is financially secure due to their medical and industrial products.

Some of the other cameras like Pentax are part of a company that is in good financial condition, but they may be sold off if they are bleeding needed resources.

Sony is also having very poor camera sales. There is no sign that they are going to drop them, but there is no one out there wanting to pay big bucks for the camera division either.

 

[usern4cr]

Today is a sad day, but was to be expected eventually. But I've had wonderful times with my EM1m2 and lenses, and they'll continue to work like new until I get the R5 and enough RF lenses to replace them for a new decade or more of even better times for me.

Maybe they'll end up as a gift to my brother. If so, they'll probably keep happily working for a decade or more as they really were built to last forever. That would be nice, as I'll always have a warm feel for them as part of my family.

 

[derpderp]

time for canon to cut prices, otherwise they'd go down the same route

 

[SecureGSM]

time for canon to cut prices, otherwise they'd go down the same route

Ladies (Nikon) first...

 

[Otara]

Took some of my favourite ever underwater pics with an E300, one of the odder DSLR's ever made. Its flash system just worked for u/w, they were cheap as. Then they went micro, and I was going to have to pretty much replace everything for any u/w upgrade, so I changed to Canon.