I met a gentleman (perhaps a tourist) in U.N. Plaza the day after
Christmas and he asked me to take his picture. So what does this guy
hand me but an FM3a (at least I think it was--was there simply an
FM3?). Of course I couldn't get it to work right away because the
shutter release was locked--I forgot to pull the rewind lever back!
Then it immediately poked me in the cheek. <g>
Anyway, getting around that lunacy . . . the build quality of that
body, to judge from weight and casual inspection, didn't impress me
one bit. This is comparatively speaking with regard to what I'm
accustomed to handling, OM-1's and 4's, and to mention this unit in
the same breath with the OM line is to mistake both camera
designs--one is top of the line, the other strikes me as intended
more for people who either don't know the difference or are
convinced it's wisdom to spend less for exactly that. Less.
Would anyone have bought an OM-5? Probably not many users of
OM-3/4Ti's would have (I doubt much improvement could have been
realized), perhaps users of OM-1/2's would have upgraded. No doubt
Olympus would have lost money on the deal, but we'll never know now.
I see nothing good whatsoever in the OM series demise. Makes me want to cry.
Tris
I think you are right that an OM 5 would have been a difficult sell
since the OM4Ti is pretty much a completed design that could only be
improved on in small details for current owners. And such a complete
redesign as would be needed to combine the 3's mechanical shutter
with the automation of the 4 as the FM3A does would be very expensive
and not too attractive to new users. Sort of a Leica without the
cachet to make it sell. Existing owners did not exactly break down
the doors to buy new OM3Ti s and 35-80/2.8s which were Olympus last
efforts to add to the system.
It does seem to me that Oly did miss out on the sales potential of
periodic detail improvements and restyling every couple of years that
gets reviews in the magazines and gives the impression of continuing
development.
--
Winsor Crosby
Long Beach, California
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|