On Friday, March 7, 2003, at 04:59 PM, Skip Williams wrote:
I firmly believe that Olympus is barely able to keep their head above
water. They won't be introducing anything earth-shattering anytime
soon. Look to Cosina for the neat stuff, like their new 35mm f/1.2
lens! Or the announced N*kon F/F2 version of the 12mm f/5.6.
If/when the 4/3 system comes to market, the four lenses you saw in the
PMA shots are likely to be it for a while. Face it, they cover 95%+
of the typical SLR photo needs of the typical buyers. Most buyers
don't use wide-angle primes, they use wide-angle zooms. In fact, I'm
surprised that Olympus showed such a long lens as the 600mm. Most
shooters find 600mm lenses far too long; I'd have expected a 400.
F/1.0 or F/1.2 lenses ARE NOT cheap to make, and Olympus would be
stupid to sell them for a loss. There just aren't enough people who
are real buyers to make most of those lenses viable. Cosina's new
35/1.2 lens has three aspherical surfaces and is likely to sell for
$1,000 - $1,200. And they are one of the lowest cost manufacturers in
the world.
Skip
I am afraid you are right. Since Olympus was unable to enlist others in
a standard lens mount/sensor format it looks like they will be going it
alone. Their camera, two years after it was announced, is still not in
production. It really appears to be doomed, unless there is a huge
infusion of cash or the adoption of a Nikon lens mount, since it seems
to be the most widely shared mount among different camera makers.
I have been hoping that someone real like Cosina would come up with
true digital film, a 24 x 36 sensor back and maybe a winder sized add
on for the batteries and the chip electronics. Set the ISO on the back
and on the camera and shoot away. I would actually pay more for one
than I would for one of those APS sized sensor, all-auto cameras.
Winsor Crosby
Long Beach, California, USA
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