On 30/08/06, Winsor Crosby <wincros@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> Welcome. Nice to get an insider contributing to the list.
>
> I worry about the price. The E-1 seems obviously designed to a higher
> price point and in fact was at a higher price point and drastic price
> cuts were made, apparently to sell it. I worry about an expensive E-3
> doing the same thing.
Demographic anomalies exist with the E-series. It does very well in Europe
spurred on by a very matured structure and a sophisticated and well-thought
out professional programme. In Malaysia, it's been in oblivion and sales are
generally disastrous not helped by a local mob that knows NOTHING about
promoting it. The E-3 will be more or less in a similiar price bracket as
what the E-1 began albeit a little higher. That's the forecast I understood
from Shinju-ku although this applies to UK because the first price
structures they work on are for Europe then followed by North America.
One wonders whether Olympus will again go into
> the no development mode they did with the OM when margins and sales
> are too small to justify it.
No, Winsor, no more. And in fact, Olympus did not intentionally go into a
no-dev mode during the OM days. I was there. We were gobsmacked - stunned in
fact - by how Minolta was taken to the cleaners and back with Honeywell's
successful but damaging lawsuit. The whole market was reeling from the
effects. After that, Olympus went back to the drawing boards to redesign
their passive AF system and that meant losing a lot of ground to Canon and
Nikon. If it weren't for the lawsuit, pretty much what you've been seeing
today with Olympus' market position wouldn't have been there. We tried to
salvage bits with first the OM-707 (77AF) followed by the OM-101PF but we
failed. In fact the OM-101PF had a cavity under the mirror box ready for an
evolutionary upgrade to AF but that didn't happen for obvious reasons. The
fact though was that the OM-101PF's focus-by-wire technology was and still
is utterly brilliant because it was truly digitally velocity-sensitive and
you will see it relivened soon. OM days weren't predicated by poor margins
and sales so much as they were hampered by the fact that Maitani's
suggestion for the OM-5 did not pass the mustard with the board. We were all
very disappointed. For better or worse, the loss of the OM-5 changed
directions for the entire company, prompting Maitani to eventually retire.
I hope the E-3 will at least be competitive in the MP count because
> that is what people seem to buy. Even those of us who realize that
> there is not much difference between a 4/3 5MP and an APS-C 6MP are
> not tempted by 5MP when there are sub-$1000 8 and 10MP cameras
> available, no matter how well made the E-1.
The E-3 will be extremely close to an effective Mpix count of around 10.2 to
11Mpix. No, the E-3 will not compare directly with its natural rivals if one
were to use Mpix as a yardstick. It's pretty much uncannily similiar to the
battle between AMD and Intel in the computing industry where the former
might have a 'slower' clockspeed but in effect, runs as fast as the latter.
Remember this and remember well, the Four-Third's sensor does not require
the same number of megapixels to beat a full-frame 35mm sensor.
What happened to the E-2?
It's there. :) .... I apologise but I really cannot disclose much about
this just yet. But it's there. It sure is there. And there are other
E-series DSLRs very much ready to be unleashed. At least one of them is
consumer-grade and two are prosumer-grade.
I agree with your statement the brand loyalists if you are talking
> about the people on the forums. I have concluded that the worst of
> them are psychotic and are amused by the responses they elicit.
>
> Not sure what you mean by base-reference zoom.
This term is used internally to refer to lenses designed more for
consumer-grade consumption such as those meant for the E-xxx range of DSLRs.
Winsor
> Long Beach, California, USA
>
>
>
>
> On Aug 29, 2006, at 11:46 AM, khen lim wrote:
>
> >
> > Eeeerh.....spectacular? yes.....cheap? no, Winsor, they won't be
> > cheap.
> > On a slightly brighter side, base-reference zoom lenses are on
> > their way.
> > Soon.
> > 10MP Sony A-100 won't be too much of a problem eventually as sales
> > will
> > level out in Q1 2007. Right now, yes, because when the A-100 was
> > launched,
> > no prime competitor was launching. Sales figures spiked
> > unrealistically for
> > June-July figures especially in Japan (courtesy of figures from Ali ~
> > thanks) but they will subside. Remember, Canon just released the
> > Rebel XTi
> > (still don't like it, anyway) and Nikon, the D80. Both came AFTER
> > the A-100
> > but still to early to register any big sales figures yet.
> > By very late this year, the A-100 will begin to be hit big. That's
> > when you
> > see the E-3.
> >
> > K.
>
>
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