I've never owned a Pen (or had any desire to) but I think its success
was due to its size (relative to what else was available) and to the
half frame format which cut the cost of film and processing (which was
considerable in those days... and still is).
But if you listen to what Watanabe said (this camera competes in the non
DSLR digital market and is the non-professional version) then the Pen
comparison doesn't make marketing sense. It's small compared to an E-1
but it's huge compared to typical digital P&S models... both in size and
in price. As to half frame and the cost of film... well that's a dog
that don't hunt in this day and age.
Harking back to the Pen is something that only works for us old guys.
And even then it apparently doesn't work for some of us. I think what I
want is the Panasonic G1 and its EVF but without that silly pentaprism
hump. I also want the articulating screen for macro and would like Oly's
in-body IS although that's not critical. I guess I'll have to wait for
the EP-2 or EP-3 or maybe even the EP-4Ti.
But I know Oly will never sell an EP-anything to my kids.
Chuck Norcutt
Joel Wilcox wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 9:46 AM, Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Well, let's put things into perspective. I never had a Pen, and probably
>> never will. I do believe that Olympus is doing a brilliant move here and
>> playing on the heritage of Olympus. Why not?
>
> Because the Facebook crowd could hardly care less and the twits won't tweet.
>
>> After all, the full-blown 4/3
>> lineup has been anything but earth-shattering. Shall I regurgitate my
>> disdain for 4/3 and the current design criteria? Olympus did a few things
>> right with the E-1, which is why I still use it, but for everything right, I
>> can point to two things so wrong as to be laughable. So it is quiet, it
>> feels good in the hand, and has good image color. Anything else?
>
> Live view, supersonic whizbangs, economic aspect ratio for print,
> outstanding lenses, articulating LCD. You owe me 10 laughable items.
>
>> Frankly, It isn't until Olympus rediscovers what it was about the OM system
>> which was so successful that Olympus will start building DSLRs that I give a
>> rip for. The Pen system was EXTREMELY successful in its day. Olympus
>> rediscovered what was successful about the Pen and is trying to revisit it
>> today with the E-P1.
>
> That may be true, but it offers up Pen as an example not as the
> essence of its hoped-for success. The salient quality carried over
> from Pen is the size, and the e-p was going to be small anyway. The
> Pen angle is a gimmick that makes for copy in a trade magazine. I
> just find it a snooze.
>
>> In the next day or two, I will be posting a big opinion piece on Zone-10
>> about the E-P1. In a nutshell, I believe the camera is a brilliant design
>> and marketing decision and WILL be a top seller. I also believe that it is
>> extremely revolutionary in one very very specific area which few in the
>> industry can grasp--not even Olympus. Up till now, the time for the m43
>> format wasn't right. As Joel indicates, the time is right for the
>> pack-animals to realize that there is life beyond battery-grip equipped
>> monsters with 70-200/2.8 big-whites hanging off the nose.
>
> I hope your piece will get beyond the superficiality of the e-p/Pen
> comparisons currently. If the Great Unwashed (I'll include myself in
> this group) have to be educated about the teleological perfection of
> the original Pen in order to appreciate what Olympus is doing in m4/3,
> I don't think that's going to make it with even the most hardened OM
> partisan (not this one, anyway). This is nothing against Pen in
> itself, it's against the essential irrelevance of the comparison.
>
> When I try to reduce the Olympus legacy to a few salient
> characteristics, I am always dissatisfied. I could say it is the
> size, but that's not precisely it because, for example, admiration for
> the 85/2 doesn't diminish my love for the big honking 90/2. OM just
> seems to surprise me with the quality of many of its features, each in
> itself perhaps less than what this or that competitor provides, but
> taken together, providing a coherence which is greater than the sum of
> the parts -- absolutely full of compromises, of course, but fully
> justified in the way the tool is or can be used and experienced. I
> experience a good deal of the same thing in the E-system. I hope and
> fully expect that people will experience the same with the e-p and I
> can't wait to hear from real people about it. I will not be at the
> front of the line for m4/3, but then I never am.
>
> Joel W.
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