> Micro-4/3 has always been an outlier. Micro 4/3 purchasers have to enough to
> understand what the advantages are. They need to know at least a little bit
> about photography beyond internet memes and propaganda, so they can overcome
> the FUD that micro 4/3 is so much worse that APS-C that it isn't even worth
> considering.
In automotive retail, you always want to be where your competition is.
If the dealers start building up along a certain street, you better be
there yourself. I continue to be mystified as to why Olympus decided
to go so totally on their own in a way that immediately put them
behind the 8 ball.
> So if Oly is gunning to be the leader (fat chance), then obviously, no good.
> But if they are trying to establish a niche market, they may be doing as
> well as can be expected with a lousy economy. This of course ignores all
> the financial scandal fallout and Stuff Ken Knows That We Don't.
A niche market is fine if there is enough business there to sustain
yourself. Leica is doing quite well, but they charge eight times as
much and they seem to have their overhead under control. I don't think
there is enough niche business for Olympus to play in and succeed
unless they get the overhead dramatically reduced by 75%.
As to the "Stuff Ken Knows That We Don't", well, I don't think there
is much left that hasn't been already told. Maybe a couple of things,
but honestly, I've lost interest in the company and their new product
lines. I'm a hopeless OM lover, so that's where my interests are. With
the exception of two items, everything that I knew was coming has
come. I've been very carefully following another company's R&D but
have kept totally silent on it.
> Another thing to realize is that if Oly were to disappear tomorrow, there
> would still be Panasonic, so our lenses would have someplace to go when the
> Next Must-Have Quantum Leap arrives.
m43 has at least 36 months of glory after the plug is pulled. That's
how long it will take for the rest of the items in development to
flush through the system. However, what is the unknown is when the
plug gets pulled. It's entirely possible (and likely) that the water
is swirling and we don't even know it yet. This was the case with the
death of Four-Thirds and Sony's various mounts. Panasonic had already
leaked out a year ago that m43 was "dead" and later walked it back.
Oops! I've been pretty vocal about m43 being a temporary standard for
Olympus. With Sony now owning/controlling a good part of Olympus
Imaging, it's totally an unknown which way things will go in the
future and when.
And we still wait on Canon to go mirrorless.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
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