>>Leica has a big business in other areas.
>Are you sure about that? I thought Leica, the camera and binocular company,
was spun off from Leitz, the parent company,
I think Leica is a subsidiary of Leitz. Leica may be a separate
company, but I suspect that Leitz owns controlling interest in
the stock. Moreover, the lenses for Leica cameras are still
made by Leitz Optical.
Leitz has a military contracting division in Illinois. It is, in
fact, a very similar company to Olympus.
Nikon is owned by Mitsubishi these days, and the entire Nikon
camera business operates at a minimal profit, from what I understand
with some years being a small loss. By comparison, Olympus' camera
business is very profitable, it's just that they make all the profit
off their point & shoots. I don't think it costs them much to keep
the OM line around, and they have no way of knowing what discontinuation
of their OM line would do to their point & shoot business. Hopefully,
Olympus understands the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
and won't start tampering with their 35mm camera business too much.
I think products like the OM-2000 are a healthy thing for them to do.
If enough of such things sell, it will keep the lens line viable
and might encourage Sigma and Tokina to start offering new lenses in
OM mount again.
j. albert
< 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 >
|