LAS VEGAS, February 20 - Olympus has quite the floor space at the Photo
Marketing Association 75th Annual International Convention and Trade Show
here. Funny thing is that half of it was wasted by hallways and conference
rooms. In contrast, Nikon, Canon and Minolta made much more use of their
areas, with lots more equipment on display. Competitors display techniques
were much more effective, too. Whereas most of the Olympus equipment was in
display cases that were often blocked by attendies, Nikon had their big Bertha
lenses out and on tripods for people to see and use. And examples of all
their lenses were displayed in tall, well lit, plexiglass cases at the corners
of their floor area.
About half of the OM System was on display, most notably with a 350mm f/2.8, a
24mm Shift, the 35-80mm f/2.8, an OM-3Ti, and most of the f/2 wide angles.
All were available to handle and dry shoot. The display case seemed too
inviting for "sticky fingers." Maybe that is where their 90mm f/2 went, since
on marketing rep couldn't seem to find it. They did a good job of telling
folks about the OM2000 kit, which I was told just had another price drop.
They admitted to not getting it in enough stores. Two 70-210 S Zuikos were
also on display. I seemed to know more about their origin (Cosina) than did
the reps. In contrast, Nikon and Minolta reps knew that it their 35-70mm
f/3.5~4.8 lenses were contracted products.
I couldn't get any information out of the reps regarding additions to the OM
System (i.e., there is none to tell). But, I did get good news in that
nothing has been eliminated. I specifically asked about the T-32 and that
appears to still be in the product lineup, despite what we have heard here.
They confirmed that many components are in periodic batch production cycles,
including the super telephotos, which are still getting made. I was also told
to call in two months to learn the latest update on availability, since they
expect word on 1999-2000 availability from Toyko then. Another funny thing,
Susan Schaffer, Director of Marketing for Imaging Products, assured me that
even if someting goes out of production, they could probably locate one for a
few years thereafter. Hum, sales are THAT slow?
Olympus is still distributing the 34 page C20E-1092D silver covered OM System
brouchure, WITHOUT updates for the OM-3Ti or the 35-80mm f/2.8 They were
disappearing within minutes of being put out. In the few hours I was at the
show, at least one person was always at the booth with OM System questions.
In contrast, Minolta X series cameras had no booth activity and were out of
brochures and no one seemed to be interested in Pentax.
Among other things OM related:
California Electronics Center (213-624-9334) seems to be the USA dumping
grounds for refurbished Olympus equipment. Alas, they rarely see OM System
equipment.
A Universal Multi-format Shifting System (www.freeeye.com) allows the use of
medium and large format lenses on an OM body, giving shifting capability in
any direction. I was quoted $996 on the unit. These are made in Italy. I
think we have discussed this concept in the past.
Beattie was there with two OM-2 's, one with a 1-13 screen and one with a
matte Beattie Intenscreen. The rep learned a few things about the OM-2
metering system from me and I learned that their biggest marketing impediment
was that folks don't believe the claims till they see it with their own eyes.
FWIW, I liked the matte screen image. Oh, and he was real honest in saying it
probably wouldn't do much for my Toyo View. I liked the guy. He even
personally bought the two OM-2's from KEH so he'd have a matched pair camera
system to display screen differences. Good choice :-)
For our frequest off topic subjects:
Fuji has Provia 100F Professional which claims to have the finest grain of any
transparency film (RMS 8). They displayed huge blowups from single and dual,
stitched 135 format images. Pretty impressive stuff! Agfa had nothing on
their RSX II films, despite a repeat press release in the PMA Daily. That
seemed wierd, unless one noted that Kodak had nothing displayed on consumer
film. Fuji wins big on glitz.
Ilford has a new digital printing paper that looks great. Nice gloss and no
markings on the back. The back can even be printed on. They are too
conservative on sizes. Knowing how they market every size under the sun in
sheet film, I pleaded that they do their papers in 8 1/2 x 24" as an
alternative to Epson Panoramic Paper which turns yellow fast.
I taked with the Shutterbug Editorial Director about the future of "dead tree"
camera ads. She said that Bill Cameta had just been there and was ready to
expand from 4 to 6 pages. She cited him as an example of vendors who have a
significant percentage of clientel wanting to see what is available on the
printed page as opposed to a computer screen. Bill seems to have his bases
covered with WWW listings, e-mailed inventory updates, a physical store
location and Shutterbug advertising. Shutterbug is feeling the heat from
Internet sales and will likely have some answers to it in the future.
Contax manual focus equipment wasn't getting looked at much given the interest
in their 645 autofocus system. Nice camera! Funny how the Aria looks like a
OM-2000 :-)
The Leica R8 is an utter monster! Besides Olympus, Leica is likely to go home
sans a few items. They had equipment all over the counters and too few folks
to watch over it. There was a 90mm Colorplan Pro lens on a Pradovit project
that had to be the biggest 35mm projection lens for its focal length that I've
ever seen. The 35mm f/1.4 Summilux-M Aspherical was really bizzare, with its
concave front element.
Konica denied having a new Leica mount rangefinder camera.
Well, that's the bulk of what interested me.
Gary Reese
Las Vegas, NV
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