All,
I believe a high end, perhaps full frame 35mm CCD, 6-8 megapixel, manual
focus, high burst rate, super compact digital SLR with OM system
compatibility is being considered on Olympus's digital camera product road
map in the next few years. It will be compatible with the company's long
standing product strategy consistent for decades....innovation, precision,
unrivalled compactness, optical excellence. It started with the half frame
format in the 1960's and the Olympus Pen, continued with the OM film camera
series in the 1970's, the Olympus XA in the 1980's, and now the IS series
and the Epic Stylus (an awesome pocketable auto focus point and shoot).
This hypothetical OM digital SLR would have size, performance, feature
advantages over the Nikon D 1 which is patently a beast...just like the OM
1 did over the Nikon F2 in 1972. It would be the next logical step for
Olympus waging the battle for preeminence the rapidly growing and emerging
photography digital market. The major obstacle is that the Canon and Nikon/
Kodak high end digital SLR product offerings have full auto focus lens
systems, whereas Olympus's would not be without considerable effort. This
would limit its success in the photojournalist market sector and some
portion of the market in general. But I'm sure that same issue won't stop
Contax and Leitz from ultimately releasing their own high end manual focus
digital SLR system cameras. The question : is will Olympus do it before them?
For us, it would mean R&D funding for upgrading Olympus OM lenses. Wide
angles and normal lenses with molded aspherical elements...for sure some
obvious, easy to market items like a 35/1.4, or 14mm ( the market swallows
that up now)... perhaps new zooms, high speed super telephotos...
At 01:06 PM 12/17/99 -0800, you wrote:
>===============
>Evenif that's true, Olympus could salvage the OM system by producing
>a digital body accepting Zuiko glass.
>==============
>
>Absolutely. but will they?
>
>You can already buy a digital camera with Nikon mount. but I tend to
>think the Olympus keeps the Om system around waiting to see the future
>of digital rather than for prestige in the P&S lineup.
>
>incidetally, the density of CCDs is so high that lenses that cover 35mm
>format would be medium format for digital photography, assuming the
>photo industry chooses to make CCDs that large. today's Nikon/kodak digital
>camera has a smalle enough CCD that the coverage of 35mm optics is
>overkill.
>
>Joseph
>
>
>< 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 >
>
Kurt Hurley IDS 2000 Product Marketing Manager
Schlumberger T&T - Diagnostic Systems
1601 Technology Drive San Jose CA 95110
email khurley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PH 408-437-5156 FAX 408-437-9031 PG 408-699-4587
< 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 >
|