: >1. Money: more $$ from new produts instead of selling
: >long-out-of-production OM Zuikos
: >2. Autofocus: OM lenses = no autofocus = Olympus looks archaic against
: >Nikon and Canon
: [snip]
:
: You hit the primary reason with #1, and #2 covers the majority of the
: technical issues used to justify it. Although Olympus touts optimal ray
: paths as the reason, and that also poses technical issues, I believe it's
: secondary to the auto-focus problem. Neither of the technical issues are
: as important to Olympus as the belief they can generate more operating
: income (read: profit) by *not* making their digitals compatible with OM
: system lenses. If they believed otherwise, you can bet they would have
: designed at least some of the high end digitals for backward
: compatibility. Olympus is a "_for_profit_" corporation, and operating
: income is the key driver in their decision-making.
Otoh they've been keeping the OM System alive for the last decade not
because they've been making so much profit from it, but more out of loyalty
towards existing users, and probably also to keep the name Olympus Optical
co. in the ranks of builders of serious camera systems. They could apply
this loyalty, the same that made them market the OM-3Ti and the 35-80/2.8
six years ago, to release at least one digital OM body, or a Camedia/Zuiko
adapter.
Will Olympus make serious profit from a digital 'OM'? I think they will.
There must be tens of thousands of Zuiko owners who are watching the digital
revolution. How many of them will rush to the shop when Olympus releases a
digital body for them they can afford? I know I would. And if this body
would also work with a range of dedicated AF lenses I would also buy one or
more of these (if only to cover the wide angle range, or to use the full
range of features including AF). We form a big group of potential buyers;
let's hope Olympus realizes this.
Lens compatibility and quality are better sales arguments than brand
loyalty, that's for sure. So if Olympus only releases a new system without
any OM compatibility, it better has someting the competition doesn't have.
hnz
How many of this "big group of potential buyers" have rushed to buy
an OM3T(up to $1600 in the latest B&H catalog) or 35-80/2.8? Maybe 2
or 3 percent of OM users? I don't know but I would say that Olympus
would look at OM users and used camera auction bottom feeders as a
dead market. The most you might get would be a cheap digital cam
with multiple nameplates and mounts from some maker like Cosina. And
apparently Cosina's effort in that nondigital area has not been too
successful. It is the economic interest of Olympus to lure you into
spending for a new camera system not just an addition to a system you
already have. Just hope Olympus continues to think that having the OM
system gives them some kind of status as a serious player.
--
Winsor Crosby
Long Beach, California
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