I think one of Olympus' problems is to make their innovation regular,
in the rhythm of the market place. They seem to pull together a team
for a one time project and then it is over, just coasting on their
laurels. The OMs would have been around a lot longer if they had
added new features, improvements or even restyling every two or three
years that would have generated the press coverage and interest by
potential customers. That way they might have even slipped into
autofocus OMs along with the rest. Instead the only time you saw
Olympus was an occasional ad or in the annual available camera
listing in some of the photography magazines year after year. How
many years had it been since there was an Oly review before the
35-80/2,8 zoom came out?
That does not seem to have changed much. The E-1 was obviously
designed to take a chunk out of the pro cameras when it was
announced. Somewhere in the next two and a half years before it was
released it should have had a 8MP sensor stuffed into it so it could
compete at its price point, but they did not seem to have a design
team to go to or were incapable of reassembling the design team.
Instead they decided to just cut the price and let it compete against
the least expensive competition hoping peripheral features like dust
shaker and sealing try to sell it. I see that as a major, major
error. Since the E-1 was inadequate to meet their pricing goals they
should have begun work on a version two immediately and gotten it to
market in less than a year as an additional model. Then they could
have priced the E-1 $500 less than the new model as a less capable
pro model instead of selling it against economy models. Instead the
E-2/3 whatever is stretching into a similar gestation period as the
original and one fears that its design will be based on where the
market was when the E-1 came out and not a projection of where the
market will be when it is released. If they make that mistake again I
fear for Oly's future.
If they don't make that mistake again it is still going to be tough
for them. The E-1 has clearly been established as a very nice, if
sensor limited, inexpensive camera. Its replacement should be
completely different in appearance, no feature left out, as good
imagewise as the competition and maybe even a different series
designation. Otherwise it is going to have fight the image of just a
better sensor stuffed into a cheap camera.
Winsor
Long Beach, California, USA
On Aug 25, 2006, at 8:55 AM, Bill Pearce wrote:
> I, too, noted this story, linked from some website. As I have
> repeatedly
> said, I don't think Olympus will survive the wars, without
> herculean effort.
> If they were to introduce a 12mp pro camera with noise comparable to
> Nikon/Canon BS and IS at Photokina, things might change, but I
> don't hold
> much hope.
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