Thoughts on the new 4/3 System compared to OM?

Now that we have all you Zuikophiles gathered all in one place, I was

just wondering if people had any thoughts on the 4/3 (four thirds)

system + E-1 camera, compared with our beloved OM system. <i>Has</i>

Olympus left us out in the cold, or are they making a very smart

move? If you've any thoughts on the subject, please share...

Too little, too late.

 

Olympus was among the first to market with affordable consumer grade digicams and a film scanner. (I've bought a couple of their P&S digicams, one for myself, one for my mom.) But it's taken them this long to catch up with an interchangeable lens digital SLR system?

 

Nope. Doesn't inspire confidence. The marketing wonks at Olympus have squandered the legacy of Mr. Maitani. The 4/3 system isn't enough to regain the stature they've lost.

 

Fact is, they lost stature more than a decade ago by failing to keep pace with demand for an AF SLR system. But they could have maintained a loyal following if they'd kept prices for the OM-4Ti and Zuikos reasonable. Instead they escalated prices beyond a reasonable perceived value.

 

Also, they never offered another film scanner after the original ES-10, never improved the lame driver and, worse, never even discounted the price. What had started out as an attractively priced consumer grade film scanner at the time of its introduction quickly become an overpriced joke. For example, when I first considered buying a consumer grade film scanner the ES-10 was less expensive than one of the nearest competitors, Minolta's original Dimage Scan Dual. A couple of years later, tho', Minolta had gone through a few upgrades and the original Scan Dual was available at a blowout price of around $150 while Olympus and discounters continued pricing the ES-10 at over $300.

 

It appears that Olympus have continued their impractical pricing structure with the 4/3 system. To justify the estimated prices the system must perform better than its rivals. Even if priced similarly to Nikon, Canon and others Olympus would have to offer superior performance, optical specs, etc., in order to earn a following.

 

My fondness for the OM system is based partly on nostalgia, partly on practicality. The original OM SLRs are, generally, worth keeping, maintaining and using. But that doesn't translate, in my case, to any particular regard for Olympus as it stands now.

Well, I can't speak for anybody but myself, but I think it's too little, too late (and too expensive). As long as one cannot mount the OM-lenses on the E-1 there is no use in following Olympus anymore. The reviews here in Norway are mostly favorable, but the E-1 costs more than double than the EOS 300D. I don't think the new body/lenses are small/light enough to justify the smaller sensor either. The 300D are just about as heavy as my OM-1, I can live with that. *If* the new 4/3-standard catches on (and that's a big if), and we see some sort of standardization on lens-mount, then that would be great, but I won't buy Olympus now, with only three lenses and a body, and then (maybe) be left out in the cold again.

 

The build-quality of the E-1 are supposed to be good (like the OM's), and I will certainly miss the feel when moving to plastic-Canon. Many of my friends are OM-users too (I lured them in...), but none of them are planning on buying the E-1, they are all switching to Canon/Nikon or sticking with the OM's. In fact, I don't know anybody wanting to buy the E-1, that's a little sad, for Olympus..

 

So, I'm sorry, but I won't wait for Olympus no more, I'll keep using my OM's and my XA, and save my money for the 300D (and maybe the OM-EOS adapter).

 

(Hmm, I don't know when I became so pessimistic, I used to be quite an optimist...)

 

So, are any of you planning to buy the E-1 and lenses?

Thanks guys! By the way, something *cosmic* is going on...

<p>

-- Lex, September 09, 2003; 05:06 A.M. Eastern: <i>"<b>Too little, too late</b>."</i><br>

-- Lars, September 09, 2003; 05:06 A.M. Eastern: <i>"... I think it's <b>too little, too late</b>..."</i>

<p>

Are you guys 'linked' or something?!

Lars, I agree with you about not being able to mount OM lenses on the E-1. Mind you, the lens registration distance for the E-1 is less than OM (I think) so an adapter could be made.

Nah, Neil, nothing cosmic. Many of us who are fans of the OM system have been thinking and saying the same thing for years.

There are still many professional shooters out there that have not gone DSLR yet, including many who do not have a collection of Canon or Nikon glass. For them, the E-1 system may make sense; you get a good digital body and there are some good lenses available, plus a 4:3 image ratio as opposed to 35mm's 3:2 which may appeal to current 6x4.5 shooters. Or those who don't shoot medium but would prefer that ratio anyway. (personaly, I do)

 

One thing neither Canon nor Nikon have addressed is the lack of a replacement for the 24/28-70 zoom range on digital camera. (full frame sensor cameras not counting, ofcourse) The choices are either not wide enough or too short. The E-1 standard lens becomes a nice 28-108/2.8-3.5 equivalent; if it is sharp enough, this could make it very attractive to especialy social/wedding photographers. Only thing missing is a good portrait lens.

 

I have to admit, though, that market may be too small and the E-1, while reasonable now, will become unreasonably priced in a few years time due to low demand, just like Lex explained about their other pro photo products.

The verdict is still out on this one.

 

I was VERY disappointed with Olympus basically abandoning one of the finest SLR camera lines ever produced, rather than updating the line to modern standards. That being said, I think they've done pretty good with their digital cameras, even if they haven't produced anything spectacular.

 

I would LOVE to believe that the new E-1 will be successful, but I think Olympus has a lot of work before them to get it generally accepted by the photographic community. I think the idea of a new "open" standard (ie, one that other mfg's can produce lenses and bodies for, per dpreview.com) is a good idea and will be helpful to Olympus in getting this new line accepted. The camera looks to be a good contender as well.

 

But the price is too high - $2200 for 5 megapixels is pricy, especially in the face of the fact that Canon now has a nice (if not as well built) 6mp digital Rebel out with a lens for under $1000. Of course, there are other reasons that help "legitimize" the price, but are they worth another $1200?

 

If Olympus can bring the price in range and extend the lens line quickly enough, and can follow up with a good successor ... AND can get this standard accepted by other lens manufacturers, then they've got a shot at getting a good foothold in the digital SLR market. But I think they've got a LOT of convincing to do.

 

The E-1 is impressive by itself from what I've read, and I think if Olympus handles it right, it could be the foundation for a good new digital SLR system. I hope that's the case, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we're going to see a new set of lower priced digital SLR's following on Canon's release - and that may be enough to hurt the E-1, unless they can drop the price - or follow up with a lower cost camera in the system.

 

Good luck to them. I think they're going to need it.

Yuck, it's a ZLR on steroids. I'll stick with my OM-1n, thank you.

 

Seriously, though, the E-1's at a nutty price point. It claims to be a "professional" camera, but it isn't competitive with the 1D and D2h. And it's image quality won't be any better than the 10D or 300D, so it isn't going to be attractive to megapixel-hungry cheapskate amateurs (such as myself). If they had come out with an 11MP camera with slightly better noise performance than the consumer cameras (and provided a couple of extreme wide angles), they would have made a killing from people (also such as myself) impatiently waiting for Canon to come out with a camera with the 1Ds sensor in an EOS 3 sort of body.

 

As it is, it looks to be a very lonely niche sparsely populated with affluent birdwatchers and voyers who like the crop factor.

I'll wait for some in-depth reviews before judging the E1 too soon. It appears to be offering some innovative stuff. But the sensor size is small and the body and lenses are expensive. And nothing so far gives me confidence that 4/3 is here to stay. Overall I'd say the prognosis is gloomy.

 

I suspect that my OM-1's will be my last serious Olympus cameras. I'll keep a Stylus Epic around for convenience, but will probably transition to Canon using the OM-EOS adapter. Since the OM-1's have very little resale value, I'll hold on to 'em as my film cameras.

Gene, don't get pessimistic about the resale value of the OM-1 too soon. I've been following the KEH prices for a while and have noticed an upward trend for the OM-1 and OM-1N models *only*. Generally speaking the better samples of those models have increased in value by KEH standards. The lesser examples have at least retained their value.

 

This hasn't applied to the more electronicky OMs like the OM-2N and even OM-4 variants. Apparently KEH has detected a market demand for the all mechanical OMs in pristine or excellent condition, possibly by collectors.

Lex, that's very interesting. My OM-1's are in very good shape and still working nicely. I use zinc-air batteries in place of the original mercuries, but they last about six months in each camera so the rent isn't too bad. I don't really know how well my Zuiko primes stack up against modern lenses, but the results still look good to me and the lenses (with the exception of my longest - 300mm) are really tiny and easy to carry around. We all keep saying it, but these Olympus camera systems really were (and are) something special. Glad to hear my value is increasing :)

I think 4/3 system will challenge what 35mm camera systems to offer today. The immediate benefit is the much smaller size than that of current 35mm systems. For the full frame 24x36 DSLRs will challenge what Medium format system to offer.

What do you guys think about the smaller sensor <i>size</i>? My view is that I don't like it; I'm not talking about image quality as relates to pixels/mm etc, just that it will make the depth-of-field in all our shots <i>greater</i> for any given aperture (as the focal lengths are all halved to give the same field-of-view). I <i>like</i> being able to get shallow DoF on occasion, how about you?

Do you remember disk cameras and more recently something called APS system? Well there will be another one to add to history ! How can it be better than current chips installed in DSLRs? I am sure it will compare to 110mm format.

Why would it be worse? Yes, it is smaller, but the reason for that is well explained. sensors like their light comming straight at them, not on an angle as it does closer to the edges of 35mm film.

 

I wouldn't brush it off for reason of being smaller.

Already covered extensively in this thread:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=005bfi

Too little, too late, way too expensive.<p>

 

The biggest Olympus dealer in town has decided not to carry the E-1 system because of the pricing; it simply will not be able to compete with the Canon, Nikon, and Fuji systems (which in addition to being much less expensive, also appear to offer better image quality, based on the reviews of the pre-production E-1).<p>

I was a long-time OM system user, and the OM-4T is one of my all-time favourite cameras. The OM system died, I think, as much because of Olympus's terrible, out-of-touch marketing department as anything else, and I'm sure the E-1 will suffer the same fate. Olympus should stick to what they now seem to know best - cheap P&S cameras.

Also these 2 threads:

 

Olympus E-1 SLR announced

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=005MGY

 

Olyympus first with digital camera/lens closed loop?

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=005plk

Not even close. OM is a work of art, a tool, a classic that will still be around in 10 years. E1 is a camera that costs too much and delivers too little, and frankly will not be around in 5 years.

 

Now if Oly, took the OM-4Ti and could work a digital sensor into it....Leave it manual focus, same lenses, etc, just replace back, then they would have someting really cool!!!

I agree with your thoughts about the conversion of the OM-4Ti to digital Thom, but I can't ever see it happening (oh, well...).