It’s back i Stock in limited quantity: The refurbished E-M1 for $1,039 at GetOlympus (Click here). The full list of refurbished US cameras can be found here.
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37 Responses
In amazon com there is an offer for $969.99. The only fair price for this good – but otherwise heavily overpriced – toy.
Yawn, we know your legend of the overpriced E-M1.
Funny, you bought your E-M1 for what money? Probably twice more. In your place would be angry if a year later the thing lost most of its value.
Opposite to you, apparently, I don’t buy photographic product to sell them and to retain as much money, but to use them. A good price / value relation, which is given pperfectly with the E-M1, is of course Important.
Tell me any digital camera, that does not loose significant value in a short time of usage. Also, Olympus maintains its original price for their OM-D bodies much longer than most vendors. It can do that, because the OM-Ds are so popular.
Recently hyped cameras, like the Sony A7 bodies and most DSLRs lost their value a lot quicker.
Why don’t you stop repeating that you don’t like Olympus and the E-M1 in particular like a broken record. Give us any reason why this camera is worse than the competition and why it is worthless.
I have said it many times. It is far from worthless. But it is 20% weaker in its ISO capacity, the most important parameter, than the E-PM2 – that costs four times less. This is DXoMark measurement, not my subjective idea. The reason: because instead of using the powerful Sony sensor Olympus decided to cut costs using the old Pana sensor, at the same time asking an exorbitant price for the product. In the world market, however, usually one pays the bill for such behaviour, eventually. That’s what’s happening.
Again, DxOMark seems to be your holy grail of judging a photographic product’s quality. By no means is the ISO quality of the E-M1 20% weaker than that of the E-PM2. In fact, by visual inspection, most people are absolutely satisfied with the High ISO performance of the E-M1 given the smaller sensor size.
As usual, there are tradeoffs to be made. In order to have a smaller camera system, one need to accept a smaller sensor and to sacrifice a little in high ISO BQ. That tradeoff is acceptable for many. The E-M1 has the advantage of being a high end body in a small package. That can’t be said from the E-PM2.
Obviously your preference for Pentax is because you can’t accept the small tradeoffs. That is fine, but it should not be a reason to start campaigning here for personal reason, for which Olympus cannot be made responsible. The market completely backs the price level of the E-M1 because of the high demand. If one cannot afford it – so what? That’s life, but no reason to whine in public fora.
Canons and Nikons don’t “loose” so much so quickly. But to be honest, they are in another league, and so are many of their users.
You pay $969 for toys?
You should sign your post Jankoff Hasselblad III.
What we all here do is buy grown-up boys’ toys, notorious for being very expensive. And I have another domain to look after, being also a hi-end lover. So when Olympus are trying to charge me much more than could possibly be deemed acceptable, I act eye for an eye.
How do you act ‘eye for eye’? You also charge more than could possibly be deemed acceptable?
I do not charge, I offer advice, completely free.
I don’t think eye for an eye means what you think it does.
If the M1 is a ‘toy’, what does that make the PM2? And please don’t carry on about the sensor and Dxomark, we’ve all heard that multiple times. I’m talking about controls and features.
Gone again! It seems like they only ever have a couple during the 15-20% or yank them just before to avoid discounting them further. At just under $900 I’m in, but when they are over $1,000 I just can’t justify it.
I totally agree.
Exactly! I’ve been saying this over and over again since this thing got launched. Its fair price is below the $1000 mark.
I always feel like getolympus.com is pulling a bait and switch with these 15-20% sales.
Most buyers would not be interested in a M43 small sensor camera for more than $999 new, consider the full frame A7 is there for $1300. Lens collection is only somewhat important for Sony’s case when most Sony buyers would want to use Leica M, Contax g or mm or RF lenses or vintage carl Zeiss Jena lens anyway. I have owned several Olympus SHG lenses and e professional bodies. Sadly FT system head to mostly dead after people discovered the sensor was too small and the camera size was too big.
That’s cool if all you want is to manually focus everything, not have weather-sealing, no IBIS, and slower shot-to-shot times/AF. For those that care ONLY about pure IQ you are right. For those that take all the factors involved in taking pictures, you’ll understand why Oly and Panny are doing fine with m43s.
But they are not doing fine, they re the laughing stock of the camera world.
Olympus is up 30% in the past year, much of that as a result of camera sales. They’re fine.
“… most Sony buyers would want to use Leica M, Contax g or mm or RF lenses or vintage carl Zeiss Jena lens anyway.”
Are you wearing your ascot and smoking your pipe as you type that?
The large amount of refurbished sale from Olympus is worrying. Why do so mant customers return their camera?
I don’t see such high numbers in Panasonic.
First, I don’t think there really are that many available of the popular, current items. I’ve been watching for the $639 deal on the 12-40mm f2.8 PRO that appears regularly but always is out of stock. I suspect very few are available or, as Uberzone alluded, they are just part of a bait-and-switch scheme. Second, the getolympus.com sites states that refurbished items are “defined as any product that has been returned by our retail partners.” These can be demo models, open-box products, or items that have been physically blemished in shipping. They are not necessarily customer returns.
I’m trying to snag the 12-40 when it pops up as well. Darned if it doesn’t seem to be out every time I see it appear. I did snag a 60mm from the refurb shop and havent regretted it a bit. In fact I like the 60mm alot more than I expected(having bought it mostly for macro work).
Yes, the 12-40 is also overpriced. The FT 12-60, a great lens with a better reach, was less expensive at launch. Why should this thing cost more?
because it’s constant aperture? because it’s smaller? to make you mad?
The price is fair if you need it. If you are just a broke troll with visions of em1s and 12-40’s dancing in your head, it’s a maddeningly overpriced. If you spent half as much time working as you do trolling 43rumors, you’d have the money for an em-1 and 12-40 in no time at all…
just saying
“you’d have the money for an em-1 and 12-40 in no time at all”
No, I wouldn’t swap 12-60 for the 12-40. 12-60 has better reach and is, I suspect, sharper, in spite of the 12-40 constant aperture (no DXoMark rating for 12-60). No big difference in terms of weight and bulk. 12-40 terribly cumbersome on all smaller bodies. Not on E-M1 only – which is overpriced and with a weaker sensor than the E-PM2. Worry about my money? I have enough. But no, I wouldn’t buy the E-M1, for reasons already stated.
Who cares how it handles on smaller bodies. They will always be best with primes. The gh,g,and om-d series however, are perfectly sized to match the 12-40, and feel comfortable with it. You might not care about the extra stop on the long end but alot of folks do, especially when the long end of a wide zoom is expected to do duty as a portrait lens, or serve under inadequate lighting. The narrower depth of field will also be a benefit at 40mm, which can be challenging at the shorter focal ranges with our sensor size anyways. I find my 60mm 2.8 to be barely fast enough for the kind of dof I like in portraiture, or just to adequately isolate a subject, so I’m sure that the 12-60 at 60 would do me no good at the long end for it’s most likely use…
Clearly you love the epm2. great. It’s no substitute for an om-d of any flavor if you like to have a viewfinder and actual tactile controls. unless maybe you prefer running your cameras in auto, in which case it’s all you might need.
no evf, no tilting lcd, no control dials. i suspect that means it’s a big ‘no’ to most of the users here, except maybe as a 2nd body/portable backup.
“my 60mm 2.8 to be barely fast enough for the kind of dof”
Another example, brilliant, of Olympus unfair pricing. If Olympus 60mm 2.8 is what is referred to, here is another overpriced product. The Sigma 60mm blows the Olympus 60mm out of the water, being sharper and with better transmission: http://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Compare/Side-by-side/Olympus-MZUIKO-DIGITAL-ED-60mm-F28-Macro-versus-Sigma-60mm-F28-DN-A-Mount-43___897_0_1103_0 The Sigma 60mm, a terrific portrait maker, costs MORE THAN THREE TIMES LESS (see today’s Idealo de lowest prices – 164:549). As for viewfinders and control, I use my E-PM2 with the EV-4, a better solution, viewfinder can be removed. The E-PM2 has all the control possibilities, although not direct dials. And the price E-PM2 with the EV-4 is more than twice less than that of E-M1 with its 20% weaker ISO capacity.
Have you ever seen demos, even at B&H? Cameras with mirrors exposed, etc. fingers, etcI wouldn’t go within 10 feet of that.
“I suspect very few are available or, as Uberzone alluded, they are just part of a bait-and-switch scheme.”
I got the 12-40 refurb, because I wrote a script to check the Oly page every few minutes automatically and let me know when it got posted.
It’s really nothing to whine about — you just aren’t checking often enough.
I worked in factories all through college – 95% of refurbished units never left the wholesaler; they got screwed up somewhere along the way (often in the factory or during shipping) and needed extra attention.
QC of refurbs is WAY higher than QC of regular regular product.
Also, you don’t see such high numbers of Panasonic because they don’t go out of their way to sell them to you like Oly does. Most likely, Panny refurbs get dumped on the Asian market, or go straight to secondary.
Olympus, you are on the right track. When this thing reaches the correct $800 mark, even I may buy it. In spite of the weak sensor, shamefully weaker in the ISO department than the E-PM2.
Bang that drum. You may actually help Oly sell a few of those things.
“Refurbished” is new lingo for “bought, disliked and returned”, or “bought, broken and returned”. In old lingo, those prices are still stupidly high. Corporate suicide high.
What rock have you been living under? All the manufacturers do refurbs. Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, etc. Have been for years. I was buying refurb Canon lenses from B&H twelve years ago. (and having some whiners complain about pricing suggests they’re hitting the mark; standard econ 101, if you’re pricing so everyone’s happy you’re leaving money on the table)
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Panasonic-Refurbished-Outlet/_i.html?_sasi=1&_sid=1198999454&_trksid=p4634.m322
http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/cameras/refurbished-eos-digital-slr-cameras
http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Store/Refurbished-Cameras.page
Refurbished Apple products don’t last long in their store. Stupidly high prices have been suicide for Apple, haven’t they, just look at their current market value.
Cheap P&S have been the bane of the industry.