The latest issue of Amateur Photography Magazine reports this:
Olympus may assemble more cameras in Vietnam, where labour costs are lower, Olympus president Hiroyuki Sasa says. The Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II, is already made there, with more models possibly to follow.
Don’t know if that’s actually bad or good news…
64 Responses
It’s good news if they are providing a living wage and suitable working conditions. If they’re just exploiting people then it’s very, very bad news.
Well said!
Well said !
I am sure Olympus are moving production to a low wage
economy to improve the lives of locals lol. Olympus has lost 100’s of millions
of dollars in its camera division going back a decades. If it wasn’t for their
long history of camera and lens manufacture they would have shut down their camera
division years ago. The only reason it has survived is thanks to their very profitable
medical imaging division
All EM5 II’s are made in Vietnam? I never looked to see where mine is made, but I’ve owned it since it came out, and it’s built beautifully and works perfectly. So I don’t see a problem with quality. I also hope the workers are earning fair wages, and I would prefer to pay a little more for my camera knowing the person who assembled it is eating well.
It doesn’t really matter where they make them, as long as they can make sure QC is reliable.
And hopefully those lower labour costs are not because they take advantage of the workers there. This is way too common in many Asian countries.
Average wage in China (P.R.C.) now at about USD$700 per month versus USD$100 in Vietnam. Seven times more!
Sorry, Olympus; own an EM5 MkII – very good build quality, but not Made in China quality. Just look at protective rubber covers for pins for hand grip (hdl-). They are made from very cheap rubber, constantly falling off. The ones on original EM5 and EM1 are perfect.
On one of my additional batteries “finished in Vietnam” they couldn’t even put the sticker in the right spot.
Vietnam is fine, but give us better quality control.
EM5 MkII not so sure about the build quality claim I have seen multiple problem reports including several with LCD coming loose or falling off.
I owned a wonderful E-m10 and later an E-m1. The wonder did not last too long. And the service here was not too overwhelming either. Hopefully a single experience and a pity for such a ingenious idea of a system. But quality lacks and will presumably not increase if made in Vietnam. The dilemma of m43 is, that main stream does not believe how good it is and is not ready to pay for what it is. That lead to cuts in QC and now there is a real problem within the system. Same hight price for made in Vietnam, I doubt I will return?
Hmmm….I have owned 4 Olympus cameras…only one problem E-P5 and it was sent, repaired and returned in 10 days. I call that a very decent track record…but we all have differing experiences I guess.
I’ve owned two Olympus cameras. The first wouldnt hold the date setting. Was told this was a “feature” by Oly CS.
The second came with a defective kit lens.
4 Panasonics in and they’re a rock.
Produce in low-pay country for lower production cost or for maximize the profit?
Olympus business report:
http://www.olympus-global.com/en/common/pdf/brief147PA_5.pdf
Conclusion: The imaging division has an minus but the is less than 2014 or the 2014. The minus in imaging is not a problem only for Olympus alone, but rather a generally problem for nearly all manufacturer. I think it’s not a problem only from the smartphones rather to less significant new innovations!
Back to the report, the profit all over divisions from Olympus is increasing!
So, make the cameras for much cheaper, yet pass off no savings to the consumer… Profit.
A profitable company can remain in business and develop future innovative products.
If you were okay with Olympus products pricing before, why complain if they can make it cheaper. Never put your hands in another man’s pockets.
MrALLCRAP is anti anything Olympus and wouldn´t use one even if he got it for free.
What do you know about business and greed?
Ret@rd or Richard is it?? What do you know about business and greed?
And make themselves profitable.
Haven’t you been saying for years that they can’t continue to lose money and then when they made a profit recently, that it wouldn’t continue.
The good news is that they’ll be around for a long time and you’ll be able to continue to complain about them.
I used to work for a large telecommunications manufacturing company, and they had factories in Vietnam build their phones … back in the early to mid 90s. So Vietnam has been producing complex electronics equipment for over a decade. As long as they have a quality certification (e.g., ISO 9000 certified), they should be fine.
It is a common misconception to relate ISO9000 certification to quality. ISO9000 only checks that you manufacturing paper trail is carried out according to the process defined in the standard. That’s all.
I can produce gadgets that fall apart on first use, and still be OK per ISO9000 as long as the production process, customer complaints and corrective actions are well documented and the paper flow is well taken care of.
I doubt that very much. I’d like to see a quality management system which has passed accreditation for a company producing tat that falls apart after one use. Personally I think this is just a myth and having been a quality manager for a group of manufacturing companies and being involved with product accreditation I can tell you that I’ve never seen anything like the scenario you describe.
ISO9000 actually does mean higher quality. Documentation of processes, manufacturing paper trails, corrective actions, etc…all form the basis of a quality environment. If you follow the documented process, you will naturally have a better quality product than a company that doesn’t.
It’s like saying you can get a passing grade in a class just by doing and turning in all your homework without learning anything. Technically that could be true. However, the reality is if you actually do your homework, you will in general learn more than the person that doesn’t do their homework.
I hardly think Olympus would let QC slip because of a different country of manufacture. It reflects back on Olympus & will affect its future so it is in Olympus’s interest to keep up the high level of QC (one hopes anyhow).
Keep feeding us our addictions I guess.
lowers production costs, not our prices 😉
…and quality Mattias
Oh how cute, you’ve gone and become obsessed with me. (In a slightly disturbing delusional way since you think I’m someone else) but none the less I’m flattered to have caught your attention and given you something to look forwards to every day on this web page. Tell me, do you sit in front of your computer hour after hour reloading each 43rumors update, anxiously hoping for Mattias to write something you can comment on? Does it make you feel like a little girl backstage at a boyband concert?
There goes Olympus quality.
Because people in Vietnam aren’t able to use their hands as well?
wake up moron. Companies employing lower skilled equates to crap products…..
That conclusion would be racist now wouldn’t it. How about the contractors that Olympus partners with may have passed initial audit and inspection of first articles, but after that, in most cases, quality takes a dive. I know that first hand, I work in new product development and have see every horror story there is see.
I remember when ‘made in Japan’ was a pejorative. I don’t think quality will suffer if appropriate QC is present. It is likely most of the work will be assembly with most components manufactured elsewhere.
1955 Doc: No wonder this circuit failed. It says “Made in Japan”.
Marty: What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan.
1955 Doc: Unbelievable.
Typical……cut quality and increase profits…….lose customers
LOL. I bet all those E-M10ii owners with defective mounts are happy to hear the production costs will be headed even lower.
Olympus, you are turning into the Chevy/GM of the camera industry. I will never buy a new camera from you. Only heavily discounted refurbs, which there are plenty these days 😉
Most of consumer camera are made in China… Honestly with the high tech shop build now in Vietnam, it is probably better than an old american shop…
The transpacific deal make it even cheaper by flattening the custom taxes.
I’m just speaking of my personal opinion of Oly. In my hands they have been defective and problematic. Forum complaints seem to point to poor manufacturing/materials in some cases.
IF Oly said today “we’re moving our manufacturing to Japan”, it would change my opinion in an instant.
Instead, Oly said they are going even lower on manufacturing costs. Not good.
Many cameras are manufactured in Thailand. They don’t seem to have any issues using Thailand as a manufacturing base. Even many more highly technical products are also made in Thailand. Do you think that the Vietnamese are less skilled than the Thais when it comes to manufacturing? I think that they are definitely one step up from the Chinese.
Thailand, is not a bad country, it’s even the only country during WII where there was peace.
I think Switzerland, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and Portugal might disagree with you.
My 60mm Macro and my 45mm f1.8 are both made in Vietnam and the quality is not worth or better than with my Olympus products that are produced in China or even Japan. If they can safe money – why not?
That’s interesting. My 60mm macro lens was made in China.
“My 60mm macro lens was made in China.”
As are the 7-14 Pro, 12-40 Pro, and 40-150 Pro.
Only lenses of me that are made in Japan are the 25mm f1.8, the 12-60mm SWD and the 50-200mm SWD.
On a BBC report July-2015:
In global rankings published by the OECD in May 2015, based on science and maths, Vietnam was ranked 12th, while the US was in joint 28th.
We used to think made in Korea & China were cheap, look at them now!
Quality of a company is at the top, not at the bottom, Just ask Apple.
Just ask Apple. That’s in the US. That’s in 28th place?
US has the most active science search activities in the world, but also the most fool popular in the world. It’s not surprising
We have shipped jobs overseas so business leaders can get bigger bonuses and stock appreciation. Meanwhile they pay for politicians to reduce their taxes which get paid for by cutting education (among many other things).
Once the people who have been getting reamed by these policies wake up and realize that a black President is not the one pushing them into poverty there will be a revolt.
OTOH they are pretty ignorant.
Wow, a website that hates Panasonic AND Americans! We should buy only Panasonic branded M43 equipment! That’ll show the rest of the World!
Pisa test used by OECD is designed to test “secondary education level”.
That score is for American high school student from all races. Asian Americans did much better than Vietnamese students.
Again, this test is only for high school level, where discipline matters. It has nothing to do with higher education level or innovation environment.
Race to the bottom. The CEO’s need more money so lets move the company and pay the workers less in Vietnam.
I bet if most people saw where these cameras were made they’d never buy one. Out of sight out of mind.
My one Vietnam camera, the “original Kodak” Z990 aka Max, has excellent build quality. The operating system however was awful. And surprise – Olympus kit lenses are already made there.
They’d better lower costs by using sensors with global shutter and getting rid of the mechanical shutter with its precision assembly.
Although if the move would allow them to set competitive prices on their stuff, it would be great. As it is now they have incredibly hard time competing with, say, Sony a6000 (just $450 new from Amazon itself). I mean, E-M10 II and E-M5 II, without even OSPDAF and employing smaller and only 16 mpix sensor, have exactly NO chance at their current US prices. NO FKING CHANCE. They should be priced at about half of their current price to compete (which would make E-M10 II a little cheaper than a6000 and E-M5 II a little more expensive, as they should be according to their value). HALF!
Not a fair comparison, the a6000 for $450 doesn’t have a lens and has been on the market for more than a year and a half. The $800 E-M10 II is a new camera and comes with a lens.
OK, a6000 is $600 with a lens. I was talking about bodies only.
Bodies only you can get a first gen E-M10 body only for $450 too.
I am talking about 1st gen.
I guess you are certain that sensors with global shutters are easily available, cheap, high quality, appropriate size and res and with associated support hardware but that manufacturers are keeping this to themselves to cheat us.
If so I guess the rest of your market analysis is spot on too.
They are not cheap, but they will be available if ordered. Pay more for sensor, nothing for shutter and less for assembly. Get better product in the end.
So many ridiculous statements and opinions in this thread. . .
Ignorance and stupidity leading to racism.
I was a bit surprised to already find “made in china” on my new e-m1. Well, Olympus used to “made in japan” for all their products over some price tag (~600-800€). A bit disappointed, but still a great product :]
I agree with BLT – am surprised at some of the ignorant comments. I have several Vietnamese in my class and they are the best students, along with the Chinese. And, apparently many here forget that Samsung already has plants there. And, also forgotten is that the Vietnamese managed to beat the French and the USA.
Ignorant comments? You mean like “And, also forgotten is that the Vietnamese managed to beat the French and the USA.” ? Because the Vietnam War is so relevant to this right? By that logic, the USA defeating Japan in WW2 would mean that American cars are better, right? Riiiiight.