Miquel Àngel Garcia, manager of Olympus Spain (Image courtesy Quesabesde).
Panasonic already did it silently…drop the FT development. And today Olympus manager Miguel Àngel Garcia from Olympus Spain described Olympus exit strategy from the Four Thirds world. He “confessed” that in late 2013 Olympus will announce a Miro Four Thirds camera that will integrate 100% full support on Four Thirds lenses. There will be no classic E-7 FT camera, the “hybrid” camera will be the real E-5 replacement. It will have a DSLR feeling while having the MFT size advantage. The camera is something completely new and Olympus is developing it since 2009.
I guess no one here is really surprised to hear that. And I suspect Sony and other manufacturers will soon do the same, drop the classic DSLR development in favour of a full mirrorless system.
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From my perspective: Very good news. The concept of the original FT system has been superseeded. That system never got to the point of actually delivering on its promise of low size and weight (maybe for some bodies, but definitely not for the lenses). And, given the low market penetration of classic FT, it makes much more sense concentrating on Micro Four Thirds instead of trying to keep alive a dead horse. The good news is that we get to keep the best of both worlds: compact, modern mirrorless bodies, with full time AF and support for the fine classic four thirds optics. A win-win scenario. Existing classic four thirds users will see their investment in lenses revalorized, and micro four thirds users will be able to access a large pool of high quality glass. Great news, indeed.
Nico, I see that you and admin are still wanking each other off. Do you two like going to gay bars at night or do you two just do it here on this site?
It is good to have that clarity. DSLRs, who want them, eh?
Interesting, but I wonder if this “confession” might turn out to be similar to the statement by Olympus France that the EPL5 didn’t have an anti-aliasing filter…
Not unexpected but I’m not so sure about this:
“And I suspect Sony and other manufacturers will soon do the same, drop the classic DSLR development in favour of a full mirrorless system.”
Sony’s current strategy is clear; keep working on both mirrorless and SLT with the SLT focused on FF. I suppose that they will drop SLT like a hot coal when they can’t see any profit in it but I think it will take time before mirrorless can replace FF and sony want’s to play with the big boys.
Canon obviously wants to do the same, develop a parallel mirrorless system so that they can keep their customers when APS-C dSLR slowly goes away. FF stay dSLR though.
The problem is what Nikon and Pentax is going to do. Both get their main income from dSLR and neither got any real alternative for the enthusiast in the mirrorless market. Q and 1-system are both interesting niches but can’t compete in image quality. GXR do have the image quality potential but is far to niche. K-01 was a fun one time deal but wouldn’t be able to compete. Pentax did make a comment that they “considered FF mirrorless but decided to go with APS-C”.
I guess that they will stay in the dSLR long term but that they are also looking for a real APS-C mirrorless solution. Will they join another mount or will they create their own? I would guess that they would be welcome in all the existing mounts except Canon EF-M and possible Sony. Fuji, Samsung and m43 got everything to gain on expanding their mounts to more brands.
drats. i guess we’ll never see an e-1 with the om-d sensor, a bigger lcd, and built-in image stabilization.
Olympus downsized the OM-D so much that they had to omit a built-in flash and a fully-articulated screen, both of which I consider essential. Olympus also seem reluctant to install +-2ev exposure bracketing, the sweep panorama, and the twilight modes now common in other makes.
I’m looking to replace my E-30 and discounted the OM-D for the above reasons. In case the new model also lacks the above features I reckon I’ll be changing to something like the SLT-A99.