The worse financial results and fee scandal forced Olympus to seek for a new partnership. And according to the new Olympus president Sasa Sony (along other) made an official offer (Source Der Spiegel).
My guess is that Sony is interested in the medical business from Olympus, which is very healthy and profitable. What I don’t know if it’s good for Sony to join another new business. Sony is already facing a hard time in many sectors (like for example the TV business).
From a digital camera strategy point of view Sony could force Olympus to jump out of the Micro Four Thirds ship and join the NEX system. I don’t know if that is just a forced speculation or a real plan. Would be good for the NEX system, bad for Panasonic. I think it would be a good new for NEX users havng Olympus on board!
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Olympus just could make their zuiko for alpha and nex. Also Olympus could release some ff with sony’s sensor.
Or we could choose which sensor to use, and only e-mount lenses will be released from after the strategic alliance.. 🙂
Agreed. I’d rather have Zuiko making lenses for Sony instead of Olympus ditching the 43 bandwagon.
will Oly fans get mad like N fanboys?
LOL that was my thinking as well..
why would they be mad?Cause even their most anticipated camera has a competitor sensor inside (panasonic).
Olympus Alpha E lenses would be great.
Panasonic won’t be the losers but the m4/3rds users would be at great loss.
OTOH, is Sony would make sensors for the m4/3rds.. that would be very nice as well. 🙂
OR better yet!
they could assign the camera body manufacturing to Sony and leave the lens making to Olympus-Zuiko: who would buy an overpriced zeiss when they could get a zuiko?! or, worse, the sony jar glass they make their lenses with.
“From a digital camera strategy point of view Sony could force Olympus to jump out of the Micro Four Thirds ship and join the NEX system.”..what???..jump from the best mirrorless system to the ugliest system…I think harakiri is less painful for Olympus workers!!!
How old are you? I mean, how could you come out with NEX being “the ugliest system”? Are you just a troll or simply uneducated to say something like that?
this is only my opinion based on my 3 month sony nex5n use!
Too bad, I left my EP3 in a dust after getting a nex5n. IQ is simply far beyond. And you can tell the different on 24×36 printout or when viewed in Higher screen resolution than 1600.
Yes, not in real life, such Facebook or flickr. But then again, some people dont care about IQ, its about how compact and how weatherproof the camera is. For me, I choose IQ above all.
I have a imac and i usually print big size…no difference at all when I print the photo and pen is much more a photography tool then the sony nex…that is much more a playstation tool
Yep, Troll.
3 simple steps: buy -> cannibalize -> scrap
The Hoya method!
Depends what “partnership” means.
Sony trouble in TV business?
I got a Sony Bravia tv, excellent tv I would say.
I just miss a web-browser in TV, maybe in 1-3 years it will be standard.
ummm I heard something about Sony struggling in TV business…maybe loosing ground against Samsung and LG. And Samsung-Sony joint venture broke a few months ago in screen development if I’m not mistaken, so there’s a lot of things going around in TV division.
Sony could eventually provide sensors for Oly m4/3. They don’t have to make a 4/3 system to compete with Panasonic and Canon’s 4/3.
I wonder how the current 4/3 lenses perform on larger sensors.
I think you got it the other way around. Sony could be entering the m43 market, not Olympus entering the NEX market. Why ? Because as technology advances, the smaller sensor will produce smaller cameras and lenses with the same image quality as today’s NEX cameras (E-M5 is an example), without the huge bulky lenses of the NEX system, which could never be made smaller due to physics. So the future belongs to m43.
That said, I will buy a NEX camera because none of the present good m43 cameras are affordable (read: E-M5).
too bad you can’t create a huge dynamic range and a better control of depth of field in smaller sensors.
…you make me laugh… in real life you can’t see 1 stop more dr and a little more dof…..pls be serious!
You made me laugh too. 🙂 i assume you have not tried to use both type of cameras before.
I have an epl1 and in december 2011 i bought sony nex5n .I had high hopes for the camera…3 months later i sold the camera…that’s my experience.
Try to shoot a landscape with nex 5N and the best micro43 camera available.Side by side comparison. And I will tell the different easily. Remember, a photograph is not a real life. It is a still image.
You might not be able to see the different in ‘real life’, but in a photograph you can, easily.
I shot several landscape shoots and with the right exposure It’s really hard to see the difference… I shoot portrait too and i see horrible sony skin colour compared to oly.
Software will eventually provide DOF control.
ya realize ya just contradicted yourself, ya genius! if its THAT good, why dontcha get it now and invest in the glass, huh?! or dontcha trust yr own ability to afford the e-5 later?
what makes the e-5 so good, anyways?! iso is tweaked and it barely caught up to the likes of NEX3/5, not even remotely in the league of the 5N or 7.
youz consumer walking contradictions are the laugh of marketing as they can sway you geniuses the EASIEST !
get well soon, tho!
Hopefully it will be Fuji not Sony joining the m43rds band wagon.
Invest in what ? I am an amateur looking for a good camera for a year or two, with only one lens 🙂 NEX will do it for now, but in a year or two, when pocketable m43 cameras with the IQ of the NEX-5n will become a reality, it will be history.
you’re just reaching, kid! just be thankful sony went the nex way and not the crappy m43 way and stop behaving like the drunkard lunatic that scolds drunkards: NEX is the best brew of ’em all, just gulp it up and Njoy!
word!
And in a year or two, the nex camera will match or perpahps better IQ than the Nikon d800 or the other Full Frame cameras today.
But again, for amateurs who are looking for substitute of P&S camera, m43 is the camera to start with.
Yes, in a year or two we will see at least 12 new NEX cameras. But they will still have 1,5 crappy kit lenses and one good 1000€ Zeiss beast.
To take good pictures you need some good lenses. The camera does not matter the same way like lenses do. IMHO a good system is characterised through the availability of good accessories.
+ 100…nex owner shot without lens their sensor is sooooo good that they need no lens! 😉
when m43 cameras get the IQ level of NEX-5N, new generation NEX-series cameras will be step forward in sensor performance don’t you think?
Still think Oly lens designers is very best and they could produce lenses for NEX and 4/3, but Sony will supply sensors for both systems.
Maybe we will see some Olympus A-mount lenses!
I suspect there’ll be no change in Olympus’ camera business at all if they form a partnership. Sony is interested in a profitable medical division not an unprofitable camera division.
Yeah, that’s my information too from several articles I read.
“(…) [b]medical[/b] business from Olympus, which is very [b]healthy[/b] and profitable.”
No pun intended, of course 🙂
Has anyone actually tried a 4/3 or m4/3 on an APS-C sensor to see how well it performs and how much of FOV is lost due the different sensor sizes?
Anybody up for an OM-9?
Anybody up for an a9-E?
OK so first Leica and Minolta make lenses together. Then Konica Minolta join. Then Sony buys KM. Then Zeiss affilliation. Then Oly is absorbed…
… dirty sluts.
Yes, later on Leica partnered with Panasonic, which partenered with Olympus on m4/3.
We’re one connection away from having both native AF Zeiss and AF Leica lenses on Sony sensors.
Oly has the better jpeg engine and lenses on m4/3. Sony has the better sensors. One company is traditional optics and the other technology. Both compete for mirrorless sales.
I think SONY will force Olympus to use their sensors at first. SONY chip division seems have strong say.
It’s very likely that Sony will just takeover everything related to sensor techs from Olympus – especially patents (cause their sensor tech itself is crap).
As for the cameras and lenses – I don’t think there will be any merger. What I hope for is using some of lenses patents to make APS-C equivalents for A and E-mount when possible, but I doubt anything beyond that will happen.
If Sony force Olympus to abandon 43, it will be hated by all 43 users, I think Sony will not do that.
It will be better if M43 lens can AF on NEX cameras and E-mount lenses can AF on M43 camera, with adaptors of course.
I don’t know what “partnership” entails in this context but forcing Olympus to join Nex sound stupid if they could even do it. The point should be to make Olympus profitable again and abandoning their current userbase would not be the way to go. The m43 is a very healthy system at the moment and I think it makes a better compromise than the NEX. going NEX would alienating a lot of olympus users forcing them into the arms of panasonic. It might be good for the NEX in the short term but doing that would probably be a disaster for olympus meaning no use for the NEX in the long term. It would also be very costly for Olympus as they have to start all over again with the lenses and cameras.
A sensor partnership makes more sense. If Olympus can get a better deal on sensors than they do from panasonic it might help them and Sony gets a guarantee that the NEX really gets better IQ due to the larger sensor as they use the same technology (assuming their glass keeps up that is).