Olympus selling its Camera Division

I saw the announcment on BBC news and was a little saddened. In the 1980s and 90s I was an Olympus OM2 user. I worked for the Nature Conservation agencies and did a lot of insect photography. Olympus was the clear leader in macro gear at the time with a bigger range of macro lenses, their excellent twin macro flash and accessoris like the helicord extension tube. It came as a big diapointment when digital came along and Olympus just ditched their existing user base and produced entirely incompatible gear. I could understand this for the lenses since the geometry of the new bodies was different, but why make the flash gear incomparible? It seemed they were following the Apple model of force your customer base to rebuy new gear every so often. The nail in the cofin for me was when they stuck to the Micro 4/3 format and did not seek to compete in the high end DSLR market. So I moved to Canon, the decision being almost enntriely driven by the MP-E65 macro lens - no other mannefacturer offers anything even close for insect photography. I am not surprised they have bailed out. The financial scandal in 2016 must have cost them an awful lot and they haven't managed to get back into profit since. There must come a point where that cannoy be sustained.
 
I remember when Olympus were restructuring after the financial/ management scandal that Sony took a serious financial stake in the company.
I wonder what influence that is having on the decision,,, could be quite messy.
 
Sony is into all kinds of image sensors - cameras, phones (now with multiple cameras), cars, security. Huge potential.

I think that was the point I was making, unless you meant selling cameras with your own sensors was good publicity for selling sensors in other markets.

And when I said company representatives, I meant company presidents, CEOs etc, rather than company reps, but in practice I try to assess the credibility of any source I listen to, use multiple sources, and take them all with a pinch of salt, but at the end of the day you have to make decisions based on some sort of information base.
 
I remember when Olympus were restructuring after the financial/ management scandal that Sony took a serious financial stake in the company.
I wonder what influence that is having on the decision,,, could be quite messy.
Yes, but Olympus bought it back from Sony some time ago.
 
Fuji have said a few times that their Fuji cameras are a sort of "hobby" for them to reflect their history and passion for photography, and that they don't make enough money from them to justify keeping them going from a purely business point of view.

And I've also read more than once that compared to their other products, the Sony cameras don't make enough money to justify keeping them going from a business point of view either and there is steady pressure from inside Sony for them to dump their still camera business.

It would seem that selling stills cameras is indeed a very difficult business to be in :-(
I think you have nailed it there. Difficult everywhere. I hope that there will be some good news foor Olympus staff and users soon.
 
I am a Canon user - I tried Olympus once and didn't get on with it (possibly me). However I really hope they keep going people take great photos* with them and the TG5 + seems to be the only way to take photos underwater and have change for £1K.

*I have not seen any printed on a large size but I assume that they work fine.
 
I still have my OM1 kit with 50 F1.4 28 f2.8, 35 f2.8 and 135 f2.8 lenses... and Xa and Xa2, with all varieties of flashes, well as my classic Olympus trip in pouch.
You can't erase history.
 
I think that was the point I was making, unless you meant selling cameras with your own sensors was good publicity for selling sensors in other markets.

Yes, that's what I meant. I think you could make a very good case for it.

And when I said company representatives, I meant company presidents, CEOs etc, rather than company reps, but in practice I try to assess the credibility of any source I listen to, use multiple sources, and take them all with a pinch of salt, but at the end of the day you have to make decisions based on some sort of information base.

I can't think of an example of a senior executive telling the truth in difficult times, even when pointed questions have been repeatedly asked. Just the opposite - denials, smoke and mirrors in the accounts, and empty promises.
 
Yes, that's what I meant. I think you could make a very good case for it.

I can't think of an example of a senior executive telling the truth in difficult times, even when pointed questions have been repeatedly asked. Just the opposite - denials, smoke and mirrors in the accounts, and empty promises.

I thought you had forgotten the subject and 'wandered off' into the political arena with that statement ? o_O
 
I can't think of an example of a senior executive telling the truth in difficult times, even when pointed questions have been repeatedly asked. Just the opposite - denials, smoke and mirrors in the accounts, and empty promises.

I think we all have experiences of this, but I suspect we are more likely to remember the examples of smoke and mirrors that any examples of them telling the truth.
 
Sony bought Minolta, and dropped support for Minolta products almost immediately (like my film scanner, which could easily still work with new software, if any was made).

Vuescan has supported my Minolta scanner for a long time.
 
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