Olympus esce definitivamente dal settore fotocamere!

“ ma chi nn capisce che la minaccia arriva da li e sarà sempre più pressante intermini di erosione è cieco „

“ It's on employment and DoCoMo message boards for engineers, some of whom I work with. I am sure most is speculation, but posts going back months are about engineers leaving and not being replaced. They are production oversight. When they leave, the product lines are stopping. At least one is permanently back from Vietnam. That is lens assembly. Apparently the optics are made in Japan, but not getting to Vietnam as HQ isn't willing to bleed money. Covid is cover for a lot of this. Like with the Fukushima quake, everything is just stopping. With Olympus apparently it really is stopping.

Photography is a huge pastime in Japan, up there with gardening and fishing. Second only to food appreciation. Everyone knows the brands and pretty much every household has a camera or two in addition to smartphones. People don't really follow stocks so much as corporate culture and practices. Olympus has a rep for being technically excellent, but with corrupt managers and “good old boys” who undermine hardworking employees. It's a top tier employer with a global brand, so it is watched by many. The culture is often opaque, but when people eventually open up, they are usually precise. It's very trial and error, so there is a lot of discussion about how and why things go wrong. Retrospective and introspective and thorough.

Micro 43 is very popular here. Full frame not so much as the lenses are simply too big. Compactness is a virtue. Being bulky and heavy is frowned on. Olympus is heavily criticized for their 1.2 primes, but loved for the telephoto lenses because they are much smaller. There is much less discussion about overall IQ because most photos are now shared online. 1” sensors are popular, too. The culture is more appreciative of a subtle, small approach. Lugging an RP with the 24-70/2 around would be seen as overdoing it. Japan is an export culture, though. So if Americans obsess with IQ overkill and that sets part of the market, then that's a (crop) factor.

If JIP is transitioning Olympus to new ownership, then they will focus (sic) on Asia only where the whole FF vs smaller formats debate is almost non-existent. It's kind of like toilets where the Japanese make a vastly superior product but the non-Asian West lacks innovation common sense in favor of a single attribute, like size or price. Getting rid of the American market is often seen as good because it's becoming less and less important. But the Asian and especially Chinese markets are difficult for obvious reasons. All I can say after extensive beer and sake talks with photo club members over the last day is that JIP isn't in photography as a primary manufacturer. They are either there to part out Olympus or prep it for sale to a conglomerate entity. There is some sense that this is a shot across Pansonic's bow. 43 might only be able to support a single supplier, but Panasonic alone would have to drop the smaller sensor. Micro 43 has been dependent on Olympus for survival. On that everyone agrees. If Olympus falls out completely, then the format is likely dead. The value in Olympus is likely in its optics. IBIS and other tech has been incorporated elsewhere. Going to JIP means that a lot of the on-house tech simply isn't ahead anymore. „

“ Lo smartphone sarà sempre più usato per la fotografia perché ha dato la possibilità di usare la fotografia come linguaggio comunicativo „