This week Olympus made many additions to the sorry mess that is their current camera offering.
I’ve long felt very positive about Olympus and what I thought the brand stood for – compact, tough and innovative, with great optics – but quit a couple of years back. Nothing I’ve seen since – such as the E3.1 E5 – makes me regret that but their latest offer is alienating me even more. If you want to carry on like this, Olympus, here’s what you’ll do next:
- Add another four versions of the same camera to the six that already exist.
- Give them names with an ‘E’ in, plus two or three other random numbers and letters. Make sure there isn’t any logic or consistency to the names.
- Make the cameras very good looking so they appeal to people who want to show each other what a stylish looking item they’ve just bought, not to people to take photos.
- Exclude things actually useful for taking photos, such as a viewfinder and any way of easily holding the cameras, such as a grip. (Please note, a camera only needs an accessory viewfinder because it doesn’t have a viewfinder. Would you offer me an accessory shutter?)
- And to really upset me, offer at least one really appealing lens, maybe an f2.0 24mm prime, to really emphasise the uselessness of the bodies.
If this post reads a little like the rant of a disappointed lover, well, y’know…
Ricoh has just bought Pentax, and Thom Hogan thinks that before too long Olympus will sell out their camera division to Panasonic. There’s another brand I wish I could get more enthusiastic about, but that’s another story.
An Olympus Camera With An E and Some Other Stuff In The Name But No Viewfinder