Olympus quits camera business after 84 years • Hacker News Board

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#161

Post by IMAYousaf » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:19 PM UTC

As someone with a huge photography itch and a gear nerd who actually isn't a practitioner, can someone with domain expertise in photography and cameras give some insights or predictions in to what they see as the future of photography?

I have a sophomoric understanding of the shift from SLR --> DSLR --> Sony led Mirrorless cameras.

Where do we go from here?

How do things like Hasselblad's X1D II entry level medium format shape up the market? Do more companies go down market? Do the Sonys of the world go upmarket?

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#162

Post by notJim » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:19 PM UTC

akersten wrote: post #5

Sad to see them go - photography's such a great hobby and having competition in the space is healthy. There's a few brands out there still, but there is a noticable stigma in the professional community around equipment that isn't Canon. If you're not using L-glass, it feels like you get the same kind of judgement that Android users experience when they show up with green texts in iMessage. As a matter of principle, I…

It's funny you say this about Canon, because in the circles of photography I inhabit, everyone shoots Fuji, Sony or film. It's fairly rare to even see a DSLR when I'm out hiking, say. But there's also a whole world of things like the Ricoh GR-1. I think overall photography can be larger than we realize, because most of us only spend time in a few areas of it.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#163

Post by foldr » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:20 PM UTC

slantyyz wrote: post #147

foldr wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. What usually happens is that trends develop for photos that can only be taken using expensive gear. So for example, when I was a kid and everyone was shooting "full frame", no-one gave too much of a toss about background blur -- beyond the obvious fact that some (easily achievable) degree of it is often useful for softening distracting backgrounds. Now people obsess over paper thin DoF because it's a sign of…

>> I was a kid and everyone was shooting "full frame" Ok, this is a little vague, because are you referring to digital or analog? When I was a kid, everyone was shooting full frame, because, well 35mm was the de-facto standard for film. Although my first camera was a 110 format camera, which is a hair smaller than a 4/3 sensor today.

I meant 35mm film.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#164

Post by glup » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:22 PM UTC

PascLeRasc wrote: post #25

akersten wrote: post #5

Sad to see them go - photography's such a great hobby and having competition in the space is healthy. There's a few brands out there still, but there is a noticable stigma in the professional community around equipment that isn't Canon. If you're not using L-glass, it feels like you get the same kind of judgement that Android users experience when they show up with green texts in iMessage. As a matter of principle, I…

I just do analog, but isn't mirrorless the trend right now? All my friends who got into digital photography are using Fuji/Sony/Olympus setups now. Canon/Nikon took years to produce competition there and I really still haven't heard much about them, they seemed pretty underwhelming.

A know a lot of wildlife photographers who prefer DSLRs. I shoot birds and wildlife as a hobby and I much prefer a glass viewfinder to the electronic viewfinder on mirrorless because there's still some lag, despite manufacturer claims to the contrary. Maybe in 5-10 years.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#165

Post by _ph_ » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:25 PM UTC

One thing to notice is: Olympus is NOT shutting down the camera business. It gets split off the Olympus coproration and is supposed to run as an independant company. Of course that could mean a later death, but it can also mean that it continues to prosper as management might take new directions.

Also, while still producing a deficit, the camera division managed to improve the balances quite a bit over the last year. A completely new production facility was opened not long ago in Vietnam, and new camera models and lenses were launched, others still in the pipeline and the plans are to bring them to the market.

I am a very happy Olympus user and definitely hope, that their lineup has a long future. I see mFT as a great alternative to the ubiquos "full frame" cameras, which are, if you look at the complete sets, more expensive and especially bigger and heavier. And despite of the "small sensor", Olympus cameras produce excellent results, to no small amount due to the excellent optics.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#166

Post by notJim » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:25 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #14

That's a legitimate shame for open standards. M43 has its proponents and critics, but either way it is rare to see a somewhat successful multi-vendor standard in photography that actually worked . The main problem is that the market itself has been shrinking, and there's just not enough room to have so much competition (Olympus, Panasonic, Sony, Fuji, Canon, and Nikon). M43 was successful, but it succeeded in an area…

I think what happened is that larger sensors became cheaper, and companies also realized that people who buy dedicated cameras are willing to pay for them. Personally, I shoot Fuji, and it's fantastic, but when I compare astro stuff between something like a Sony A7sii to my Fuji shots, the result is much cleaner due to the lower noise. It only really matters for astrophotography, but since I don't want to invest tens of thousands into multiple systems, it pushes me towards full frame.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#167

Post by slantyyz » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:26 PM UTC

geerlingguy wrote: post #105

jagger27 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might control the DSLR space, but they certainly hold no candle to Sony, Fujifilm, and co in the mirrorless space. There’s no shortage of extremely high quality lenses there too. I thought mirrorless cameras were already outselling DSLRs.

> I thought mirrorless cameras were already outselling DSLRs. In volume, yes. In profit, it's still close, but mirrorless has been closing the gap for a long time. And Sony used to be king of the hill with mirrorless, but Canon and Nikon have quickly caught up and the playing field is a bit more level (even as Sony holds the crown for most of the technical features). The thing is, ecosystems matter a lot past the hob…

> I wish I could have my Nikon lenses on my Sony (with no compromise)

I don't follow that stuff, but does Metabones make a Nikon F -> Sony E speed booster?

> Nikon made some of the great smaller-sensor size lenses that you can get for APS-C or micro 4/3rds.

They did make smaller lenses, but for the Nikon 1 system, which was an underrated system. I became a 4/3rds shooter when Nikon cancelled the Nikon 1 line, but I still use my J5 (which is what the first gen Nikon 1s should have been like). IIRC, adapted Nikon F mount lenses on Nikon 1 focus fairly quickly because of the on-sensor PDAF, but you're limited to center AF only.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#168

Post by slantyyz » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:28 PM UTC

foldr wrote: post #163

slantyyz wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I was a kid and everyone was shooting "full frame" Ok, this is a little vague, because are you referring to digital or analog? When I was a kid, everyone was shooting full frame, because, well 35mm was the de-facto standard for film. Although my first camera was a 110 format camera, which is a hair smaller than a 4/3 sensor today.

I meant 35mm film.

Ah, ok, I wasn't sure if you were and oldster like me or a youngling who grew up in the digital FF era.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#169

Post by csharptwdec19 » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:29 PM UTC

ISL wrote: post #156

arghwhat wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with the current sensors it's true: Things like dual-pixel auto-focus has put Canon sensors ahead of the competition for a long time. (Dual-pixel AF doesn't just give way better AF, it also avoids artifacts from dedicated phase detect pixels that other cameras have.)

True -- as a DSLR-user, with focus happening off-chip, I miss the superior dynamic-range of the Sony sensors more than the DPAF. If I were making video, I suspect I'd be singing the same tune. DPAF is excellent.

Which TBF hints at the reason Sony does have all of this nice image sensor technology.

While they've been a newer player in the Camera industry, they've been doing professional digital video for far longer (SW EP2 was shot on Panavision-modified Sony cameras.) That's on top of their long lineage in the pre-digital-recording TV Market.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#170

Post by kenhwang » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:29 PM UTC

arghwhat wrote: post #150

akersten wrote: post #5

Sad to see them go - photography's such a great hobby and having competition in the space is healthy. There's a few brands out there still, but there is a noticable stigma in the professional community around equipment that isn't Canon. If you're not using L-glass, it feels like you get the same kind of judgement that Android users experience when they show up with green texts in iMessage. As a matter of principle, I…

> I always saw Canon as a large conglomerate who tacked on photography as another arm of their company Just for reference, what is now Canon started purely as a company making camera bodies, using lenses from what is now Nikon (who didn't make cameras themselves until much later). They're a big conglomerate now , but they're a camera company at their core. I would love to support Nikon as well, but affording one good…

The irony of that statement is that Nikon is part of the biggest conglomerate family in the world (Mitsubishi), while Canon is mostly still a camera company.