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Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

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Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#251

Post by sudosysgen »

chrisseaton wrote: post #151
renewiltord wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not. An explanation here https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/57625/can-i-use-ca... Short version: optical physics, proprietary link for autofocus, capability differences

This could be like mortar tubes - the country with the biggest tube can more-or-less fire anyone’s mortar rounds but you can't fire theirs.

This is somewhat the case. The camera with the shortest flange distance can use lenses from any other camera given your ability to reverse engineer the protocol.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#252

Post by sudosysgen »

chrisseaton wrote: post #130
geerlingguy wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost all photojournalists I knew used Canon (70%) or Nikon (30%) exclusively up until 5 or so years ago. And when you're talking about camera systems, the camera itself (which is where Sony currently has the lead in mirrorless) is not the biggest factor in choosing a brand. Canon and Nikon both have tons of specialist lenses that are still not available (or only have one flavor specializing in one space, at one ver…

Are the lenses not compatible between cameras?

They are, but not perfectly. You can buy smart adapters that let you use Canon, Nikon or Minolta lenses on Sony, though the first two are not perfect for all lenses.

As long as the flange distance of the sensor from which you're adapting is significantly more than that of your camera and you manage to decode the autofocus communications protocol, you can adapt them.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#253

Post by pkulak »

holografix wrote: post #248
pkulak wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, I hate this phone analogy. Every shot I take with M43 looks nothing like anything taken with a phone. I just took these shots a couple days ago, for an example. There's no way you get anything close to this with a phone. https://photos.app.goo.gl/TSFhhA5igk1iEfRbA

No offence but I’m guessing you haven’t taken many photos with an iPhone 11 Pro.

Even 50mm isn't close enough for me. And fake bokeh looks terrible even when it works. Absolutely amazing for what it is, but it's not replacing my camera.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#254

Post by sudosysgen »

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.

35mm film already affords you the very maximum in light gathering and blur, though. The kit lens used to be 50 1.8 or 1.4, which really is pretty much the amount of background blur people are looking for today. You didn't complain about lack of aperture or blur because you already had what people today are looking for.

Even medium format and large format had pretty much the same amount of background blur and low-light performance, just at a higher resolution.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#256

Post by eropple »

Zombieball wrote: post #238
etangent wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Olympus cameras are extremely capable, yet small in size. That advantage evaporated after Sony released A7 in 2013, which was almost equal in size yet contained a vastly larger and more capable sensor. Olympus hung on while A7 line was still expensive, but now that one can get an older used model for as much as a new micro-four-thirds one, Olympus bit the dust. Many saw this coming for a long while.

While the high price of an A7 probably slowed new customers rushing to Sony over Olympus I think the primary reason customers stuck with Olympus was "vendor lock-in" with lens mounts. People likely bought multiple m43 mount lenses to go with their Olympus or Panasonic. A customer would be more likely to buy another one of these brands if they had an existing lens collection over switching to the A7. Note: I am reluct…

Yeah, much more than body prices for me has been lens prices.

A 25mm f1.7 m43 lens is $150. I've got multiple. I don't mind putting them in kinda-risky places on my cheaper bodies if it makes sense.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#258

Post by [deleted] »

jychang wrote: post #141
ben7799 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pros love Canon cause their service stomps all over everyone else, the equipment is just the cherry on top. They're more like a partner in someone's business than just a retailer. Seriously.. their service is so fantastic & easy to work with it puts you at ease shooting with their expensive stuff. I think this has more to do with it than anything to do with sensors or almost anything else when it comes to really seri…

This is the biggest factor. Canon Professional Services offer extremely good support for their cameras. Nikon Professional Services are good too, but not quite as good as Canon's. And Sony... is lagging very far behind. Canon also is known for top notch lenses, which is the real core component of a camera system. You may spend $2k-3k for a camera, but as a professional you'd spend much more money on multiple lenses y…

[deleted]

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#259

Post by fomine3 »

Polylactic_acid wrote: post #227
cialowicz wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that cameras don't really ever go obsolete, given the artistic nature of photography (as long as you can get the image out of the camera and onto a medium). Any great photo that you've ever admired was take on either previous or current generation gear.

In my eyes a camera is obsolete as soon as the average phone can take a photo as good. My parents got a $300 sony camera recently but other than zoom, I just can't see why you would carry it around when your phone takes the same photo.

I assume some $300 range cameras has sensor that same (or less) size to $600 smartphones.

Re: Olympus quits camera business after 84 years

#260

Post by vncecartersknee »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #192

I maintain that digital camera manufacturers' biggest failing is not eliminating the friction between taking pictures and video and getting them online to social networks, like Instagram. It's super frustrating.

Is it really that difficult? I can connect to my entry level nikon d3400 over bluetooth and send an image to my smartphone, edit it a bit and upload it to instagram pretty easily.

Granted the bluetooth is very slow and image editing on a smartphone is fairly rudimentary but personally I prefer not to edit images too much.

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