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Olympus quits on cameras

What a shame. One of the classic brands for sure and I thought they’d made the transition to digital successfully. I guess now phone cameras are getting so astonishingly good its becoming an ever more niche market. I’ve got a Fuji X-Pro 1 and a couple of lenses and I don’t think I’ve touched it for a couple of years now, I just use the iPhone or iPad to take pictures. My first proper camera was an OM1n in 1980, I loved it, just such a beautifully made and ergonomic thing.
 
I suppose it has gone on for ever and will continue, it just happens so seldom within one lifetime that it comes as something of a shock when it does happen.

RR made its last car in the 1970's, GE USA finally managed to agree a sale of the last piece of its lighting business last month, the origins of the company. British Steel. All of the once numerous UK motor car marques. The mighty ICI is now principally Inuos or whatever the huge UK chemical plant/company is called and Astra Zeneca. And so it will go on.
 
My first real serious SLR after a couple of Praktica's was a OM1n, which I still have, same vintage as Tony's (hey had to spend the student grant on something!) Nothing really beat it for ergonomics, some nice lenses too (especially the 100mm).
 
Much like the demise of Konica-Minolta this is a shame, but isn’t the news here slightly more upbeat? Olympus’s camera division has been sold to Japan Industrial Partners and it sounds like JIP will continue to make, develop and service Olympus cameras and lenses.

https://www.imaging-resource.com/ne...a-olympus-is-selling-off-its-imaging-division

But, this surprise announcement doesn't appear to be all doom and gloom. Your current Olympus cameras aren't suddenly going to disappear or stop working, and according to today's news release, the new company formed by Olympus' ownership transfer to JIP will, in theory at least, continue to make and develop new "Olympus" or OM-D and Zuiko camera products.
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Joe
 
JIP are a turnaround investment company, they will lick the former Olympus Camera Division into shape (there will be tears), and then look to sell them on (to make a profit on their investment, (its not a long term deal). Don't think for one moment its going to be sweetness and light. Personally I think the best you can hope for is a more focused company (with a smaller product range) - Olympus certainly won't be the last camera company to be put in this situation, but I wouldn't expect much in the way of new releases for some time (unless those products are in a releasable state now)
 
FWIW one of JIP's previous projects was taking Sony's Vaio laptop brand. Vaio is not a prominent laptop brand today, so I hope JIP are more successful with Olympus. It will be interesting to see whether Panasonic sticks with Micro Four Thirds now.
 
I worked as a photojournalist and used Canon and Nikon cameras. Ironically enough the first Olympus I bought was a digital one in America in 2002.

Jack
 
Bob McC said:
Still got my Olympus Trip.
Must get it out some time and give it a blast.
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Check the seals first, they tend to deteriorate with age. If they are dodgy you can get diy replacement kits on eBay.

Some of the best photographs I ever took were with a Trip, A very basic camera, but that 40mm Zuiko is superb. :)
 
My first SLR was an OM20, followed by a 40 a few years later. In 1993, in Al Khobar, Saudi, I was wandering down King Khaled St and saw an OM1n, brand new, in the window, with the 50mm f/1.4 attached. I can’t remember the price I haggled it down to, but I was quite happy. Still have it. The shop keeper told me I was probably buying the last new mechanical 35mm camera in kingdom.

Edit. Just remembered I had an Olympus Mju too. It was a cracking little 35mm compact, and a nice alternative for snapshots etc. I was gutted when it started playing up.
 
Very sad news about Olympus cameras, I always felt that the OM1/2 and even the OM4 Ti were superbly designed cameras and the lenses were very good indeed. Sad to see another landmark camera company go down this route of evolutionary trends in the fields of emerging and fast growing technologies. Some may call it progress but it is also a sad feeling to see historical design foundations being relegated by the ever present but very handy smartphones with cameras.

I am going to hold on to my OM1n plus the excellent sharp, compact Zuiko lenses like the 85mm F2, 24mm f2, 35mm F2, 50mm F1.4 and more. You can fit a decent kit into compact bad and the mechanical OM1's are a joy to use as are the later OM4 Ti cameras. Leica have been helped/bailed out by the German government several times I believe but I think their marketing strategy and the Leica M range lenses that fit onto the digital as well as film based cameras has helped them to keep going.
 
Joe P said:
Much like the demise of Konica-Minolta this is a shame, but isn’t the news here slightly more upbeat? Olympus’s camera division has been sold to Japan Industrial Partners and it sounds like JIP will continue to make, develop and service Olympus cameras and lenses.

https://www.imaging-resource.com/ne...a-olympus-is-selling-off-its-imaging-division



Joe
Click to expand...

As far as I know, the photo division of Konica-Minolta was bought by Sony and is still alive and in perfect health.
Pentax was bought by Ricoh and isn't doing too bad either.
 
tuga,

I didn't know that. I thought Konica-Minolta was truly gone.

Between smart phones getting better and better at photography, digital cameras now being so good that upgrades really don't make much sense, and now a pandemic and recession, I figured 2020 would be a terrible year for camera manufacturers. Even biggies like Canon and Nikon are feeling the hit, though it think they will weather this.

Joe
 
I think they have sold the brand and possibly manufacturing to someone else, so we may not notice any difference, as long as the new owners can make a financial success of it. Olympus as a company is very big in other fields and so they probably found running a 'niche' operation didn't fit their business well, but they are good cameras with a loyal following so maybe we've not seen the last of them.
 
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