Ulf Westerberg wrote:
>
> I find rather amusing finding this thread reappearing with regular
> intervals. A Swedish foto-mag wrote that Olympus has ceased production of
> it's OM-line, concentrating on P&S's. Thing is, it was written in the year
> of 1990!
>
> This article certainly has spread much confusion, I would say that at least
> half af Swedens photographers still think OM's haven't been made for the
> last 8 years.
That´s the point, Olympus consumer comunication is very bad for the OM
line. There is no presence of new OM stuff in German photoshops, even
articles in magazins sounds more like an obituary notice.
One shopkeeper told me, "...but there is no new OM stuff.." after I
asked for some Oly equipment! I had nearly to force him to read the
Olympus price list.
The attitude of Olympus towards the OM system turns in an
self-full-filling-prophecy. No ads, no sales, no ads,...
Contax has shown how to introduce a complete niche system with the
Contax G cameras, they now have a promotion (G2 body, flash and three
lenses in a case for 5000,- DM) and they are making mony with it.
When AF was introduced in mid 80´s Contax nearly not present in shops,
many lenses were not avaible. Today Contax cameras are in the shelfes of
many shops, they have all lenses avaible and new ones introduced.
An Nikon FM2 or Contax S2 is as expensiv to make as an OM-3Ti (the OM
has only a little bit more sophisticated electroncs), but there price is
much lower!
Some might say "there are so many used cheap OM-1 and OM-2, its
difficult to sell a new body". But thats true for Nikon too.
If you buy an OM-1 instead of an OM-3Ti you have much money left to buy
a spotmeter from Gossen or Minolta and an additional meter from Gossen,
Minolta. After this, there will be even some money left for a lens.
So you have to give the custumer a reason to buy a new body, with new
features (see our compilation) not seen on the old bodys.
Olympus should not forget, that all the used OM bodys in the shop
windows once belonged to an proud owner who sold it, because he got the
feeling that the OM system is a dead and outdated system, so they
switched to other companys.
A living OM system would not jeopardize the P+S or IS sales, but the
sales of competing manufacters.
Not to forget the gain of image, from a high qualiy SLR system.
The same with lenses, Olympus should give me a reason to replace my
200mm Zuiko with an 200mm or 300mm Macro Zuiko IF.
>
> Last year, with the introduction of the OM2000 and two new lenses makes a
> lineup of 3 cameras. 8 years ago only 1 was made!
A new body is nice, but Olympus Germany (Europe) is relucant to sell
them (OM2000).
>
> The very few used OM-4Ti I've seen here have disappeared from shops in just
> a few days, this although prices have been close to brand-new from B&H or
> OlympusGuy.
>
> The Canon FD line is still very popular among many professional
> photographers here, and this really is a dead line.
This shows only, that there are many photographer who like the quality
(optical and mechanical) of manual focus system (the MF Nikkor lenses
get regulary better results in lens test than there AF conterparts).
snip...
>
> Personally I don't care very much if the camerasystem I'm using is available
> new, as long as I think I can make the images I want and as long as I can
> have it serviced.
So do I.
Richard
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