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[OM] Olympus Commitment to OM line

Subject: [OM] Olympus Commitment to OM line
From: Dr Peter Gilbert <peterg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 11:58:51 +1000
Hi all

I've been stuck at home with the flu for the last week or so and have been catching up on my OM-list reading. This list is so prolific it is hard to read everything, but I've had a nice time catching up with all the posts that I normally don't have time to read as they come in (I get about 100 e-mails a day in my job, plus the OM list !)

Just wanted to make a comment about Olympus and their support or otherwise for the OM System. We have talked before about how the "pro" market is dominated by Canon and Nikon, and how that leaves the other major consumer brands like Olympus, Pentax, Minolta etc struggling to compete in the 35mm SLR market.

Browsing through a November 1999 photo-retailer catalog, I noticed that Minolta have a range of 34 lenses for the Minolta 9 (AU$3000 body only) that includes (I've picked out some of the more interesting ones).......

AF 200mm F2.8 APO
AF 300mm F2.8 APO
AF 400mm F4.5 APO
AF 600mm F4 APO

AF 20mm F2.8
AF 35mm F1.4
AF 85mm F1.4

AF 100mm F2.8 Macro

AF 17-35 F3.5
AF 28-70mm F2.8
AF 80-200 F2.8
AF 100-400mm F4.5-6.7 APO

How can Minolta afford to develop a range of lenses like this for their 35mm SLR cameras? Remember that the OM line-up includes a lot of lenses that were designed and introduced more than 20 years ago (this doesn't mean they aren't excellent lenses). The only real Zuiko lenses that Oly have released since the late 1980's (I don't count the ones released with the OM 2000) are the 35-80 F2.8, and the 180/2, 250/2, 350/2.8 (admittedly they are all pretty neat lenses!).

Since these Minolta lenses have all been presumably been introduced in the last 5-8 years, this is a pretty impressive line up and shows a fair bit of corporate commitment. Maybe Minolta are trying to crack the "pro" market? I don't know.

If Minolta can bring out an 80-200/2.8, a 400/4.5, a 600/4 and a 17-35 why can't Olympus? Surely there must be more OM-mount bodies still in action around the world than there are Minolta AF-mount lenses?

peter

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