Last sunday I visited the photokina in Cologne. Marc already gave
a report about his visit of the Olympus booth; here are my
impressions:
The OM system was still on display. They had several cameras,
some macro stuff and maybe a dozen lenses. The OM system is
marketed as a system for scientific photografy. That was the
message you got from the stand. I got the same booklet, which
they handed out to Marc. It is called "Handbuch des Olympus OM
Systems", it also looks scientific, b&w, plain. The publisher is
Olympus Europe, Angewandte wissenschaftliche Fotografie
(applied scientific photografy), printed 9/2000. The gentleman who
handed it out is the well known Eugen F.Dehner, a now retired (I
think) expert on scientific photografy, who is now a consultant or
adviser for OM-customers. His address and phone number is given
in the booklet together with the information, to call him, in case of
trouble getting OM-items in photo shops. The brochure has 37
pages and shows everything, which is still available. According to
that, the 8mm fisheye is still available! I know that this is in
contradiction to other informations, from real persons and web-
pages, but maybe they decided, it should still be available for a
"scientific" camera. Parts number is 14 601, if you want one :-).
The 1.8/50 which Marc was missing is still mentioned, only the
picture and data sheet is missing in the book.
Of course I asked, how long they will kept the OM-system alive.
Mr. Dehner and another Olympus guy told me independently,
Olympus has just announced or "guaranteed", as the second
gentleman put it, to do it at least for 5 more year. They have 5 year
plans, and the new one, which includes the OM system, was just
released. Next question was, is there anything new on the horizon?
"We are all dreaming of a digital back, but no information from
Olympus Japan", was the answer. So at least at Olympus Europe
they are still dreaming about a digital OM, and not explaining it is
impossible, like their US-counterparts.
Finally I asked Mr. Dehner, whether he knows our list: nada. But
he seemed to be interested, that something like this exists. I might
send him (by fax - no email known) the subscribe information, but
only when you guys promise to reduce the OT noise...
My summary: The future of the OM-system is not bright, but there
is a future.
Regards, Christoph
***********************************************************
Christoph Hertzler hertzler@xxxxxxxxxx
***********************************************************
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|