2007/9/5, Steve Dropkin <steve@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
> Bill is right in saying that a camera that loses the pixel race will
> sit on the shelf.
Not quite. To make an analogy, Apple has succumbed to the MHz race,
but almost at the same time Intel had to give in.
> Pixel count is one of the few objective measures
> of picture quality for the masses
Only an invalid one.
> it means spending a lot of advertising money proving
> that the 15-20% is meaningless to PQ. That's a tough sell,
> especially if there are other considerations *cough* noise *cough*
> to deal with.
You mean there was?
Besides, you downplay other factors, such as live view. My wife was
groomed on an OM-10, but she finds herself more and more using live
view, specially for situations where its usage is more discreet.
> Finally, does Olympus know in which markets it wants to live? Cheap
> P&Ss? OK, for as long as they can do it. But it's not a living for
> them (or for C or N) as long as there are companies out there which
> can fabricate decent cameras for less money.
But are there? The chinese could do it probably, but nowadays Olympus
is also chinese.
> High end/pro? Doesn't look like it. You can't go four years plus
> between flagship models without pole-vaulting technically past the
> existing competition with each introduction
There was a known issue with what was to be the E-1 successor;
otherwise, it would already be here. It was bad, Olympus can't repeat
that. But it would be unfair to think this is a pattern.
Moreover, the E-1, specially as complemented by the E-510, is still
competitive for many usages. And if you add the other 4/3 system
cameras, you start to see a not so bleak picture. A system with
involves 4 vendors, all of them launching important products almost
every year, can't be so dead as you presume.
> So, with all that, can Olympus become #3 just selling prosumer ZLRs
> and dSLRs? I don't think I'd put the mortgage money on that happening.
In some markets it is #3 already. Europe, Japan and the rest of the
world value price and portability, Olympus strengths, far more than
the US which is slowly loosing importance anyway. And what if it
stays #4 or 5? It would still be the system for me. I value
standards.
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