buddyev

somebody buy this, for goodness sake - its a bargain

I think that going from 6 to 6 is a sideways move and certainly not bang for buck. The P9 on the other hand is a leap into the big time for not a lot more money.

This has been on the cards for some time. The camera division has been an expensive, non profitable, non core business for a while. It’s a shame because Olympus make very fine gear and m4/3 fills a niche in the camera market. I bought a new omd em3 iii a few weeks ago in full knowledge that this was likely and am heavily invested in Oly gear. I figured that even if they close the doors completely my gear will keep me happy for quite a few years.

Which amp is this?

My first gtg since lockdown. The individual portions of cheese and bickies is an excellent idea - not only did it protect us from each others diseases and alleviated any nervousness, more importantly it curtailed @djb’s tendency to whack back twice as much cheese and wine as everyone else. Thanks Con - your system sounds better than ever.

Yep, Can’t beat realestate in film negatives. It would have been interesting if the Olympus hi res mode had been added to that list.

I'm almost sorry to have just bailed out of vinyl. This TT at such an excellent price would have tempted me to stick with it.

For this type of work the Hasselblad is superb and beautiful to see - head and shoulders above the others. Its an interesting experiment in what is achievable but the results are completely predictable. I wonder if back in the day anyone would have bothered to do a similar comparison between, say, a medium format film camera like a Hasselblad 500 6x6 or a Mamiya 67 and a 35 mm Nikon FM or F3. The results would have been just as predictable and probably too blindingly obvious to spend time thinking about. It’s horses for courses - always. Would we have those wonderful Cartier Bresson street images or Tim Page’s immersive war photography if they’d been lugging round medium format cameras rather than little Leicas or Nikons.

ChupaChups - What kind of name is that! 😀

Yes, I’m sure you’re right. South Korea and Japan have a very long-standing enmity based on a brutal colonial history and war. Consumer boycotts of Japanese goods arise quite often and do a pile of damaged to J companies. Olympus was already marginal there - the recent boycotts have pushed them over the edge.

Maybe, but who cares. The photographic press has a need for novelty - that’s what it exists for. It’s even worse than the hi fi media, I think. And obviously the race for novelty (sold as innovation) and increasingly rapid obsolescence is the only way the camera industry ( and our current global economic system ) in its current form can survive, I suppose. Late capitalism gives us a lot of nice toys but let’s not kid ourselves - It works by disguising desire as need and presenting the incremental as revolutionary. I have a profound distrust of it even if I am a sucker for it.

TBH my Em1 is lovely to use and I don’t strictly need the upgrade, but what the helI! I spend a lot of time taking photos of varying quality, so what does a middle aged man of mediocre talent and limited imagination do to improve? Technological solution- buy more toys - obviously. I only bought it today so haven’t taken it out yet so haven’t had a chance to compare properly, but based on specs I was particularly keen to get the improved image stabilisation - especially for my 40-150 pro. After a quick play the focus looks to be massively improved. The larger screen looks brighter and sharper and of course it’s a 20 mp rather than 16 mp sensor. It also has a few neat things which I’m keen to check out like the digital ND filter and the handheld hi res mode. I occasionally use the hi res on my em5 mk2 but need a tripod with that - it will be nice not to have to take out a tripod. Whether it’s worth it - well, it is for me. The reviews of this camera were mixed - everyone was disappointed that it was the same sensor as the mk 2. The jump from the mk 2 to mk 3 is probably minimal and maybe not worth it, but a 2 generation jump from the original mk1 which I bought in 2014 it looks to be pretty significant. I think digital camera development is quite mature - improvements will be incremental rather than revolutionary. I’m not a pro who has to worry about clients - this is a fun hobby for me and I’d like to keep it that way.

yes, of course. Medical is where they’re at and they’re a very secure business. But the camera division is a tiny, non-core and unprofitable part of it and probably a pain in their corporate butt. I suspect in the coming post covid depression they could well succumb to rationalisation and bite the dust. I hope not because they have always made wonderful gear - one of my first real cameras was an Om2.