According to latest rumors coming out from not so credible sources Olympus may shut down their camera division due to their continuous financial loss in imagine business. Take a look what personal view website said about Olympus
It is total instability now in camera division, in various countries people are running and looking for new positions.
Lot of rumors and talks that we can hear sudden closure press release within January-March time.
Some talks are that development team and some equipment can be picked either by Sony or Samsung.
If this news is true then for sure it’s really a bad news, we all know camera companies are in trouble and competition is getting more tough. Olympus market share for 2018 was 8.4% of worldwide mirrorless camera sales. Which is ofcourse not too low when compared to Panasonic (7%) or Nikon (4.6%).
Update – Olympus Denied Closure Report
Olympus Denied the rumors of closure of Imagine business when Japanese news agency Sina Finance News that suggests these rumors are little more than hearsay.
official response was (machine-translated):
‘The image business has always been the driving force of technology, including imaging technology and mass production technology, for medical and The science field has made tremendous contributions. As stated in the new business strategy, since the imaging business and the scientific business are important businesses supporting the company, we will continue to work on the improvement of profitability and efficiency in these two business areas.’
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Too many models, not enough demand, not enough quality. If they had a camera that could do stills and what the Blackmagic 4k could do, but with 6k, but at the 6k price, they could have sold a lot more. Now, they need to $1k price and 8k for up to $2k, given the under $500 8k phones coming. Next year, under $1k 4k, under $2k 8k. $1k-$1.5k preferable, but not many people understands that dynamic. There are a lot of wishful thinkers out there buying cameras to do stuff, and raw and log, in some auto look way they can adjust is an attractive option.
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In the “imagine” business it is all about imagination! I am sure that Olympus can mobilise the necessary imagination even if it is impossible for them to obtain 4/3 of the market no matter how much imagination they put into their efforts!
Why micro 4/3 sonsor cameras in 2019/2020 when smartphones does similar photo, video quality?
The comment by Alien highlights the problem. Phones don’t take better pictures or video, they’re just great for convenience. The issue comes from all the manipulation the phone does to the image. People often have dust or fingerprints on the lense that does affect quality. There’s also very limited zoom capability.
Very recently a person was going on how good the new iPhone camera is. They were talking photos along the beach of wildlife and other nature stuff. They were paying out the two other people with a Panasonic TZ220 and Nikon B600(great zoom, small sensor). Even at closeup even the B600 bettered the iPhone, likely due to the lense.
Basically, the iPhone struggled with closer shots with the lighting, and more distance stuff wasn’t captured due to bad zoom. They then said would then have gone out and buy a decent camera if they hadn’t spent so much on the phone.
Makes much more sense getting a decent mid range phone and at least a decent point and shoot, either compact like the TZ220 or zoom off the B600. The mid range phones generally have decent convenience cameras, and don’t over process the image to make them seem better than they actually are.
The Olympus SH-50 I had years ago was decent at the time as a point and shoot.
If this is coming from a “not so credible source” then why publish this?
Indeed, I agree with CS.
Why you spread rumors with hardly any value?
This rumor has reappeared every few months since around 2008. Doesn’t mean it can’t ever at some point be based in actual fact, but after awhile, it’s easy to ignore. And no, smartphones aren’t remotely close. People who don’t want to understand photography use phones for cameras, those who do use cameras.
Not so credible, especially considering the new 150-400 F4.5 is coming out in 2020 which will be a game changer for sports photographers. This lens will be much lighter than the competition and with far more range. In full frame it is 300-800 with built in 1.25 giving a 1000mm reach. Add the new 2x and it has 2000mm of reach. It is the best camera system I have used. More keepers than any of my former cameras.
agree
That its not so credible information since the new was published by personalview website, even I have written “if true then….”
So, as they say take it with grain of salt.