[Serkevan]

Of course, some will see the writing on the wall and move on, but many will wait things out to see if JIP is able to make things work and find a good long term owner of the company..

Certainly... for all the people who are bent on having the latest and greatest tech because of reasons, there are also a lot who are happy to go out and take photos with what they have. If it was enough the day you bought it, it's probably enough ten years down the line - even if newer stuff is somewhat better .

[jersey]

Decent photography gear for amateurs is smartphone, just like it was P&S in times of film camera and after digital was good enough for P&S to mature, but still before rise of smartphones. As guys said above - amateurs want to point, shoot, share. They do not want to turn happy shooting into a job.


DSLR will probably survive, but it will go the way of rangefinders: for people who want it and are willing to pay for it. K-new may be last Pentax affordable DSLR with APS-C.

As for Olympus it is a shame. I still have their SLR and use it for diapositives. Nice camera, great lenses.

[Rondec]

Certainly... for all the people who are bent on having the latest and greatest tech because of reasons, there are also a lot who are happy to go out and take photos with what they have. If it was enough the day you bought it, it's probably enough ten years down the line - even if newer stuff is somewhat better .

I remember when Hoya purchased Pentax and later when Ricoh bought them. There were a lot of negative folks at the time -- particularly with the Hoya purchase as they seemed uninterested in the camera side of things. At the same time, they did continue to release cameras like the kx and K-5 and plenty of decent lenses as well. And Pentax is still here.

[3by2]

I'm not sure that's what happens, in fact the opposite can be true?

Olympus isn't going to stop making gear tomorrow. In addition, they share a mount with Panasonic, which is still making micro four thirds cameras and lenses. There is no reason to think that folks and stores who sell this gear are just going to start dumping it. Of course, some will see the writing on the wall and move on, but many will wait things out to see if JIP is able to make things work and find a good long term owner of the company.

The hard thing is that Olympus had deep pockets due to their medical division and was willing to tolerate imaging losses that were pretty heavy over the last ten years. That sort of thing will be going away now and it will be more of a "pay as you go" attitude I am sure.

No, my post was strictly tongue in cheek. I was just looking the other day at an m10 with the pancake zoom. I'd love to just try one out as a kind of pocket camera but at 250 2nd hand it's still a bit much for curiosity. Like I said, I hope they survive.

[rawr]

They've made a wrong choice, and tried to compensate through marketing.

Once I saw Olympus release the OM-D E-M1X last year, I knew for certain that their management were not up to the task of keeping the company alive in today's challenging times.

[Mistral75]

The testimony of Doug Janis, a guy who lives in Japan, throws a worrying light on Japan Industrial Partners and the fate that awaits Olympus Imaging:

$156 million vs $150 million: Micro Four Thirds Talk Forum | Digital Photography Review

JIP is worth US$150 million. [note: that's the total value of the assets they manage]

YoY Olympus Imaging (its camera wing) is losing US$156 million.

JIP specializes in taking under-performing assets and parsing them out. They are not a turnaround company. In Japan, it's extremely expensive to downsize employees and pensions and salaries. So companies like JIP exist to take assets and sell them apart from those obligations.

In the last 5 years JIP has sold off assets of over 14 companies. Not one has it ever restructured or continued development. It doesn’t have the capital. JIP exists solely to manage brands for the benefit of shared agreements with shareholders. That’s why VAIO is 10% owned by Sony and why JIP outsources all design and manufacture to Chinese parts bin suppliers for components. JIP has no R&D, no internal development, no engineers, nothing. They are accountants.

They are a vulture fund of privately owned equity partners designed to get around Japanese pension, retention, and servicing laws.

This is very bad news for the Olympus brand and its invested customers. The Japanese news is all over this as well because JIP is notorious for Chinese outsourcing at a time when it's official domestic policy to onshore key industries. This is another example of Olympus having a tin ear.

In Japan apparently most external sales staff (non-Japanese) have been let go. This started months ago. Most of the software, design, and optical engineers have left or are moving to medical imaging. Overseas assembly plants are being quietly shopped for real estate value alone. The glazing kilns are shutting down for consumer Imaging. The company is preparing to only sell from inventory. New products are technically on hold until Olympus figures out how much to pay JIP to take these losses off their hands. Olympus Visionaries in some countries have already been told they must stick to NDAs and there is no marketing budget nor equipment available.

That’s right. The news out of Japan is that this is NOT a sale, but a divestment at loss. Olympus will have to pay JIP to take Imaging, basically giving them the consumer patent portfolio in exchange. The reason for the press release is Olympus has to divulge now that it will be paying cash for JIP to take the assets. That warns shareholders. This was NOT about the loyal consumer. Anyone who thinks this is a deep pockets investor seeking a new product line, or this is an “under new management” improvement needs to know exactly what JIP is as a company. They exist to help Olympus get rid of their consumer Imaging portfolio entirely.

This is likely the end of Olympus and Zuiko. The Japanese inside information is much more revealing than the web-based stories in English media. You have to go to the accounting and engineering boards in Japan to hear the dirt.

[Serkevan]

They are a vulture fund of privately owned equity partners designed to get around Japanese pension, retention, and servicing laws.

And this is exactly what I suspected the moment I heard about a private equity fund taking over... this is a "carve-out" alright; controlled crash so the entire company doesn't get dragged by the imaging division's death throes. Thanks (well, "thanks" ) for the confirmation.

[pres589]

Well, you can 'lose' in a variety of ways. I guess the first is that you choose a camera based on future support, and so when that camera brand and lenses you bought cease to put out anything new (and you want new stuff) it means selling what you have and making a loss.
Secondly if you bought their stuff, shot with it, decided it was bad and thus sell it, that also is a loss.
I do hear what yer saying tho, that the camera you bought still works and functions, but with photography I tend to feel its a 'long game' play and you want to choose semi wisely to not have to sell on gear if possible.

Buying a body in a system that doesn't offer *today* what you want in that system is not an example of the company failing the buyer. That would seriously be like me buying a KP because I think Pentax is going to sell a 25mm f2.4 KAF4-mount light & small lens. What a great lens for the consumer! I would be an idiot to do so! Also the company doesn't owe if you buy a body and decide to sell it because you don't like it. That's just life.


If the company sold, say, a line of consumerish bodies with junky aperture control solenoids, and kept releasing them for many years knowing they were suspect and just kept doing it anyway, and then I as a consumer bought one and had it fail... and the company doesn't give me some kind of financial support to get back out of that body or step up to a higher line of bodies that doesn't have that aperture solenoid? Then I'd say sure, that's a legit beef with the company. I don't think that's the kind of situation we're talking about here.

[Lord Lucan]

Once I saw Olympus release the OM-D E-M1X last year, I knew for certain that their management were not up to the task of keeping the company alive in today's challenging times.

IDK much about Olympus, but I looked up what that camera was. A micro 4/3 camera that weighs almost a kilo - more than a Pentax K-1 and most other FFs DPReview's comment is "The body is almost comically large given the sensor size". I thought the point of the 4/3 format was to enable small light cameras. Who buys this thing?

It is sad though to see this camera maker go to the wall.

[bobbotron]

No, my post was strictly tongue in cheek. I was just looking the other day at an m10 with the pancake zoom. I'd love to just try one out as a kind of pocket camera but at 250 2nd hand it's still a bit much for curiosity. Like I said, I hope they survive.

Briefly I owned an EM10 mark 1 (then sadly lost it/it was stolen). Brilliant small camera! I still have the fisheye bodycap, really fun little lens.

[Madaboutpix]

Well, I sure hope they stay in business. I am a devout WordPerfect user for the last 40 years!

Well, can't match your 40 years, but 30 years should count for something. Still unmatched word processor in some regards, IMO, if a little buggy.

I know this is called PentaxForums, but we do appreciate endurance here, don't we?

---------- Post added 06-25-20 at 04:38 PM ----------

The testimony of Doug Janis, a guy who lives in Japan, throws a worrying light on Japan Industrial Partners and the fate that awaits Olympus Imaging:$156 million vs $150 million: Micro Four Thirds Talk Forum | Digital Photography ReviewJIP is worth US$150 million. [note: that's the total value of the assets they manage]YoY Olympus Imaging (its camera wing) is losing US$156 million.JIP specializes in taking under-performing assets and parsing them out. They are not a turnaround company. In Japan, it's extremely expensive to downsize employees and pensions and salaries. So companies like JIP exist to take assets and sell them apart from those obligations.In the last 5 years JIP has sold off assets of over 14 companies. Not one has it ever restructured or continued development. It doesn’t have the capital. JIP exists solely to manage brands for the benefit of shared agreements with shareholders. That’s why VAIO is 10% owned by Sony and why JIP outsources all design and manufacture to Chinese parts bin suppliers for components. JIP has no R&D, no internal development, no engineers, nothing. They are accountants.They are a vulture fund of privately owned equity partners designed to get around Japanese pension, retention, and servicing laws.This is very bad news for the Olympus brand and its invested customers. The Japanese news is all over this as well because JIP is notorious for Chinese outsourcing at a time when it's official domestic policy to onshore key industries. This is another example of Olympus having a tin ear.In Japan apparently most external sales staff (non-Japanese) have been let go. This started months ago. Most of the software, design, and optical engineers have left or are moving to medical imaging. Overseas assembly plants are being quietly shopped for real estate value alone. The glazing kilns are shutting down for consumer Imaging. The company is preparing to only sell from inventory. New products are technically on hold until Olympus figures out how much to pay JIP to take these losses off their hands. Olympus Visionaries in some countries have already been told they must stick to NDAs and there is no marketing budget nor equipment available.That’s right. The news out of Japan is that this is NOT a sale, but a divestment at loss. Olympus will have to pay JIP to take Imaging, basically giving them the consumer patent portfolio in exchange. The reason for the press release is Olympus has to divulge now that it will be paying cash for JIP to take the assets. That warns shareholders. This was NOT about the loyal consumer. Anyone who thinks this is a deep pockets investor seeking a new product line, or this is an “under new management” improvement needs to know exactly what JIP is as a company. They exist to help Olympus get rid of their consumer Imaging portfolio entirely.This is likely the end of Olympus and Zuiko. The Japanese inside information is much more revealing than the web-based stories in English media. You have to go to the accounting and engineering boards in Japan to hear the dirt.

Phew. If your source is reliable, and he offers a fair degree of specificity, this is bad news indeed. Makes one grateful that Pentax is owned by a company with at least some interest in photographic gear. For the time being, I remain hopeful that Ricoh can sustain Pentax as a stronghold of the rugged, capable, and a-pleasure-to-use DSLR and excellent lenses.

[Mikesul]

I did not know it still exists!

Ironic, huh? Corel sells it now.

[hjoseph7]

I am not totally surprised. They do make beautiful cameras but they are a bit of a niche. The omd e-?10 is really small and, being m4/3, another thing that people have been killing for years, maybe they are just missing their targets. The omd is a small camera, possibly to replace a phone in the hands of young aspiring photographers, but styled like the camera "your dad used". They are a glorious thing and, had it been apsc, I would have seriously considered it as a platform. Olympus have brought out quite a few new versions of late, maybe they overreached themselves, not something you can accuse pentax of lol. So, that just leaves us as the last of the little guys. We aren't a niche because Pentax cameras are a Pentaxian take on mainstream. I just hope Ricoh have a love affair with photography.

I agree. Olympus is similar to Pentax when it comes to innovation. They usually come out with new technology and the big boys follow, I really hate to see them go. However I think they over did it when it came to "avant garde" technology...

[boriscleto]

Taking a look at the products VAIO offers in the US, two laptops (12" & 14") that compete directly against the MacBook Air and 13 inch MacBook Pro, I think m4/3 cameras and lenses are dead. I expect they bought the Zuiko name to release high end L mount lenses like the F2 zooms they made for 4/3 and maybe licensing some Olympus technology to L mount partners.

[Mistral75]

A piece of information that comes from SankeiBiz, an online publication of the Sankei Shimbun (lit. 'Industrial and Economic News') group:

オリンパスが映像事業売却　3年連続赤字、ファンドに年内完了目指す - SankeiBiz（サンケイビズ）：自分を磨く経済情報サイト

I'm referring to this sentence: 事業売却後も一定期間はオリンパスのブランド名は残るという。

Translation: The Olympus brand name will remain [with the NewCo] for a certain period after the business is sold.

In other words, JIP will be allowed to use the Olympus brand for their cameras, lenses and voice recorders for an interim period after the entry into force of the transaction, then they'll have to drop it.