Originally posted by CarlJF But the problem is that there's no 400mm f4 in m43 mount... Now, if you want to discuss that you could do things with gear that doesn't exist, it's your choice but it's rather pointless. As is changing your actual gear for imaginary ones...
I mentioned an Olympus m4/3 400mm f4 though, because it is a lens that Olympus is alledgedly developing.
But you are right, for wildlife and birding on a crop format with the really long lenses that are affordable and portable, choices are limited, as they always were anyhow. I went from Sigma 500 to DA560 mainly for financial reasons.
It's not all hopeless though, the Olympus 400mm f4 may or may not come, but the Sony high end APSC and 200-600mm are sure to come, and before long. The nikon 500mm f5.6 is already a reality.
The options are there.
Chris
---------- Post added 09-18-18 at 03:05 PM ----------
Originally posted by Mistral75 I would hate to draw too far a parallel between Ricoh Imaging and Olympus's Imaging Business, which consists in ILCs and lenses (79%), compact cameras (11.5%) and voice recorders (9.5%). Indeed:
- both are tiny (even though Olympus's Imaging Business is more than three times bigger than Ricoh's 'Smart Vision') and
- both have slowed down considerably the pace of their announcements
- but Olympus's Imaging Business is bleeding money and has been for a long time.
In Q1 of FY2019 (April - June 2018) Olympus's Imaging Business ceased operations at a Chinese manufacturing subsidiary as part of their restructuring plan. They had to record ¥ 5,380 million in costs associated with the restructuring of their manufacturing locations. Of course this production base reorganisation and the associated supply delays had a negative impact on sales and on the pace of future launches.
I would therefore very much like Ricoh Imaging not to be in as dire and challenging a situation as Olympus's Imaging Business.
Sources:
Fiscal Year Ended Mar. 31, 2019 : Financial Results | OLYMPUS and more specifically:
Ouch, I was not aware things are that bad at Olympus, although a year of restructuring may add to the dim picture. I hope they do better next year.
I was an Olympus 4/3 user for years, so I've seen Olympus going through some very bad times, also due to fraud.
I guess the rise of (Sony) mirrorless FF hurts them a lot.
Are any of the camera making companies (or divisions) making any profit at all, other than Sony?
As things stand though, the Olympus m4/3 is a system that is much more rounded, up to date and mature than any of Pentax's systems individually, certainly when the rumored EM1 mkII successor is a good step up from the already very good EM1 mkII.
Pentax is working on three platforms, and has a lot harder task than Olympus from a technical standpoint, and really, the lack of resources is showing.
Chris
Last edited by Chris Mak; 09-18-2018 at 08:07 AM.