There's been some rumors about the future of OMD since they left Olympus. People from the
company have come and spoken to the public and the media recently and there's some information that
they have revealed and there are certain things that you can read in between the lines
as to what the strategy and plan is going forward.
In CP Plus 2021, they've announced that they are committed to the micro four thirds system
and also cameras that are small and practical to carry around. So it looks like they don't
have any plans to switch to full frame or even a larger sensor in the future.
Also they announced that they want to continue with the PEN series, the Tough series and the
OM-D lines. So those three lines of cameras will continue to exist but they didn't specify which
ones would exist whether they would drop some of the cameras or not but I think they alluded that
some of the lower end cameras will disappear but they didn't say anything definite on that.
From what they said, it seems like the focus will be on the high end cameras so potentially
some of the lower end cameras from the OM-D E-M series such as the E-M10 or E-M5 might disappear.
For example they're not planning to release a battery grip for the E-M1 which is something
that... battery grips; they used to release them for E-M5 and E-M10 previously. I think
they alluded that the focus will be on the E-M1X and bodies which have the [battery] grip built-in.
Now another piece of information that I haven't been able to verify yet
is that the production of E-M-1X series seems to have been discontinued on the
15th of January 2021. I wasn't able to verify this but there seems to be a rumor around
that. So that could mean that the company is building the Mark ii version of E-M1X
and they're just planning to produce enough of them before they make the announcement.
Also they've alluded that they will make an announcement sometime from April onward. So
that could mean anywhere between April and early June. So there will be an announcement
around that time. I don't know whether that's the E-M1X Mark ii or if it's another camera.
They also said that they are committed to continuing the audio products.
So all the voice recorders, dictation machines, etc. will continue in some regions,
which I assume that is the same regions that already have them.
They announced that the Olympus brand will continue to exist on the cameras
for the time being until customers have been assured that OMD is continuing
the same path of Olympus in terms of you know quality of build and reputation and so on.
And one of the things they mentioned is that they have a culture of zero compromise in development
and the manufacturing process. So all the products they produce should have really high quality.
Also they spoke about how Olympus was the first camera company to introduce
features such as dust reduction and live view and OMD will continue to invest in research and
development and aim to innovate new features the same way they did under the Olympus brand.
However they specifically mentioned that they will not create technology for the sake of technology.
Their innovation has to contribute value to the photographers. What I read from that is that
technology for the sake of technology refers to 8K because that's something that not a lot of
people are using. Broadcasters are not using it, there's not many media distributions that use 8K.
I don't actually know of any. So 8K seems to be something which is technology for the sake of
technology. It doesn't seem to be a necessity and not something customers are asking for.
They mentioned that AI (Artificial Intelligence) will play an important
role in the future of OMD. So the focus seems to be around subject detection auto focus.
So this is bird detection, car detection and
all the different subject type detections that they had in the E-M1X series. and they said that
they're developing something in this area and we should expect something to be released soon.But
they didn't provide timelines and they didn't mention exactly what they're developing. But it
sounds like there will be another addition like a firmware update to the E-M1X.
An interesting thing which they mentioned is that they're planning to work with other companies
to explore other avenues for growth. This is unclear whether it means they're focusing on
security cameras or are they planning to have a micro four-third mobile device like a smartphone
or is it something completely new that we haven't thought about.
In relation to their latest telephoto lens they said that they're struggling
to keep up with demand and part of that is because their culture of zero
compromise and attention to detail when it comes to the manufacturing process.
and they mentioned that they can't actually produce a lot of these lenses in a single day.
They mentioned that they plan to make more frequent announcement to press
and customers going forward so we should expect some sort of public communications
at least once every two to three months but probably more more frequently around once a month.
I mentioned this before as well but there will be an announcement
in April or after April sometime soon after. So that would be interesting what
it is whether it's a lens or whether it is it's the Mark II of E-M1X.
Also in terms of the strategic direction of the company they mentioned that there are four
areas that they will be focusing on. One is wildlife, the other one is bird photography,
adventure and outdoors, and macro photography. This is to play to their key strengths such as
weatherproofing, the magnification factor, the compactness to carry their cameras around.
And the target demographic
is the amateur wildlife shooter who can afford expensive camera gear and go on safari holidays.
Long term the strategy plan for OMD is to focus on the E-M1X,
maybe the E-M1 and it looks like the E-M10 and E-M5 will probably be ignored or won't
make the focus for the company, because the profit margins on on those cameras are smaller as well.
They did confirm that there will be an entry-level camera
so maybe the E-M10 and E-M5 will be combined into one camera or one of them will
disappear. or maybe they view their entry-level camera as the PEN cameras.
They didn't specify but they said there would definitely be an entry-level camera.