This is an update to a previous post where we covered the rise and fall of Olympus.

Olympus has now rebranded to OM System after the acquisition by Japan Industrial Partners. A controversial move according to many in the photography space, with one photographer citing that, “Olympus was a priceless name.” Another popular comment, “There is no history behind OM-Digital.”

Their just-launched homepage is full of marketing hyperbole with no new news about no new cameras, lenses, or technology. We’ve seen from recent financials and statistics that Olympus has been losing a lot of money for years.

As many of you know, I was an early adopter to Micro 4/3, starting with the Panasonic GF1 in 2009. Later, I would soon own the Olympus OM-D E-M5, then E-M5 II. But then, for me, they didn’t innovate – or at least their competition did a better job.

Emphasis on for me as I know a lot of wildlife photographers are still die-hard Olympus… and I have no qualms with that.

The E-M5 II was released in early 2015. At that time Sony was starting to break through with their A7 Line. Panasonic was innovating with 4k. I eagerly awaited an EM-5 III that wouldn’t come until 2019. For me, it was too little, too late.

I personally believe Micro Four Thirds (see Micro 4/3 vs Full Frame) still has a bright future, but I don’t know if the OM System does.

Is Olympus Cameras Going Out of Business?

June 24th, 2020 was a sad day for the photography community, especially considering I’m a huge fan of Olympus. The day marked Olympus’ official farewell to their imaging department, after striking an acquisition deal with Japan Industrial Partners (JIP). The transition is projected to begin by early 2021, with 95% of the imaging business going over to JIP including all of Olympus camera department’s R&D and manufacturing facilities.

Things are fairly ambiguous right now for Olympus. We do know from an interview with Aki Murata, President, Consumer Products Group for Olympus, on the Future of Olympus Cameras that:

• The transfer “is not expected to effect Olympus’ service offerings”
• They will continue “develop compact lightweight Micro Four Thirds system products that are aligned with the needs of photographers,” primarily in the outdoor nature photography niche.
• And perhaps the most interesting snippet from the interview, “The Olympus name will remain at the time of transfer. The name will likely not be used forever, but this decision will be made in the final agreement between Olympus and JIP.”

And if this is the end, Olympus had an outstanding century run at the forefront of photographic development. The company has always had a truly innovative vision for cameras, which earned the admiration of just about every photographer, professional and amateur alike.

The half-frame Pen camera, the David that was the OM-1 to the Nikon F Goliath, and of course, the development of the digital micro four thirds system — these are only a part of the legacy Olympus’ has shared with us.

Olympus did not flinch at the thought of pushing the envelope further than its peers. In fact, Olympus embraced it with great enthusiasm and an equally strong desire to expand what was possible in the field of photography.

So a fair question then would be “What went wrong?”

The Rise of Olympus Cameras

To get the whole picture, I think it’s wise for us to first take a brief look at the company’s history, leading to its successes and eventual downfall.

Beyond photographic tools, Olympus Corporation manufactures world-class medical and scientific apparatus such as microscopes, surgical equipment, to industrial scanners and flaw detectors.

On October 12th of 1919, Takeshi Yamashita founded Takachiho Seisakusho. (which will later be renamed to Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.) Mr. Yamashita’s focus was to create a microscope that would rival the (only viable microscope at the time) Reinhart, an imported brand. Olympus succeeded with their goal and introduced the Asahi 600x microscope in March of 1920.

Banking on their expertise with optics, the company expanded into the camera business and launched the medium format Semi-Olympus I in 1936, which was fitted with a Zuiko lens. Interestingly, the camera was priced at 103 JPY, in a time where 73 JPY was the starting wage which made the Semi-Olympus I a relatively affordable camera.

By 1948, just three years after the war, the Japanese market saw the introduction of the Olympus 35 I as the demand for more compact and lighter 35mm cameras grew. The Olympus 35 I by design was quite quick to wind, allowing for a faster shooting operation. Its compact size and rapid shooting capabilities made it extremely popular with the market, so much so that it was fondly called the “pickpocket camera” for its speed.

At Olympus’ Peak

The 1960s and 1970s was the golden era of film photography. It’s fair to say Olympus was one of the top players of this era, producing gem after gem of photographic tools which would later become a part of our collective history as photographers.

Olympus got to work with the original Pen which was launched in 1959. It was an extremely portable camera (noticing a trend here?) fitted with a D-Zuiko lens which shot half-frame photos, making it a popular choice as a secondary camera for professionals.

The Pen series broke new ground after the original was succeeded by the Olympus Pen F in 1963. You see, the Pen F still shot half frame photos, but it now came as an interchangeable lens system which boasted an impressive array of 20 Zuiko lenses. Olympus just made the first, fully fleshed out half-frame SLR system, inside what used to be an unimaginable size for a camera body of this level.

Perhaps one of Olympus greatest achievements was the Olympus OM-1 which entered the market in 1972. The OM series would later become the camera giant’s “professional” lineup for the right reasons — it was smaller, lighter, and was just as feature-packed as the bulky Nikons of the time.

The OM-1 boasted new air dampening designs to control mirror slap, anti-rusting technology for steel materials (which reduced weight), and an outstanding shutter rating of 100,000 actuations — no one could claim that the OM-1’s smaller build was a deterrent to the marvel of engineering Olympus brought to the public.

A fun side note, the OM-1 (Olympus-Maitani 1) was originally launched as the M-1. But due to the overwhelming critical acclaim the camera garnered, Leica protested that Olympus change its naming scheme for fear of consumers mixing it up with their own M-series. If Leica gives you hassle about how you name your cameras, then you’re probably doing something right.

Admittedly, Olympus’ entry to the digital age was shaky. Three years into the turn of the century, Olympus launched the E-1 in 2003 which was built around a four thirds system, a sensor size that was considerably smaller than the APS-C sensors of the first digital Canons and Nikons. But it was still was a mirror based system, thus it retained the size of it’s DSLR competitors.

The Introduction of Micro Four Thirds

Five years later, Olympus (in tandem with Panasonic) made history once more with the announcement of the Micro Four Thirds System in 2008. The new system builds off of Olympus’ four thirds sensors which were specifically designed to be housed in a bigger DSLR body. It took the mirror box out of the equation and cut the flange distance by half – making way for the first MFT compact mirrorless cameras. I first real camera I purchased (I had been previously using school rentals) was the compact Panasonic GF1 in 2009.

Oh and for those keen on believing Olympus when they say they will continue to develop new cameras and lenses, checkout this snippet from the above article in August 2008, “Olympus are however keen to stress that this in no way replaces Four Thirds which will continue with new Four Thirds bodies and lenses in the future.” Guess  that didn’t last long as the last camera Olympus would announce for the Four Thirds system was the Olympus E-620 in February of 2009.

We didn’t know it back then, but this new development would be a catalyst for the mirrorless revolution; today’s global shift from DSLRs to more compact and lighter mirrorless cameras.

Olympus found its legs again by 2009 with the introduction of the Pen E-P1, released the year following Panasonic’s G1. The E-P1 incorporated retro styling and utilized the new micro four thirds technology, allowing for smaller and lighter lenses.

2012 saw the return of Olympus in the game with the release of the OM-D E-M5. It was the MFT evolution of the original OM-1. Proudly carrying its design heritage, the E-M5 was compact, lightweight, weatherproofed, featured a robust 16 MP sensor and an electronic viewfinder — a worthy successor to the OM-1 and a true professional-grade mirrorless camera.

Olympus has Fallen – The Fall of a Camera Giant

Three things could have led to Olympus’ decision to let go of their imaging division. Two of which aren’t even the camera department’s fault.

Possibly the biggest accounting corruption scandal in the history of Japan revealed Olympus’ long-standing mismanagement and corrupt internal practices, dating back to the 1990s. There were decades of cover-ups for investment losses, kickbacks and bribery amounting to about $1.7 billion in discrepancies.

Naturally, the company’s valuation in the stock market dropped and Olympus was asked to pay $646 million in fines.

Second was the evolution of smartphones which the company directly referenced in their press release. In their own words, the “market was rapidly shrinking.” The market Olympus was swinging for were people who wanted something better than dinky point-and-shoots, but still portable and not quite what the mean big DSLRs at the time offered. But smartphone cameras started developing at an alarming rate that it just practically swallowed this very market whole.

To be fair, camera sales since 2011 was on a downward trend which saw an 87% drop in digital camera sales for the industry as a whole. It seems Olympus took the brunt of it considering they’ve struggled to differentiate and steal share from market leaders.

This leads us to the final nail in the Olympus coffin.

Olympus’s strategy was perhaps myopic, if not stubborn. While the engineers did an awesome job squeezing every bit of image quality of out of the MFT system, their peers side-lined image quality just as the quickly evolving market demanded it.

I started with Panasonic GF1, and eventually shifted over to Olympus for the EM5 in 2013. Superb image quality in a compact body, the EM5 was also renowned for its stabilization. Many publications awarded it, “Camera of the Year” in 2013.

Then the first full frame mirrorless camera, the Sony A7 arrived in 2014. That was the game changer that would soon convert many of the Canon/Nikon folk still on DSLRs. Perhaps it was then where I felt Olympus started to shutter.

But the Sony A7 still had few native lenses. So my upgrade of choice was the EM5 Mk II. That was in 2015. Then relative silence from Olympus. It took 4 years for them to release successors, as the EM1 II and EM5 III arrived in 2019.

Between 2015 and 2019 Panasonic would develop Dual IS (Body + Lens Stabilization), a feature Olympus was known for. Panasonic shifted its sights to video and evolved into something that is revered by videographers and filmmakers, perhaps starting as early as with the release of the GH2. It’s still touted by many (including myself) as the best option for video under $2000, all the while being a very capable stills camera.

Panasonic, as well as Canon and Nikon, would enter the mirrorless full frame camera domain to compete with Sony.

Fujifilm skipped full frame altogether and went straight to medium format cameras, while fortifying its hold on the prosumer APS-C space with every stylish x-series release.

There’s an old marketing adage that goes, “zig, when others zag.” And zig Olympus did. Maybe Olympus zigged a little too hard and for far too long, failing to come back down to earth once in a while to reassess things.

The Future for Olympus Cameras

Just last year, Olympus released a mini-documentary to celebrate its’ 100th birthday, where we see Olympus pay tribute to Yoshihisa Maitani, the engineer/lead designer who developed the Pen and OM series of cameras.

Mr. Maitani believed in bringing more value to consumers — the man wanted to spread the gift of photography to more of the masses as cameras were still a luxury item at the time. “If it’s not there when I go to buy it, I should make it,” and he did just that, forever impacting the course of photographic development.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yorxQHuVIQ

Sad as I am with the news of Olympus’ parting with the camera industry, I’m still keen to see how the OM-D and Pen series and of course, the beloved Zuiko lenses will live on under the JIP umbrella.

Recently, Olympus released what could be a final roadmap for their Zuiko lineup which includes:

• 8-25mm F4.0 PRO
• 150-400mm F4.5 TC1.25x IS PRO (expected to be released this winter)
• a firmware update that would support bird detection AF for the OM-D E-M1X.

As with all things, only time will tell if JIP can live up to Olympus’ vision for innovative photographic tools.