Olympus is Dead

Well, 4/3 Rumors has some solid information on the new cameras that Olympus will be releasing. The details are not good. Basically, there is no new sensor in sight, which means that while EVERYONE else on the market will be using either current or last-gen sensor technology, Olympus will be relying on sensors that are three to FOUR generations old.

Furthermore, in case you wanted more evidence that Olympus has one of the worst marketing departments on the planet, they will be releasing three, count'em three, new cameras, all of which are only vaguely different from the others.

The E-P3 is almost identical to the E-P2, except that it has a bunch of the new software that Olympus has developed. This is the same software that no one cares about.

The E-PM1 is super small. Larger than the new Panasonic GF3, but smaller than the GF2. Why they would do this is beyond me, since the GF2 sold very poorly! It was the larger, more feature-packed GF1 that was the runaway success.

Finally, the E-PL3 is exactly like the E-P3 (Which is almost exactly like the E-P2), except the body is entirely plastic and it has no built in flash. BUT, it has a pop-out swiveling screen. Why they wouldn't put all of these features into a single camera is beyond me.

So, what we're looking at is Olympus selling the same fucking camera for three years, AND they've managed to make this process of selling a single camera very confusing. So that's an achievement.

One would think, even two or three would think, that Olympus would have been given pause by the success and attention lavished upon the Fuji X100. Truly, that camera saved Fuji, which was on the verge of absolute irrelevance.

Instead, Olympus has decided that it would rather be irrelevant. At least we have Panasonic. They're also very stupid, but they at least seem to understand this whole camera-makin' thing a little bit better.