Olympus Throws in the Towel

The Olympus E-5 DSLR; The last of a long line of compact SLRs.

My Honey, queen of Olympus, champion of the compact SLR, has decided she needs a DSLR, so naturally I start researching Olympus. And in so doing, I discover that the company that pretty much invented the Four Thirds format, is leaving the game.

I would speculate that Olympus realizes it can no longer compete with the likes of Canon and Nikon in the SLR market, so they’re putting all their eggs in the MFT basket with their successful PEN series. It’s been officially announced that Olympus will not be designing any more new Four Thirds lenses, although they will continue to sell what they have. And their long term goal is to eliminate SLRs completely, although there are no immediate plans to discontinue the two remaining DSLRs in their line.

This is sad news for one of the most innovative camera manufacturers in history. The Four Thirds or “FT” format was truly an innovation in the DSLR market, being designed from the ground up as a digital format. Without Olympus to champion it, I fear it will die.

All but two remaining models in the Olympus DSLR line have been discontinued; the E-5, which is too expensive, and the E-620, which doesn’t shoot video and maxes out at ISO 3200. The new PEN E-PL2 looks promising, but it just isn’t a DSLR. It doesn’t have the speed and versatility of a DSLR. It doesn’t have an optical viewfinder of a DSLR. But it does have an EVF option, so let’s not throw it out just yet.

If we add the VF-2 Electronic Viewfinder to the E-PL2’s price, we come up with slower camera, with a smaller sensor, that shoots 720p video for a street price of $848.00. That’s a lot to pay for a “compact” camera.

Not soon after realizing this, my Honey calls me on the train to ask my opinion of the Nikon D3100. Now, having a D90 means never having to look back, but I know the reviews have been good, so I do my research.

How does a 14MP APS-C sensor, with 3fps, ISO 12,800, HD 1080p video, and a rich legacy of available lenses dating back to 1959, all for $549.00 sound?

This is why Olympus is leaving the DSLR market. Not even the mighty PEN can compete with that. And the D3100 is smaller than the E-620, which seems strange given that Olympus is known for the compact size of their SLRs.

When Nikon began manufacturing DSLRs in 1999, they began with the APS-C sized “DX” sensor in the D1, and did not offer a full frame “FX” sensor until the D3 in 2007. Canon’s first full-frame sensor DSLR, the Canon EOS-1Ds, was realeased five years earlier in 2002. So you might say that Nikon had eight years to perfect this “compact DSLR” format, in much the same way as Olympus is known for its innovation. As a result, the APS-C size DX format has established itself as a high-quality, backward-compatible, compact DSLR format.

On the other hand, Olympus entered the DSLR market in 2003 with the E-1, eight years after producing their last 35mm SLR, the OM-3Ti, in 1995. So this “innovation” seems to have come eight years too late, since the first APS-C DSLR, The EOS DCS 3 was introduced by Canon that same year. Better late than never.

But the deal breaker is, as always, the lenses. There are so many lenses available in the Nikon F mount, all compatible with the APS-C sensor size in one way or another (for example, my full-frame NIKKOR 70-300mm simply becomes 105-450mm), that the choice becomes much clearer. Even Canon cannot lay claim to such a legacy, since they have not maintained backward compatibility with older lenses.

So after taking a closer look at the Nikon D3100, I can truly add it to my list of recommendations. It’s a phenomenal camera for the price, and like the D7000, a clear indicator that the DX format is here to stay.