Why is the Olympus brand so unpopular

Curly Judge

I have recently been researching a compact camera for social and nature shots and was quite impressed with the Olympus SZ 31.
I liked the look of it, the feel of it and it ticked most of the boxes as far as my [ admittedly limited] experience was concerned.
Why then, is it, that almost to a man camera shop sales staff- even those who stocked Olympus as part of their range- try to put me off the brand.
As far as I can see or read the whole photographic world is suffering from Cannonitus.

gloobag

It's because Canon have a range of really expensive semi pro/pro camera bodies and the biggest range of expensive lenses.

Camera shop man hopes you will want to upgrade in the future, and so is attempting to put you on the most profitable path for him.

Simples

Corkbah

if it suits you...go for it.

most people fall into Canon/Nikon because of the marketing - but Canon/Nikon are the main players in the game and invest a lot of money capturing their market (offering a huge variety of lenses and bodies so you can trade up/sideways while staying with their products)

FewFew

Olympus seem to have fallen out of fashion a bit, but a few years ago their Miju (or however you call it) range felt like the place to be in terms of compacts. I'd be wary about getting an Olympus SLR, but that's probably just down to the whole Canon/Nikon marketing and range of models.

My first (entry level) DSLR was the Olympus E-420. Ended up moving away from it as I moved on to Canon (the second-hand market appealed to me).

Olympus camera never gave me a problem though, and I know the person that I sold it to quote well, and she's never had a problem with it, either. Grand little camera (though a little limited in terms of high iso performance and such, but that's to be expected from any entry level camera, really).

ThOnda

Olympus didn't invest into whole range of cameras and focused on consumer devices. Therefore people with bigger interest in photography didn't use them and couldn't recommend them.
A bit of marketing problem, or lack of funds to invest and develop wider range of products, that would deliver comparable image quality to DSLRs with although crop, but still larger sensors.

Leftyflip

My first proper DSLR was the E-450, but like KKV, I moved on to a different brand (Nikon) for the second hand market. But the girl I sold the Olympus too has never had an issue.

cnocbui

It's a very Irish / Boards thing. Elsewhere, Olympus are selling their new OMD faster than they can make them. In Japan, sales of micro 4/3 cameras (olympus and Panasonic) now exceed sales of DSLRs from Canikon.

bullpost

Ah not really.

I'm an Olympus user but most mags/books and big sites like Dpreview.com have far more coverage of Canikon stuff.

I'm really impressed with the OMD though I must say and look forward to getting one some day.

cnocbui wrote: »

It's a very Irish / Boards thing. Elsewhere, Olympus are selling their new OMD faster than they can make them. In Japan, sales of micro 4/3 cameras (olympus and Panasonic) now exceed sales of DSLRs from Canikon.

Sleepy

My favourite camera is my OM-2n. If a digital back was available for it I'd buy it with my next paycheque.

cnocbui

I would agree with you there, except in my case my beloved is an OM-4Ti. I gave up waiting for the mythical digital back and got an E-M5. It is a very worthy successor.

magicbastarder

my OM4Ti is on its way out, unfortunately. fortunately, i have a friend who owns 8 and is willing to sell me one.

still, i think i prefer my OM1n.

JesterWX58

Nice to see a few Olympus lovers out there.

Syferus

gloobag wrote: »

It's because Canon have a range of really expensive semi pro/pro camera bodies and the biggest range of expensive lenses.

Camera shop man hopes you will want to upgrade in the future, and so is attempting to put you on the most profitable path for him.

Simples

It also might have a little to do with themselves hand Nikon having a damn-fine baseline of quality/performance, the best value in lenses or maybe even the sheer scope of the third-party support.

But go on. Tell us more about the camera shop man foisting his tat on us.

Finnt

Because they're not that popular does this mean secondhand lenses ect are to be got at good value?

Medceltic

I am An OMD em1 Lover, Olympus neglected the depth of field, Zuiko Bokeh is less blurry than Nikon or Canon. the Rest is good maybe the mega pixel are less and Noise...

rock22

Originally bought the E400 a, i then moved to the E620.
The E400 was at least equivalent, and in many ways better , than Canon and Nikon entry level dSLRs, It provided professionally level control over settings and the lenses were generally very well regarded because they were all newly designed for the sensor ( Nikon and Canon still sold many older lenses which could not really resolved sufficiently on high res sensors.

They had too problems. They put all there basket in 4/3 standard. This precluded them developing a FF range. Less importantly in the real world, the 4/3 sensor was slightly smaller than APC sensor as well. But perhaps the biggest problem was that they had to buy in their sensors and were therefore often behind others in terms of sensor performance.

development of Mirrowless 4/3, which I think owed more to Panasonic than Olympus , revised the brand. These cameras are much better, very popular nad makes very good use of the sensor size to poduce much smaller neater cameras.

I have recently upgraded to OMD em10 from the E620. The OMD is much smaller and neater than the E620 which itself was sold as the smallest dSLR. What is more , the lenses are again excellent and being specially designed for the system, are also very neat. Panasonic being a major player isalso helping with lens selection and with video capability. Sigma now offer some lenses in uFT as well.

So , I think Olympus had become unpopular but are now on an upward rise with their newer cameras.

magicbastarder

my biggest issue with my E500 was the viewfinder size.

cnocbui

Medceltic wrote: »

I am An OMD em1 Lover, Olympus neglected the depth of field, Zuiko Bokeh is less blurry than Nikon or Canon. the Rest is good maybe the mega pixel are less and Noise...

They didn't 'neglect' the depth of field. Greater depth of field is a physical consequence of sensor size, the smaller the sensor, the greater the depth of field at the same aperture.

Apparently Olympus will bring out some new f1.2 primes this year. That should increase the ability to have a shallow depth of field. The existing 75mm f1.8 can give you quite a shallow depth of field.