No, not too long, John. And a good, informative story. I've always admired Olympus but I've been too heavily invested into Pentax to seriously consider making a change and I have always been a bit suspicious of the 4/3 system. I just can't see how it has much of a future given the small size of the sensor.
Cheers Brian ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Brian Walters Western Sydney Australia Quoting John Celio <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Godfrey wrote: > > I have several times nearly bought an Olympus E-1. It was the > hottest > > contender next to Pentax when I was choosing what to buy in late > > 2004 > > When the E-1 first came out (fall 2003), I had been selling cameras > for > about a year. The Pentax *istD was coming out at the time, and I > was trying > to decide which I should get. I owned a Pentax ZX-30, plus a > couple Sigma > lenses, so it would be good to not have to buy extra lenses for the > D. I > also owned an Olympus C-3030, their first 3 megapixel P&S camera. > I loved > it, and had become an Olympus digital fan at work. > > In the lead-up to the E-1's release, none of us thought much of the > camera > (aside from our boss, who had gotten to try one at PMA that year). > It had > only five megapixels, instead of the then-standard six in everyone > else's > cameras. I was disappointed that the camera only used Compact > Flash memory > instead of Olympus' new XD format, because of the "bent pin" > problem I've > mentioned in other threads. > > When we finally got the camera in the store, a few of my coworkers > fell in > love with it immediately. It was built like a tank (seriously. > you should > have seen how beat-up the Olympus tech rep's sample was, and it > still > functioned flawlessly), and the original lens lineup was fast and > SHARP! We > shot sample pics frequently and printed them at 12x18 (which was > the largest > size our Agfa printers could produce). The fact that it was the > only camera > at the time with dust-removal made it relatively simple to sell if > the > customer wasn't worried about price. > > Price. That was the downside, for my purchasing choice. The E-1 > system was > built for professionals, and I just couldn't swing that kind of > cash. I got > the *istD and the rest, as far as my Pentax obsession goes, is > history. At > first, my coworkers and I didn't sell many E-1s, because the price > was > something hard for customers to swallow. We were in an affluent > area, but > $2000+ (for just the camera and one lens) is hard to sell to most > people. > The Olympus rep, along with my boss, frequently told us that the > E-1 was a > great thing to sell, because lenses and accessories couldn't be > found > anywhere else, so people would come back to us for their next > purchases. It > made sense, but it didn't help very much. > > Then Olympus had a sales contest. First person to sell 20 E-1s > would get a > free outfit. Our best salesmen, who I'll call R and S, went into > competition mode and started pushing the camera like crazy. > Eventually, the > contest was opened to anyone who sold 15 cameras, and then the rest > of us > started loving the E-1. > > Before you accuse us of something, I'd like to mention that every > camera > company offers sales incentives and contests from time to time. > Olympus was > desperately trying to get its brand-new camera out into the market, > so they > were a little more aggressive than other companies. Besides, we > all loved > the camera, and we never tried to push it on people who came in for > > something specific (like if they asked for a specific camera, > instead of > "show me some digital SLRs"). That would be unethical. > > So, we all loved the E-1. I sometimes wished I'd bought one > instead of my D > because of dust issues, but then I remembered Pentax's much smaller > size > backwards-compatibility and was content. By the end of the > contest, half my > coworkers were shooting E-1s, and I was THIS close to getting one > for > myself. I didn't make it, but I did manage to get myself a really > nice pair > of Olympus binoculars. > > Then the lower-end Evolt E-300 came out. Noisy as hell, with it's > eight > megapixels, and the kit lenses weren't nearly as good as the > original E-1 > lenses. Still, it was a popular camera, and the dust-removal > feature was a > Canon- and Nikon-killer for most soccer moms. > > Our rep kept saying an E-2 would be coming soon, but it never came. > The > E-500 showed up one day, and it became a big seller. I think its > more > conventional SLR look helped with that. I'm really not sure why > they went > back to the flat design for the E-330, but the "live view" thing > seemed > popular. Let's not mention the E-400. > > Anyway, enough rambling! The E-1 was a fantastic camera, but later > models > with higher resolutions have been plagued with bad noise problems. > If you > ask me, the reason the E-2 has been delayed so many times is > because of the > noise issue. The 4/3 sensor is just too dang small to handle the > kind of > resolution that professionals want these days, I think. > > However, Olympus' digital Zuiko lenses, the pro-end ones anyway, > are really > fantastic. I saw probably hundreds of enlargements from the E- > cameras with > a variety of lenses, and they were usually tack-sharp. > > In my opinion, unless Olympus comes up with something revolutionary > to > combat noise in their future E-2 model, they're going to lose the > dSLR war > and disappear from that market, like when they dropped their OM > line. It'll > be a sad day, considering how much money they invested in the 4/3 > system and > how good their first entry was. > > Now we find out if a post this long will make it past the list's > size > filter... > > John > > -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Diamond Ring Auctions at Bidz! Engagement rings auctioned daily. Every 5 seconds, starting at $1! http://tags.bluebottle.com/fc/MhtYWUjM3a5xEeLfSgntLwXhSC50cPOJUebUR/ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
