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Author Topic: Olympus Exits Camera Market in Korea  (Read 4050 times)

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Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« on: May 22, 2020, 11:20 »
0
Interesting change in the market:  https://petapixel.com/2020/05/20/olympus-exits-camera-market-in-korea/

Digital camera sales have indeed fallen off a cliff in recent years as consumers rely more and more on their smartphone cameras, making the business landscape increasingly bleak for camera companies especially ones with smaller market shares.


« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2020, 22:35 »
0
The M4/3 system is terrific for those who want to travel light. It would be a shame to see them leave the camera business. I keep dreaming of this pandemic ending and being able to travel again with my Olympus.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2020, 11:00 »
0
The M4/3 system is terrific for those who want to travel light. It would be a shame to see them leave the camera business. I keep dreaming of this pandemic ending and being able to travel again with my Olympus.

I used to have a "Trip 35" compact Olympus, manual thumb wind, small, pocketable, but good quality. I didn't always take a SLR everywhere.  :)

Part of the problem for Olympus is competition. People take crappy snapshots with their phones and share and are happy. But also Fuji and Sony, just for starters, make some really nice small cameras, and the camera market for pocket cameras is declining, but the competition hasn't left much room. Some have APS-C sensors now, great performance at higher ISO.

Sometimes it just comes down to market share and how much investment it takes, to make a dwindling smaller profit. At which point, the company can make more with other ideas and better use of facilities. For anyone who shot 35mm, Pentax, Minolta, Agfa, Leica (who is still hanging on because of name and status symbol prestige), Mamiya, Yashica, and Ricoh. Maybe not all stars but good solid performers.

georgep7

« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2020, 14:42 »
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compact Olympus?

No need to even google this.
I remember the mju compacts

Beautiful, small, smart, perfect film cameras in the size of a cigarettes pack.

Hah, memories.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2020, 09:22 »
+1
compact Olympus?

No need to even google this.
I remember the mju compacts

Beautiful, small, smart, perfect film cameras in the size of a cigarettes pack.

Hah, memories.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_Trip_35

Odd, I had the black one, and just looking, it wasn't made for many years.



I probably still have the camera "somewhere".

Very limited, but very pocketable.


georgep7


Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #6 on: June 25, 2020, 07:10 »
0
https://news.yahoo.com/olympus-shutters-camera-business-84-171707609.html

Olympus, once one of the world's biggest camera brands, is selling off that part of its business after 84 years.

The firm said that despite its best efforts, the "extremely severe digital camera market" was no longer profitable.

The arrival of smartphones, which had shrunk the market for separate cameras, was one major factor, it said.

It had recorded losses for the last three years.


PaulieWalnuts

  • We Have Exciting News For You
« Reply #7 on: June 25, 2020, 08:19 »
0
I think we all knew this was coming when one of their execs slipped mentioning a possible sale. And then backpeddled claiming photo imaging was critical to the company. I think we're going to see more of this with other companies fairly soon. Camera sales were bad already and dropped off a cliff with Covid. Nikon? Pentax?

 It's been clear for a long time phone sales have been destroying the camera industry. I wonder why none of these companies partnered with Apple or Samsung to produce a Nikon, Canon, Olympus, etc branded phone.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #8 on: June 25, 2020, 09:09 »
0
I think we all knew this was coming when one of their execs slipped mentioning a possible sale. And then backpeddled claiming photo imaging was critical to the company. I think we're going to see more of this with other companies fairly soon. Camera sales were bad already and dropped off a cliff with Covid. Nikon? Pentax?

 It's been clear for a long time phone sales have been destroying the camera industry. I wonder why none of these companies partnered with Apple or Samsung to produce a Nikon, Canon, Olympus, etc branded phone.

That too, market is down all over. I still say, Canon (for example) should have a phone in my DSLR that I can upload directly to agencies. I don't need to make calls, just enough that I can use data or WiFi and upload images. And your idea of a phone adapted to a camera or brand of camera that makes an adapter phone, would work. Maybe?

They do advertise Leica lenses on some phones. There are companies making clip on lenses. (not that I'm sure that many of them, are really any good?) I suppose someone has made an adapter for a Nikon or Canon lens that allows it to work on a cell phone, but really? The phone lens would have to look at the real lens. Weakest link theory.

The simple reason the camera market is down is, a phone is good enough for most people, small, acceptable quality, and it's always with us, or most of us. For people who care, it's back to the good old days, when cameras were limited, and expensive. I suspect if any company wants to keep making stand alone cameras, we'll see much less competition, less choices and less development.

The whole premise that the cell phone will replace the DSLR is flawed. The cell phone will replace "the stand alone camera" for most people, but on the high end, we'll still have high quality equipment and demands.


 

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