vlatko
Senior Member
I've seen that there's been a ton of posts on the matters in subject during the last two days. Too much to read now. Since I held the E-400 in my hands and since I talked with a senior Olympus Europe official, let me write my impressions and report what was said.
E-400 is small and light, as you can see by reading the specs. The impression is that it's about half the size of E-300 and it feels in hand approximately like a thinner brother of C-5050 or 5060. Seen from front it's like E-500, but from above it looks quite retro, almost like Panasonic L-1 or Leica M-8 due to the lack of a grip. I was told that it had the nickname of "Digital OM" during the production process.
Back LCD is big and nice, but the menus look like your typical Olympus point and shoot, not like an SLR. Viewfinder looks brighter than E-300, but it was difficult to say in the short time I had it in my hands. One thing - instead of big red AF dots, you get tiny barely noticeable ones. Personally, I like the big ones better. Shutter sound is bearable.
Didn't sound plasticky or too loud, but it's not as quiet as E-1. Speed - wasn't quite as fast as E-300, I think.
But... we had preproduction cameras in hands so we were not allowed to take the shot photos with us. Ergo, the behaviour still might change. (It's due to be in shops something like a month after Photokina.) Ditto for the very noticeable chroma noise from ISO 800 upwards. The guy from Olympus Europe said he expects they will fix that even before Photokina or before the camerra goes to market.
Sensor manufacturer is apparently Kodak as somebody had already guessed here. I asked about it and cited the specific model (I forget the sensor model number now) and was told by the guy from Olympus, "I won't deny it." But the sensor manufacturer asked to be kept secret for now, probably till Photokina.
Lenses - very lightweight, plastic. The new 40-150 may be half the size and weght of the original one, but feels like a cheaply made plastic toy, because it sticks and grinds when zoomed. I was told it's also a preproduciton item. I did succeed in taking a couple of photos with 14-42 on E-300, but I have to download the photos to the computer. So, later.
Reason why E-400 is not going to be sold in the States is "a matter of timing". They obviously think they cannot satisfy the demand, so they decided to sell it only in Europe. the reason is more or less obvious. Europe makes 45% of Olympus sales. USA is something like 32, Asia around 20. Anyway, when I asked whether they plan on introducing E-400 in the States later, I was told that they do, but no definite time-frame.
Now, the future of Olympus and what it means for all of us. Olympus, according to their data, is in the black. For approximately the first two years after the introduction of E-1, Olympus was in red because the R&D budget was quite high.
Their projected sales for this year is 95 million (95 times ten to the sixth power) cameras worldwide. DSLRs will make 4.5 miilion units out of that number, and Europe DSLR sales will apparently be 2.5 million. Which all is good, I think. They don't think there will ever be an Olympus SLR in every pot and on every table, but they are aware that the situation was more or less the same with OMs. "Olympus users are a breed apart."
The reason they are introducing, basically, the fourth entry-level camera after E-1 is that they want to impress the sellers with cameras the sellers can shift in nice quantities. Therefore proving Olympus is a realiable source of SLR income. Therefore building their SLR image from ground up.
Also, the catalogue on four-thirds.org is to show that 4/3 is not a dead one-comany standard.
So, what they are preparing? When asked about OIS, the guy from Olympus said "Let's talk about it in a couple of months." Given that they used anti-shake in mju 750, that probably means that's it. OIS in the body, so all of your lenses become stabilized.
Lenses in the future. I was told that there are primes (and fast primes) coming in 2007. When I asked about Leica, I wasn't given a definite answer but I got a clear impression that we will see Leica 4/3 lenses in a foreseeable future. One more thing... I know I said I heard that 14-35 2.0 will be 2000-2500 euros. But the Olympus Europa guy said he didn't think it would be that expensive. Apparently my previous information was wrong. The fabled 100 mm Olympus macro will most probably also come in 2007. Note that I say most probably. The answer was not clear.
Finally, E-3. It will definitely be E-3, not an E-2. The Nikon camera was specifically cited as the cause.
We were very emphatically told that Olympus will not target the medium-format-like resolution of 18 MP. Ergo, a Canon Mark I competitor is out of question. But, the E-1 successor will have characteristics "better than E-400" in every sense. I said something about them having to compete with 5D, which was not denied. So, I'd expect a camera with 12 MP or a bit more and with anti-shake. Faster AF was definitely mentioned by the Olympus representative as well as more AF points. Not to mention higher speeds. Hmmm, somebody here had a finger in the Olympus plug when you bandied the specs around, right?
But it will all come in 2007. They still haven't decided when exactly.
And the end... the "clay mockup" for Photokina apparently won't be just clay or just mockup. The Olympus representative asked me whether I would be coming to Photokina and when I said yes, he told me to be certain to visit Olympus booth. (Heh, like I wouldn't.) It appears he held an early prototype of E-3 in his hands and something like that will be exhibited in Koeln.
Now, shoot. I wrote this out of my head without looking at my notes and I might have forgotten things.
E-400 is small and light, as you can see by reading the specs. The impression is that it's about half the size of E-300 and it feels in hand approximately like a thinner brother of C-5050 or 5060. Seen from front it's like E-500, but from above it looks quite retro, almost like Panasonic L-1 or Leica M-8 due to the lack of a grip. I was told that it had the nickname of "Digital OM" during the production process.
Back LCD is big and nice, but the menus look like your typical Olympus point and shoot, not like an SLR. Viewfinder looks brighter than E-300, but it was difficult to say in the short time I had it in my hands. One thing - instead of big red AF dots, you get tiny barely noticeable ones. Personally, I like the big ones better. Shutter sound is bearable.
Didn't sound plasticky or too loud, but it's not as quiet as E-1. Speed - wasn't quite as fast as E-300, I think.But... we had preproduction cameras in hands so we were not allowed to take the shot photos with us. Ergo, the behaviour still might change. (It's due to be in shops something like a month after Photokina.) Ditto for the very noticeable chroma noise from ISO 800 upwards. The guy from Olympus Europe said he expects they will fix that even before Photokina or before the camerra goes to market.
Sensor manufacturer is apparently Kodak as somebody had already guessed here. I asked about it and cited the specific model (I forget the sensor model number now) and was told by the guy from Olympus, "I won't deny it." But the sensor manufacturer asked to be kept secret for now, probably till Photokina.
Lenses - very lightweight, plastic. The new 40-150 may be half the size and weght of the original one, but feels like a cheaply made plastic toy, because it sticks and grinds when zoomed. I was told it's also a preproduciton item. I did succeed in taking a couple of photos with 14-42 on E-300, but I have to download the photos to the computer. So, later.
Reason why E-400 is not going to be sold in the States is "a matter of timing". They obviously think they cannot satisfy the demand, so they decided to sell it only in Europe. the reason is more or less obvious. Europe makes 45% of Olympus sales. USA is something like 32, Asia around 20. Anyway, when I asked whether they plan on introducing E-400 in the States later, I was told that they do, but no definite time-frame.
Now, the future of Olympus and what it means for all of us. Olympus, according to their data, is in the black. For approximately the first two years after the introduction of E-1, Olympus was in red because the R&D budget was quite high.
Their projected sales for this year is 95 million (95 times ten to the sixth power) cameras worldwide. DSLRs will make 4.5 miilion units out of that number, and Europe DSLR sales will apparently be 2.5 million. Which all is good, I think. They don't think there will ever be an Olympus SLR in every pot and on every table, but they are aware that the situation was more or less the same with OMs. "Olympus users are a breed apart."
The reason they are introducing, basically, the fourth entry-level camera after E-1 is that they want to impress the sellers with cameras the sellers can shift in nice quantities. Therefore proving Olympus is a realiable source of SLR income. Therefore building their SLR image from ground up.
Also, the catalogue on four-thirds.org is to show that 4/3 is not a dead one-comany standard.
So, what they are preparing? When asked about OIS, the guy from Olympus said "Let's talk about it in a couple of months." Given that they used anti-shake in mju 750, that probably means that's it. OIS in the body, so all of your lenses become stabilized.
Lenses in the future. I was told that there are primes (and fast primes) coming in 2007. When I asked about Leica, I wasn't given a definite answer but I got a clear impression that we will see Leica 4/3 lenses in a foreseeable future. One more thing... I know I said I heard that 14-35 2.0 will be 2000-2500 euros. But the Olympus Europa guy said he didn't think it would be that expensive. Apparently my previous information was wrong. The fabled 100 mm Olympus macro will most probably also come in 2007. Note that I say most probably. The answer was not clear.
Finally, E-3. It will definitely be E-3, not an E-2. The Nikon camera was specifically cited as the cause.
We were very emphatically told that Olympus will not target the medium-format-like resolution of 18 MP. Ergo, a Canon Mark I competitor is out of question. But, the E-1 successor will have characteristics "better than E-400" in every sense. I said something about them having to compete with 5D, which was not denied. So, I'd expect a camera with 12 MP or a bit more and with anti-shake. Faster AF was definitely mentioned by the Olympus representative as well as more AF points. Not to mention higher speeds. Hmmm, somebody here had a finger in the Olympus plug when you bandied the specs around, right?
But it will all come in 2007. They still haven't decided when exactly.
And the end... the "clay mockup" for Photokina apparently won't be just clay or just mockup. The Olympus representative asked me whether I would be coming to Photokina and when I said yes, he told me to be certain to visit Olympus booth. (Heh, like I wouldn't.
) It appears he held an early prototype of E-3 in his hands and something like that will be exhibited in Koeln.Now, shoot. I wrote this out of my head without looking at my notes and I might have forgotten things.
