E3 price range? $1000, $2000 or more?

I am patiently waiting for the E3 for its potentially unique combination of preview, sealed body, anti-shake, anti-dust, good viewfinder, etc.

However, seeing the high price that Olympus is asking for the E330 and the E400, when compared to other less innovative manufacturers, I wonder if the E3 would be positioned so high that I would not be able to afford it anyway.

Should one expect the E3 to be closer to $2000 than $1000? Olympus has to spread its R&D over a smaller market.

Would the Pentax K10D force the E3 to be around $1000 (may be + $200 for the preview) or would Olympus try to position the E3 in a higher class, closer to the Panasonic L1 or even more? It might, I hope, be a much better camera than the L1.

Will I have to wait another year or two for the E3 price to stabilize at a more competitive level? It seems to me that Olympus, more than others, try to take advantage of the early enthusiasts, am I right?

Frank

Frank43 said:

I am patiently waiting for the E3 for its potentially
unique combination of preview

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Leave that out!

Frank43 said:

anti-shake

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Please! No!

Frank43 said:

good viewfinder, etc.

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How should that work with the live TV on the back?

Frank43 said:

However, seeing the high price that Olympus is asking for the E330
and the E400, when compared to other less innovative manufacturers,

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The E400 is not more expensive than the Nikon D80.

Frank43 said:

Should one expect the E3 to be closer to $2000 than $1000? Olympus
has to spread its R&D over a smaller market.

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Make it 2500

Frank43 said:

Will I have to wait another year or two for the E3 price to
stabilize at a more competitive level?

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If none of the "me first" yellers buy one, you'll get it for 700 bucks after 2 years. Competitive to what? What do you think this camera will compete with?

Frank43 said:

It seems to me that Olympus,
more than others, try to take advantage of the early enthusiasts,
am I right?

Click to expand...

No, they just miscalculated the one or the other model.

Just my thoughts ... not meant as harsh as written.
--
http://kagman2.blogspot.com/
http://cgbier.zenfolio.com/
( Both just started, so don't expect too much)

I would expect the E3 to be closer to $2,000 than $1,000.

The E3 will be a true Pro camera, which means a higher quality body and higher quality parts than we see in the D80 class cameras.

Frank43 said:

I am patiently waiting for the E3 for its potentially unique
combination of preview, sealed body, anti-shake, anti-dust, good
viewfinder, etc.

However, seeing the high price that Olympus is asking for the E330
and the E400, when compared to other less innovative manufacturers,
I wonder if the E3 would be positioned so high that I would not be
able to afford it anyway.

Should one expect the E3 to be closer to $2000 than $1000? Olympus
has to spread its R&D over a smaller market.

Would the Pentax K10D force the E3 to be around $1000 (may be +
$200 for the preview) or would Olympus try to position the E3 in a
higher class, closer to the Panasonic L1 or even more? It might, I
hope, be a much better camera than the L1.

Will I have to wait another year or two for the E3 price to
stabilize at a more competitive level? It seems to me that Olympus,
more than others, try to take advantage of the early enthusiasts,
am I right?

Frank

Click to expand...

--
GMT

My bet is that there are two or three cameras.
1. E400 for the states -- 10MP, possibly a live view version.

2. Plastic weather sealed rig to compete with K10D-- 10MP, like an E500 with a pentaprism and sealing

3. E3 meant to compete with 5D and D2Xs-- 12MP, possibly with pixel binning for sports/high ISO mode.

As far as shake reduction goes, may be the year after. If Olympus decides to start putting live view in all of their cameras, I am out. I won't pay for a feature that I won't use. I would rather they start putting penta/porroprism viewfinders, with increased magnification, because the 4/3 viewfindder is my only bugaboo.

--
'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

I expect it to be about the $3000 mark; if it isn't then they will have cut too many corners and not produced the flagship camera that the E-3 should be.

Regards
Doug

P.s. I hope it doesn't have live view or anti-shake.

--
See my best images @ http://dougjen.net/alamy
And many many more @ http://dougjen.net

thebard37 said:

My bet is that there are two or three cameras.

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Or 4 or 5... 3 ready for release and 1 or 2 announced for future release.

thebard37 said:

1. E400 for the states -- 10MP, possibly a live view version.

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Yeah!

thebard37 said:

2. Plastic weather sealed rig to compete with K10D-- 10MP, like an
E500 with a pentaprism and sealing

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I'd think it a metal body but the same.

thebard37 said:

3. E3 meant to compete with 5D and D2Xs-- 12MP, possibly with pixel
binning for sports/high ISO mode.

Click to expand...

Yep! Probably!

thebard37 said:

As far as shake reduction goes, may be the year after. If Olympus
decides to start putting live view in all of their cameras, I am
out. I won't pay for a feature that I won't use. I would rather
they start putting penta/porroprism viewfinders, with increased
magnification, because the 4/3 viewfindder is my only bugaboo.

Click to expand...

There's now a zigview that you use away from the camera.. you plug the cable into the camera and you have a screen as far away as the cable reaches!

That's gotta be something Olympus is playing with?

I think 'great.. give me more tools I can use or turn off'

As a new convert to the world of Olympus DSLRs having used Canon, Nikon and Fuji models previously, I would query the sales potential of a very high cost pro model. Of course there are pro photographers using Olympus - but just how many? Surely the biggest market would be for a camera that competes feature and price wise with a camera like the D200 - obviously the release price would be more than the current cost of a D200 - a camera that would probably give most of the features a pro needs but also be within the range of those who want to upgrade from something like the E-300 or 500 and those who want a faster, more mp, better AF, E-1 replacement. If they could get the price/feature ratio right it should be a good seller.

What does everyone have agasint antishake? I have used it, and I can say that it works.

I cna see live view being an issue, becasue it adds cost and bulk for a feature that isn't necessary if you have a better VF. However, IS is useful, and it draws people into the system, especially if it is the in body variety.

--
'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

. . . to a test of the Pentax rendition.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=19647176

Why would you not want this?

--
'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

. . . don't sell really well. I am sure their are exceptions, but they are usually very high margin items for a reason. I have read that the Nikon D2X is the worst selling camera curently available, while the D200 is among the best.

I am sure that Canon doens't make its living selling the 16mp MkII. I bet they sell more 5Ds and 30Ds.

However, every brand needs a "flagship" model that is professional in every aspect, and plays on the strengths of the system. I include Olympus in this assessment.

HEre is how they make money with it. The debut new tahcnolgoies in it, and then let the tech trickle down to the lesser models a little later. NIkon does it. I know it ends up giving users the feel that they are buying a crippled version of a better model, see D80, but doing it this way lets them know that their investment in lenses, flashes etc, won't be wasted as they wioll always have an upgrade path.

Hence my earlier idea taht Olympus should/could display and sell three models at PMA.

1) E400 for the world, with afew improvements over the odl one.

2) a weather sealed E500-ish camera meant to compete with the K10D/D200.

3) A monster flagship camera, perhaps with some ridiculous FPS to go with the x2 crop, and pixel binning options to give sports shooters/wildlife guys something to go ga-ga over. Olympus could easily do this, especially considering their wealth of really fast weather sealed zooms that a lot of pros would love to attach to a body of equal caliber. Will it ever compete completely with Canon, probably not. However, it can give an option to some. While high ISO will nto be as usabel as the Canon 135 format cameras, f2 on the 35-100 f2, 150mm f2, and (hopefully) 14-35mm f2 will certainly be a more usable option given the greater DOF 4/3 gives.

However, this all comes with a cavet, and that is can/will Olympus deliver an AF system that is capable of using all these goodies by next years PMA, that is proabbly the hardest task, and the litmus test for the professional aspirations of the 4/3 systme as far as wildlife/sports photography is concerned.

--
'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

I think the E3 will be in a highr build class than your expectation. IMO it will be more in the range of the Canon 5D.
--
Denis de Gannes

Just think about what you will get:

1) A Body with the same build quality standard
2) Wheathersealt
3) 10-12MP
4) A new Focus System with at least 5 points (7 more likely)
5) A complete new Image processor
6) 5 FPS ore more with RAW+JPG mode
7) ca. 512MB internal mem.
8) Probably internal IS
9) Same Pro-Ergonomics
10) A complety new internal software
11) Pro-Shutter
...

This package will be probably arround 2500,- Euro. And thats about right!

B

--
Get a Life, get a Mac

.................much more! By the time the E3 comes out all DSLR cameras, even the entry level ones, will be over $3,000.00. That's due to the affects of inflation over the long time period for the release of the E3. Probably four more years of waiting. Of course by that time I will have acquired a vast aray of Pentax lenses to go with the new K10D. I'm just kidding, but maybe I'm not. If the E3 came out fairly soon I would still not buy one right away as the price would be over-inflated. I would just hang on to my E300 and E1 and wait a little longer. I bought my E1 because I couldn't justify buying anything else due to the "best bang for the buck" factor". I also think cameras like the K10D are going to stabilize the price of all cameras, high and low end. I just might try the K10D myself. I'm only too afraid that I might just like it and then I'll have to think twice about my Oly cameras. I do like the Oly 4/3's format, but I wish the size of the sensor was bigger. I shoot medium format film also and it's like comparing my Pentax 6X7 output to my Mamiya M645 output. They are both very good, but the 6X7 wins and both are better than 35mm. I think it's kind of like DSLR FF 24x36mm, APS-c sensors, 4/3's sensors and then the little Point and Shoot sensors, so give me the biggest sensor I can afford. Yep, I say bigger is better!

Keep that at 10MP, and we can see that for $1400 body only, especially if they stay away from magnesium and go with a different kind of metal, or a high impact plastic. Price it just below the D200.

This would be my camera.

10MP
weather sealed
quality build
5fps

real prism viewfinder, stretched to absolute max that 4/3 can give, perhaps a 115% magnification, and a 22mm eyepoint.
Seriously upgraded AF capabilities.
IS as a bonus.

Including the excellent AOV that 4/3 gives, along with the sensor cleaning and they have something really competetive, as long as the IQ is there.

It would help if they could avoid the recalls and bugs that the D200 had, and the K10D is having. I always want to stray from 4/3, but when I see the kind of scholock the other manufacturers allow to happen, poor lens samples, banding out of the box, dust on sensors, flashes blowing out when they are new, I realize that part of Olympus really is a quality factor.

Theeeen . . .

Offer a 12MP version, magnesium clad at the same time, with something like 8-10fps, and pixel binnning options for like $3500, just for the pros who are willing to shell out. It would give instant credibility to Olympus, and pit them squarely against Nikon, which is where they should be competing because both companies offer better quality than canon for a modest uptick in price-- if you don't count the FF canons.

--
'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

EMale said:

There's now a zigview that you use away from the camera.. you plug
the cable into the camera and you have a screen as far away as the
cable reaches!

That's gotta be something Olympus is playing with?

I think 'great.. give me more tools I can use or turn off'

Click to expand...

What makes you think you'll need a cable?
Imagine one without tether.....

Timmi said:

Just think about what you will get:

1) A Body with the same build quality standard
2) Wheathersealt
3) 10-12MP
4) A new Focus System with at least 5 points (7 more likely)
5) A complete new Image processor
6) 5 FPS ore more with RAW+JPG mode
7) ca. 512MB internal mem.
8) Probably internal IS
9) Same Pro-Ergonomics
10) A complety new internal software
11) Pro-Shutter
...

This package will be probably arround 2500,- Euro. And thats about
right!

Click to expand...

The above, minus internal IS, sounds like a Nikon D200 to me. And it doesn't cost over $2000us....

--
Dale

.....if you canot afford what the high end will cost you should stay with the mid or low end bodies.

That is not meant to be a dirogetory remark.

If you wait until the price has dropped the technology will have passed you by.

I agree with most of the specs. I would also add a killer autofocus system with at least 9 points and a wireless flash system like Nikon. Not sure about in-body anit-shake.
--

When you see a beautiful collection of photons, capture them. You will never see them again.

MilSuper said:

EMale said:

There's now a zigview that you use away from the camera.. you plug
the cable into the camera and you have a screen as far away as the
cable reaches!

That's gotta be something Olympus is playing with?

I think 'great.. give me more tools I can use or turn off'

Click to expand...

What makes you think you'll need a cable?
Imagine one without tether.....

Click to expand...

You continue to tease us. I enjoy it.

--
Cheers,

Jim Pilcher
Colorado, USA

I don't make stupid mistakes. My mistakes are always very clever.

Didn't I read sometime around Photokina that there is a very real possibility that there will be an E-1 replacement/update AND a new flagship E System camera? Or did I imagine that?

So, I think we will see a camera similar to the E-1 in a price range under $1500 USD and a flagship model in the $3000 USD range.

I've been know to be wrong on occasion. But not since 1997.

--
Cheers,

Jim Pilcher
Colorado, USA

I don't make stupid mistakes. My mistakes are always very clever.