Wow this thread has been going on for some time. I'll add my two cents worth...
Without some serious change of direction Olympus will be out of the DSLR market. (Period! full stop! arret!) It stated its direction and it killed its entry level. The E5 is the entry level- in fact it is the middle level and top level as well. Very few new users will come to the fold.
Olympus like other manufacturers makes money by pursuing one of three grand strategies:
1. Make a lot of items and sell them at a good profit;
2. Make the lowest cost items on the market;
3. Make niche items and sell them it a select few.
Canon and Nikon are following 1 above. They generate money and profit to develop new cameras. They make a great deal of money on their mid level and premium cameras. The entry level not so much.
Most manufacturers cover number 2 above with digicams or loss leaders in the DSLR range like the Kx or the Canon 1000 or T1i or Nikon 3100.
Leica is a good example of 3 above.
Olympus doesn't have the cachet that Leica has. So it isn't going to be able to make an EP3 and sell it for the price of a Leica X1 or (gasp) an M9. It won't happen.
So Olympus competes with a strategy based on 3 above and tries to make it like 2 above. And it looks like with predictable results. I don't see much real difference between the PENS. Some features have changed but the guts are the same. With good reason because Olympus lacks the money for R&D than its main competitors have (Sony, Panasonic, Nikon and Canon) so you get "product improved" products but not truly new products (for example the D90 and the D7000 as opposed to the D300 and D300s). At the moment everything (possibly aside from a very modest attempt at introducing u4/3rds lens) from Olympus over the last two years has been product improved as opposed to new products. And the E3 to E5 is pretty much a good example of that.
One other point Olympus is wedded to Panasonic as the only other 4/3rd sensor maker. And each needs the other to keep the manufacturing costs down - its a volume game there. So if either wavers the other will feel it.
So clearly lacking R&D resources Olympus is in "harvest" mode. That is - keep the costs down and milk it until it dies.
Business wise there is nothing wrong with what it happening. But then there is great futility in trying to read it any differently. So what can you do?
1. If you like the E system buy the lens and attachments you can while they are still available - for example if there is no entry level cameras exactly who will be buying the 14-42 or the 40-150 in enough volume to keep the line open? If that line dies how does that effect the cost efficiencies of manufacturing the HG line? If that line dies how does that effect the efficiencies of the SHG line?
2. By all means buy the E5. Perhaps it will change Olympuses mind. But don't count on it because someone will have to say what they have done is a mistake. And the Japanese culture doesn't really allow for that to take place easily.
3. And yes I know that the current camera you have won't automatically cease working because Olympus is committing the corporate equivalent of hari kari. But then I don't see many people on this site saying they really want to buy a Konica Minolta Maxxum for example or that even use one. So the market will move on like it already has - only the entry level DSLR's use 12 MP arrays and the number is steadily decreasing. Parts and Pieces will get rarer not more plentiful. And in the future you won't see the E5 selling new for $600 despite only the entry level competition using the 12 MP sensor in the future - even the E30 is selling for just under $1000 here in Canada. So enjoy what you have now and in the near to mid term and maybe ongoing depending on Olympus strategic rethink enjoy the $600 Pens - because that is the strategy for now.
Without some serious change of direction Olympus will be out of the DSLR market. (Period! full stop! arret!) It stated its direction and it killed its entry level. The E5 is the entry level- in fact it is the middle level and top level as well. Very few new users will come to the fold.
Olympus like other manufacturers makes money by pursuing one of three grand strategies:
1. Make a lot of items and sell them at a good profit;
2. Make the lowest cost items on the market;
3. Make niche items and sell them it a select few.
Canon and Nikon are following 1 above. They generate money and profit to develop new cameras. They make a great deal of money on their mid level and premium cameras. The entry level not so much.
Most manufacturers cover number 2 above with digicams or loss leaders in the DSLR range like the Kx or the Canon 1000 or T1i or Nikon 3100.
Leica is a good example of 3 above.
Olympus doesn't have the cachet that Leica has. So it isn't going to be able to make an EP3 and sell it for the price of a Leica X1 or (gasp) an M9. It won't happen.
So Olympus competes with a strategy based on 3 above and tries to make it like 2 above. And it looks like with predictable results. I don't see much real difference between the PENS. Some features have changed but the guts are the same. With good reason because Olympus lacks the money for R&D than its main competitors have (Sony, Panasonic, Nikon and Canon) so you get "product improved" products but not truly new products (for example the D90 and the D7000 as opposed to the D300 and D300s). At the moment everything (possibly aside from a very modest attempt at introducing u4/3rds lens) from Olympus over the last two years has been product improved as opposed to new products. And the E3 to E5 is pretty much a good example of that.
One other point Olympus is wedded to Panasonic as the only other 4/3rd sensor maker. And each needs the other to keep the manufacturing costs down - its a volume game there. So if either wavers the other will feel it.
So clearly lacking R&D resources Olympus is in "harvest" mode. That is - keep the costs down and milk it until it dies.
Business wise there is nothing wrong with what it happening. But then there is great futility in trying to read it any differently. So what can you do?
1. If you like the E system buy the lens and attachments you can while they are still available - for example if there is no entry level cameras exactly who will be buying the 14-42 or the 40-150 in enough volume to keep the line open? If that line dies how does that effect the cost efficiencies of manufacturing the HG line? If that line dies how does that effect the efficiencies of the SHG line?
2. By all means buy the E5. Perhaps it will change Olympuses mind. But don't count on it because someone will have to say what they have done is a mistake. And the Japanese culture doesn't really allow for that to take place easily.
3. And yes I know that the current camera you have won't automatically cease working because Olympus is committing the corporate equivalent of hari kari. But then I don't see many people on this site saying they really want to buy a Konica Minolta Maxxum for example or that even use one. So the market will move on like it already has - only the entry level DSLR's use 12 MP arrays and the number is steadily decreasing. Parts and Pieces will get rarer not more plentiful. And in the future you won't see the E5 selling new for $600 despite only the entry level competition using the 12 MP sensor in the future - even the E30 is selling for just under $1000 here in Canada. So enjoy what you have now and in the near to mid term and maybe ongoing depending on Olympus strategic rethink enjoy the $600 Pens - because that is the strategy for now.
