Olympus is doing a great branding job.

ahaslett wrote:

I like Olympus products too, but:

1) Sneering at other OEMs, in this case Panasonic, doesn't sit well with me

2) Branding is much more than product naming

3) The mirrorless market is very turbulent at the moment, so it's no good resting on historic product lines

4) The "small, cheap and innovative" box is held by phone cameras at present

So, what in your view does the Olympus brand tell me about what an Olympus camera is and can do that is different from the 6 other mirrorless brands and 4 mounts? Please don't bash the others again.

In my view, they have an excellent reputation for firmware updates; they have a build quality problem, maybe solved; they have excellent after sales service in Europe; MFT OEMs have a good range of reasonably affordable lenses; Olympus are working on innovative capture and processing of RAWs, but keeping processing in camera is always going to add cost and weight; they are slipping for the most demanding landscape shots but weight and weather sealing are good. I happen to like Olympus ergonomics and design choices.

It's not clear who their target market segments are - well-off hobbyists, Pro sports shooters, hikers and holiday-makers?

I note that a lot of Sony FF owners see MFT as an excellent second camera, maybe the new EM1.2 firmware will address the perception of an AF gap.

Andrew

Every point of yours is spot-on. Oly's "branding" or whatever doesn't impress me. Especially since I have been shooting Oly for 9 years now and have yet to see another Oly shooter at work or play. And, the # of camera stores carrying the line seems to decrease each year. It's a niche of excellent products, but the niche is getting smaller and smaller.