Olympus is doing a great branding job.

VideoPic wrote:

I see many EM5 III posts going up and I find it interesting. EVERYBODY knows what we talking about wether its an OMD or a PEN, a EPL.... or an EM....

Contrary Panasonic made the classic mistake other manufacturers did calling the same thing different "names" in different markets....

Yes and no. Yes, Panasonic uses wildly different names in different locals, and it would be helpful if they picked one base name and used a suffix. Or even failing that used a consistent naming scheme (i.e. G8<x> where <x> = 0 for European mode, 1 for UK model, 5 for USA/rest of the world).

But outside of poorly choosing the names, Panasonic does at least do customization for different locales. In particular, until this year, Panasonic could not add video support of more than 30 minutes to their cameras without classifying them as video cameras when sold in Europe (by classifying them as video cameras, Panasonic would be subjecting them to a higher import tariff, making the cameras more expensive). So they created different models. In the USA version where there isn't a law for video times, the video is unlimited. But the video is limited to 30 minutes in the European model.

In addition there is another video customization that is important. In Europe the A/C currents cycle at 50 cycles/second, while in the USA/Japan it cycles at 60 cycles/second. So the European models for the non-high end cameras will give you 25 and 50 fps, while the USA/Japan models will give you 30 and 60 fps. This is important if your scene is lit with room lights (mostly florescent lights, but I imagine any A/C powered light will do this to a lesser extent), and the light level will go up/down during the 50 or 60 cycles/second.

Olympus on the other hand doesn't have country specific models. So all of their cameras are limited to 30 minute videos even if you bought the camera in a region that did not have the limit. And the E-m5 mark II does not appear to have settings for 25 and 50 fps.

Then you get into the differences between E-m<x> and Pen. Before the E-m10 was announced, the E-m5 and E-m1 models were both splash proof and had viewfinders. And the Pen cameras were not splash proof and had optional viewfinders. Generally, the Pens used the same battery.

And then there is the E-m1x which probably should have been called the E-m2 or something similar, since it is no longer in the mold of the E-m1 cameras due to the integrated battery grip.

Then the E-m10 came along, and it was named E-m10 because it had a viewfinder (but it used the earlier BLS battery). The E-P5 was announced and it used the BLN battery instead of the BLS battery. Finally, the Pen-F came along and it had a viewfinder and used the BLN battery. So by rights, it should have been an OM-D, but it was given the Pen name. And then there is the abomination called the E-m10 mark III, which 'simplifies' things, removing features (or hiding them) that were useful. So Olympus doesn't get a gold star due to clarity of its two lines either.