Olympus closes up shop

[Thlayle]

Per the article from BBC: smart phones made a major portion of their market simply nonexistent.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-...08R7I6GRe9NBg#

[rpcrowe]

Even though I never shot Olympus - I am sad to see them go. They introduced many innovations in the camera world...

[Thlayle]

Yes, it is sad. For my part, I take note that about 8 months ago when I was looking into getting a mirrorless camera for travel, it would have been I think one right in the Olympus wheelhouse: light, easy to use, not high end, just something to have ready for quick & easy use.

Instead, I upgraded my phone to an Apple iPhone 11 Pro.

[DanK]

It's sad, but from what I've read, it's no surprise. Their cameras had a lot of attractive features, but they hadn't been keeping pace recently, from what I have read, on things like sensor quality, EVF quality, etc.

[Antonio Correia]

In August 2019 Sony was selling it's 5% stake but continuing their business alliance...

I have some Olympus equipment and will be keeping it. The assistance in Portugal was very good. I wonder if the employees will be out in the street. Shame in this critical period.

[Manfred M]

Carefully said, Olympus Corporation is selling its camera business to Japan Industrial Partners, Inc.; it is not shutting down. It is continuing in its other businesses, especially in some of the medical equipment it makes.

There is no statement that the camera and lens production will be shutting down and in fact if one reads the press statements at a high level, it is business as usual. Longer term, no one knows what this means, but a company does not buy a business without an intent of leveraging those assets to make money. It could mean a lot of things and only time will tell.

[mugge]

I have three Olympus lenses: 40-150 2.8, 12-40 2.8 and 45mm 1.8. My next one will be 25mm 1.2. I have no reason to change because no company will take over another company without having compelling reasons to do so.

Olympus will continue to operate just leaner and better.

[Manfred M]

Olympus will continue to operate just leaner and better.

Olympus will continue to operate it's medical equipment, life sciences (microscope) and industrial divisions. Only the camera division has been sold.

Olympus has been plagued by mismanagement issues over the past number of years.

What happens to the Olympus cameras and Zuiko lenses is anyone's guess. If you do by another Olympus lens; I hope you get it at a heavily discounted price. I suspect that the micro four-thirds camera is almost dead. With Olympus a question mark and Panasonic pushing hard into full-frame, who knows what will happen.

[tooticki]

Hello everyone! I've been reading a while but not posted before. Sad my first post should be in this thread. I've bought into the Olympus system and just a couple of months ago I spent more than I can afford on the 40-150 Pro. I'm not a happy camper now.

True as Manfred M says, we have to wait and see. But the buyer is a private equity fund, the same one that bought the computer business from Sony. I think we all know what private equity funds usually do to companies they buy. I so hope I'm wrong, but I don't think there will be Olympus cameras as we know them for much longer.

[pnodrog]

It's strange that people seem to be leaping to the conclusion the the Olympus camera and Zuiko lenses will disappear completely. You only have to look at the automotive industry to realise how technology, branding and production etc gets shunted about.

Minolta ended up with Sony and although the name was eventually dropped the Minolta technology (especially auto-focus) helped Sony make some of it's giant strides in the photography world.

If you have Olympus equipment it will still perform the same way as when you bought it regardless of who owns the photography side of Olympus.

[Acorn]

I raised this topic on a Facebook thread by a well-known UK wildlife photographer who shoots with Olympus. She poo-pooed the consequences, emphatically stating that Olympus will continue to manufacture cameras/lenses. The fact is, nobody outside of JIP really knows. I'm not decrying the great capabilities of Olympus photographic equipment, but their status in the digital world is not what it was with film cameras and the endorsements from the likes of David Bailey (Olympus Trip).

But I still have many of my film cameras and they work just as well as they did when I bought them new. They might not have all the automatic features and adjustment tools as on today's digitals, yet, for example, you learned to bracket and exposure compensate.

I guess Olympus cameras will still exist in the bags of many of the world's photographers. Whether they will continue to sit in the stock rooms of photographic equipment suppliers is anyone's guess.

[Manfred M]

Sony sold its Vaio brand of computers to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) in 2014 and the brand continues to sell in a number of countries including the USA and Japan. Sony continues to own the the brand and licences it to JIP.

It really is too early to say what will happen. There is little doubt that Olympus Corporation will continue to own the Olympus brand. This type of licensing arrangement is quite prevalent throughout the world.

[DanK]

She poo-pooed the consequences, emphatically stating that Olympus will continue to manufacture cameras/lenses. The fact is, nobody outside of JIP really knows.

The second sentence is the reason I wouldn't give any credence to the first.

There is no way to know what will happen. The new owners may maintain the product line, but it's hard to see how they would do that without making some changes, since the extant line has been losing money. Or they may specialize on niche products.

Many years ago, I used a "personal information manager" called ECCO. It was enormously powerful and flexible, which meant that I had to invest a good bit of time learning how to use it. After I had been using it for years and had come to depend on it, the company that owned it sold the rights to it to another company, which never again developed it. There was a devoted crew of users online who figured out ways to keep it going, but eventually, changes in operating systems, etc., made it useless. I could never figure out why they never sold the rights or, alternatively, just released the code so it could become open source. My only hunch was that buried in that code was something the buyers were interested and didn't want to release.

In this case, however, it doesn't look like Oly had any secrets or innovations that a buyer might want to protect.

[Manfred M]

the company that owned it sold the rights to it to another company, which never again developed it.

In the business world it is definitely not unheard of to buy a competing product to do nothing more than kill off a competitor or at least ensure that the company does not become a competitor. Facebook and Google have been doing that for years.

Google bought Nik software, primarily for their Snapseed product. They supported Nik Collection for a few years before they let it wither, unloved and unsupported and finally sold it to DxO Labs.

At other times it seems that companies, especially software companies, bought up intellectual property to solidify against litigation or to use their patent portfolio to shut down competitors. Your story could be as simple as that too.

[Acorn]

In the 1950's I owned a Yashika 6x6. The brand disappeared in 1983 along with Contax and another brand. They have never reappeared. Have I spoken too soon or will, as reported, Olympus go the same way?

[mugge]

I have just purchased a olympus 25mm 1.2 for $1359. Before the announcement of the impending sale of Olympus that lens fetched something like $1800 (Australian dollars).

I now have 12-40 2.8, 40-150 2.8 45mm 1.8 and now 25mm 1.2. All my needs are now covered.

A few days ago we walked about in slight rain. I did take pictures. Olympus are very well made cameras and, at 71 years of age, will outlast me.