Interesting interview with the marketing manager at OM Systems . . .

[AndyS]

https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2023/04/07/omds-qa-at-cp2023-om5-details-em-going-away-90-macro

My personal takeaways are that OMS will continue to develop high end cameras and move away from the starter camera genre. Upper management keep saying that the Pen series will remain but at this point only one Pen is in current production. OMS acknowledges that cell phones fill the niche of entry level cameras and they are searching for the right way to bridge from that to dedicated camera equipment. Marketing also sees the used market as a replacement for inexpensive starter cameras. *If the Pen series survives it will be for the vlogger which means that OMS will have to up it's video game to compete with Panasonic. Given the emphasis on still photography I don't see that happening. *The topic of Pen cameras is my speculation.

There will be no intermediate camera between the OM1 and the OM5. When the OM5 was introduced my personal take on it was, "Meh?" It turns out I was wrong. Although it still has the older 20mp sensor it is equipped with the same image processor as the OM1. That is a big deal. None of the manufacturers make much fuss over their image processors, probably because unless you have an EE degree it's hard to discuss what they do. From a user standpoint is is what makes the 1s and 0s into images. How fast, how color faithful, how sharp and how much dynamic range. It is the heart of the camera. The two biggest advantages the OM1 has over the OM5 is sequence speed and AI subject detection. Other than that and the backlighted sensor the two cameras are remarkably alike. Meanwhile there are some good deals to be had on the remaining stock of EM1 mkIII and II.

A successor to the EM1X is under consideration. The 1X was a large brick of a camera but with size comes capability. There's enough room for multiple processors and double the computing power which means more features and faster processing. The 1X never appealed to me but apparently it was quite popular with pro users. It was identical in operation in either landscape or portrait mode and it is more comfortable in use with the really long lenses. Sales on the camera were really quite good particularly in the US, the third largest market for photo gear.

There was an interesting exchange on the future of AI processing in ICL (interchangeable lens cameras). While cell phone users enjoy a host of AI enhancements to their pictures (white balance, sharpness, dynamic range, color saturation etc) camera users still prefer to control all that themselves. There is some speculation that such AI will be incorporated in ICLs as an option in the controls much like some cameras offer 'scene' options that optimize automatic settings to that type of image. Perhaps an addition to the mode dial along with A,S and P will be AIauto? The consensus is that it's coming but not sure how or how soon.

Anyway, from a geeks POV it was interesting.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Thanks for sharing this article!

It looks interesting but I’m in a time crunch now. I’ll read it later.

Thanks, Andy!