What Olympus need is a new model in the same price range as the D200. An affordable upgrade for the E-1. If the new E-3 is priced [as some predict] at double the price you'd pay for a D200 or Canon's 30D upgrade then I fear sales will be slow - and there will be some great bargains in a years time when they have to offload them! A good midrange model wlould not only sell to E-1 owners but also to those who bought the E-300/E500 etc. and want to go a stage further. And what it needs is some niche USP to attract new users.
I've used Canon, Nikon and Fuji DSLRs but for me - and I appreciate others have come to a completely different conclusion - Olympus haver proved the best. Everyone has their own priorities in their camera use and I have at least tried most of the options beforem reaching this conclusion. I had decided to return to Nikon by buying a D80 to use alongside my E-1 - faster, better af, bigger buffer, more mp etc. specifically for bird shots - but after using the excellent D50 all last year I was a bit dsappointed viewing my D80 results against my old D50 ones and my E-1 pictures. If I'd persevered I'm sure my technique would have improved and I'm not knocking the D80 - I just was'nt as impressed as I'd hoped with it. So I've swapped it for one of those unsaleable E-500s - becoming obsolete so at bargain prices. One advantage with Olympus is the quality of the lenses. The mid range weatherproofed 14-54 f2.8/3.5 and 50-200 f2.8/3.5 are really very good and even the kit lenses - especially the 40-150 - are good quality.
I agree that it's hard to fathom the Olympus marketing strategy. Not sure how well the tiny E-400 is selling - that is definitely a niche camera but will. of course be compared to the D40/400D etc. and look expensive. Just hope they don't sell the camera making part of Olympus to Pasnasonic - not as bad as having Sony on the front of your camera though!
|