Olympus status - should we be worried?

[ProfF]

Hi,

Reading the financial news about Olympus things do not look good. I wonder how will that effect the end consumer? I am mostly worried about products that have been promised but not delivered (e.g., EP-PT05L housing whose arrival date is constantly looking more remote) or future upgrades (lens?). On the one hand this seems like a solid product line and not some esoteric niche market, but on the other hand when a company this size comes crashing down, who knows what happens.

Any ideas? speculations?

Nir

 

[TheTrickster]

The EP-PT05L is HERE - I have one - so no worries there!

But you're right, if I had know back in August that Olympus were in this much trouble - I would have definitely looked at another brand for my next u/w camera, saying that the E-PL3 for me is the best one at the moment - and its not like it will just stop working tomorrow due to Olympus financial troubles. But it has put me off buying any further into the m43 system for the time being.

The camera division, I believe is loss making, which I find hard to believe, so if Olympus is heading for sell off / breakup. Someone will pick up it up for peanuts and hopefully turn it around.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Shame I do like Olympus

 

[Plotek]

Some time ago I bought Minolta, then the Sony bought them Now I have Oly, if Sony will buy them then there is the question what I should buy next time ... ?

 

[Meyr]

actually you should be worried.. if u own an olympus system that is.
cos according to petapixel,The Backstory to the Scandal That May Bring Down Olympus
the company will be delisted if they did not announce any profit.
So basically, if oly is no more, how about the pen system, the lens and so on.

 

[Prop Joe]

Panasonic is a Micro 4/3 camera manufacturer that uses lenses that are interchangeable with the Olympus PEN system. I was waiting for the Olympus housing to be available for the E-PL3 here in the states. If Oly goes down I hope another company will pick up their camera division with all of the innovative engineers and continue to make the great cameras that I have purchased over the years. I almost hate to say it but I'm guessing it may be a Chinese company as the China economy is growing in leaps and bounds compared to the rest of the world. What would really make me happy would be for an American company to buy Oly to put some people to work in the troubled USA.
From what I'm reading on the net this morning it seems their corporate plan involved getting into derivatives, Which also brought down the US housing markets. I don't understand the derivative thing completely but it sounds like a corporate shell game involving huge amounts of money. I think when you get right down to it the whole derivative thing amounts to corporate gambling with other peoples money or money they do not have. Olympus has now been called on their debt and it's not going very well.

 

[chile7236]

this is one of the reasons i don't go big on camera rigs....that and i am cheap ....that being said, my TG610 is serving me fine now.

 

[Prop Joe]

I'm contemplating just calling Reef and ordering the E-PL2 set up I have a quote for already, before they are gone and I'm left wondering which camera system to buy next. I really Like the 4/3 ( I have a E-510 DSLR already) and Micro 4/3 system.
Decisions....

 

[deeper thoughts]

https://news.fidelity.com/news/news...MBINED_TRE7AB07N_1&cat=Top.Investing.RT&IMG=Y

 

[Prop Joe]

Just when I thought it could not get worse... Really not looking good now 4.9 Billion losses with links to organized criminals:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/b...ce-investigate-olympus.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Truly sad...
CRAP!