WHATS NEXT FOR M43, after Olympus, what future is left?

[Pitachu]

My son just gotten the Sony ZV-E1 (Full frame) instead of the higher resolution ZV-E10.
Main reason being better performance at ISO12800 AND can use 12-24 Ultrawide to get 12mm.
Ultrawide is usually preferred for Vlogger as 24mm is too close if you are holding the camera in your hand to film yourself.
Plus in some video modes with stabilization, there is a 1.13 to 1.5x cropping depending on which mode.

Panasonic must have realized that and choose Full Frame sensor for availability of wider angles.

He and others were wrong!!! New compact Panasonic camera will be for content creators, NO evf. Jared Polin will be pissed! ( The LLL.. mount alliance ..) Camera will be fullframe L mount and popularise the L mount, price will be affordable ( less than S5ii ) to gain market share and compete with similar cameras like Sony.

 

[ricohflex]

Rumours of Lumix (fixed lens rangefinder style) , Nikon (ZS rangefinder style) , Canon (rangefinder competitor to LX 100 VI) going to introduce Full Frame models.
None of them are MFT sensor format. All of them are Full Frame.
Writing is on the wall.

MFT as a sensor format has been thrown aside by major manufacturers and left to rot from 2024 onwards.

MFT was good in the year 2008.

What to do? Kodak and Polaroid were once giants in the photo industry.
Olympus Camera Division too, once upon a time. All that is history now.
The world changes and moves on.

There will be die hard fans of MFT. Especially those suffering from Sunken Costs.

By the way, the Nikon ZF (Full Frame) is a killer of the Fuji XT5 (APS-C). In so many ways. not just the sensor format difference.
Now Fuji has to worry about their XT range.

 

[Pitachu]

This has nothing to do with whether M43 is going obsolete or not.

Of course all manufacturers would choose to produce range finders using their own lenses.
Revenue and Profit Margin for lenses are much higher than camera bodies, and there is no need to incur any R&D on existing lenses, unlike camera bodies which they need to when releasing new models.
Why would any manufacturer want to introduce a camera body that make use of the excellent range of lenses OM Systems and Panasonic have when they do not have these M43 lenses?

As long as there is a market demand for the lenses and features found on M43 camera bodies, M43 manufacturers will continue to produce.

Rumours of Lumix (fixed lens rangefinder style) , Nikon (ZS rangefinder style) , Canon (rangefinder competitor to LX 100 VI) going to introduce Full Frame models.
None of them are MFT sensor format. All of them are Full Frame.
Writing is on the wall.

MFT as a sensor format has been thrown aside by major manufacturers and left to rot from 2024 onwards.

MFT was good in the year 2008.

What to do? Kodak and Polaroid were once giants in the photo industry.
Olympus Camera Division too, once upon a time. All that is history now.
The world changes and moves on.

There will be die hard fans of MFT. Especially those suffering from Sunken Costs.

By the way, the Nikon ZF (Full Frame) is a killer of the Fuji XT5 (APS-C). In so many ways. not just the sensor format difference.
Now Fuji has to worry about their XT range.

 

[one eye jack]

Panasonic will be announcing it's new compact camera named S9 on May 22nd. London time aka 11pm. Sg time. Designed for vloggers but main feature is LUT ( Look Up Table ) selectable via a button to customise the look that content creators prefer although whether it has film simulations like Fujifilm is unsure. Camera will come in 4 colours which the one in the illustration is green. Yes of course it has articulating screen. There will also be 2 new lenses to be announced later plus 2 new cameras.

 

[one eye jack]

Well Robin Wong and fans will be disappointed that Panasonic will not bring back GM1. Watch live podcast tonight at 22:00.

 

[Pitachu]

With the tremendous success of Sony on it's ZV series (now account for 48.4% of Sony Sales) targeted at vloggers, it is no surprise that Panasonic tries to follow Sony footsteps for its S-series users.

With the advancement of Mobile phone the last 5 years, I am not sure whether there is still a market for small cameras like the GM-1 as users including myself then to just use their mobile phone for social media shots.

Well Robin Wong and fans will be disappointed that Panasonic will not bring back GM1. Watch live podcast tonight at 22:00.

 

[ricohflex]

The so-called market share is based on "Shipment" from Japan.
Not actual sales.

He says.....
{ What can Micro Four Thirds do to survive? }

The answer is - Nothing. It is too late in the year 2024. MFT cannot be saved.
Very low market share becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
No new buyer dares to purchase MFT equipment because the market share is so extreme low.
And because new buyers stay away from MFT, their market share gets even lower.
In reality the format is for all practical purposes - obsolete.

 

[Pitachu]

@ricohflex You have predicted the demise of OM System / M43 since 2020.
4 years later, OM System and M43 is still around.
Thank God I did not listened to you. I have since upgraded from EM5 Mk3 to OM-1 to OM-1 ii.
While you were lamenting away, I had tremendous amount of fun shooting with my M43 gear
and each time, I only lose a few hundred dollars selling my Olympus / OM camera body when I upgrade.

I actually was using my son's Sony Full Frame for about 6 months when I was learning Portrait and Landscape,
when when I bring the Sony gear for 2 nature shoots, I realized I lost a significant percentage of shots compared to
using my OM-1. There is no Pro Capture (able to shoot a series of shots before shutter release) and my Son's A7iv and A7CR
has only 8 to 10 Frames per second. I actually need to try shoot several times before being able to shoot a bird
in the position want catching a fish.

And when I went to look for a Sony FF body that has a decent FPS, I realized that there is only 2 models,
the Sony A1 costing $9000+ and the A9iii costing $8000+. My entire M43 system with 6 lenses don't even cost that much
and has served me so well.

To say that new buyers stay away MFT because market share is so low ?
Are you saying that Leica, Pentax, Ricoh, Hasselblad and all other camera brands not in top 5 have zero sales to new buyers?

M43, like action cams (GoPro, Insta360 etc) all have a purpose and meet the needs of a certain group of users.

The so-called market share is based on "Shipment" from Japan.
Not actual sales.

He says.....
{ What can Micro Four Thirds do to survive? }

The answer is - Nothing. It is too late in the year 2024. MFT cannot be saved.
Very low market share becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
No new buyer dares to purchase MFT equipment because the market share is so extreme low.
And because new buyers stay away from MFT, their market share gets even lower.
In reality the format is for all practical purposes - obsolete.