Interesting short interview with Olympus

[bavanor]

Here is a link to a short interview with a product manager from Olympus.

http://www.webpersonal.net/fotoimage...ympuse500e.htm

Sad what he says about the next pro-camera from Olympus.

[Paul Shields]

Interesting in his teasing replies . roll on PMA I gues...

[bavanor]

The whole "Say something at PMA" instead of "Show something at PMA" just blows.

[ditto1958]

I was really concerned about the comments concerning the sensor. I have suspected for some time that the reason the new camera has been so long in coming is that they are having sensor problems. I fear that Kodak has been unable to produce an acceptable 10-12mp 4/3 size sensor and they have been scrambling to find someone else who can make it. The comments in the interview seem to confirm that.

It probablly is difficult technologically to get that many pixels in such a small area without having a big noise problem. Olympus knows that if they don't make the new camera have zero noise at 3200 ISO no matter how wonderful the thing is the reviewers will savage them.

[Paul Shields]

The reviewers may well savage Olympus, but in the end Oly are still selling the 4/3rds format quite successfully. For those that don't rely on other people's opinions in making a decision then it shouldn't really matter (obviously I'm not counting Oly owners here). I will be more than happy with an 8mp plus sensor with similar noise patterns to the current E-1 - in the end the 'noise issue' really doesn't intrude into my world.

[matteo]

The format 4/3 is smaller than 24x36* and the difference between two formats are bigger if you consider this simple example below*
Actually at same density of a 13x18* *E-1 Sensor you can obtain a 20mega pixel in a 24x36 camera and
if we apply the same calculation to a E-300/E-500 sensor we can obtain a 30mega pixel sensor in a 24x36 full format CCD

If we increase the 4/3 sensor to 12 mega pixels (probably this is the resolution of the new E- x model )
we obtain* in a* 24x36 format sensor over than 45 million of pixels !!!!*
the professionals camera Nikon and Canon uses a* ccd (interline Transfer CCD) of 16 mega pixels
(the Olympus CCD is a Full Frame Transfer CCD)

This is the cost you pay if you want smaller camera and light weight lens.*
The Olympus Engineers considerations are : Is more difficult and expensive* to increase the mechanics and Optical performance .
Is more simple increase the electronics performance. We start from a smaller sensor and we receive benefit with weight and
dimension of camera and lenses. The gap between the Olympus sensor capacity* and the other competitors sensors
can decrease in future with less expensive investments.*

Hi
Matteo

[Paul Shields]

Originally Posted by matteo

The gap between the Olympus sensor capacity and the other competitors sensors
can decrease in future with less expensive investments.

I think that's part of their philosophy with the E series. In the end a smaller sensor will always be relatively cheaper than a larger one. So long as they can up the pixel count without introducing artifacts,, then it's a good business plan.

[bavanor]

In the interview when they talk about not having picked a sensor yet, what I am hoping will happen is a sensor like the Fovean. Full color per pixel with now bayer interpolation going on. That would rock.

[rnyholm]

I presume something is coming up when Top Shot (Malminkartano, Hki) 5 sells Olympus E-1 & Zuiko Digital 14-45mm F3,5-5,6 for a total price of 697 €.