Two 'In Development' Announcements

So, a bit of a disappointment on the Olympus front: the announcement is not a conventional announcement, but the announcement of a future announcement. All Olympus has said is that the E-M1 Mark II is "in development" for delivery...later.

Some goes for Panasonic, which announced that the GH5 is in development.

I suppose there's nothing wrong with this trend, although it highlights what must be a severe dilemma for the camera company marketers: do you withhold information in order to create maximum excitement when customers can actually place an order? Or do you "pre-announce" it to confirm what's coming, and thereby prevent defections of loyal customers?

I feel their pain, because I myself have been their problem customer. I was waiting and waiting for the original E-M1, but it took too long to arrive and, before it finally did, I jumped ship. I owned one briefly later, but by then it was too late...I haven't been back to Micro 4/3 in a serious way since then (although I still love, and admire, and approve of, Micro 4/3).

I admit it was a mistake—I should have waited—but yup, I did that.

Above are the differences between the new upcoming E-M1 Mark II and the old...er, "old" (it's been around for three years) model. As Olympus said, "Probably the most important innovation tonight: speed."

Well, yeah, except....

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Will: "In keeping with the GH series' history as more video camera than stills camera, the announcements today regarding the GH5 are pretty huge. Panasonic's promise of delivering 4:2:2 color sampling and 10-bit color depth in 4k, recorded straight to SD card in camera, is a proper game changer. These features have no easy analogue in still photography to illustrate this fact, but trust me when I say that this is huge, it leaves Sony in a delicate position, and it puts Canon even further behind in the video market that they basically created.

"(Sony's primary pain point here is that they have a professional video camera market. When it created the 'Mini-F5' that is the FS7, they saw fit to give the cheaper camera ($8,500 currently for the FS7 vs. $13,000 currently for the F5 similarly capable) 4:2:2 and 10-bit. Later, the $5,750 FS5 was distinguished from its big brother in part by not offering internal 4:2:2 or 10-bit. Panasonic's cinema camera offerings have a huge gap between the GH series and the $20,000+ Varicam offerings. Moving these big pro features downmarket does little to cannibalize Panasonic's sales of more expensive pro cameras, but Sony's situation is rather different and now they must choose between ceding much of the sizable low budget pro market to Panasonic or risk cannibalizing their own lineup. It will be fun to watch this develop.)

"All of which is to say: Panasonic did right with their pre-announcement. We're paying attention, and I imagine no one is buying a (video) camera in this price range, unless absolutely necessary, between now and the GH5 launch."

Mike replies: So one thing you're saying is that an "in development" announcement might be a better thing in some specific cases than in others—which makes sense, but is something I didn't think of.

David Burren: "Presumably the marketers are aware of the Osborne effect. Ideally they want the lead time from announcement to availability to be minimal: Canon has been doing well on this recently. The longer the lead time the more chances that people will give and up go elsewhere (or be enticed by new offerings that appear in the meantime). Also if the lead time is too long the "new" features may seem old by the time people get access to them. It would seem short-sighted to make an announcement without an estimate of delivery. Presumably they're confident the lead time will be not-unreasonable, but uncertainty is rarely a good thing in terms of keeping customers."

Tom Simonsen: "I suspect that we see so many pre-releases this year because of the earthquake that stopped sensor production for so long. Probably they were going to release the cameras now, but, because of the delay in sensor delivery, they won't be available until after Christmas. On the other hand, we have seen pre-releases of lenses for some years now. So it might just be a trend...."

Comments

[c.d.embrey]

A pre pre-announcement, sorta like vaporware ;-)

BTW Panasonic has done the same thing with their New GH5, which may (or may not) be available sometime in 2017.

I guess in this a ever shrinking camera market, you gotta do this. If you hope to survive.

[Jim Allen]

It seems to me the OEM's don't need to tell us what's in development, we generally assume something is always in development unless there's a bankruptcy on the horizon. Or the perfect camera has finally been brought to market and we will only need replacement parts from now on... Teasing us about what's in development is an age old practice which frankly annoys me. If you don't have the commitment and confidence to provide a delivery date, then you're selling vaporware. Anyone can make a grand announcement with no commitment. What you're doing is trading on your reputation to try to hold me in line. Good luck with that. Between e-commerce and eBay, I can change my mind pretty conveniently. You want my loyalty? Make a commitment to a delivery date and meet it. I was going to keep my 5D Mk III and upgrade the Olympus camera, but maybe I'll upgrade the Canon and keep the Oly instead. I'll upgrade my micro 4/3's camera at some future date sometime...

[Dennis]

"Well, yeah, except...."

Hah ! Good catch ! They also said it's been in development (or will have been in development) for four years.

Hopefully, in the long run, that will prove to be a good thing.

[Dennis]

Re: Jim Allen's comment, "It seems to me the OEM's don't need to tell us what's in development, we generally assume something is always in development unless there's a bankruptcy on the horizon."

Jim, you must not spend much time other well-populated photography forum sites. The angst is palpable. A lack of annual product upgrade announcements is a clear sign that one's chosen camera company is giving up on one's chosen camera system. Sell now, before prices plummet, they're abandoning us !

Though, to be fair, Sony might have let it's A-mount users (both of them) know it was working on the new A99-II. Who'd have thunk it ? I think one of them abandoned ship so Sony cut its potential market in half.

[c.d.embrey]

Waay too many posters on fora, base their self esteem on the camera they own. The sports team they back, etc, etc.

As JIm Allen said I can change my mind pretty conveniently. Not being a fanboi sure has it's advantages.

[Moose]

These delays, and those from other makers, may be aftershocks from the Kumamoto earthquake in April.

Whaddya do when the protoypes work, the production line is ready - and you can't get enough sensors?

Sit back and have folks like Mike (with the E-M1) defect, or do a big glitzy announcement, in hopes of convincing many to wait for the coming wonder?

Looks like the 12-100 Pro lens will be released just after I return from a major shooting trip.

C'est La Vie

[sebastel]

mike, you're not the only one jumping off the olympus ship. when i got the pen e-p1, i actually wanted what came (much) later, the pen-f. i surrendered to the fuji x-t1 halfway there.

but, i see no reason to regret. :-)

[Nigel]

It might just stop loyal customers who have bought the previous model feeling aggrieved when its replacement is announced a couple of weeks later... and gives them time to save up.

(Assuming there is still such a thing as a loyal customer.)

[Oskar Ojala]

If the announcement cannibalizes one's existing sales (the Osborne effect) then it's a bad idea to announce. If, OTOH, the announcement cannibalizes other companies' sales, then it's a good idea. GH5 apparently tries to do just that, keeping people from buying new Sonys and Canons. Olympus probably wants to make people reconsider jumping ship and also get new users, their competition seems to be Fuji and Canon.

These announcements do have real effects. A friend of mine has been waiting for the E-M1 II announcement, so it will clearly affect his purchase decision. But a prerequisite is that the announcement is concrete enough; the Pentax full frame was coming so long that nobody took it seriously anymore.

[Tim]

The Interwebz were awash with rumours of hand-held hi-res mode from the Oly. I'm not sure where that's gone in the wake of yesterday's ann/prenouncement. Then again everyone's reciting "50-MP hi-res mode" which is JPEG-only; the ORF is the same 80 MP. Essentially it seems like the gains over the Pen-F are weatherproofing and focus-stacking. Price will determine a lot.

[John Krumm]

To be fair, the cameras are likely quite far along "in development," and already in the hands of testers. We are talking a few months, I think. Usually Olympus would have announced the camera right about now, with prices, and then delivered perhaps in November following their usual three year cycle. My guess is now people will have them in their hands mid winter or at worst early spring. Here's a "hands one with some good photos of the EM1 II...

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/olympus-om-d-e-m1-mark-ii-hands-on-preview-29936

[Matt]

I think the cause of both of these "pre-announcements" can be pretty firmly traced to the Kumamoto earthquake delays at the Sony sensor plant, which both Olympus and Panasonic have said is impacting their products.

For my part, I'm a bit torn on whether I want to put down money for the E-M1 mkii. On the one hand, I've long wished for a Micro Four Thirds body with some proper focus tracking ability. On the other hand, I traded in my original E-M1 for an E-M10 mkii a while back, and I've been finding the more compact form factor (paired with some of Olympus' smaller f/1.8 primes) make it a much better compliment to my other, DSLR kit.

[Jim Bullard]

I recently considered buying a Panasonic GX-8. I also looked at the Canon EOS M3. I own an original M and like it in spite of some flaws. I was really hoping that Canon would come out with the M4 that has been rumored for over a year but then they came out with a 28mm macro lens for the M series around the same time the rumor sites reported that the M4 was another year away so I bought the macro and the M3. I'm not sorry, in fact, I think I'm in love. The M3 has largely sidelined my 7D (the original) which is now going on 7 years old. I can use a much light tripod so my whole kit has dropped several pounds with no loss of image quality, in fact, it is better. Then, just a few weeks later Canon jumped right over the M4 and came out with an M5. Again, I'm not sorry. I like the articulated add-on EVF on the M3. The M5's EVF is fixed and the flip screen goes down 180° which is weird, because of the fixed EVF no doubt, but why didn't they use a fully articulated screen like the 80D? So, the announcement of a new lens did serve to keep my Canon loyalty although I wish I had a direct input channel to Canon to tell them what I'd like to see in the future.

[Jim Allen]

To be fair, my previous comment was mainly an expression of frustration. Olympus has really gotten my attention with these sweet, sweet Zuiko lenses. I really don't like carrying double the weight of glass to shoot my full frame camera...until I look at the files. I know I'm spoiled, but I wish I could get full frame low light quality from a m4/3 sensor. Seems like Olympus knows it, because they've put serious effort into stabilization, and it shows. If I can use longer shutter times, I get some help with the sensitivity issue. What I'd like really is vaporware, for now. If I can dial up my patience, I'll bet in a few camera generations, the sensors will catch up to current FF standards. For now, I'll work with what I have and recognize that I am in fact holding technological marvels in my hands every day I use them.

[Marco Sabatini]

https://www.dpreview.com/news/5553611541/photokina-2016-hands-on-with-olympus-om-d-e-m1-ii

[Bill Tyler]

The EM1-ii is hitting all the right notes for me. I use my EM-1 mostly for wildlife, and the combination of improved AF, focus speed, battery life, and IS covers just about everything that I could have asked for. The only missing part is the actual product.