digital imaging reviews & news

Marketing gadgets is a tricky business. You can go the Apple way and keep everything a secret until launch day, building up expectation and excitement. Or you can follow the Olympus lead and give the world a good look at your new device months before it hits the shops.

Olympus officially unveiled the new Pen E-P5 on May 10, but it won’t be on sale until July. And even before the end of the official embargo there were leaks and rumours, complete with photos, that turned out to be correct in all details.

Presumably the reveal-early tactic is what is known as FUD – fear, uncertainty and doubt. The message is: Don’t buy a new camera until you have seen what we’ve got coming up.

We have used a pre-production sample of the E-P5 and can report that it is certainly worth waiting for. It can be had with the new, very high definition optional electronic viewfinder, and the combination is a winner. Internally the E-P5 is pretty much the same as the OMD E-M5, which means its image performance is outstanding.

The E-P5 uses a new smartphone control app for Android and iOS. We saw a beta version in operation and it is clever, following the pioneering of phone control by Canon and Panasonic. Definitely a worthwhile innovation.

The E-P5 is a micro four thirds mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. According to consumer survey results Olympus has high brand recognition, but we would be surprised if customers also know what micro four thirds and mirrorless interchangeable lens means. However, in the MILC category Olympus is number one with six models taking 42 per cent market share.

MILCs, produced in various forms by Olympus, Sony, Panasonic, Nikon, Samsung and Canon, take about twenty per cent of the interchangeable lens category that includes DSLRs. In Japan the share is closer to 60 per cent. In Australia the MILC share is growing. In the US, on the other hand, the share is very low. They like their cameras big.

Australians are the world champions in buying two-lens kits and we tell pollsters that the important criteria in camera choice are lens quality, size and weight and then pixel count. We put a high priority on battery life and effective image stabilisation. It’s only a few years since “style” was the number one criterion – we have grown up.

Sony is hoping to boost its category share by running another campaign mocking DSLR “tragics” who have all the gear and no ideas and would be better kitted with an NEX compact system camera (tinyurl.com/d7zj3w3). Hmmm. Sony also make outstanding DSLRs. Is this market cannibalism?

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