{"id":13944,"date":"2020-06-27T09:57:42","date_gmt":"2020-06-27T14:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/richardbarron.net\/cameras\/?p=13944"},"modified":"2020-06-27T09:57:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-27T14:57:42","slug":"olympus-has-fallen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richardbarron.net\/cameras\/2020\/06\/27\/olympus-has-fallen\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympus Has Fallen"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is also my “Picture This” column for June 27, 2020<\/em><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A thunderstorm looms over our Nissan Frontier at a turnout on Interstate 40 in New Mexico in 2016. I shot this with my Olympus FE-5020 because it was in my shirt pocket.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nobody likes cameras better than I do. I like old ones and new ones. I like film cameras and digital cameras. I like cameras of all sorts and brand names.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I wanted a picture of myself in Zebra Slot Canyon at Grand Staircase\/Escalante National Monument in April 2015, so I handed my Olympus FE-5020 to a fellow hiker.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So no one was sorrier than I was when I learned this week that Olympus is getting out of the camera business<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Olympus, a Japanese camera maker founded in 1939, made a huge name for themselves by making cameras that were very compact. For years, because of this, my wife Abby and I owned and used several Olympus point-and-shoot cameras, and made some great images with them.<\/p>\n

Sadly, for the last three years Olympus hasn\u2019t been able to make their camera division profitable. This is despite their impressive Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras and excellent Zuiko lenses. One Olympus camera I have coveted since the day it was introduced is the TG-Tracker<\/a>, a super-compact point-of-view\/action cam that was not only tiny, it was incredibly great-looking. I never needed one, but I recommended it to several people who hoped to buy an action cam.<\/p>\n

\"Photographer<\/a>
Photographer Jim Beckel and I photographed a sunrise at Canyonland National Park, Utah, in the spring of 2013. This image was made with my tiny Olympus FE-5020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"I<\/a>
I still have this point-and-shoot camera, the excellent Olympus FE-5020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is becoming increasingly difficult to sell cameras in a camera-in-smartphone world. My wife and I are examples of why: our current smartphones rival the images we got from our Olympus point-and-shoot cameras from years ago, so we are seldom motivated to bring a point-and-shoot along.<\/p>\n

The photography press says that Olympus is selling their camera division to\u00a0Japan Industrial Partners, but time will tell if their firm will continue to make cameras, or simply liquidate all the assets. It may be true: Olympus has fallen.<\/p>\n

\"Abby<\/a>
Abby and I handed my Olympus FE-5020 to a fellow hiker to make this picture of us at Canyonlands National Park in October 2010.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is also my “Picture This” column for June 27, 2020 Nobody likes cameras better than I do. I like old ones and new ones. I like film cameras and digital cameras. I like cameras of all sorts and brand names. So no one was sorrier than I was when I learned this week that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-cameras","category-lenses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardbarron.net\/cameras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardbarron.net\/cameras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardbarron.net\/cameras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardbarron.net\/cameras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardbarron.net\/cameras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13944"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/richardbarron.net\/cameras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13957,"href":"https:\/\/richardbarron.net\/cameras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13944\/revisions\/13957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardbarron.net\/cameras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardbarron.net\/cameras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardbarron.net\/cameras\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}