Olympus is lagging far behind Canon and Nikon in DSLR sales, and even Sony has pulled ahead. So what is Olympus’ response? The E-420, a camera without built-in image stabilization, and the option to buy it bundled with an f/2.8 “pancake lens.”
This confirms the fact that Olympus marketing is clueless.
The lack of image stabilization for this new camera is a deal killer. Every Pentax and Sony DSLR now includes built-in image stabilization, and Canon now has a new kit lens with image stabilization that’s bundled with its new Rebel XSi/450D. Even cheap point and shoot cameras come with image stabilization. Olympus is seriously behind the technology curve on this new release. Olympus is not going to catch up to Canon and Nikon unless it has the best technology in its cameras.
Furthermore, why does Olympus think that people want such a slow prime lens? Most unsophisticated photographers desire only zoom lenses. But this doesn’t mean there isn’t a market for prime lenses. At Amazon.com, the second-best selling Olympus lens is the f/2.0 50mm. You would think that Olympus would get the message from the sales data that people want fast prime lenses. Instead, Olympus gives us a slow prime lens that’s only slightly faster at its single focal length than the much more versatile f/2.8-3.5 14-54mm zoom lens which most serious Olympus DSLR owners already own.
The biggest complaint in online forums is that the Olympus DSLRs aren’t as good low-light cameras because their sensors are allegedly too noisy. While Olympus is to be commended for putting a better sensor into the new E-420 camera (it’s said to be on par with the sensor in the much more expensive E-3 camera), Olympus has blown the opportunity to produce what might have been the best low-light small-sensor DSLR kit if the E-420 had image stabilization and if the bundled prime lens were f/2.0 instead of f/2.8.
An f/2.0 kit lens would also have had a serious nostalgia factor going for it. Most older photographers remember owning a film SLR which came bundled with a fast normal prime lens. I had a Minolta manual focus SLR, and for only an extra $60 or so you could get an f/1.7 normal prime lens with it.
What’s even worse is that Olympus concentrated on releasing a new E-4xx camera instead of refreshing its much more popular E-510 camera. The E-510 camera is much in need of refreshing given the low grades its sensor has received for its limited dynamic range compared to the competition. It seems to me that someone at Olympus marketing, peeved that people aren’t buying the E-4xx series, decided to release the E-420 several months ahead of the E-520 in order to prevent the E-420 from being overshadowed by the E-520. I’m pretty sure that if the E-420 and E-520 had been released simultaneously, everyone would be ignoring the E-420 because people highly desire the image stabilization built into the E-520.
A big thumbs down to Olympus for having such clueless marketing.
