You might imagine the market is full of rangefinder-style mirrorless cameras with viewfinders, but those days are gone. Olympus itself only made a camera like this once before – the PEN-F – and while Panasonic made a bunch of compact GX-series cameras that might have competed, they are long gone. So what’s left that could compete with the new OM.
If you exclude rangefinder-style camera with no EVF – and I think we should – then that narrows field considerably. And if you also rule out cameras of this type that don’t have IBIS, the field narrows still further.
In fact I can think of just two contenders.
I’m going to rule out one of them straight away. The Sony A6700 meets all the criteria so far, and it’s a very powerful, very capable camera. But it’s designed solely for practicality rather than any kind of retro appeal, and there’s a limited set of compact prime lenses that doesn’t really compete with those offered by this next camera.
The Fujifilm X-E5 is the camera that OM System really needs to worry about. It has classic retro styling, complete with physical shutter speed and aperture controls (on most lenses), which OM System does not have. The X-E5 has a viewfinder too, and has IBIS of its own. Is it as good as OM’s? Perhaps no, but it has it.
The real issue for OM System, though, is the X-E5’s sensor. It’s an APS-C sensor with twice the area of OM’s MFT sensors, and twice the resolution, at 40MP.
I think it’s all going to come down to price. If the new OM camera even approaches the price of the X-E3, then it’s going to look completely outclassed.
And the price, I think, depends on one decision, one that OM System has already made but we don’t know yet. If it chooses to use the stacked sensor featured in the OM-3 and OM-1 II, it’s hard to see how it can keep the price sufficiently lower than the X-E5’s to avoid head-to-head comparisons. If, however, it uses the older but perfectly capabl un-stacked sensor in the OM-5 II and previous models, it could come in a lot cheaper, and OM could genuinly have a new camera that’s in a class of its own.
We will have to wait until the official launch on September 9 to find out.
3 responses to “OM Systems’ new rangefinder-style camera will have just one rival – and it’s a tough one”
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I wonder if OM System could use an unstacked sensor but use the same processor as the OM-3. The reviewer world was not too happy with the OM-5 mkii. A new PEN camera with OM-5 mkii internals, regardless of price, would probably be a tough sell. I love my OM-5 mkii. But I think I’m in the minority.
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Not quite in the minority because I am an OM-5 II owner too! I know what you mean about the reviewer world. The OM-5 II did get criticised for not adding enough that was new, but there’s an obsession now with progress for progress’s sake, Once, enough (e.g. camera specs) was enough, now only MORE is enough 🙁
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Absolutely right. OM systems has to come in with a camera that’s Price. Right has retro appeal and is capable. It’s a shame they can’t release the PF but if this is close to the PF and is under $1500, (Australian) which is about $1300 American, they have a real shot.
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