On June 24, 2020, the photo world was shocked to hear that Olympus was throwing in the towel on their camera business. This engineering powerhouse had been producing cameras since 1936. But… between the iPhone and Covid-19, they just couldn’t make a go of it. Fast forward to today and we now have a new company called OM Digital Solutions.
For me, the rebirth of Olympus Cameras as OM Digital Solutions is exciting news! I personally felt like Olympus had thrown in the towel too early. But then again I wasn’t the guy writing the checks to keep the camera division afloat. Obviously, you can only convince your shareholders to lose money for just so long. The good news is OM Digital Solutions is now their own entity and has retained much of the Olympus camera engineering staff. Their new president is Shigemi Sugimoto, former Olympus Imaging Division Head. So far so good. Along with the announcement of the deal finalization, they also announced their new website.
I couldn’t be happier. I honestly think that the world of Micro Four Thirds has been a little bit ahead of its time. Having Olympus still in the game gives us another option for a truly professional system in a much smaller package. Congratulations Olympus. I for one am hoping you succeed. Here’s a PDF of the official press release.