In an interview published October 29, two of the people steering the company talked about the road they didn’t take. Setsuya Kataoka, COO of OM Digital Solutions, and Eiji Shirota, who heads the OM System business unit, said proposals for full frame and APS-C bodies have come up several times over the years, but none of them turned into a plan.
Why They Stayed
Kataoka admitted he once leaned toward a bigger format himself, back in the system’s early days. Then a senior colleague asked him a question. Have they used up everything Micro Four Thirds could do?
That question changed his thinking, and he’s held the same course for about 15 years – let’s find out all we can do with Micro Four Thirds.
Both executives were candid that a Four Thirds sensor and a full frame sensor will never match on paper. Their argument is about the whole kit experience. Once the image quality meets a standard of what a photographer needs, the differences are more about what you can carry, how good and slow you can hand-hold, how fast is the autofocus, and whether the camera survives the trip.
A camera that stays home because it’s too heavy doesn’t make pictures.
Built For The Long Walk
The company’s goal is to become the number one outdoor camera brand, using the tagline “Discover More Adventure.”
The examples they point to are trips that punish gear: the Amazon rainforest, Mongolia, and expeditions as cold as -40 degrees. OM System has no interest in fighting Sony, Canon and Nikon across every sensor size. The customers they want is the hiker, the birder, the traveler, the photographer who walks a long way for the picture.
The current lineup follows along with that idea. The OM-1 Mark II pairs a 20.4MP stacked sensor with up to 8.5 stops of stabilization, 120 fps raw bursts and IP53 weather sealing. The OM-3 wraps similar tech in a compact retro body. Add the 2x crop factor, and a 100-400mm lens gives you 200-800mm of reach in a kit that still fits in a daypack.
What It Means For You
Micro Four Thirds has spent years cast as the format you settle for. For now, OM System is betting its future on photographers who’d rather carry a camera all day than own the biggest sensor on the shelf. If that’s you, you’re the customer they’re building for.
Sources
- OM System did seriously consider making full-frame cameras (Photo Rumors)
- OM System Almost Considered Making Full Frame Cameras (PetaPixel podcast)
- OM Exec Says Company Considered Expanding Into Larger Formats (PetaPixel)
- OM System Considered Full-Frame, Then Decided Against It (Y.M.Cinema)
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