If memory does not fail it was around 2007 when after a financial crisis Olympus came to a joint venture with Panasonic to save the company. The crisis, as I am sure many of you remember, was not the result of faulty products but a crisis created by several CEOs of the company involving money. I think that everyone at the time, including me, thought Olympus will eventually disappear from the photographic scene. It did not and came back stronger than ever. Because of the joint venture with Panasonic lenses made by each company fit each other cameras.

Then Olympus began to manufacture small rangefinder cameras that they called mirrorless although they did not have a rangefinder and it was necessary to use the rear LCD to have an idea of its focus and exposure. Eventually they began to manufacture external rangefinders for these cameras. The rest is history and today Olympus has a very strong presence in the mirrorless market. Most recently at Photokina in Germany they introduced some new lenses, including the 12-100 f4 Pro that promises to be a great optic along with a new body, the OM-D1 Mark II.

For those of you who love the M43 system or other mirrorless cameras I am posting these three shots that I have made in the past with my Olympus cameras. The first one made at almost midday with the EP-5 and 12-40 f2.8 Pro Zuiko in Santa Barbara, California. The second one was made in Sedona, Arizona just ahead of a front using the same set up. The last shot was made in Canaan Valley, West Virginia in an early and foggy autumn morning using my EP-1 and 12-42 kit lens. I used a cheap Dolica tripod as a camera support for these images and during editing the pictures were enhanced using Photoshop and Nik Viveza.
I hope you like them.

Now you know you're not supposed to ask questions like that. Just set the camera to Auto and press the button. :D

It must be difficult engineering a new camera. Not only do they have to decide what they want the camera to do, they also have to figure out how to make it do it. And, they have to make it somewhat user friendly. I know that most autofocus cameras use their various focusing points to find the object that's closest to the lens and focus on that. That's why I use one single focusing point in the center. In at least one way, I'm smarter than the camera. I know what I want to shoot.

The thing is that I bought the 4/3 camera because a reviewer said that it was like using an M Camera. But he lied. I really prefer an slr. I like looking thru my lenses. The only reason that I am even considering trying it again is that I have 6 m lenses and the mirrorless camera. I can try them on the Olympus for the cost of an adapter. Im not interested in investing anymore into that system. Plus I dont really care about af.
The next big decision is wether to get a R leica 180 F2 and adapt to the D800E or a nikkor 200 f2.