I had the deep honor at PMA to interview Mr. Watanabe from Olympus Tokyo. It was a very enlightening experience, and now I feel that I know more deeply about the thinking process of Olympus and their view of the 4/3 system. We always have ground rules, and the biggest is Olympus will not make any comments about future products (which is a very understandable rule in my opinion). Also, I had a few Olympus Studio questions, but those will be answered by another interview at another junction later this year. Most of these questions came from forum members who were looking for answers to their concerns with Olympus Tokyo.

1. Does the E-620 replace future models of the E-4x0/ 5x0 series of cameras?

a. The way that we see it is that Olympus will have 3 (consumer) models in parallel, it will be a combination of the other models, and the E-620 will be a hybrid of the other cameras. Such as taking a compact body from the E-420, the Image Stabilization from the E-520, and the Art filters, from the E-30. It also has a more advanced focusing system similar to that of the E-30.

2. What are the most unique features of the E-620?

a. First; it is a collection of the other Camera model features, such as the swivel LCD, and the extremely compact form function. (I think that the E-620 will really be a very big winner for Olympus).

3. Will the future E-420 (replacement) have Image Stabilization built into it?

a. We are planning a successor to the E-420 and it will be different. (that was all he had to say about that one.)

4. Any Primes on the horizon?

a. Yes, but it is difficult to prioritize which ones to make first.

5. Any plans for a mid tier Long lens (I was thinking like a 100-400mm f4-5.6 )?

a. We have a long list of desired lenses, and what we do is take all those desires, and from feedback from customers and the forums (I think he said "Your" forum, speaking of fourthirdsphoto, but I am sure that Olympus looks elsewhere too :D ) we start working from the top down. This type (100-400mm) of lens is certainly a consideration.

6. Will any updated Lens road maps be released for the system?

a. We do not have any plans to update the road map, it was originally given to customers, as a picture of the system, and most of the missing products have been filled now. Our next main function is to add functionality to the current lenses. (Think like the 50-200mm was updated with SWD) We have the basics filled in the wide angle, standard, telephoto, and Macro lenses.

7. Any plans to release either a camera or lens µ4/3 (Micro four thirds) road map?

a. No, not at this time, but he wanted to know what I thought about it. (I thought it is a good line, and shared that with Panasonic introducing the road map for their µ4/3 lens road map, I felt like they were much more serious about this venture than before.)

8. With the modern advancements of sensors and how they deal with high ISO noise, is there a reason why the 4/3 sensor cannot do better?

a. We believe the most important factor for excellent image quality are the lenses. From the view point of the sensors and engine development, we have focused both to increase the MP and to reduce noise. Now, I think 12MP is covering most photo applications by the majority of users, and we should not be in a hurry to increase the pixel count as has been the case before. This does not mean we will stop at 12MP, but rather would like to focus the priority of our efforts on improving other characteristics of a sensor.

9. Any reasons why we don't have 14 bit raw files (If you remember I felt that the cameras at this stage should have at least 14 Bit raw files)?

a. There are lot of pros and cons to bit depth. The main issue is that the larger files will take longer time to process, and will require much more storage. Under the current technology from the camera, storage systems, and printing, we don't think higher depth is necessary. When we think we need it we will do it, but not now. There are not enough benefits, to justify it with the current technology.

10. Any plans on adding GPS to the camera?

a. This technology hasn’t fully matured yet, and there are a lot of issues, such as high battery consumption, and correctly logging it in the EXIF so that other applications can read it. (So they have thought about it, but at this time it again isn't ready to go live was my impression)

11. Will XD cards ever be replaced by SD cards?

a. We included an XD card slot on the SLR's because it made it easier for existing customers to setup from a point and shoot camera to a SLR. Also with XD cards we are better able to control the card quality than that from the many manufactures of SD cards. But at this time we are open to exploring other options.

12. I asked him a few questions at this time about Studio, and basically was told that I would be better to interview another person from Olympus. But basically they currently feel that Olympus Studio needs to be a faster raw developer.

13. I asked about seeing sensors/Lenses/Cameras from other 4/3 consortium members, but I was directed to ask them. (I did ask Tamron, and they said they will make 4/3 mount lenses but only when the market share increases)

14. Any other art filters you would like to see? (And I specifically asked about a gradient filter and user adjustable settings for the filters too)

a. We have a list of over 50 candidates for filters, but again we have made a list and prioritized, we are currently working on other filters. With the art filters we wanted them to be something that a person can use anywhere for different subjects. A filter such as a gradient filter has a specific use (primarily landscapes) and at this time we feel that we have others to focus on. When deciding how to implement the filters we felt that we wanted to show our vision for how they should look, and present them at their best, at some point we may make them editable by the consumer (But I got the impression that they didn't want to make them too complex at this time)

15. Any plans for a E-3 firmware upgrade to address some of the new technologies as seen in the recent cameras, such as IS 3, AF adjustment abilities, etc.?

a. When designing firmware upgrades we have to first address any bugs (such as the focusing issues of the EC-20 and the 90-250mm) and then we again have a long list of desires, which we have gathered from feedback of customers such as from the websites.

16. I asked what the schedule is for firmware updates -

a. Mr Pelkowski chimed in and said that they usually correspond with lens announcements, to keep all the cameras compatible with the Lenses.

17. I asked about other desired user products such as a small bounce flash, AF assistant lamp, etc, since time had long run out and we all had other things to do.

a. Really, customer requests are always helpful, and this helps us come up with future products.

18. How does Olympus plan on moving forward in the difficult global economy?

a. We believe that µ4/3 will be a major target of future users, that area of the market has a lot of room for expanding many users to the SLR world., and we believe that we can greatly increase our market share in that region.

19. What are your thoughts on live view verses looking through the viewfinder (Since µ4/3 cannot have an optical TTL viewfinder, and Olympus has really put a lot of work into liveview over the last few generations of cameras)?

With liveview the ability to understand what the picture will look like is more easily realized, we can see in real time much more, such as color exposure, framing (with composition grids), and can even see in the dark. But at this time optical viewfinders are still better for speed. When we made the E-330 I thought that the consumer would use liveview 20-30% but now with many users stepping up from a point and shoot camera, or cell phone camera, we see many users who use it 100% of the time

All in all it was a good 1.5 hour interview with Olympus. In fact, I felt like I got a much better feel for the company and it's vision for the 4/3 system. I think that the E-620 is a real winner, PMA was mostly the show of the Bland SLRs but I only saw 2 big winners; first the E-620, and second the Panasonic DMC-GH1, and it was a deep honor to have the time to meet with Olympus at the event. We saw many comments from Mr. Watanabe directly addressing some of my comments, as well as many others on the site.

Lastly I need to say that this has been delayed a bit because I had to get some fact checking done so that I don't do a blunder reporting something incorrectly like has already happened in the last couple of weeks.

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