Interesting read.

[flamin lib]

Last edited Wed Jan 11, 2012, 06:45 PM - Edit history (1)

Many of the dwellers of Photography Group know me for the Zuikophile that I am. Perhaps this lecture by Yoshihisa Maitani will explain some of my slavish devotion to the brand. I met Mr. Maitani in the early '80s and still have an OM1 with his autograph etched into the back.

In another lecture he likened himself to the Monkey King and Olympus Corp. to the Buddha: The Monkey King bragged that he would find the end of eternity and write his name on the wall. Buddha said ,"Go." Upon his return the Monkey King said he had accomplished his feat to which the Buddha said,"Yes, I know," and opened his hand to show the Monkey King's signature on his palm.

http://www.olympus-global.com/en/corc/history/lecture/lecture1/part1.html

The other lectures are also very interesting, particularly the OM series.

[Major Nikon]

1. My first SLR was an OM-1

I loved that camera and ran hundreds of rolls of film (mostly slides) through it, but eventually went to Nikon and haven't owned any other SLR brand since.

[flamin lib]

2. They're all fine pieces of equipment, can't buy a bad one today.

Having been on the inside at Oly and knowing the philosophy of Mr. Maitani made the brand very personal to me. Maitani quit active design work in 1979 and died in July 2009 at the age of 76.

The OM concept was so innovative that the Museum of Modern Art displayed the OM1 as a blend of industry and art.

What amazed me was that the OM system was conceived as a complete system from the very beginning right down to the last accessory. Technology didn't exist to complete the system when the OM1 was introduced but as it progressed Miataini was able to work toward completing his vision.

The list of innovations that came from and continue to come from Olympus is too long to fit in a single post.

I don't understand why the photographic press has such little regard for the company.

[Major Nikon]

3. I remember Zuiko lenses were regarded as some of the finest in the industry

This is no small feat considering cameras came a distant second to lenses at the time.

I really have no idea why Olympus didn't get more market share than they did. It certainly wasn't because they didn't make a fine 35mm camera and lens system. The reason I switched to Nikon was because my dad lots of Nikon lenses and ditching the OM-1 for a Nikon FM just make more sense for me at the time. Perhaps it's because Nikon already had many years into the F models and lots of lenses already out in the market. The FM was somewhat of a letdown from the OM-1. I remember the OM-1 viewfinder as considerably better and it just felt more natural. I liked being able to adjust the shutter speed the same way as the aperture and you could make changes on the fly without having to remove your eye from the viewfinder.

[flamin lib]

4. Ahhh, Major, I didn't plan to go here, but

It was all marketing and I'm probably gonna' piss some people off.

In the mid '70s Canon introduced the AE1--for automatic exposure 1. They advertised the hell out of it in every media. Canon was singularly responsible for the 35mm boom.

The US was a huge untapped market for (relatively) high dollar, high quality 35mm product and everybody wanted a piece of it. The top 5, in order of volume, were: Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Pentax and Olympus.

Canon (F1), Nikon (F) and Olympus (OM1) offered honest to God professional photojournalist tools. Pentax was slow to move to the larger bayonet K lens mount from the (world standard) 42mm thread mount. As a result they couldn't incorporate auto aperture control and wide open metering, thus the former leader in 35mm SLR (Spotmatic) was left in the catch up position. Leica was, and still is, priced out of the market for all but the most high-end pros and people with more money than good sense. Minolta built copiers and got into 35mm for the profit. Then there were a host of "just as good as but cheaper" entries none of which really affected the market because price was the driver over quality, innovation and marketing.

The "big five" all introduced entry level consumer oriented products to compete in the low cost SLR market. They were little more than point-n-shoot with detachable lenses. We referred to them as plastic fantastics. I think 90% of these cameras ever had a second lens added.

Competition for market share was intense, it made the current cellphone market look like just a bunch friends. Enter the SPIFF. SPIFFs are an additional commission on "preferred" products. As I recall Minolta started it with a $5.00 SPIFF paid directly to the counter sales person for every warranty card turned in. Nikon and Pentax followed suit with Cannon preferring to advertise and drive brand awareness until they couldn't compete at the retail sales counter. Olympus steadfastly refused to buy sales at the retail counter and it cost me a LOT of money.

Mass marketing retailers began using SPIFFs to cut the overhead of salaries. Every skylight filter that cost .25 and sold for $10 earned a SPIFF of $1. Cameras were advertised at dealer cost and sales people were forced to sell add-ons to make up the profit. The average entry SLR sold for $199 but the final sale was close to $400, all the accessories sold at 4-6x cost. The worst was the "extended warranty", then as now it is nothing short of fraud.

Four of the top five manufacturers and all of the "just as good as" brands were bribing sales people to sell their product. Olympus refused to do so. I almost came to blows with a Barry's Camera sales person who came to my counter, took my product to a SPIFF manufacturer and proceeded to tell outright lies about my product to close the sale.

Unfortunately every retail sales encounter has devolved to this kind of marketing.

[Major Nikon]

5. It doesn't piss me off

I know lots of people who get into the whole 'my camera is better than yours' thing, but I've never been into that. I like Nikon because I've been using them for decades, but really the only thing that keeps me loyal is my lens collection.

[flamin lib]

6. Last post to clarify.

Not you! All those people that bought from retailers thinking the counter salesperson was honestly presenting a product honestly. If you've ever seen a salesperson make a check mark next to a line item you've been SPIFFED!

Most of it is done off the barcode today without the check.

Nikon has always been a high quality product as has all the rest for imagemaking equipment out there. They're all tools, choose the one that suits you.

It's been fun, Major, but I feel a bit like a kiss-n-tell revealing the inner workings of retail sales.