Olympus has decided to get out of the camera market by selling off its imaging division to an investment fund, Japan Industrial Partners. JIP is the company that purchased the VAIO computer business from Sony.
Olympus blame the severe decline in the digital camera market, for the demise of their business. The Olympus imaging division has not made a profit for the past three years.
Smartphones Replace Cameras
The writing has been on the wall for some time. It was inevitable that eventually, smartphones would eclipse camera sales. Smartphones have now replaced compact cameras to become the camera of choice for most people. The technology employed by Apple, Samsung and Huawei now far exceeds that of many camera manufacturers. Due in part to their adoption and development of computational photography
Beautiful Cameras
Olympus have during their 87 years in the camera business created some iconic cameras.
The beautiful, compact SLR film camera, the OM1 (above) was used by many famous photographers during the 1970’s. Including David Bailey, and Don McCullin.
The PEN-F series is a film / digital camera with a history and timeless design, very much like the Leica. Now would be a good time to snap up one of these beauties.
Olympus The End
Olympus and JIP plan to sign a definitive agreement by the end of September, with the deal expected to close later this year. Financial terms of the acquisition haven’t yet been made public.