Half Frame, Half Century

Fifty Years of the Olympus Pen

Khen Lim, Zone-10 LLC

TOKYO – Circulating rumours of Olympus pulling back its Micro Four-Thirds introduction by a solitary day has been confirmed to be true. And so it’s now June 15 2009. And together with this piece of news is that up till this minute, there are still final touches yet to be made and they probably won’t all be made until the last second. Olympus, probably more so than others, prefers this modus operandi to keep everyone guessing as much as to have all its options open.

Some of the issues yet to be fully resolved revolves around its final name (nothing we can tell you here since this is the most tightly kept secrets), body colour schema, initial lens lineup and feature mix. Well, that pretty much rounds up the whole camera, I suppose, but for almost everyone, the body colour scheme remains a hotly discussed item on the Internet.

The original Photokina and PMA orange is definitely out. It wasn’t a very good red herring either. But then there were hot news about the anniversary celebrations of the Olympus Pen and Pen-F in Tokyo and Olympus Plaza in Shinjuku only recently. I’ll say this much – it’s all very clever stuff from Olympus’ marketing people. There’s a bit of truth in associating the new M43 camera with the Pen but it’s not the whole real McCoy either. The anniversary celebrations whipped up some nice editorial space for Olympus!

Anyway the earlier touted chrome-silver schema remains very much alive but Olympus is already working on variations that may be launched concurrently or in later stages. Among these variations are black but there are others that are reminiscent of the mju-mini but not quite that bold this time.

Surprise, surprise, there is no built-in flash for this model. Neither is there an optical viewfinder. Will the new M43 series also adopt the FL-series hotshoe flash models? Hmmm, maybe not. Actually I’m almost certain it won’t.

Things are definitely heating up now for one of the most anticipated digital cameras and assuredly the most exciting new platform we've seen in recent years. Zone-10 will continue to monitor these developments closely.

Ken Norton

Fire escape shadow and brick wall. Grinnell, Iowa.

 Shadow Play, Olympus E-1, Zuiko 14-54, ISO 100, F4.5 at 1/160

A lunchtime outing with an OM-4T, a Zuiko 300 F4.5 telephoto lens and a small field of tulips. (click on title for full article and additional images).

 Isolated Tulip. Olympus OM-4T, Zuiko 300/4.5, extension tubes, Kodak Gold 200

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However, invariably, you will be asked to provide your own equipment, but the studio will require that your equipment be up to a minimum standard. You look at the $200 the studio will pay you and say "hey, this is great!"

Or is it?  This article delves into how to determine YOUR costs to work as a wedding photographer assistant.

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