Are You A M4/3 Format Camera User? Are You Worried The Format Will Survive After Panasonic Announced They Will Produce Full Frame Cameras?

Scene from Colorado Route 550 (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens @ 35mm; 1/200th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

As a fellow M4/3 user, the recent announcement by Panasonic that they are now going to produce and market two new full frame digital cameras got my full attention.  Immediately, I thought about the future of M4/3 and if Panasonic, by joining an alliance with Leica and Sigma, would eventually abandon M4/3 for full frame (potentially more profit per unit?) leaving Olympus as the sole manufacturer of M4/3 cameras.  I am a bit concerned at this point, but not worried in the immediate future.  That being said, I am heartened by what I have read from Panasonic and Olympus officials as well as others.

Almost immediately, Olympus announced their commitment to the M4/3 format even going on to say that at next year's Photokina (May, 2019), which also happens to be the company's 100th birthday, they will have a new, "high end" camera to announce.  Here is Olympus' statement from the first day of Photokina 2018 (from TechRadar; Matt Golowczynski,) September 28, 2018):

“In a press conference at Photokina 2018, Olympus today emphasized their role as innovation leader in the mirrorless camera segment. Olympus confirmed their commitment to support the personal mobility and spontaneity of photographers with a professional camera system boasting great image quality while still being compact and featuring light weight. Olympus management members Shigemi Sugimoto and Stefan Kaufmann explained the Micro Four Thirds sensor standard to deliver the best platform for this value proposition and invited all Photokina visitors to experience the benefits at the Olympus Perspective Playground at Photokina 2018.”

Angela Nicholson of CameraJabber.com, interviewed Shigemi Sugimoto, the head of Olympus' imaging business and this is what Ms. Nicholson reported on September 29, 2018:

"Olympus is committed to the Micro Four Thirds system because it gives photographers a smaller, lightweight alternative to full-frame cameras. That was the message from the head of the company’s imaging business, Shigemi Sugimoto, when I spoke to him in an exclusive interview at Photokina. 

He believes that the recent flurry of full-frame camera announcements is good for the imaging industry. As well as igniting photographers’ interest in cameras, it’s encouraging more people to move towards mirrorless technology. 

More importantly for Olympus, Micro Four Thirds cameras are more easily distinguished from full-frame models. Their size and weight advantages are more apparent alongside cameras with bigger sensors.

Lens mount size was a hot topic at Photokina 2018 and Sugimoto was keen to point out that the Micro Four Thirds mount is nearly double the size of the sensor, which means that Olympus’ lens engineers have plenty of freedom for designing large aperture optics.

According to Sugimoto, Olympus is aware that its users want more high-quality telephoto lenses. It’s an area that the company wants to ‘improve and grow’. So it looks like we can expect some new long lenses in the near future.

Not content with keeping camera and lens size and weight down, Olympus wants to further reduce the need for photographers to carry a tripod so they can be more mobile. That means that the Image Stabilization (IS) system is a key focus for development. 

The challenge when trying to enhance an IS system is maintaining the balance between size and stabilization performance. Using current technology to improve the system could mean making the cameras and lenses bigger to enable a greater range of sensor or lens element movement. However, Olympus has the basis of new technology that will allow cameras to stay the same size while telephoto lenses can be made relatively small and light. 

As you’d expect, Sugimoto was tight-lipped about exactly when we can expect to see any new products. However, the company is 100 years old in 2019 and a major announcement has been promised for the next Photokina trade show which takes place in May next year." 

43Rumors.com, which has proven over the years to be a pretty reliable source of accurate information, earlier this year also reported that a new, high end OMD camera will be announced in 2019.  

I think, for the foreseeable future, Olympus stays committed to M4/3.  What does "foreseeable future" mean?  I wish I knew.  But with their public statements, a commitment to bring out a new, high end camera to top the E-M1 Mark II as well as more PRO telephoto lenses, I predict they will continue supporting M4/3 as long as it makes money, or at least breaks even, for the company.  That only makes sense.  

What about full frame for Olympus?  That is a wild card.  I don't see it happening.  However, they do have a plethora of full frame (35mm) lens patents and those lenses were some of the best of the film era.  They could probably update those designs to optimize them for digital capture, potentially reduce the flange distance and add molded aspheric elements to make their performance even better as well as fit new full frame cameras.  Maybe.

How about Panasonic?  Are they going to abandon M4/3?  If you believe their representatives, it appears they will not.  Not only do they say they won't abandon M4/3 but they don't plan on reducing support for the format and are committed to bring out new gear and maintain sensor development (they have an ongoing organic sensor program with Fujifilm also).

Here are the highlights from an interview conducted by Igor Drozdovsky of personal-view.com with Panasonic representatives Michiharu Uematsu, Emi Fujiwawra and Taku Kariyazaki at Photokina 2018.  The full interview can be found here:

Michiharu Uematsu:

"You really should not be concerned about MFT format. L-mount is an addition not replacement of the MFT format. When we introduced the MFT system, at that time its picture quality was comparable with 35mm film, but now, the MFT has much more potential than the 35 millimeter film. If compared with 10 years ago, when we introduced our first MFT camera G1, the current MFT cameras has been improved about 2 f-stops more performance. As you already know, it was possible because of the improvements in sensor technology as well as in image processing algorithms.

I also believe the MFT has far future. One of the strengths, the advantages of MFT systems is their compact size and low weight. Especially when we talk about the MFT telephoto lenses. For example, a telephoto lens with 800 millimeters focal length for 35mm sensor weights a few kilograms, while for MFT the equivalent lens is less than 1 kg and the MFT cameras are small, so we are looking at a total of about 1.5 kg in weight for the camera plus lens MFT system. I also believe that with progress in sensor technology in very near future many customers will find the advantage of MFT again. 

We certainly will be continuing working on new MFT lenses, even though Panasonic is already offering more than 20 MFT lenses, and together with other lens manufactures there are in total, I think, almost 50 lenses which complement each other. While we already have a normal general purpose lenses, in the future we may focus more on what people call "premium" high-quality fast lenses, like just announced 10-25mm f/1.7 lens. And also we would like to produce more cinema lenses designed for exceptional video quality. Anyway don't worry, we will continue with MFT and some of the new enhancements, vice versa, might be shared between L-mount and MFT systems. 

Will Panasonic continue with development of sensors?  (Uematsu) Yes of course. But even with the silicon photodiode, we still have some margin to be improved. The reason is for this is when more than 10 years ago in compact camera category many people said that pixels of a 3 micron in size is near the limits and any smaller sensor pixel would produce images of very bad quality, but nowadays the sensor pixels are 1.5 microns or less and we can get good picture quality, and this means that even with the silicon sensors we still have margins to be improved. 

Also, when compared the cameras with an APS-C sensor and a Full-Frame sensor, the difference in those systems is not so big in picture quality and size, but in our case, M4/3 versus Full Size, the differences between two systems will be more noticeable, more clear."

Finally, a writer who I greatly respect for his in-depth knowledge and contacts in the camera industry, Thom Hogan (bythom.com) recently wrote about M4/3 and whether or not he thinks the format is going to die:

"I do have some concerns about m4/3: I don't know how you can continue to sell US$2000 m4/3 cameras that are as large as a full frame camera that sells for the same amount, for example. But that's a little different than "you are doomed." It really means that Olympus and Panasonic will need to double down on the things that make m4/3 unique. It'll be tough to stay close with pixel count or dynamic range when compared with full frame, for example. So size once again is what they need to pay closer attention to.  And that's a tricky area to master. The Canon EOS M5 is a pretty small camera, after all, with a bigger sensor and access to a lot of legacy lenses.  

To me, a good m4/3 mirrorless camera really now needs to sit about where I've always wanted a compact travel camera to sit. I keep looking at the E-M10m3 and the Panasonic GX line (what happened to the GM?) as where I want something a bit more capable than what we currently have available. A "perfect" E-M10 matched with the trio of f/1.8 Olympus primes would be nearly jacket pocketable (obviously, both pockets), yet more capable than any compact I've wandered around with.  

I'm also struck by the fact that there still isn't a perfect vlogger ILC that's supremely portable, and Panasonic's emphasis on video means they ought to be tackling that, and m4/3 seems perfect for that.Ignore the "m4/3 is doomed" messages. Instead, tell Olympus and Panasonic what you really want in the format. Maybe they'll listen."

My feeling is that we need not worry about the future of M4/3 unless at least one of two things happens.  First, if Panasonic abandons the format, either overtly or tacitly (just not introducing any further cameras or lenses without a specific announcement) or Olympus closes their Imaging Division due to lack of sales/profits/change of business direction.  If either of those happen, I think I would move to sell off my M4/3 gear as, at that point, the future of the format gets very cloudy.

Join me over at Instagram @dennisamook or my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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