Olympus: Official June 15 announcement, but of what?

Has everyone seen this post on '1001 Noisy Cameras'?

The amusing Japanese-to-Googlish translation from the original digitalcamera.jp posting states:

Half-size SLR "PEN" philosophy of the "Eye MAIKUROFOSAZU a" June 15, said. 7 The two weeks to launch

- Olympus 2009 3 Kikukawa, president of his earnings in the quarter, "an eye MAIKUROFOSAZU" release time and date of sale, and introduce the concept.
- "An eye MAIKUROFOSAZU" a June 15 release date. 7 weeks of release in February.
- The emphasis on MAIKUROFOSAZU, video projects.
- MAIKUROFOSAZU machine is "half-size camera-silver-age" PEN "inherited the concept of want. PEN Olympus camera with a philosophy of".
- "Compact camera users will have the strength to use a digital SLR percent. High prices, heavy large, do not step up to digital SLR because they are complicated to use. To expand the target of this "notice.
- President Kikukawa at earnings, the appearance of a mock-up presentation, "I think that is a little DASAI." "This is not the final version, changes considerably," suggesting a change in the design and appearance.
Monday June 15. 7 The two week sale.

Then again, maybe someone who actually reads Japanese can look at the original page and make better sense of it. Am I correct in thinking MAIKUROFOSAZU is a Japanese rendering of "Micro Four Thirds"...?

[Vivek]

MAIKURO is certainly Micro (how a Japanese, many other Asians would pronounce it).

The rest

[monza]

Originally Posted by Ranger 9

Am I correct in thinking MAIKUROFOSAZU is a Japanese rendering of "Micro Four Thirds"...?

Yup.

[m3photo]

Originally Posted by Ranger 9

Am I correct in thinking MAIKUROFOSAZU is a Japanese rendering of "Micro Four Thirds"...?

Correct. The translating robot is distinguishing "Katakana" which is used for foreign or "loan" words (other than from Chinese).
Japanese phonetics does not contemplate the "clash" between two consonants such as "K" or "C" and "R" hence the miCRo word has to be pronounced with a vowel in the middle becoming maikUro. Other examples of introduction of Western culture and the subsequent phonetic interpretation are the words for "tie" and "stopwatch" which become "NekUtai" from the original "necktie"; here once again the hard "k" together with the "t" needs a "u" in the middle for easier acceptance, "stopwatch" is a classic example of this becoming "sUtopUwotchU".

[Jonathon Delacour]

My Japanese is not all that great but it's good enough to make sense of the digitalcamera.jp post. I think the most interesting points are:

* the Olympus micro-4/3rds camera(s) have been designed to carry on the philosophy of the "silver-halide" era PEN half-frame cameras;
* about a third of compact camera users are considering moving up to a DSLR but don't because those cameras are too big, heavy, expensive, and complex -- these users are seen as the target for the micro-4/3rds models;
* this is the strategy by which Olympus can "revive their imaging business".

It's really encouraging that Olympus sees micro-4/3rds as the logical descendants of the PEN series cameras, given that an ongoing criticism of the 4/3rds system is that the cameras and lenses are larger than the sensor size warrants.

What's perhaps less encouraging is that the target audience for the new cameras is compact users who don't want to deal with "complexity". But then, the target audience for the Panasonic G1 was supposed to be "soccer moms" and it's become a huge hit with a very different audience.

I agree that it's interesting that Olympus sees µ4/3 as the descendent of the Pen series cameras.

(However, it's important to remember that the Pen line included not only the Pen F, Pen FT and Pen FV SLRs, but a long series of somewhat plebian half-frame viewfinder cameras with scale-focusing lenses -- which may not have been admired as passionately but which sold in much larger numbers.

So, in noting that the µ4/3 line is supposed to carry on "the philosophy of the Pen cameras," I still have to wonder: which Pen cameras?)

Since Olympus already has a big development investment in non-micro Four Thirds SLRs and lenses, this statement may simply mean that they see µ4/3 as a smaller, less-fully-featured alternative to their existing Four Thirds line -- much as the Pen cameras were an alternative to the standard-size Olympus full-frame cameras, which included leaf-shutter RF cameras, a short-lived full-size SLR (the Olympus FTL) and the compact OM-series SLRs.

Oh, well, I guess we'll find out on June 15! Which reminds me: any Japanese-literate readers who can explain the meaning of the curious phrases "June 15 7 the two weeks to launch" and "Monday June 15 7 The two week sale"? Could this mean that whatever they're announcing on June 15 will be on sale (somewhere) as soon as two weeks after that!?

Speaking of curious phrases: Does anyone know what Olympus president Kikukawa meant in reference to the Altoids-tin mockup when he said, ""I think that is a little DASAI"...? There seems to be no Googlish translation for this word.

[Jonathon Delacour]

Originally Posted by Ranger 9

Speaking of curious phrases: Does anyone know what Olympus president Kikukawa meant in reference to the Altoids-tin mockup when he said, ""I think that is a little DASAI"...? There seems to be no Googlish translation for this word.

dasai means "primitive" or "unsophisticated" so he probably meant that the actual camera(s) will be more sophisticated (fully-featured) than that mockup.

[jonoslack]

Originally Posted by Ranger 9

Oh, well, I guess we'll find out on June 15!

I'm afraid what we'll get then is one, or possibly two bodies, which don't really clarify which direction they really are headed.

On the other hand, let's look on the bright side. How about
1 camera weather sealed, small, LCD with optional viewfinder with electronic connection with framelines etc. Another cheap and cheerful body.
a couple of kit zooms and half a dozen fast primes!

Originally Posted by Ranger 9

Which reminds me: any Japanese-literate readers who can explain the meaning of the curious phrases "June 15 7 the two weeks to launch" and "Monday June 15 7 The two week sale"? Could this mean that whatever they're announcing on June 15 will be on sale (somewhere) as soon as two weeks after that!?

Well, the E620 was in the shops pretty quickly after the announcement, so maybe that IS what they mean.

[johnastovall]

If it doesn't have an intergrated view finder (no humps, Buffalo Bill) and the clean lines of the PEN F. It's still DOA as I see it.

[monza]

If it has in-body vibration reduction, I'm buying.

[jonoslack]

Originally Posted by monza

If it has in-body vibration reduction, I'm buying.

What . . . even if it has a hump

(me too - as long as it's small(ish)

[monza]

Originally Posted by Ranger 9

Speaking of curious phrases: Does anyone know what Olympus president Kikukawa meant in reference to the Altoids-tin mockup when he said, ""I think that is a little DASAI"...? There seems to be no Googlish translation for this word.

My friend in Tokyo who works for Nikon was kind enough to translate:

'At the meeting to announce the financial results, President Kikukawa commented in reference to the exterior design of the mockup in the presentation material "I think the design is a little uncool/ugly/poor [lots of ways to translate "dasai"]. "This is not the final version, and it will change quite a lot" he suggested regarding changing the exterior design.'

Thank you, Monza!

(I think I need to get a vanity license plate reading "DASAI" for my uncool/ugly/poor little Japanese car...)

Personally, I can't afford to buy a new µ4/3 camera no matter how un-dasai it might be, but I'd really like it if they'd announce some fixed-focal-length lenses to go with it...

[monza]

Oh, 'dasai.' Kinda like 'Prius.'

[cjlacz]

Regarding the part about the 2 weeks. It makes a lot more sense in Japanese. It's being announced on June 15th and it should be on sale the 2nd week of July, so about a month later.

[TEBnewyork]

Originally Posted by cjlacz

Regarding the part about the 2 weeks. It makes a lot more sense in Japanese. It's being announced on June 15th and it should be on sale the 2nd week of July, so about a month later.

Darn....I was hoping to get my hands on one before leaving for Iceland on the 18th of July

...Brian....do you have any good contacts

[pentacon6]

By the way, will it give a hard time for those making decision between GH1 and the OM m4/3? The brief information shows that the new OM has 720p movie function but no detail of fps and audio. It is really "itchy" thing in our mind.

[Diane B]

I'm not planning to buy an Oly or the GH1 in the near future, but I am interested in any lens Oly announces. I have the Panny 20 f/1.7 on my 'to buy' list for the Fall but would love to see more choices.

In the future, when I'm ready to upgrade for whatever reason, I will look at both Panasonic and Oly's m4/3rds, but if Oly doesn't implement an EVF with MF assist--it won't be in contention no matter what else.

Diane

[thomasl.se]

Originally Posted by m3photo

Correct. The translating robot is distinguishing "Katakana" which is used for foreign or "loan" words (other than from Chinese).
Japanese phonetics does not contemplate the "clash" between two consonants such as "K" or "C" and "R" hence the miCRo word has to be pronounced with a vowel in the middle becoming maikUro. Other examples of introduction of Western culture and the subsequent phonetic interpretation are the words for "tie" and "stopwatch" which become "NekUtai" from the original "necktie"; here once again the hard "k" together with the "t" needs a "u" in the middle for easier acceptance, "stopwatch" is a classic example of this becoming "sUtopUwotchU".

Phonetics lesson appreciated. To balance this wovel-fest out, the English seem keen on tacking a good old 'r' to the tail of a word ending with a vowel, adjacent to a word beginning with a vowel.

Swedes frequently stumble upon 3 in a row of the very same consonant. Lest we get too stuck in writing and our daily tungtwisting, we drop one of them; finish the sentence, then back to normal. Silence.

[Vivek]

Originally Posted by thomasl.se

Swedes frequently stumble upon 3 in a row of the very same consonant. Lest we get too stuck in writing and our daily tungtwisting, we drop one of them; finish the sentence, then back to normal. Silence.

That is even finnier than the googletrans!

Originally Posted by cjlacz

Regarding the part about the 2 weeks. It makes a lot more sense in Japanese. It's being announced on June 15th and it should be on sale the 2nd week of July, so about a month later.

Ahh, NOW I get what the 7's were for: "7 two weeks" means "two weeks into the seventh month," i.e. July in the Western calendar.

Thanks to all our Japanese-speaking "decoders" for helping sort this out! Now all we have to do is speculate on what kind of camera guts Olympus plans to put into their sardine tin...

[monza]

Or, speculate on what kind of tin, to replace the 'dasai' one.