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Patent suggests Olympus wants to become astrophotography king with new “astrotracer” feature

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Well, this is interesting. It seems that Olympus (AKA OM Digital) might be looking towards the stars. A new Japanese patent describes a new Micro Four Thirds system with a built-in “astrotracer” feature. Essentially they want the sensor to track the motion of the stars so that you can get longer exposures at night without getting blur from the planet’s rotation.

It’s a nifty sounding feature and it’s one we’ve actually seen before, although it’s perhaps not surprising that most people have never heard of it, as it was found in the Pentax K1 Mark II, amongst others. They both appear to work in a similar way, too, with the sensor moving to compensate for the earth’s rotation and keep the stars in the same part of the sensor.

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Latest Olympus lens roadmap shows new 20mm f/1.4 Pro prime and 40-150mm f/4 Pro zoom lenses

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OM Digital Services has announced a new lens roadmap for Olympus M.Zuiko lenses apparently scheduled to be released. There aren’t a lot of changes, but there are a couple of interesting new lenses being added, including an ED 20mm f/1.4 Pro and a 40-150mm f/4 Pro.

Olympus already has a 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro and a super low budget 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R. The new f/4 Pro would present an option that sits in between the $199 and $1,499 options, offering a lower budget option but with decent quality. The 20mm f/1.4 Pro fills a nice little hole in their primes lineup in between the 17mm f/1.2 and 25mm f/1.2 Pro lenses.

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New Olympus pro model camera registered with certification body

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It looks like OM Digital is planning to announce a new Olympus camera at some point soon, according to a new camera registration spotted by Nokishita. The registration appears to simply be the wireless certification for a new camera, but the fact that it shows both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz WiFi suggests that it’s likely something high end.

So far, all we’ve seen from OM Digital since taking over Olympus is the Pen E-P7 – at least as far as cameras go – and that’s not even coming to a global market. Well, that and the fact that they’re renaming everything. So, this would mark their first international release of a new camera since taking over.

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OM Digital to rename camera models this year – and perhaps rebrand from Olympus itself

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While the fate of cameras formerly produced by Olympus seems in good hands with the recently formed OM Digital Solutions, the name itself has had something of a question mark over it since the news of a takeover first broke. Initially, it looked like JIP were planning to kill off the Olympus brand name fairly quickly, with an official statement from Olympus that it will continue “for the foreseeable future”.

A short time later, OM Digital Solutions confirmed in an interview with Digitec that they had secured the use of the Olympus brand name and would continue to use it “for the next few years and for a longer time than we had originally assumed”. Now, though, it looks like that might changing speculation around the web prove to be true.

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OM Digital to release new camera “in the next few weeks” and it’ll have Olympus branding

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Swiss website, Digitec recently interviewed OM Digital’s Vice President of Sales and Product Management for EMEA, USA and Canada, Sandro Rymann. In the interview, they cover topics such as the transition from Olympus to OM Digital, the struggles of starting a new company in the middle of a global pandemic, cooperation with Panasonic and new gear.

And in a rather amusingly worded answer, Mr Rymann did indeed confirm that there is a new camera coming in the next few weeks, and it won’t be the only one to come during this fiscal year. I wouldn’t get excited just yet, though. He didn’t say what type of camera it would be. It might simply be an update to the company’s Tough line of cameras.

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OM Digital launches new official Micro Four Thirds website

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OM Digital really seems to have taken the initiative since taking over from Olympus. Along with the recent joint live stream chat with Panasonic, they’ve relaunched the official Micro Four Thirds website with a completely new redesign. The new website, they say, has been designed to enhance the overall user experience and now offers search and mobile-friendly features.

The idea seems to be that the Micro Four Thirds ecosystem has grown so large now that it needed better organisation for its users to be able to find what they need, including products from the 56 companies they say support the Micro Four Thirds camera system.

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OM Digital confirms no plans to go full-frame or join L mount alliance

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Well, there’s been talk around the rumoursphere lately about OM Digital possibly joining up in the L Mount alliance with some full-frame “Olympus” goodness, but that’s definitely not happening according to the joint Panasonic & OM Digital YouTube event this week. OMD’s official stance is “I will not do full size” and they won’t be joining the L Mount alliance.

The company also confirmed that they are developing new products that we can expect to hear more about soon, and Panasonic also says they’re thinking about both Micro Four Thirds cameras and lenses.

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OM Digital pulling back the curtain on MFT’s future in live stream with Panasonic this week

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A few days ago, OM Digital tweeted out a little teaser that something was coming this week. The tweet doesn’t really give any hints as to what it’s going to be, but then a live stream popped up on the Olympus Live YouTube channel, set for Friday, April 2nd at 10am UK time (that’s 5am for US East Coast if all your clocks have gone forward).

It doesn’t sound like they’ll be announcing any new gear, although perhaps we’ll hear at least something about the new camera OM Digital registered a few days ago. Instead, it seems that the stream will be a discussion of the future of Micro Four Thirds between OM Digital and Panasonic.

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10 things OM Digital Solutions needs to do in order to succeed

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I’ve always tried to approach the acquisition of Olympus and the formation of OM Digital Solutions with a positive outlook. Partly because I would be sad to see the Olympus legacy completely fade off into practical non-existence like Kodak and Polaroid, but also because I happen to shoot Micro Four Thirds, and it’s nice to see the format still being developed (even if I use Panasonic and not Olympus).

But in order to succeed, the new OM Digital Solutions company has a lot of challenges ahead. In this video, photographer Robin Wong talks about his thoughts on the acquisition and things that OM Digital Solutions will need to do in order to succeed in a troubled sector of a struggling camera market.

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OM Digital Solutions to launch “many” new products in 2021

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In an interview published by Asahi, Setsuya Kataoka, the Chief Technology Officer of OM Digital Solutions says that they plan to launch “many” products in the next year including one that will come either towards the end of 2021 or in early 2022 that will make us go “Wow”. The company once again reaffirmed their commitment to the Micro Four Thirds system, and we might even see a PEN-FII.

The interview also speaks a little about the name of the cameras themselves. What’s going to happen to the Olympus brand? Will OM Digital Solutions be able to use it? Or will it eventually change at some point and no longer appear on new camera models?

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