Way back in 1980 I bought an Olympus OM2n with a 50mm f1.8 lens. I still have it. It has never needed service. The above photo is from that camera and lens using Fuji Velvia 50.
After the Olympus OM2n I bought an Olympus XA, Olympus Stylus Infinity, and a second OM2n body (Which I sold a few months ago for more than I paid.). All of these film cameras were excellent. And they were all full frame 35mm.
In 1999 I started buying digital cameras for work. I used to buy and sell large printing machines for magazines and newspapers and I used the digital cameras for photos and video of machines. I was at a computer shop and they had Sony compacts so that is what I bought. I had several and basically wore them out taking tens of thousands of photos plus a few videos.
Then about 2012 I decided to buy a better digital camera to take on travel. The first place I looked was Olympus. They had introduced the OMD – EM5 recently and that is what I wanted. But that camera was in very big demand at the time so to get something before the trip I bought a Nikon D3200 crop sensor DSLR. I liked the Nikon. I upgraded to a D5500 in about 2 years. The D5500 had an excellent touch screen that I wanted. I had the camera store put on the counter the D5500, Nikon D750, Fuji XT1 or 2 I can’t remember which, and the Olympus OMD – EM5. If my budget had been bigger at the time I would have bought the Nikon D750. I got the Nikon D5500 instead of the Olympus or the Fuji because the Nikon cost a lot less and they were both the same size as the Nikon and at least as heavy. Plus I already had several Nikon DX lenses.
At the time I still thought, “When Olympus comes out with their compact full frame digital I will buy one of those.” I am still waiting for Olympus to come out with a full frame digital. I still really like Olympus cameras but that is based on my good experience from the film camera days where they were a leader. I find it confusing as to why Oly never came out with a full frame system. But then I don’t run a camera maker and do not know the details of what it takes to make a profit at it. I would guess that the pressure cell phone cameras have put on larger camera companies today is extreme and that added to the lockdown of travel this year it seems like Olympus wanted / needed to change things and they did. Too bad. I do not think I will ever get my full frame Oly camera.
Bob Nuttmann 