where did everybody go!

[srf4real]

Wow, it's very quiet these days.. I guess I'm not the only one who stopped following Olympus 4/3 so closely once any prospect of a real E-5 upgrade faded away. I come back to admit that with all this awesome glass I'm actually finally considering the micro 4/3 body in desperation and it's like crickets in here! discus..

[Edmunds]

Yeah, things have really died down!

On my part, I recently became a father. So my photographing priorities have changed, I've gone from travel and outdoor sports to basically just portraits, and for that I bought into the Fuji X system. I'll be back to using Olympus when I get out of the house a bit more

[srf4real]

Well congratulations on daddy-hood!

I can relate, my oldest is now 5 and his little brother is 3. I haven't bought any new equipment since the first baby haha. But that new micro pro body is looking tempting. I must have over 150k clicks on my E-5 already...

[Big Greg]

My guess it that most people have migrated to m4/3 or something else. I have two E-M1 bodies, but for the most part am using all my old 4/3 glass. I still have my e-1, e-3, and e-30, but none of them see much use. The m4/3 forums are very active.

[Guy Roberts]

Congratulations Edmunds! My youngest grand child is 4, but I remember the thrill and awe of being a dad very well.
The em1 is a wonderful camera, but mine came a cropper so I am back to my e5, which is a grand old work horse. The mkii is somewhat expensive if speed is not your thing, but other manufacturers have followed suit so it seems to be the way cameras are trending.

[tomsi42]

I have migrated to µ-4/3 too, but do use my E-30 from time to time.

This site has suited my µ-4/3 needs, so that is not the reason for me posting so little. I think it has more to do with that forusm are generally in decline and people use Facebook etc instead.

[srf4real]

I have migrated to µ-4/3 too, but do use my E-30 from time to time.

This site has suited my µ-4/3 needs, so that is not the reason for me posting so little. I think it has more to do with that forusm are generally in decline and people use Facebook etc instead.

So true, phone pics on Facebook are dominating the digital society these days. My quick snaps of the children in trade for what you ate for dinner tonight?

[RAH]

I have migrated to µ-4/3 too, but do use my E-30 from time to time.

This site has suited my µ-4/3 needs, so that is not the reason for me posting so little. I think it has more to do with that forusm are generally in decline and people use Facebook etc instead.

I agree that Facebook has taken over a lot of the functions that forums used to have. I don't come to this forum much any more because there is so little activity. However, there is a lot of activity on m43 forums. I visit one particular one at least once-per-day, and there is constant activity.

I tried to get used to Facebook's arrangement and even joined a private "Patreon-supported" group that was related to photography, but it drove me crazy in the way there are no categories, lousy searchability, etc. The top-to-bottom streaming of everyone's entries is dreadful, I think, although perhaps as a social interaction it works OK.

[zippski]

I still check in every once in a while. And yes, I am still using the trusty E-5 and full set of SHGs. So, not a lot of interest in downgrading to micro 4/3. I suppose I will have to eventually upgrade to a [hopefully] EM-1 MkIII (the MkII specs are getting close but not yet there for my purposes). Oh yeah, a year ago I snagged what I believe to be the last new Stylus 1s in the wild (with the Tele and WA lens converters), and that's been an awesome lightweight rig for me on my hiking and ski trips

I suppose I can be blunt about why I left. I just got sick and tired of the whole Godfrey thing, and the fact that whenever I got involved in a dispute with him, my posts were censored and removed, but Godfrey's never seemed to get removed.

Leigh
zippski

[snap]

It's sad when good things end, but 4/3's day is past its twilight. I still use all my 4/3's cameras because I have great love for the lenses, but a Sony A7r-ii and all my old film lenses occupy more of my shooting time as they give me vastly greater low-light options which fits with a lot of what I like to shoot. The E-M1-ii looks like a great way to extend the life of my lenses and I'll grab one some day, but not at the current crazy prices. Possibly by the time I'm ready, Olympus will have moved some of the phase detection tech into lower models and that'll create a situation I can't refuse. It's always been nice to stop by here and have a peek; pity that the posting has faded to black.

[deep]

Wow! I poked my nose into this forum for the first time in a year or two and this was the top thread! I guess that's a statement that the four-thirds system, which contributed so much to modern photography, has had its day (at least in the big scheme, not at all for many individuals!). I still have an as-new, barely used, Panasonic L1, a camera I lusted after a decade ago and ended up getting given. Because it is so tidy I don't use it in a practical sense but do like it. I have a handful of lenses still but, oddly, the only one that gets regular use is my 35mm macro, on an EM1. That lens still has the wow factor!

Nowadays, even though I have a decent micro four thirds kit, most of my photography is done with a smaller sensor (Panasonic FZ1000), while my artistic side has been satisfied with a Leica T and an oddball handful of older, adapted lenses. A long way from when my E3 was earning me money as we churned through thousands of photos together...

[SteMac]

Just came here out of curiosity. It’s been quite a while.

I had A LOT of money tied up in fourthirds gear. When it became apparent that Olympus was no longer going to support the system I decided to sell up while it still had resale value.

I did get an EM5 and used it for a while, but got frustrated with those tiny fiddly buttons and switched to Nikon.
I am still using that for digital and increasingly getting back into film photography.

This was a great site when I was starting off in digital photography. It is sad to see the lack of activity nowadays, but nice to see a few familiar names still going.

Fourthirds was a good system with some great glass. It’s a shame that Oly didn’t continue with it. But the world moves on and so must we. Thanks for the good times. Goodbye my friends.

[RAH]

I switched to Canon when it became apparent that Olympus was abandoning DSLRs (and I didn't like the early m43 offerings). But I jumped back with Olympus when they introduced the E-M10. So I am now in 2 camps - m43 mostly for travel (Oly and Panasonic mixture), plus Canon for every-day stuff. I'm very pleased with m43 now that they have proper cameras (i.e. with built-in viewfinders).

[Ddaside88]

Wow. I've been a rather infrequent visitor, and it's like coming back to a ghost town. What a shame. I'm still an Olympus 4/3 owner.

[jonnieb]

I still check in occasionally, but obviously not much going on. I still have my E-620 and a few lenses, but am heavily into Olympus m4/3s now. The E-M1 MK II is a fantastic camera, and the Pro lenses are pretty comparable to the 4/3 SG and HG lenses. I guess there are a few that rival the SHG glass, but we'll likely never see the kind of optically corrected and superb lenses the 4/3 system had/has.

[Pavel]

Yes, this makes me sad. I was a forum moderator here, back in the day, and came up with the contests. I even had an official Olympus 4/3 hat, that Tony Spore, the original forum owner sent me, after I won some contest here, the details of which are fuzzy now. Four thirds had a lot of spirit behind it. Some of us early adopters, rebels in a way, were so passionate about it, and I still believe we were right on the money about how it would change the imaging world, except we got one tiny detail wrong. We could not have known about how getting "mirror-free" would be the real, long lasting contribution of Olympus and Panasonic.

So in a way, all of us here, were ahead of our time, I believe. Now, time has moved on. I've not visited this site for years. But it still makes me smile when I think of the passion that was here, in all of us, early on, when this forum was vibrant. So many names I remember, who've moved on. It makes me sad, but like I said, it still makes me smile. We, all of us, were a part of history. But history keeps moving on.

[griffljg]

Shouldn't we emphasise the micro four-thirds part of this forum beyond the subscript to the forum name up top? - Four-thirds is dead. Long live micro four-thirds!

[Guy Roberts]

So where do you all hang out forum wise?

[MetilHed]

So where do you all hang out forum wise?

MU-43.com forums. Occaisionally DPR just for laughs.

[RAH]

So where do you all hang out forum wise?

Yes, I also frequent mu-43 forum. It's hard to say why one forum kind of sputters while another picks up steam, but that's the way it is.

[dh202]

I was curious and checked in here. Good to see some of you posting. I've been gone a long time from all the forums I was on since going digital in 2007 with the E-3. Too much wasted time online ! I do miss the old days here.I still have my extensive 4/3rds gear line up! An EM-1 mk1 and a couple of m4/3 lenses. I actually nabbed a new 300 F2.8 from Japan a couple of months ago for $2350. (getting back into birding). I can shoot any subject from macro to tele, and I still get great results, and I am completely happy with it all!

[e10user]

David,

Please tell me how you got the 4/3rds "300 F2.8 from Japan a couple of months ago for $2350." B&H has a couple used ones for around $4000.

Thanks,

[dh202]

Hey John, I normally buy from B&H but did not want to spend so much as I could have purchased the m300 F4 for my EM-1... I had checked listings for a long time in April A Store called Japancamera on eBay advertised a few one right after another, advertised as mint,and like new. I surmise they bought up some when Oly discontinued them. I took a gamble that it would be as they said, (There are no longer any warrantees on 4/3rds gear anyway), and it was absolutely new! They had just dropped the $150 shipping fee also, and it arrived in 4 days to VA.!!! :-) I immediately tested it on my E-5 and it's perfect. I cannot hand hold it and got a Wimberly Sidekick Gimbal for my RRS Tripod. Got to finally do some shooting this weekend and I am a happy camper. I still love and get fantastic results from my 4/3rd gear and refuse to take a killing trading it all in again! One of my first takes in my front yard from about 30' in shade,100% crop, fast PP, Low res download on here is not good ;-)

[e10user]

Hi David,

Did you shoot with the lens at 2.8?
Ebay is not finding Japancamera could it have been Japan Camera Hunter?

[dh202]

I shot at iso800 1/800 F3.5. Japan camera is there. but they have none now . I sent you a PM on another available ...