I noticed that Olympus has been divided in three forums.
We used to have Olympus Compact Camera Talk and Olympus SLR Talk. The latter with the added description "Discussion of OM-D class Olympus cameras is welcome here".
Now we have the above two plus Olympus/OM System MFT Talk. I don't understand. Is Olympus SLR talk supposed to be limited to DSLR now? While those are still around most people in that forum used MFT cameras.
Any explanation for this? It's confusing, at least to me.
I didn't make that a link. It isn't there if I hit Edit. 😃
History!!...There was a DSLR and a Compact forum .. Both Olympus and Panasonic said they were moving on to MFT but DPR in their wisdom decided to add a NEW forum for MFT and leave the old SLR fomum.. IMHO it would have made more sense to change to a Oly and a Panny forum if they wanted to divide FTs or more reasonably into a Gear Forum and a Use forum .. I prefer the latter and think of SLR as that USE forum where we use pictures to show what the cameras are used for and discuss features found in that menu system in use -- good and problematic ... .. Only IMHO and if any of that made sense ...
WhyNot
IMHO the DPRevived forum structure for Olympus/OMDS is the sensible one. It didn't make sense to me on DPReview to have Olympus M4/3 discussions split between two forums, but I guess that just happened as Olympus DSLR owners switched to M4/3.
It is due to the history of the forums.
First there was the Olympus Talk Forum, and all was good (well mostly, there were some disagreements such as my divisive post to the Flower Art challenge, that in hindsight I wish I had just skipped).
When the E-1 came out, there was some tension between the traditional users of the Olympus Talk Forum with fixed lens cameras, and the shiny new DSLRs. So they created the Olympus SLR Talk forum (note there were 2 Panasonic 4/3rds DSLRs announced along the way, the L1/L2 which didn't quite fit in the name).
Then when Panasonic and later Olympus announced the micro 4/3rds cameras (G1 and E-P1 respectively) there was a lot of tension between the two systems. Given how Panasonic makes a lot of micro 4/3rds bodies and lenses, as well as Olympus (and now OM instead of Olympus), it is useful that the m4/3rds forum did not specify a brand name.
While I have posted to all 3 forums, the Olympus SLR forum at times has struck me (rightly or wrongly) as having a larger population of people who don't want to deal with newbie issues on most posts except for the picture posts and challenges which came from the Olympus Talk Forum. Sort of the stereotypical old guy putting up a kids get off of my lawn sign.
With the current grouping, Panasonic in particular is split different ways. You have the Panasonic fixed lens cameras grouped in with the micro 4/3rds stuff. I don't recall if the L-mount stuff is a different forum, but if it isn't it should be.
Now of course OM has stopped making fixed lens cameras except for the TG6, which they crank out, but it is unclear if there will ever be a TG-7. Similarly, Panasonic is still selling their last generation fixed lens cameras, but it seems clear there will be no new cameras. Thus both forums are probably filled with the old guard faithful, but it is likely not a growth area.
"...but DPR in their wisdom decided to add a NEW forum for MFT and leave the old SLR forum."
Remember that when the new micro 43 forum was set up there were still many users of the 43rds DSLR cameras and the SLR forum remained for them - with the new one available for users of the new lens mount. I used the Olympus SLR Talk forum for a number of years after the Micro Four Thirds Talk forum had been created before I eventually bought a m43 camera and then checked in with both.
It was only later, as the numbers of 43rds camera users dwindled, that the USE posts were the ones that remained.
I know the history. But I see no reason to split it like this. I repeat my question. Is the old forum meant to be only for DSLR now? We and the few reamaining DSLR users have posted there without problems for ages
Hadn't it been better to just update the name of the forum to Olympus/OM System MFT Talk, with a blurb about that DSLR users are also welcome there? Why should we be split in two? Three actually, since there's also the MFT forum to keep track of.
The Oly SLR section is an artifact from the days when Oly moved entirely to MFT and left some users of old gear behind. Over the years it turned into a secret hideout for people who want to share images and conversation (heaven forbid!) across the boundaries of camera brand. It's a safe zone where it doesn't matter who uses what type of camera or what they take pictures of. There's still a few old Oly SLR cameras out there (I occasionally use my old E30 because I like it's inherent softness) but most of the activity on that section is for other things. I hope it remains a neutral zone, every community needs one.
But one of the beauties of the way this site is organised is that you can see all the forums within the main heading. So in the categories view if you click on "Olympus, Panasonic, and Micro Four Thirds" you get to see all the posts in the three forums you mention. On the dpreview system you had to log into each forum individually in order to see the posts. I would have been happy with the headings from DPReview but with this system it makes no real difference as I can see all the posts on one screen list anyway.
around.most
around most
Pesky full stop between the two words...
Ah. I really should keep my glasses clean.
OK, if everyone else likes it... To me it's just confusing and, well, a little messy. I didn't notice when it happened so if there was a discussion about it I haven't read it. Was there? Link?
The image threads, yes. But I've never seen anyone post a question about any other brand than Olympus there.
Yes, the questions are mostly about old Oly cameras or the EM cameras which was included in the description. Somehow that mixed OK with the variegated image threads with users of all kinds of cameras.
And also yes there was a lot of discussion, some quite passionate. I can't remember the year it happened, maybe a couple of years after M43 came on the scene. Someone else may remember exactly when. There was conversation about closing it because Oly was making no new SLR cameras, but the members put up a fight about it and DPR left it as it was. Some of the argument in defense of keeping it had to do with lenses because in the early years a lot of m43 users on that forum were still using legacy Oly lenses. New m43 users were using m43 lenses. So there were some differences at the time in the user bases. It's an anomaly but quite a few different kinds of users consider it their online home. It had a different personality from the m43 section, which was pretty gear-centric at the time while the Oly SLR section was more image centric.