Last Updated on 02/21/2024 by Chris Gampat
You might not care about Micro Four Thirds, but you should be paying a lot of attention to what’s going on right now. A while back, we reported on the new OM System OM1 Mk II — which we called the world’s most expensive firmware update. We said this because we sincerely felt that most of the updates to the camera could’ve really been a big firmware update that the brand could’ve charged a bit of money for. Apparently, we weren’t alone in this thinking. A new petition has appeared online after the announcement of the camera from OM System users demanding more.
Table of Contents
Paid Fans vs Actual Fans
43Rumors reported that OM Digital heard the complaints of users and offered a firmware update to the award-winning OM System OM1 in the Autumn of this year. In 2022, this was an incredible camera. And it still is in some ways, but the world has moved on since then, and it’s now 2024.
Some of the most honest conversations a photographer can have are in a room occupied by them and their own voice. When Sony, Canon, Nikon, or even Fujifilm release a new product, there are many paid statements out there obfuscated by the fact that they’re paid. And as we saw yesterday with the new Fujifilm release, we can’t even tell — and often, those paid voices are trying to drown out the ones who are a lot more brutally honest.
“First of all: We are not asking for a ‘free upgrade to the full Mark II,'” says photographer Michael Braun to the Phoblographer in an email about the new petition. “We just ask for the things to which OMDS had hinted already in the 2022 imaging-resource interview which is quoted in the petition, where they said that this can be done with a firmware update. Personally, I hope to see primarily a more reliable AF, suffering too often from things like ‘AF shows focus on the bird, but afterwards in the jpg/RAW, the grass in front of the bird is sharp,’ kind of things.” He continues to state that he doesn’t understand why there is no human subject recognition when other brands did it years ago without AI. But he also understands that some things, like the digital graduated ND filter, might need new hardware.
Michael is a photographer who uses full-frame cameras along with Micro Four Thirds. “I was tired of always having to carry 5-10 kgs of white glass on my back, especially when traveling,” he tells us about getting older. “Searching in the beginning for a complementary travel solution, I bought at the time an Oly M5 II with the 12-100/f4; later added a light bag where I could carry a range from 14-600mm FF equivalent in a small, light bag – Subsequently switched to the 150-400/f4.5, which convinced me.” Today, he uses Micro Four Thirds for his everyday and travel photography, while full-frame is for portraits and such.
The Problem With the OM System OM1 Mk II
With the new OM System OM1 Mk II, we didn’t get all that much of a splash that we’d get from other companies. And in turn, the user base rose up. An online petition is circulating demanding more from OM System.
In an advanced statement given to the Phoblographer, the group behind the petition is saying the following:
In a public announcement and in emails to customers, OM Digital System has announced today “ ….We are planning to release a new firmware update for the “OM-1” in the fall of this year….“ and given a preview of what updates OM Digital Solutions plans.
With great pleasure our firmware petition team has learnt from this that OM Digital Solution recognizes that firmware-based improvements of the original OM-1 are indeed possible.
However, why shall such firmware updates be released only in Autumn? In our view, this devalues such an update considerably, because at that time, photographers‘ summer season will be over and the OM-1 will approach an age of 3 years, where a possible successor camera with new hardware might come closer and closer.
For these reasons, we maintain our petition open for further signatures to highlight our pleas (1) for an OM-1 firmware update now, and (2) to make sure that a new firmware release goes beyond a “cosmetic” update and addresses in the best possible way the improvements for which we have asked in the petition already!
Furthermore, we would like to encourage OM Digital Solutions again to engage in a direct dialogue with its customers – beyond reacting with “one-way” communication in press releases, etc. In this spirit, we had alerted OM Digital Solution’s CEO already in a letter, which was delivered to headquarters February 9. that we are planning this petition and about the reasoning outlined now in the petition.
Their statement leads us to believe that the new firmware will come so that the brand can prioritize the new camera instead.
Photographers Need to Demand More
I’m going to start this statement by saying that OM System is a smaller company than all the others out there. Them, Hasselblad, and Leica aren’t even billion-dollar companies. So, I’m willing to cut them a bit more slack. But photographers should be demanding a lot more of their cameras. This isn’t going for just OM System — which has proven that angry fans can do something. And even yesterday, Fujifilm showed a bit of empathy for their users by giving new firmware updates and film simulations to older cameras. But other brands can give us a lot more via firmware updates. Canon doesn’t do much for their R8 — and the Canon EOS R5 should’ve received the autofocus the R6 II has. Leica should’ve given the SL2 and SL2s the Leica Looks the Q3 got.
The problem is that photographers are too busy fighting amongst one another and championing their brand over another instead of worrying about the bigger, actual threats to them. I’m talking about content creation, social media algorithms, AI imaging platforms, and the manufacturers making many claims and never holding themselves accountable. How about claims around weather resistance and build quality? Or on firmware updates?
The fact is that many brands are making a ton of money and reporting record profits while photographers keep buying new cameras only to feel robbed of features that they should’ve had.