^{Source / Извор: OMsystem}

After a longer period of teasing, we got another child of a zombie Olympus. OM System, that is… And it is another horror story!

I really don’t know what narcotics camera designers use, but there certainly are many of them with heavily distorted view on reality, and on the needs of photographers and videographers alike. Once, Olympus had a genius designer, Yoshihisa Maitani, a man who knew how to listen photographers, and how to design the maximum effective tool that will be an extension of their thought. And he designed legendary Olympus models, OM-1 (manual) and OM-2 (with auto exposure). Since his times, it is downfall all the way…

In 2009 Yoshihisa Maitani got the call to design a camera for a God Almighty, and Olympus died some 14 years after that. A group that took over Olympus made a zombie company named OM System, and obviously engaged DEI designers. Someone from the top of that company spotted spectacular Fujifilm’s success with retro designed… well, actually cameras designed how God Almighty ordered, and then got the idea: “Hey, why don’t we make a digital OM-1!?”

“But boss, we already have model named OM-1.”

“OK, then let’s call it OM-3, but it will be modelled like Maitani’s OM-1!”

“Yes, boss!”

And so, we got the ‘retro’ OM-3… Almost!

So, what is wrong? The new digital camera really have a resemblance in shape with the Maitani’s OM-1, but someone completely misunderstood retro as an idea.

^{Source / Извор: kosmofoto.com}

Retro concept is really quite simple: The three key photography elements on a camera (ISO, Shutter Speed and f-stop) must have their dedicated dials. Everything else is just a sad attempt to empty your pockets on faked sentiments and propaganda hype!

And what do we have on the new OM-3? Bloody idiotic PASM which DOES NOT make a camera an extension of your thought, but forces you to train a ‘muscle memory’! Hasn't any of the DEI designers at OM System figured out yet why the overpriced Leica is so popular? And why can’t Fujifilm produce enough X100VI models? And why are their older X-T and X-Pro series models still so sought after?

It’s because they have dedicated dials!

But you can’t explain to an idiot he is an idiot – because he is an idiot! So, we got what we got…

^{Source / Извор: OMsystem}

The original Maitani’s OM-1 had ISO at the top dial, and Shutter Speed ring around the lens mount. F-stop was on every lens. From a sane designer’s point of view, that would be easy to implement. Shutter Speed ring would just require moving a sensor few millimeters in front, and that would make the new digital incarnation even more alike to the famous original.

Instead, we actually got another retarded design which could be called RINO (Retro in name only), or simply – RetroTard!

^{Source / Извор: OMsystem}

But that is not all, folks! This disastrous design flop OM System value at a whopping $2,000! And that’s not even giving us a shutter release thread for a mechanical cable release. For that money you can get much better retro interpretation, full frame Nikon Zf! And much, much better APS-C Fujifilm X-T5 is full $300 cheaper! And why would anyone consider OM-3 design atrocity against an excellent, and $100 cheaper Lumix G9II?

^{Source / Извор: dPreview}

Is it all bad? Well, it has a ‘Creative Dial’… you know, the thing in front which gives you a chance to tweak camera’s creativity. And it has quick access computation… So, the machine can get even more creative. Oh, joy!

Here are two well paid guys on a tedious task to tell you how it is not that bad after all:

But actually it is. The same opportunity as with the beautiful Olympus Pen F was missed again with OM-3. Which means the bunch of officials and designers high on strong narcotics, does not see the obvious. Or does not WANT to see the obvious.

I am an old guy. And I will probably never welcome another Maitani. He was one in a generation. I am just going to hope that Nikon will improve those few idiotic things on their next Zf iteration. Or that Fujifilm will make X-T4s with Sony-class autofocus. Or that Leica will try to stop its demise by selling their rangefinder models under a thou. You know, hoping for a standard, usual, boring miracle ’till the last breath…