Why are Olympus models somewhat less represented on major review sites?

Question

This is a subjective question, no doubt, and surely some other factors influence what models will get reviewed and such, but I was wondering, are there any reasons why on more popular sites (dpreview, cameralabs, rockwell) Olympus models are less reviewed than those from other manufacturers?

Also, is there a review site which does give good descriptions of some of their newer models?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 09 '14 at 11:34

2

There are two simple answers with the same root cause: Olympus has a smaller market footprint.

Canon and Nikon sell a lot more cameras that everyone else. So, there is a self-reinforcing cycle, because there is more interest in things that are popular. (Sounds pretty obvious when one puts it that way!)

Second, the smaller brands like Olympus tend to crank out fewer products. The bigger brands have a wider range of models and lenses, and so there is more stuff to review more often.

answered May 09 '14 at 11:34

mattdm

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At the moment Olympus seems to have 22 models, which (I haven't counted) doesn't seem that far off from other manufacturers number of products. Don't know about the smaller footprint though. Will have to find some numbers. – Rook May 13 '14 at 08:55

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 09 '14 at 13:06

Olympus is a smaller company compared to its competitors and pretty much everything stems from there. Even if they would be represented equally, there would be fewer Olympus reviews in absolute terms because they have fewer models.

More importantly, Olympus has a smaller budget and has less to spend on review units. Each company has a pool of units which they send from site to site, including newspapers, for TV segments and select photographers. These units get reviewed by going from place to place. Depending on the company, it can take several weeks to months to get a review unit.

There is also location factor in that companies do not have offices in all countries which make it difficult for some review sites to get certain brands because logistics are more complicated. Olympus is one of those that makes the effort to have units sent across borders which puts them ahead of other small players in terms of reviews written.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 09 '14 at 12:08

Looking at DPReview, they've done full reviews of all of the OM-D E-M10, OM-D E-M1 and PEN E-P5, as well as mini-reviews of the Stylus 1, Tough TG2 iHS and SZ-15. That covers all the large sensor cameras Olympus have released in 2013 and 2014, as well as a few small sensor cameras as well, which seems to me to be about as much coverage as they give other brands - DPReview has never attempted to cover the lower end of the market in any breadth.

Why are Olympus models somewhat less represented on major review sites?

3 Answers3