Another interesting posting from Thom Hogan

Thom Hogan is one of my favourite bloggers. I am not a Nikon user, unfortunately, but I follow his blogs, especially Sans Mirror, with a great interest. I am a casual shooter, with a limited experience for different brands, cameras and lenses, so I rely on opinion of other people. For example, I regard the  Fujinon XF18-55mm zoom lens as excellent but this is of little practical value for other people 'cause my experience in this product range is essentially limited to several ZUIKO / Olympus lenses. But it becomes a valuable information when Thom says the same thing. Thom is not the only person who gave the high mark to Fuji's zoom, but he is the one I trust.

Despite of such high quality I am still inclined to replace the standard zoom with the wide angle and the tele option. The wide zoom is not released yet, so I still have time to think about my plans.

Another interesting post on Sans Mirror is dedicated to the bleak future of Olympus cameras. Actually, Thom is somewhat optimistic here. Olympus mirrorless cameras, both PENs and OM-D models, are extremely popular, but the company essentially abandoned DSLR line and their share of compact cameras is shrinking like an air balloon with the hole in it. It would be pity to loose another major name in the camera world. Olympus is an innovative company, so it might adapt and survive. To some extend, the situation with Olympus is similar to Fuji. Both are big companies with small non-profitable camera divisions. Both are trying to change the situation. Olympus is pushing a small popular CSC/mirrorless, while Fuji is offering a top cameras and lenses aimed on a specific group of photographers. Cameras such as X100S or X-Pro1 are not aimed on an average shooter. Even now Fuji does not have any cheap standard zoom lens. Leica would be an another company that do not offer a cheap lenses, but I doubt that I can afford Leica even in a very distant future.