FIVE MISERABLE CAMERA FLOPS

It is far from true that the top camera manufacturers have never made a mistake. In fact, they all have. However, the smart ones learnt from their mistakes; the others just succumbed. Although lots of camera models have failed in the past, we will concentrate on cameras launched post the advent of autofocus.

- Hoshang Billimoria

1. Olympus 77 AF

Olympus was on a roll in the seventies and early eighties. The OM-1 was a runaway success and so were the OM-2, OM-3 and OM-4. And then Minolta launched its first autofocus SLR and was soon followed by Canon. Not to be left behind, Olympus rushed to the market with the OM-77 AF. Olympus had, however, rushed to the market without perfecting the technology. Olympus fans rushed and bought the product, only to be sorely disappointed. The lens used to rush forward and backward to autofocus and very often, focused wrongly. The word spread and the OM-77 AF became a liability on dealers' shelves. Olympus had no option but to withdraw the camera from the market.

2. Samsung NX system