Reports online, based on a translation from a Japanese news website, suggest Olympus plans to heavily reduce investment in DSLRs, as it focuses on compact system cameras.
In response, Olympus Japan issued a statement saying: ‘Some reporting agencies released reports stating that Olympus is considering a drastic reduction of, or withdrawal from, digital-single-lens-reflex cameras. However, there is absolutely no truth to those reports.’
The statement adds: ‘In addition to strengthening our offering of mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras in the future, the company will continue to offer digital-single-lens-reflex cameras, as in the past, without any changes.’
The news comes as Olympus announces that operating losses at its imaging division have more than doubled.
Olympus recorded an operating loss of 8.8 billion yen (around £60 million) for the nine months to 31 December 2012 – 5 billion yen more than the same period the previous year.
Olympus says shrinking demand for compact cameras, and a fall in prices resulting from ‘intensified competition’, triggered a decline in overall sales.
In its latest financial statement, released this week, Olympus forecasts an operating loss of 16 billion yen for the year ended 31 March 2013.
Last year, Olympus unveiled a five-year, ‘Back to Basics‘, business plan that will see it cut around 7% of its global workforce by 31 March 2014 as part of an ‘aggressive’ cost-cutting strategy.
An Olympus statement issued at the time suggested the firm planned to move away from DSLRs.