Never say never: OM System reopens the door to compact cameras

OM System's Director of Marketing Communications, Nobuaki Tanaka, and SVP of Global Brand & Marketing Strategy, Kazuhiro Togashi, at CP+ 2026. Photo: Abby Ferguson The interchangeable-lens camera market may be holding steady, but OM System executives say the ground beneath it is shifting. In a recent interview at CP+, they pointed to smartphones, rising prices and changing expectations surrounding computational photography as forces reshaping where they compete and what they focus on. At this year’s CP+ show in Yokohama, we sat down with OM System's Kazuhiro Togashi, Senior Vice President of Global Brand & Marketing Strategy and Nobuaki Tanaka, Director of Marketing Communications, to talk through those questions from their perspective. In a wide‑ranging conversation, we discussed everything from compact cameras and the future of Pen to lenses, OM System's outdoor positioning and how far they’re willing to go with AI. Changed opinions on compact cameras