Hi All
Well, I took a closer look at the E20. It is quite an innovative product, and I
would love to find one on my porch one morning, but there are a number of
things that prevent it from being a solution for me.
First, the ISO speeds are not fast enough. I am regularly using FujiPress 800
and Ilford Delta 3200 (at 1000 EI) in my OM4(ti). I don't thnk that ISO 320
would cut it for me, even though the old pros that shot Tri-X usually rated it
somewhere between 200 - 320.
Second, the zoom lens just isn't enough. I have been giving the 21mm f3.5 Zuiko
quite a workout lately. The attachable (yuk) wide converter isn't wide enough
at 28mm.
It's top shutter is 1/640 sec, something which would cause a 35mm film camera
to be treated like a toy. Clearly, this is not a medium format contender, so
that shutter limit is a problem.
Don't get me wrong. I think that this looks like a great camera, it just isn't
quite enough. It probably would work for a lot of image making, but it would
fail at some. Failure is not an issue with the OM system.
Check out www.dpreview.com. They write the following...
"Take for instance one of the most frustrating issues when using the E-20;
storage write times. The E-20's write speeds (SmartMedia or Compact Flash) are
no better (and in some cases worse than) the Nikon Coolpix 995. The difference?
The Coolpix 995 is a sub-$900 prosumer camera which only needs to write 1 MB or
sub-1 MB images, the E-20 is aimed at professionals with JPEG images (SHQ)
which range between 3.5 and 2.5 MB.
Waiting 9, 11 or 15 seconds for these five megapixel images to be written to
the storage card is no joke. Especially when you consider that the E-20 only
has a 4 image buffer; that it does not allow you to change certain settings,
enter the menu system, display an image or return the LCD to live view mode
until it has finished writing the buffer contents. It's not clear if this
problem is down to the speed of the E-20's "dual format" storage interface or
the speed at which it's generating the final image as it's written out.
Obviously if you shoot with the viewfinder you'll only face the 4 image limit
combined with write speed, if you were to shoot four SHQ 1/4 images in the
space of 12 seconds you'll be waiting at least 40 seconds (after the last shot)
before you can shoot another batch of four. Olympus really needed to give the
E-20 a larger buffer and higher performance storage interface"
Depressing.
Its not really a professional tool. But I do think that Olympus is getting very
close! Perhaps the next camera that they produce will be closer than I think,
and I cannot wait to see it.
PMA anyone?
Mike
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