At 8:45 PM +0000 2/8/02, olympus-digest wrote:
>
>Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 10:22:13 -0500
>From: "Walt Wayman" <hiwayman@xxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: [OM] Help me! Help me!
>
>Slick, silver-tongued devil that I am, after only moderate
>cajoling and the tiniest bit of whimpering, I have been given
>permission by my good lady wife to buy an E-20, or the like,
>before we leave for Alaska the last week in June. I've decided to
>go digital on this outing to avoid the airport film x-ray hassles
>and travel as light as possible, leaving the OM stuff at home.
>These cruises are, after all, not full of great photo
>possibilities, but are more snapshot opportunities. I really
>don't think they'll change course or anchor for a while just so I
>can get a better shot.
>
>So I am soliciting opinions regarding which of two possible
>courses of action to take:
>
>(1) Go ahead and get an E-20, even though the price is still high
>and it does have certain faults, some of which are currently under
>discussion here.
>
>(2) Wait for the interchangeable lens digital body. I understand
>it's supposed to be in the $1500 range, and if so, that leaves
>$500 of my allowance for a lens, possibly a zoom the equivalent of
>the E-20 lens.
>
>I have always been opposed to buying serial number 0001 of
>anything, so I am a little leery on that count. I don't want to
>be the first to discover some disastrous problem that will be
>fixed by the time they make number 1001. But whatever I get, I
>want to have it a month or so before we leave so I can have time
>to become familiar with it and be comfortable using it. When is
>this thing supposed to be available?
>
>Decisions, decisions. Anybody got a suggestion? An opinion? A
>clue? The tiniest glimmer of a thought?
I would be terrified to take only a new camera (of *any* kind) on
vacation, or a photo shoot, et al. The chances that something will
go wrong are too high, and recovery is likely to be difficult. (Been
there, done that, got the lousy photos but no tee-shirt.)
And even if the new camera is perfect in every way, it's different
from what you now have, so there is a learning curve to be
surmounted, and it's best to do this when it isn't critical that the
photos be good. (My first OM-4T shots were terrible, far worse than
the OM-1 shots.)
I would take the tried-and-true Olympus gear along even if I did get
a nice new digital camera, and use them both. The same would be true
if it were a nice new film camera.
The new interchangeable-lens digital Olympus system is not really a
possibility just yet. All we have are rumours that Olympus will
introduce such a system, but Olympus has not promised a date, and
even if they did, such things often slip. And you are quite right to
fear serial #00001 -- it's best to give it at least a year or two to
mature. By then, it will be known which products are to be avoided.
Remember the early Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 lens? I have one; bought it with
my OM-1 in 1974 or so. The nice man at the camera store said it was
a very good lens, better than the f/1.8. Anyway, all told, the new
digital Olympus system is at least two or three years away.
Joe Gwinn
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