My first impression of the Olydak was negative based on the perceived
low resolution of the current 5 megapixel Kodak 4/3 sensor. I have
heard some of you E-10 and E-20 users praise the enlargement quality of
your 4 and 5 megapixel sensors but it didn't seem like it could be so
great. After all, here I am scanning film at 9 megapixels on my Acer
Scanwit and an 8x10" is about as large as I can go since the "grain"
begins to show much beyond that. I've placed "grain" in quotes since
it's not clear to me that's actually what I'm recording.
For the past several months I have owned a Nikon CoolPix 800 which I
bought refurbished from B&H for $199. It's a 2 megapixel camera which I
bought just to get my feet wet in digital and to be able to make quick
snapshots and web quality shots. I've always considered that I needed
to print at 300 dpi for good quality output and this camera's 1200x1600
resolution should (in my mind) only support a 3x4" print.
Well, a couple of weeks ago I decided to try a 5x7" print which required
dropping the resolution to 225 dpi. I was amazed since it still looked
pretty good. I never considered going beyond that until this morning
when I tried an 8x10" print at 150 dpi. Amazing! This 2 megapixel
image still looks very good even at 8x10". So, now it seems to me that
a 5 or 6 megapixel sensor probably is capable of handling any size
enlargements I'm likely to need.
And now the last point. I assumed that the Olydak would be built with
Kodak's current 5 megapixel sensor which happens to have a 4/3 size
ratio. However, after visiting their site this morning are reading what
they had to say about their deal with Olympus it's not at all clear that
this is the sensor to be used. Their official statement says only that
details of the 4/3 sensor will be released in the future. That's a
pretty strong implication that the sensor to be used is not the current
one. Perhaps that sensor will have an even higher resolution.
Too bad about trying to use the 24mm shift I just bought though.
Chuck Norcutt
Woburn, Massachusetts, USA
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