Indeed! How often do we fall for the planned obselescence routine
when most of the upgrades are cosmetic or trivial? Is my OM-4 junk
because the OM-4T exists? The future is hard to predict and goes off
in unexpected directions at times. I once worked on Concorde in the
very early days - it turned out not to be the future of aviation as
we thought. You all went for slower and cheap instead. The Boeing
option. Nikon seems to be making similar choices. How many people
actually use the full resolution and file size on their digital as a
routine choice when snapshooting? 12MP Coolpix - don't hold your
breath.
The E1 body may be outdated quickly but not the lenses. How many of
us regularly go larger than 8x10/A4? (Big frame, big mask, smaller
print - works for me). Once digital went reliable at 4MP and over,
then anything you bought had some longevity. If the bod lasts 10
years, then you've had value. If it doesn't have all the latest bells
and whistles, too bad. Work within its limitations. Once I had an EOS
system and I liked my late '80s EOS630 body - single point focus, no
eye control, etc. But metal chassis and reliable. Fine. Far better
than a Rebel or even most of the mid-range bodies.
The landscape/wide angle problem is an issue - that's why I'll have
film for some time yet. If you want really high resolution for
absolutely everything that you can blow up to billboard size, I have
a friend who builds what he calls 4x5 point-and-shoots (Cambo
Passport body with a Rodenstock 127mm and Fuji readyloads). Give him
a call :)
AndrewF
(who will still wait for the E2, he thinks)
For most people, including most working pros, 5 mega pixels
is more than sufficient - look at the fact that Nikon's
recently-announced top-of-the-line pro camera is not, like Canon's, a 10
mgp full-frame camera, nor is it even a 6 mgp partial-frame - it's a
4something mgp camera with about a 1.5 ration. Instead of going for
higher resolution and file size, Nikon listened to pros who said 'I need
better electronics; faster on-off; faster write-speed, etc."
So why would one need to trade up next
year. If it produces excellent results this year, it will produce them
next year, ad infiniitum. This is one solidly built camera; we will not
need to replace it because it won't hold up.
B. D.
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