I spent about 15 minutes with the E-1 at Photo Plus in NYC on Saturday and the
experience was a bit mixed. In short, tt felt like a very solid camera that
had had a lot of user input into the design. Some initial perceptions:
- The control layout was very nice, with most buttons adhering to the
press-the-button-turn-the-dial to set their functions. I thought this was very
logical and nice to be able to chance lots of functions without resorting to
the menus.
- Simple control layout for most major functions, with a P, A, T, M dial. No
pre-sets like Canon cameras have. I'm not sure whether I like that or not, but
it made for much less confusing control layout, IMO.
- Lenses - felt unusually light, although I was assured that they were metal
bodied underneath. The focusing ring was particularly nice and smooth. Nice
feature, you can set it to work either right or left handed, as your muscle
memory dictates. The lenses also mount just like OM lenses, nice touch. Good
integration of AF and manual focus, with easy access to tweaking the AF by the
MF ring. Some of the early tests that I've seen rate the lenses very high vs.
SOTA from other makers.
- Interchangable screens - I was surprised to see this. The funny thing is
that the screens come in the OM-System screen case that was designed back in
the mid 70's. Only two screens available now.
- Finder - This put me off a bit, but I'm sure it is something that you could
get used to. The finder mag is so low that there is a lot of black space
around the frame. I felt like I was looking down a tube, rather than the open
finders of the OM's and Leica M's that I typically use. I guess that if I wore
glasses all the time, this might be much better. B.D. - Opinions?
- Speed - AF speed seemed good, but I didn't have any basis for comparison.
FPS was good at 3 fps, which is good for 980f applications. Yes, 5-7 fps would
be nice, but it's a tradeoff. With digital, you have to pay the big bucks for
a D2H or EOS-1D to get high frame rates.
- Weight - Suprisingly light, especially the battery pack, which was a Li. The
add-on grip/battery was also suprisingly light.
I went over and tried the EOS Digital Rebel and the 10D, which were very
different, larger, more conventional, higher magnification finders. I didn't
really like the feel of the Digigal rebel vs. the 10D. (But there's a $700
price difference)
Hmmmm. What I'd like to do is to rent/borrow a 10D and an E-1 sometime next
spring and spend a weekend with both camera systems. I don't think I'd figure
out the differences without that comparison. Right now, the only thing that I
really "need" is a better sports camera. And the most economical way is to
either: 1. Borrow an F100 or F5 with pro lense from a generous friend, or 2.
Buy a mid-level Canon or Nikon film camera. Yea, I'd love a digital SLR, but
that's $2-3000 to get into something that I'd want and use, and those
expenditures aren't in the cards right now. If it made money for me, it would
be a different story and I'd probably look VERY HARD at the E-1.
Settling back into my old stuff. Waiting for someting to push me over the edge
to a DSLR.
Skip
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