And voice was heard crying from the wilderness....
Haven't heard from you for a while, Barry.
Barry B. Bean wrote:
>My apologies if this one has been beat to death already, but what are the
>important diferences between the E1 and the E300?
>
>
You do need to understand that, as far as I know, no one on the list has
both. The closest you can get is C.H., who had a 10D and sold it to buy
an E-1. As I recall, his major stated reason was difficulty in finding
lenses for the 300D that he liked with the small digital sensor. You
might want to go into the archives and look at the thread 'E1 and
ancient Zuikos', esp. C.H.'s post.
The reviews of the two on dpreview.com provide all the features detail
you could ever want and you can put them up side by side in 2 half width
windows to compare the standardized image tests.
After much research and some hands on looks, I went with the 300D, and
am very happy with it. Several others have gone with the 300D and there
is a sturdy and happy group of E-1 owners. I assume you ask this
particular question because the EOS and E-1 bodies are the only ones
that will work with OM mount lenses.
On specs alone, the 300D mostly wins on the ' important' ones with an
extra mp, lower noise at all speeds, better low light focus, etc., see
the reviews. The E-1 seems to excel at 'ready to print' images, slthough
both have customizable settings to taylor to you personal preferences.
The 300D costs less, but you must buy an adapter for $175 to use OM
lenses. Registered E-1 owners get a free adamper on request. The E-1 kit
lens is better than the 300D kit lens, if you go for a kit.
There are a vast range of lenses of all sort for the 300D. Oly is fairly
rapidly buiilding up a nice range of zooms that are quite high quality,
with a couple of primes and more announced to come.
There is an unauthorized modification of the 300D firmware that restores
most of the features of the 10D, including mirror lock-up, flash
exposure control for the built-in flash and iso 3200.
OK, dispasson aside from here on--- And remember others just love their
E-1s -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Personally, although there were a lot factors, three in particular
weighed heavily in favor of the 300D for me.
First, I tried out an E-1 with the 50-250 lens in a moderately lit, but
certainly not dark, photo shop and found the focus at the long end slow
and uncertain, even with lots of nice contrasty stuff to focus on, while
a 300D focused easily. I now think this is a bigger deal than I did
then. Having done the large family gathering thing at Christmas with a
zoom slow at the long end, I had some trouble even with the better body.
Of course, this was indoors at night, trying to sneak unsuspected
close-ups a room away, but still... The 300D will focus in darkness, if
you use the focus assist of the flash, but it's not good for people
pics. They think they are in a cheap sci-fi film and flinch or look grumpy.
Second, the E-1 doesn't have a built in flash. OK, so that's very
'professional' I suppose. I believe that on the full frame, $8,000 Can*n
1Ds, but not on the E-1. I don't do much flash photography except for
gatherings of family, friends, etc. To do that with the E-1, I would
have to spend a significant amount more money for something extra to
hang on the camera. I can do that on the 300D too, of course, but for
the run of the mill stuff, it's all built in. The E-Volt/E300 has a
built in flash and the low light focus may be improved, I hear.
Third, the difference in image noise is quite large, especially above
200 iso. Now to those who have always done most of their photography
with 50, 100 and. 'gasp!', 200 iso film, and who intend to make digital
photography just like film, that's no problem. To me, the digital option
of switching speed at will and the image noise much less than film at
the same iso demonstrated by many DSLRs, opens up possiblities that
weren't available before. For one thing, IS generally gives about
1.5-2.5 stops of extra hand holdability. How much nicer, cheaper and
easier to just up the sensor speed by a couple of stops. There went a
lot of size, weight and cost - and it works with all lenses. Another
change is in the kind of lenses that can be used and under what
circumstances they work. I like teles a lot and the difference between
an f2.8 long tele or zoom and an f4 one is 1 stop and a lot of size and
weight and $, f5.6 is 2 stops slower and even lighter and cheaper. But
if I just up the iso setting, I don't need the speed in many situations.
For another example to add to those in reviews, here is my test of noise
at different isos with the 300D
<http://moosemystic.net/Gallery/Compar2FM1600sa.jpg>.
A perfect example of what low noise at speed opens up is the new Tamron
28-300/3.5-6.3 (XR Di LD Asph. (IF) Macro, whew!). This marvel is about
half the size and less than half the weight of the great old SP
60-300/3.8-5.4, optically excellent and focuses to 1:2.9 - at the 300mm
end! Now can I be happy with a zoom that goes down to f5.6? With film,
probably not, unless I carry 2 bodies, one for lower film speed for
quality in most shots and one with fast film for the long end of the
zoom. I have a few long lenses and long zooms that get down to the f5.6
area. Much as I like them, they also frustrate me sometimes But with a
DSLR like the 300D, I can just jump up to 800 iso with virtually no loss
of quality, a 1600 that's no worse than 800 speed film, and with the
hack firmware, a 3200 that is acceptable (actually pertty good with
noise reduction software), then just drop down for other shots. Oly,
CAn*n, Nik*n, none of the camera manufacturers make something like this.
28-300 mm on a 300D is 45-460 FOV equivalent for 35mm, a range that
this tele eyed Moose just loves. Here is some idea of its range, long
shots hand held, one on top of a cliff, with an overcast and in some
wind <http://moosemystic.net/Gallery/Tam28-300/>. On the E-1, it would
be 56-500, Wheeeee!
And that raises another question; will the 3rd party makers start making
more of the increasing number of digital specific lenses available in
4/3 mount? So far only a couple of consumer grade Sigmas have appeared.
One can hope for more.
I still love shooting with OM-1, 2(n) and 4(Ti), but for a DSLR, Oly has
not yet built the one "just for me". I hope they do one day.
Moose
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