Well said. The C-8080 is a very nice place to be. I have a CP5700 and
have loved using it. But I use it less since getting a DSLR. I would
gladly(except the money part) trade the CP5700 for a C-8080.
I never fully understand the rant against EVF when you consider the
alternative. The optical viewfinders in these little zoom cameras are
truly awful. You look through this tiny tunnel surrounded by blackness.
The better ones show 80 percent of the frame, but most show 70 to 75
percent and the percentage varies with the zoom. You never know exactly
what you are taking. There is no shooting information in the window and
if you care you have to go back and forth between the finder and the
LCD. Or else you do like most and just use the LCD holding the camera
securely at arms length. In bright sun the LCD image is burned out and
you have no way to frame the picture. So you end up framing it in the
nasty little OVF and crop the edges later.
I admit that an EVF is not pretty and lacks dynamic range. I have not
experienced the slow refresh rate some people have complained about. I
suppose the few I have used have been better ones. An EVF is no more
artificial than a ground glass which does not really look like a
window, a slide or a print either. True the EVF fades in the bright
light like an LCD, but you can use your hand to block the sun to your
eye and you can use it. It shows exactly the frame you are going to
take. It shows the same camera information as the LCD. It is big. It
brightens in dim light. An EVF has so much going for it that I would
not be surprised that with a little more development they will start
appearing in entry level SLRs as they have in top of the line consumer
cameras.
The C-8080 or something like it is such a nice package for an travel
camera. Small and covering 95 percent of any picture taking situation
and good enough not to kick yourself for not bringing your dslr. It
would really cool to have a 4/3 sensor in an upgraded one though.
Surely Oly could get the size substantially down from the E-300 without
a mirror box, without viewfinder mirrors, and with a fixed lens that
could retract into the body.
Winsor
Long Beach, California, USA
On Feb 22, 2005, at 8:29 AM, jowilcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> The C-8080 is a cul-de-sac on the road to who knows where,
> but a very nice place to be.
>
> The EVF is a love-hate thing. There are things I just love
> about it, or maybe just one biggie: the live histogram.
> I'd like to have an SLR that toggles in features like that.
> I bought the C-5060 (a camera I still admire a lot)
> precisely because I was opposed to EVFs and then discovered
> that the viewfinder was essentially unusable for any kind of
> serious work at all. That wouldn't have been so bad could
> you actually use the LCD outside on a sunny day. That cured
> my EVF-phobia.
>
> There are worse EVFs than the C-8080's. The Lumix FZ20's
> EVF is generally regarded as one of the worst things about
> it, but to me it is fine. I find the camera simpler to use
> in manual mode than the C-8080 and it can then easily toggle
> in grid overlays and other sorts of stuff or just remove
> everything altogether but the scene itself.
>
> I have mixed feelings about whether I would want to see a 15
> MP full-frame C-150150. It really is just a convenience
> camera to me. When I go to a D-SLR it will probably mean my
> film shooting days are mostly over. The C-8080 just means
> that there's no rush.
>
> I'm perfectly willing to believe that a D-SLR is better in
> every way. I do actually believe it, but the stuff is just
> so expensive! Even if a nice used E-1 comes along, that's
> the throwaway part; the lenses I want won't be cheaper for a
> long, long time. I just picked up a TCON-8 for the C-8080
> which takes it to the equivalent of 21mm. Less than $150
> and no discernable fall off in quality that I can see. The
> camera is just so much fun. I hope saying that does not
> diminish anyone's pride of ownership in an E-1 or any D-SLR
> or any SLR. It certainly isn't meant to.
>
> Joel W.
>
>
>
> Quoting Skip Williams <om2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
>>
>> Perhaps I bought the wrong camera in the G2. There could
>> easily be much better handling pro-sumer P&S's out there,
>> but I was unwilling to hunt for one, prefering to move to
>> the E-1. I for one, will not buy a >$500 camera that
>> has an Electronic View Finder or has any significant
>> shutter release lag.
>>
>> Granted, the image quality of the G2/3/4/5/6, 8080, etc
>> at low ISO's can't be faulted. I got great shots with
>> that camera.
>>
>> But for me, I was right on the money and haven't looked
>> back.
>>
>> Skip
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ---------------
>>
>> Subject: [OM] Re: Digital dilemma
>> From: Joel Wilcox <jowilcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 20:16:04 -0600
>> To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>> So far, you're wrong, Skip. :)
>>>
>>> Biding time,
>>> Joel W.
>>>
>>> At 04:52 PM 2/21/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>>>
>>>> I agree with Winsor,
>>>>
>>>> You could quickly tire of the limitations of the 8080,
>> as I did with a
>>>> similar Canon model a couple of years ago. Once you
>> get used the
>>>> flexibility of an SLR, you will have a hard time
>> settling for a high-end
>>>> P&S camera, which is what the 8080 is, no disrespect
>> intended. Of course,
>>>> I could be wrong.
>>>>
>>>> Skip
>
>
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