Here's a camera design I've been expecting.
<http://www.dpreview.com/news/0509/05090801sonydscr1.asp>
APS-C size sensor with fixed 24-120 (equiv) zoom lens. Given Oly's
prior experience with the E-10/20 and the IS series film cameras I
expected them to have produced a similar camera by now.
This Sony is interesting in that it uses an EVF but, unfortunately, both
the EVF and the screen are relatively low resolution. Surprising since
I think better EVF's are available now. Great sensor, great lens and
mediocre viewing apparatus. Oly or someone else still has a chance for
my money here.
This camera also needs a long lens brother. An identical camera but
with fixed lens from say, 60 to 300mm equivalent. Pro's could carry one
each and have excellent focal length coverage plus backup capability.
------------
On a related note concerning low res EVF's. This past weekend I shot
some group pictures outside with the Minolta A1 under difficult lighting
conditions (dappled sunlight and bright background). I had plenty of
flash power to compensate by making my own sunlight but, because of the
lighting I decided I had best shoot raw mode. What I hadn't stopped to
consider was that the A1 can't do both raw and JPEG and can't magnify an
image shot in raw mode. Max resolution is limited to the little EVF and
screens and so it's not possible to check focus very well when shooting raw.
Now the mistake. Since there were lots of small kids in the party I
decided I needed to be able to shoot quickly to catch the brief moments
when everyone was looking at the camera. I let the camera focus on the
group once and then turned the autofocus off to get rid of any autofocus
delay. I then took the next nine frames with the autofocus off. Little
did I know that the I or the camera had mis-focused on the first frame.
Because of the low resolution in the finder and the inability of the
camera to magnify the raw image I couldn't tell that the camera was
actually very poorly focused. Consequently, the first 9 frames and some
of the very best are total garbage.
Fortunately, I eventually turned the autofocus back on and refocused and
got back on track with the next 12 frames. On reflection, the autofocus
delay for that stationary group would probably have been hardly
noticeable. I hope someone else can learn from this experience.
Chuck Norcutt
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