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[OM] Re: very slightly OT: Digital

Subject: [OM] Re: very slightly OT: Digital
From: "Geilfuss Charles" <Charles.Geilfuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 10:51:18 -0500
Evan,
        Welcome back. The questions in your post are a pretty tall order and I 
certainly can't answer all of them. But there is enough collective knowledge on 
the List that most should be satisfactorily answered by this time next month 
(enough time for a few new digi-bodies to come out).
        Quality: In my own experience with the E-500 I've done enlargements to 
11 x 14 and at reasonable viewing distance there is no noise. That is at ISO 
100 using SHQ jpeg. I rarely go above ISO 400, but if you have a need for speed 
(>ISO 800) and are very concerned about noise, then you  may want to consider 
another manufacturer. Having said that, I have seen others here post images 
taken at high ISO that were perfectly acceptable to my eyes. There are all 
manner of noise reduction programs on the market, but my knowledge of them is 
very limited.
        xD Cards: Why? Who knows. Who cares? My kit E-500 came with a 256 MB 
card that I keep as an emergency backup should my 1 Gig CF card become full. I 
haven't used it yet. Rumor is they are slower to read/write. I consider it the 
same as the mini-spare tire in my car. It will get me home but only at 45 mph.
        Output: I can't help you there. I don't print my own other than a 4x6 
Epson Photomate for my wife's scrapbook.
        Storage: Yeah you're worried about this along with everyone else. This 
is the part of digital photography I like the least; being tied to a computer 
both for storage and organization. It's a pain IMO. I'm simply backing up to 
good quality CD's and hope for the best. But then I also still shoot 
Kodachrome, cause I KNOW (short of my house burning down) they will be there 
for my grandkids in 50 years. (Gee Dad, where did grandpa keep the extra bulbs 
for the Ektagraphic?)
        Shooting RAW: Haven't used it yet, but those in the know will tell you 
that it gives you the greatest flexability of extracting the last bit of info 
out of your images.
        Models: This depends on what you want to do. If it is imperative to be 
able to use your OM lenses, then it is either an E-thingy or C*non. If that is 
not an issue, then your choice is wide open. My advice is go to Dpreview. Quite 
frankly, in the real world they all do a good job; the differences are in the 
details. It just depends on how much you want to split hairs.
        I disagree however with your statement that there are no top tier 
lenses for the E system. I think the lenses offered by Olympus are the equal of 
any on the market as far as the image they produce. In my experience the E kit 
lenses are better than what the major players offer (with the exception of one 
14-45 I know of Down Under). As for fast, fixed primes; Oly does offer (or will 
offer) a few( 35 & 50 macros, 150 and 300 zooms). No one is making or selling a 
lot of them. The slr market has been going great guns with zooms for years. The 
only exception of course being Macro lenses.
        DOF Preview button: Nope. Sure wish it did though. But if you use your 
OM lenses, you'll get plenty of depth-of-field view.
        AP Mode: Yes it is there and I find it easy to use
        Prosumer Models: I'll let AG enter here since he has well thought out 
the idea of a "Bridge" camera.

Charlie

-----Original Message-----
From: olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Evan Ruff
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 10:56 AM
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [OM] very slightly OT: Digital



Hey Guys,

I had to cancel my subscription to the list due to the demands of my job,
but I quit, SO NOW I'M BACK.

I'm pretty sure that everyone has had this conversation numerous times
before, but with the constantly changing landscape in digital cameras, I
feel like it won't be a complete rehash. I've got some general questions
about switching to digital, mainly about quality, output, storage and
models.

To begin, I've been shooting with an OM-1n and a 4T, using nothing but my
trusty 28/f2.8, 50/f1.4, 100/f2 and the 50mm/f3.5 macro. I've got a
bazillion negatives and have using nothing but Olympus from day one, so
there is a lot of positive brand equity there. For Christmas, I got a Cannon
SD450 as a gift (the tiny 5mp shooter) and I've been carrying it around in
my pocket. Unfortunately, I like the digital experience, and it's making me
force my hand into digital.

Quality:
My first question is, how "big" can you blow up these digital pictures
without looking like a mosaic. Or, how many MPs do I need before I can do a
20x28, at least as well as a frame of Tri-X. I've searched on the internet
but I've gotten no definitive answer to this question, and my local Wolf
Camera said a 6mp can do 16x20, which I find hard to believe. One of my big
contentions is that if I take pictures with digital, I'm locked into the
size until the "next-gen" body comes out. I guess that this is the same with
35mm, but the format is so versatile that I never felt limited.

N-O-I-S-E, talk to me. The SD450, even at ISO400, is very noisy. Noisy like
a train station. Noisy like a football game. Noisy like Jim Kramer. With the
4/3 system, and its smaller sensor size, how does it compare to the APS
sensor sizes and even the full-frames in some of the other models. In
everyone's experience, has this really been a problem, or can you use
software to pull it out?

xD picture cards... why? It seems that most people are going with SD.

Output:
"They shore got some fancy printers out there now!!" My questions about
those are mainly in regards to quality. How well can those things output a
5x7, 8x10, 16x20, 20x28 (?) How much does the paper cost? Can they print
edge-to-edge, can you hang them on a wall next to a 35mm print without
noticing (especially my OCD-ness). If I was going to print out some sort of
project for work, can I print photo-quality front-and-back?

Storage:
My negatives are in a variety of archival-quality Clearfiles in three 4"
binders in a fireproof box in the closet. I'm not worried about anything
happening to them, short of a serious SERIOUS disaster. Last year, the hard
drvie storing my 25GB MP3 collection "shat-the-bed," digitally speaking, and
I had to re-burn all my CDs again. This was... absolutely not fun. 

How do you guys insure the integrity of your digital shots? I thought that
you could burn them to DVDs as a backup, but now I'm hearing rumblings that
writable optical media only has a ~10 year shelf-life. The thought of a
drive going and losing my catalog is very scary to me.

What is RAW and why do I need to be shooting it? For archive purposes, is it
possible to compress raw with a lossless algorithm? (Zip, RAR, whatever)
Does RAW automatically record all the metrics of the shot (Aperture, Shutter
speed, lens, focal length, etc)

Models:
So, I'm looking at all the E goodness available to me. The E-330 sure sounds
cool, but the selection of lenses available makes me a bit nervous. Seeing
as how the bodies are (essentially) outdated in a year, I'd like to at least
be able to point at a really nice lens and say, "I'll drop twelve hond-o in
this lens and be able to use it forever", but it seems like there aren't any
real top-tier lenses out there for the E system. What are some of your
thoughts on the current crop, why is there no fast, fixed aperture
offerings, etc.

Do the Olys out there now have a dedicated DOF Preview button? Where is it?
With the 4 I shoot in aperture-priority mode almost exclusively, do the new
boys have this? How hard was it for you to adapt to the new digital bodies.
Any chance they've got an OM-5 in the wings? I keep hearing about how the
4/3 system is supposed to allow the bodies to be much smaller, but I'm not
seeing it; although, that new Leica/Panasonic thing is quite handsome. 

And finally, what about these prosumer fixed lens shooters, like the Sony
DSC-R1 and the Olympus 8080. Can anyone speak to the quality of the lens,
control layout, picture output, noise, etc. My thinking is that if I'm only
shooting 28mm - 100mm, and that these bodies offer that focal length in a
single, less expensive, smaller package, why not look that way?

Thanks for making it down this far. I'm really looking forward to hearing
everyone's opinion on these topics. 

Evan Ruff
Atlanta, GA

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