Tomoko Yamamoto wrote:
>
> Olympians,
>
> Several individuals have indicated in the survey that it is desirable to
> have focus assist. Now I understand that the OM-30/F is the one which has
> such a feature.
>
> Why is it that the OM-30/F was discontinued? Was it because of its focus
> assist or some other features that were not as attractive to buyers?
>
> I would appreciate if someone will enlighten me on the subject. It would
> help prepare my Japanesse statement to go with the vote tally in English.
>
A quick guess would be, that auto focus quickly became sufficiently
reliable and cheap. Full autofocus has more marketing value (sounds more
advanced) than focus assist. Eventually focus assist has perished, as buyers
of mid-range SLR's seem to want auto focus. I doubt focus assist really got
the time required to become fully evolved, meaning precise in very low light.
Additional rants and ravings (may be ignored):
To me, the focusing systems can be classified analogous to the exposure
metering systems. There is the good old hand-held meter, the TTL (spot)meter
and those fancy multi-zone meter systems. Similarly focusing systems: Manual,
assist and auto.
I do not care much for autofocus, but focus assist might be nice in low
light conditions and on those bleary-eyed days when neither contact lenses
nor glasses work properly. Maybe I should try an OM-30 sometime. Or maybe
the OM-5/6 comes out first...? Anyway, IMHO focus assist has some merit, as
long as manual focusing is still easy and convenient.
Regards
Lars
--
Lars Haven <mailto:lhaven@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> aka <lhaven@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
"When writing about women, one must dip one's pen in a rainbow"
D. Diderot
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