The weight savings are great (I've got small hands and so the smaller size
of the body is good for me). But is it me or does anyone else think the
concept of having the aperture setting and shutter speed all on the lens
barell make perfect sense? My exposure to other brands is limited but I
don't know of any other makes that work that way. Very simple to move one
hand up and down the lens...
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Winsor Crosby
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2001 7:17 PM
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [OM] Trouble in OM paradise
> > Way back when Maitani came up with some brilliant
>> ideas to conserve camera weight on an SLR and thus the
>> OM system was born.
>
> Just curious -- what did he do that made them lighter than the
competition?
>
>> Today the thinking seems to be
>> 'its plastic, it'll be lighter so lets just replace
>> every metal piece with plastic.' The metal OM bodies
>> just can't compete with an all plastic body in terms
>> of lightness; same thing about lenses. Now build
>> quality... thats a whole different story, you could
>> probably take any OM except the 10 series and bash
>> almost any current plastic SLR to unusablility, many
>> to tiny pieces, without harming the OM.
>
> Yeah, that was what was a bit disturbing about the new wonderbrick --
>usability didn't seem too bad; point, zoom, shoot (though why not just get
a
>point-and-shoot at that stage, of course) but it felt so flimsy..
>
> -- dan
He completely redesigned the SLR camera. It was roughly 2/3 the size
and weight of its contemporaries which launched a whole round of
downsizing in the industry. He did new things like recessing the
prism into the mirror box. A replaceable focus screen system is
lighter than a replaceable prism system. The shutter speed dial which
I have never really been crazy about actually is a result of the
redesign for compactness which makes it a good thing. Something
compact with thin walls can be just as rigid as something big with
thick walls. He used light alloys instead of brass.
--
Winsor Crosby
Long Beach, California, USA
mailto:wincros@xxxxxxxxxxx
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