Hi folks,
I've recently made some comments on the List praising the Olympus digital
C-3040 as compared to it's OM cousins. I need to come clean before some
"innocent" comes along, reads my comments, and places too much emphasis on
them. In general my comments were made as a ploy to get a rise from the
resident List Luddite(s) and, as such, could be misleading. So:
The C-3040 does do multiple spot metering. Is it useful? It might be if
you are a big user of that feature on your OM camera. I rarely use it on
my OM-4's and never on the C-3040. The ease of use probably depends on an
individuals comfort level with menus and buttons. It requires seven menu
choices/button pushes to set the camera in the multi-metering mode but that
only requires a couple of seconds if you're familiar with the
procedure. Those steps obviously aren't required with the OM's. Once
you're in the multi-metering mode there's one button on the rear of the
camera that is used to take the spot readings and it falls in place under
my right thumb. If you compose through the viewfinder with your left
eye,as I do, your thumb may hit you in your right eye. The spot readings
don't show up in the viewfinder - they are displayed on the monitor screen
on the back of the camera - another area where my previous comment need
clarifying.
In theory, the ability to display an image both before or after the shot on
a monitor should be a nice advantage. In practice there are problems. The
most serious one is the fact that the image washes out when sunlight hits
it. That makes using the monitor, and many of the features of the camera
that require seeing the monitor, not practical in a number of
situations. That's not to say that the camera won't take good pictures
then - it will but you may have to use it as a point-n-shoot. Depending on
your favorite subject matter and shooting conditions this can be a serious
problem. For example, I shoot a lot of close-ups and, since the C-3040
isn't an SLR, parallax errors mean that I really need to use the monitor
instead of the viewfinder to frame the pictures and this often wasn't
possible because the monitor image was washed out.
Bottom line, from my viewpoint, is that the C-3040 is a great digital
point-n-shoot with a number of additional advanced features available that
you may be able to use under some conditions. It records sharp images that
print nice
8x10s. <http://home.attbi.com/~jjohnso4/Wildflowers/sacred_lotus.htm>
But, because of it's limitations, it's the camera that Mitchelle uses as
her point-n-shoot and I still do my thing with my OM-2n and OM-4's.
Later,
Johnny
__________________________
Johnny Johnson
Lilburn, GA
mailto:jjohnso4@xxxxxxxxx
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