Thanks, Jeff. So I read the past few days posts and I've done a lot of
research on the E-1 and competitors and I'd like to try to put some people to
sleep here (and maybe wake some up:>):
>From R. Jackson:
"You know, the "wasted pixels" issue that Olympus keeps addressing in
their promotional material is a fairly good point. This system has a
handy aspect ratio for commonly available paper. Has anyone worked out
what percentage of an image is discarded to make an 8x10"? Add that to
the pixel count of the E1 and it's probably effectively playing on the
same field as a 6-7 MgPx device."
**Exactly**. Unless one prints everything full-frame, there's a lot of wasted
film on a 35mm frame, and a lot of wasted pixels on a sensor with that aspect
ratio, which most of them seem to be. So yeah, the E-1's 5MP is ALL image
(typically) and so is roughly equiv to the next guy's 6MP model.
6MP still not enuf? Yeah, sure, more would be nice. But you have to consider
the technology here - the E-1's CCD is a 'frame-transfer' type, as opposed to
the 'interline' type in the NikCans. The FT is better in a few ways - one is
speed of readout. But more important for this discussion is that it has a lot
less NOISE and MORE dynamic range than the interlines because the pixels are
BIGGER and thus have more well capacity.
>From Moose:
"So the chip is large enough to support a much greater pixel count, but
instead, someone went for "more exposure latitude, greater detail, and
less noise than ever before". If they don't deliver, oh well. If they
do, this could be a really exciting image making machine."
Well said!
Another plus is the lenses are designed for the sensor. And they claim better
resolution than '35mm' lenses. And they even have built-in information on their
abberations, which are fed to the camera and used to correct things like barrel
distortion. Someone in the digest pointed out that this kind of info could, in
the limit, perhaps be used to turn a full-frame fisheye into a rectilinear
super-wide angle in the camera software!
All in all, this 5MP 'system' I'll bet will produce images comparable to the
NikCans' 6 and maybe larger MP cameras.
Not 'small enuf' like OM vs competition? Repeating dan's posted info is worth
doing here :
Canon EOS-10D Canon EF 28 - 70 2.8 44.8-112mm 1692 g (3.7 lb)
Olympus E-1 Olympus 14 - 54 2.8-F3.5 28-108mm 1174 g (2.6 lb)
Nikon D100 Nikkor 28 - 70 2.8 42-105mm 1520 g (3.4 lb)
Not enuf lenses? Not yet. But the ones they've announced sure look nice.
100-400 2.8/3.5 zoom? Man, that sure sounds great. And a 21-44 zoom (35mm
equiv?) That's gotta be one of the best out there now, especially being
'designed for the sensor' and with the built-in error correction.
>From Stephen:
">Look at the competition, what do they offer below 21mm?
??? There are a lot of lenses below 21 mm....Sigma has a 15-30, and Canon has
two, a 16-35/2.8, and a 17-40/4.
Steve, this is apples to oranges you're doing. One of Oly's points is that a)
these lenses are not designed to give perpendicular light path at the sensor
and so will have inferior performance. But even more important here, you
forgot b) the multiplier factor between 35mm film and the sensor sizes. This
factor ranges from 1.4 up towards 2. Let's use 1.5 for grins and these lenses
are now effectively:
Sigma 22.5-45; Canon: 24-52.5 and 25.5-60. And don't forget, these film lenses
just will not perform as well with the sensor.
OK, so there's my talking points for now. When the price comes down will
probably be the right time for me to buy one, with a lens or 2 and the flash.
I am impressed with what Oly has done here. The last thing I'll have to get
over before buying is what Oly has done to us OM users.
G
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Keller [mailto:jrk_om@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 4:37 PM
To: George Anderson
Subject: Re: [OM] E-1
http://zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympus-digest.archive/
Many people were complaining about what they saw and didn't see. The
trend had to go up.
-jeff
----- Original Message -----
From: <ganderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 4:13 PM
Subject: RE: [OM] E-1
I was going to post the paragraph below, but I don't want to start
another sleep-inducing discussion. So, please ignore the paragraph
below. But I would like to know how to access the archives or digest so
I can review the posts about the E-1 over the last couple of days.
Thanks
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