This week, I took a look at an E1 in a dealer's shop. They had the E1,
14-48mm and 50-200mm on display. I have a few comments and questions -
Build quality
The body felt very well made. The 14-54mm lens was less impressive. The
zoom and focus movements don't have the quality feel of OM lenses.
Viewfinder
Whoever wrote that it's like looking down a tunnel got it exactly
right. It's clear and bright, but I constantly felt that I needed to move
closer. The eyepiece looked quite small. This may be a cause or effect of
the small image.
LCD
Information (e.g. selected aperture) is presented in small characters, not
well lit and not that easy to read.
Mirror and focusing screen
They are tiny. See later comments on camera size.
Shutter
It's quiet and smooth, even compared with an OM2, but it should be with
such a small mirror to move.
Auto focus
It's fast and accurate on the easy, stationary targets I tried.
Depth of field
I didn't notice a depth of field preview button. Does anyone know if it
has one ?
Lens mount
It's big about the size of the OM mount. Why is this ? With such a small
sensor, I had expected it to be much smaller. I can see that tele-centric
lenses might demand a bigger mount than otherwise, but I'm sure this would
only make a small difference. As someone has already pointed out, a 300mm
lens must be pretty tele-centric anyway.
All the electronic contacts are well inside the mount, not embedded into it
as in some designs. This seems a waste of the real estate inside the mount.
Perhaps the big mount is to make it easier to use adaptors to existing
mounts, like the OM. (Irony warning).
Bulk and weight
This camera is bulky and heavy. It feels as heavy as an OM with a
winder. When I pointed this out to the dealer, he said, "Well it does
include a motor drive". At the time, I accepted that. My mind obviously
wasn't in digital mode.
I can't understand the bulk. What is there to make it up ? An OM needs
space for a 35mm cartridge. It needs about the same space again for the
film when it is out of the cartridge. A compact flash card doesn't take up
anything like as much space.
An OM needs space for a large mirror to move. That in the E1 needs far
less room.
The depth of an OM is determined by the distance from lens mount to film
plane. The sensor in the E1 is probably as near to the front of the camera
as the back. Most PDAs pack more processing power in a much smaller
package. What else have they got in there ?
Strap fixings.
I assume the little plastic bits in the strap fixings are to prevent
scratches. The fixings are not well placed. Even with the standard lens,
the camera tilts forward a lot.
Future lenses
According to the brochure, the FL 50 flash "firing angle" is
Automatic switching
At 12mm. Up-down 61 degree Left-right 78 degree
At 42mm. Up-down 21 degree Left-right 28 degree
When the wide panel is used for 8mm
Does this mean that the flash accommodates a future 8mm lens, or have I
misinterpreted this ?
Battery life
Anyone know what this is ? The dealer who showed me the camera was
recharging the battery between demonstrations.
Flash
I was told that the E1 is not compatible with T series flash equipment as
"it needs a double strobe flash". This is a new one on me. I was told
that the flash has to fire twice and the two images captured are
combined. Does this make sense ?
The dealer pointed out that it is compatible with studio flash, which seems
a contradiction.
Pricing
Euro retails pricing for cameras supplied through Olympus UK is as follows
Before VAT (sales tax) typically 15-25 0n the EU.
Body only 1,723 Euros $2,015
Body plus 14-54mm 2,197 Euros $2,570
With Irish VAT (21%)
Body only 2,084 Euros $2438
Body plus 14-54mm 2,658 Euros $3004
US dollar conversions are at yesterday's rate of 1 Euro = 1.17 USD.
I was told that Olympus will not allow dealers to discount. I suspect that
they may need to look into EU law, as well as that in individual countries,
before they try and enforce that.
Sales channels
I was told that Olympus will not allow the camera to be sold over the Internet.
Languages
The camera menus can be in several languages including Hangul. What is
Hangul ?
Manual
Is an E1 manual available anywhere in PDF format yet ?
Anything else
Try as I might, I could not get the back open.
Michael Bloor
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