It's all a matter of perception for users and clients - professional
= big & black with a monster lens and a big optional booster pack in
the style of an F5 and EOS1. Of course they could make it much, much
smaller but pros don't buy tiny. For one thing, their customers
wouldn't think that they were serious. And the early release of the
fast 300mm lens indicates that it's aimed at the pro market where it
will be seen as small and cheap. It's significant that some of the
reviews mention that it 'comes easily to hand' and size does make it
easier to handle, esp. for portraits. It's not designed for tourists.
It's designed for us sad bastards who want to look as if we mean
business - that's why we drive 4WD's, not Hyundais.
I have a Leica Digilux 1 - it could have been MUCH smaller (and the
Panasonic version is a bit smaller) especially considering it uses an
SD card. But Leica wanted it to look boxy and worthy of the big red
spot.
And as to megapixels - 970f users will never ever need more than
4mp but that won't stop them buying 8, 10 or 12 if they possibly can
even though they will still shoot low res for speed and capacity
because bigger and faster is better, right? That will cripple the E1,
I fear because the pros who know that 5mp is adequate aren't numerous
enough to drive sales.
Anyone for an internet fridge, hey?
AndrewF
On Friday, November 14, 2003, at 02:20 PM, Mike Bloor wrote:
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.
I don't understand it either. It is lighter but about the same size
as a D100. To be fair, most older digital designs are substantially
larger than the 35mm cameras they are adapted from. I assumed it was
the electronics and the larger battery until the Pentax *istD which
is a 35mm camera modification and is much smaller than the E-1. Even
the Canon 300D is comparatively small.
I think that some of the puzzling things about the E-1(5MP, really?)
are a result of Olympus taking so much time to bring it to market.
The original design could not incorporate size reductions used in
more recent designs. It was announced and begun three years ago.
The camera makers that announce ahead of time get a model to market
6 months to a year after the announcement. Everyone would have been
saying "Wow!" over the E-1 a year and a half to 2 years ago. And
Olympus would not have needed to cut the price twice before the
first model was delivered. I just hope they get up to speed with the
rest of the market quickly. I have a feeling that about the same
time that Olympus is issuing their promised stripped, lower priced
version many of the E-1 competitors will have moved on to 8MP chips.
Winsor
Long Beach, California
USA
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