Been shooting with the E-1 quite a bit for the last two days here at the AMA
Superbike races at Fontana. I've been using the 14-54 and 50-200 and the
FL-20 flash and battery grip with the camera. I've used the camera both in
the hot pits and trackside for racing action shots.
These are some initial impressions:
The metering true to my recollections of using the camera twice previously,
is that it is pretty good, giving for the most part, very nice histograms
that are rich in data from end to end. Not a lot of time required for
post-processing as a result, though overall, the Canon gear doesn't take any
more post-processing than the E-1 gear does now that I have my workflow
nailed. Spend about the same amt. of time with both, say, to get an image
ready for web.
The optics, as we all know, are superb. Really sharp, excellent contrast,
and workably fast lenses. Not the fastest lenses, but workable. The camera
and lenses are relatively light and very easy to handhold while shooting. I
find the zoom rings to be stiff, but the manual tweaking of focus that has
been mentioned previously is nice. I find the ergos on the camera to be a
mixed bag; overall, the key controls, e.g. shooting mode, shutter speed,
etc, fall to hand easily enough, but to me there's no "logical flow" to the
myriad of small buttons that set white balance, iso, image review, AEL,
focus points...the buttons are scattered all over the camera that makes
using it a bit disjointed-feeling to me. I definitely prefer Canon ergos,
which I have liked and found very logical and easy to use from day one, much
like using my first Mac computer was. I don't need to say anything about the
build quality, which we all know to be superb.
Image quality is excellent when the camera "gets the shot:", colors seem for
the most part fairly neutral, and the sharp optics give crisp images that
have good contrast.
The caveats:
Autofocus:
For the most part, the autofocus works well in fairly bright or bright
daylight shooting, but I still find the autofocus to be somewhat slow under
certain circumstances, and there are times when it is downright sluggish.
For example, if I take a shot of a bike at corner that is fairly close, then
move the focus point somewhat further up-track to another apex, the
autofocus can gets very confused and take a very long time to readjust
focus. This is most notable when moving the subject focus from far way to
close, or close to far away. Sometimes the camera gets totally confused and
just will not find focus at all, at least with respect to when I need to get
the shot. It also, as I have pointed out before, focussed poorly in low
light. At one point yesterday and today, the clouds got very dark and the
E-1 had notable difficulty finding focus. I find it's autofocus to be kind
of comparable to that of a Canon D30, comparable in low light, but not quite
as good in daylight.
Speed writing and reading images:
This is something I have commented on before, and I don't care what anybody
says, this camera is a slug when it comes to writing images. It is REALLY
slow, and I am using professional Lexar 40X CF cards, amongst the fastest
cards on the market. I missed a no. of shots because I was still waiting for
the image to be written. For example, if I take a shot of a bike going by,
and then try to take another shot of a bike going by that is say, a car
length or so behind, I can't get the shot because the camera is still
writing the previous image. I lost a number of shots this way, even when
taking static shots in the pits. This one thing I find to be quite
aggravating about the camera, and the biggest thing that would give me pause
about buying one.
Noise levels:
At ISO 100, the image quality is excellent, but even at ISO 400, the noise
from the E-1 is unacceptable. This camera is noisy at ISO 400; as I have
noticed and commented on previously. I haven't tried it at ISO 200, but not
being able to use a camera this expensive at ISO 400 due to the noise levels
is a big minus for me as someone who might think about buying into this
system.CMOS sensors flat smoke the 4/3 sensor at higher ISOs.
Overall summary: It's a very nice camera. I find it much more suited to
taking shots in the pits than for action. A Sports photojournalists camera
this is not. When the camera gets the image, the quality, color, neutrality
and sharpness are excellent. However, I still feel this camera is two years
to late to market. It reminds me of something in between a D30 and a D60 in
performance. It's metering is accurate and gives very nice histograms and
exposures, but I feel that a promising camera is let down by only average
autofocus performance, noise, and for me, unacceptably slow write times. I
would take it over a D30, but I would not give my D60 for it. I don't think
the *overall* performance is a good, and the image quality from the C*n*n
D60 is better with it's larger (in resolution), less noisy and creamy smooth
CMOS sensor, and resultant color and image quality. This camera's main
competition currently is the 10D, and for me there is no choice there, the
10D wins every time. The build quality might not be quite a good as the E-1,
but better and more logical controls, the very low noise, the faster AF
performance, and the notably better write speeds and better image quality,
for me, the 10D would be my choice.
I will put up some images when I get back home and will be shooting with the
camera again tomorrow. I do like using it, it's fun to shoot with it, but I
don't plan on getting rid of my C*n*n gear for it.
>From rumors I've heard second-hand, Oly is coming out with a replacement for
this camera reasonably soon that will address a no. of the E-1's
shortcomings.
-Stephen.
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