>Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 08:58:04 -0400
>From: Skip Williams <om2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [OM] Re: E-1 discussion
>
>
>Great points. Luckily, I don't have a 10D to do head-to-head
>comparisons against, instead I have to limp along and just enjoy my
>E-1. After 3-4,000 exposures, my issues are as follows. I won't go
>into what I like, as that would be too long a list.
Skip, I've appended my comments to your own. I will add that it would
be nice to have a list of what you do like, though! <grin>
>1. Metering many times overemphasizes the whites, rendering the
>total scene underexposed. I guess that's better than blowing the
>highlights though.
I agree. I have the opposite problem with the 1D. When shooting
racing, which is typically during midday when the light is way too
hot, I often have to stop down 1/3 of a stop to keep from blowing
highlights. OTOH, my D60 behaves more like your E-1.
>
>2. AF sometimes gets very, very confused at one end of the range.
>With the 50-200, I've had the camera not be able to go from one end
>of the focusing range, sticking at a close distance. Only an OFF-ON
>cycle fixed it.
Yes, this is exactly what I've found, both in general, and
specifically with the 50-200. I've noticed this since day one with
the E-1, and I remember when I posted such comments here in
December, I was not exactly believed by a no. of folks. "Confused" is
the operataive word, too. For the most part,I would say the AF on the
E-1 works pretty well; it's certainly not the fastest or most
accurate AF I've ever encountered, but it does what I would call a
workmanlike, if not stellar, job most of the time; it's very close to
a D60, but not as fast as a 10D. Needless to say, it can't compete
with the AF on a 1D or D2H, especially if those cameras have f/2.8
glass mounted.
>
>3. The camera sometimes halts, especially with the 50-200, for no
>apparant reason. Again, an OFF-ON cycle is the cure.
Haven't encountered that yet, but I will be shooting with the camera
and 50-200 again this weekend, so I will make a note of it.
>
>4. If you take one exposure, there is a definite timeframe in which
>the camera WILL NOT take another picture until it finishes it's
>task. I haven't done enough testing to find out the exact
>circumstances, but it's not very often.
Yes, this has happened to me, too...it could be that this behavior is
what I am attributing to as the long write time.. I've assumed that
the camera was writing, but maybe it is doing some other task....
>
>5. I hit the custom WB button too often, putting the camera into a
>"select the custom WB setting" mode, which must be cancelled by the
>menu button. Other boo-boo's, like accidentally pressing the PLAY
>button, are much easier to correct with a press on the shutter.
This is what I was referring to as the rather unusual ergos....I find
the scattering of little buttons around the body to be kind of
quirky. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to their
placement, or a logical grouping of shared or common functionalities.
>6. Getting the camera to lock onto moving targets can be difficult,
>as the center AF spot is pretty small. There is also a distinct gap
>between the center and outer points, where a subject can hide and
>force the camera to focus on the background. It's no where near as
>bad as the Nikon D70/D100 cameras, which have a huge hole, I don't
>know about Canon. I'd like more, closer-spaced focusing points. I
>do like the way that the camera will hand-off control from the
>center to outer points when necessary.
Yup, yup, yup...reminds me of my D60 at times. The 1D has 45 AF
points, which are spaced into a broad oval. You can set lots of
different specific AF points in groups, e.g. one or two close points
above or below the center circle, or off to the side, or to the side
and low, etc, etc....you can also specify the AF point spread, that
is how the AF radiates out from the first spots that lock focus. A
couple of weeks ago, shooting mountain bike racing, I had two center
AF points selected that were 1/3 of the way above the center-circle,
so that big, high, dirt berms in the way of the subject (the MTB
racers) did not cause to the camera to close-focus on the dirt rather
than the riders. This AF tunability of the 1D is remarkable and very
useful.
>
>7. The time required for a shot to be available on the rear LCD is
>somewhat long compared to some other cameras, esp the D2H. \
Agreed. I noticed that, too...I attributed that to slow read times,
the converse of slow write times. Maybe it is the buffer I/O that is
slow and what I am attributing to slow write/read times.
>
>A question:
>
>I don't find the write times a problem, and the timing from
>dpreview.com shows that the E-1 is actually much faster at RAW file
>writing, but on a par with JPG's. Why do you say that the 10D is
>faster?
Maybe it is not write times, Skip, it could be that "waiting" that I
am attributing to write times, but is in fact some other task the
camera is doing. I do notice the red LED flashing for what seem to
be long periods of times, which I attributed to the camera writing to
the card. But maybe it's something else. I never notice the write
times on my Canon's to be an issue in the sense of keeping me from
taking another frame right right away, so on that basis, I was making
an assumption that the reason was that the write times are faster.
Sounds like a lot of speculation without facts to me! <grin>
-Stephen.
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