OK, what do I like about the E-1? (Everyone needs to realize that I have zero
practical experience with competing cameras from Canon or Nikon, so my opinions
is based solely on very brief, in-store handling of most of the other cameras,
although I do have significant experience with the Canon EOS-3 and Nikon F5.)
1. Button ergonomics. I thought that the "scatter the buttons around the
camera" seemed weird, but after use, it's much better than my experiences with
other cameras. Having buttons lined up on the rear of the camera, like Canon,
makes one have to "count the buttons" to find something by feel. I found it
was a pain to to press the third button down from the top, vs. the E-1's unique
placement. The E-1's most used buttons are all accessible single-handed, from
the right hand. I do find the custom WB button in the way sometimes. I also
find that the DRIVE and METERING buttons are somewhat inconvienetly placed on
the left side of the pentaprism, but they're not really used a lot.
2. The ease of recalling a Custom Function Set is marvelous. You can save the
majority of the custom functions to one of 4 saved, numbered sets and then
recall them by pressing the two FLASH and SIZE buttons simulaneously and
rotating a wheel. I find it great to reset the camera to my preferences very
quickly after a shooting session where I was constantly altering things.
3. Wheel functionality - I really like the ability to customize the wheel
functions, vs. the fixed functions in other models. I also love the fact that
to change a button function, you can use either wheel. Just press-hold a
button, then rotate a wheel. Trying the 10D, it drove me crazy that the front
and rear wheels couldn't be used interchangably.
4. AF. Well, maybe it's just my old-fashioned, OM/Leica-M manual focus
background, but the AF is very nice. I just wish it had more than 3 fps drive
speed. I have found that moving to MF or AF-S, and bypassing the camera's
continuous AF vastly improves the fps speed. The 3-position mechanical switch
for MF, AF-S, AF-C is very nice vs. a buttoned configuration.
5. Finder. It's actually very, very nice, even with the low magnification.
Easy to see with glasses, bright, snappy for MF lenses. I do wish that the
focus confirmation could work like Canon's, with the focus points briefly
lighting red, rather than the E-1's inconspicuous focus dot. I don't like the
focus confirmation beep, it drives me crazy. I also would like to see the ISO
and drive mode in the finder all the time. Having the Focus Point Mode in the
finder is very nice. It would also have been nice to have the focus points
change their visual aspect somehow when selected, like the Nikon F5.
6. Sound - very quiet, great
7. Grip - I love the grip (except the $450 price). The additional vertical
shutter release, two wheels, and control buttons are very well implemented.
The Li-Ion battery makes it very light. But they really were out to lunch when
they designed two, incompatible battery systems for a single camera. They
should have looked at Canon, where you can mount two of the short batteries in
the bottom of the grip.
8. Image quality - great, as CH has stated. Out-of-the camera images are very
"natural". I also have NO dust spots, perhaps the vibrating filter is working?
I've had many comments from my professional lab about my 11x14's that they
were surprised that they were "digital".
9. Lenses - great, great. The 50-200 is especially nice. Sharp wide open and
light. I kind of wish it didn't grow so much in length at 200mm though. I
also wonder about it's durability with the polycarbonate body.
10. Software - Functionality of Olympus Viewer and Studio is very nice, but the
programs are butt-slow. They could have written better code, IMO. I think
that the Viewer's ability to place lightbox images into three, color coded
categories or move them into a sorting area is the best editing functionality
that I've seen. Again, I just wish it was faster.
11. Flash - The integration of the FL-50 is great, with the easy dial for +/-
fill and on-body or on-flash buttons to select the different modes, including
daylight sync, Super-FP mode. The neatest thing is that if you have the camera
and flash on, when you turn the camera off, the flash goes off. When you turn
the camera back on, the flash comes on too!
12. Shooting mode return - I find it great that a press on the shutter returns
the camera to shooting mode in almost every state; at least everywhere that I
can find except the Custom WB mode, where you have to press the Menu or OK
button to exit.
That's all that I can think of.
Skip
>Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 08:58:04 -0400
>From: Skip Williams <om2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [OM] Re: E-1 discussion
>
>
>Great ...
..snip...
>... 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>
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|