I came to much the same conclusion that you have, so I've got an E-1, FL50,
Booster, 14-54, 50-200, and 11-22. And couldn't be happier. I have used some
Zuiko's on the camera, most often the 90/2 and 135/2.8, both of which work very
nicely. Just remember that AF cameras don't have focusing aides in the finder
like microprisms or split-image screens, so focusing the MF lenses can
sometimes get questionable. The brighter the lens, the easier it is to focus,
IME.
The Booster is pricy, but almost a requirement for sports and vertical shots,
IMO. It's actually a very nice unit, with two duplicated control wheels and
various buttons at the vertical release area. It also gooses up the AF
performance noticably, esp with the 50-200. The downside is that it takes a
different battery and charger, which I think is stupid. They should have had
it take two of the standard batteries. Nicely, it does offer a place to put
the body's battery cover to keep from it getting lost.
The flash is also expensive, but they all are, no matter what make. Have you
priced a Canon 550EX? The lenses are expensive, but really no more than
high-aperture glass from N/C. The exception is the 300/2.8 and 150/2, both of
which I think are overpriced.
As to the philosophy of ground-up design...well, they really didn't have any
choice. Unlike Minolta and Pentax, they had no AF lenses to base their DSLR
system on to compete with N/C. They pissed that time away in the 80's and
90's. So to have any chance of suceeding, they had to build upon the success
of the E-10/20 and design a new system with as many positive attributes and
digital-specific features as possible. The USW filter is the most unique
aspect, outside of the 4/3 format. I feel that much of the built-for-digital
is marketing fluff. I believe that their lenses are less expensive to make
than C/N, due to the size differential. Yet they charge equivilant prices,
probably due to lower volumes, ability to charge what the market will pay, and
marketing efforts. In the end, I hope that this keeps them afloat. The price
difference really isn't that much for apples-to-apples equipment.
A compatible 4/3, 8MP sensor didn't exist when the E-1 was designed, so they
couldn't drop the E300's sensor into that body. The new pro-spec body will
almost certainly be called the E-3, as it's already registerd as a US
trademark. I expect at least 8MP, 5-8 fps speed (eluded to by the FL50's
manual), faster AF, maybe more AF points, bigger buffer, better noise
performance, and lots of tweaks. Let's hope that they introduce a new body
every 12 months or so, or the system will get eaten alive. They are also
working on IS, both in-the-lens and in-the-body. So they realize that it's an
issue.
Skip
----- Original Message ---------------
Subject: [OM] Re: E-lemma
From: "Wiliam Wagenaar" <wiliam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 19:37:29 +0200
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
>==============================================
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|