Well, the E-330 does make photographs. I just haven't shot many that
I will hang onto at this point as I have simply been playing with the
Live View modes. After a little hands-on training, I now finally know
the difference between A and B modes! I showed it to a friend of mine
who used to be a fanatic mycologist and mushroom photographer. I
popped out the monitor in A mode so that the live view was oriented
like a waist-level finder and I thought he was going to mug me right
then and there.
A mode will probably get used a lot more than B mode. I trust the AF
in this camera. It's noticeably faster than the E-1 with something
like a little laser pointer that shows you exactly where the focus
point is. Certainly very much improved in lower light as well. I've
not had to pop up the flash for an AF assist.
AEL/AFL is managed differently from the E-1, so much so that I set it
up with the options I assumed I would like from my experience with the
E-1 and discovered that I had lost the ability to focus the camera!
Oddly, I didn't suspect it was the AEL-AFL settings at the time, but
something I might have done experimenting with B mode. I actually had
to reset to the defaults to get it working predictably again. Once
I'd studied the manual, it became clear that the setting that I had
selected for AEL was actually causing the problem. On the E-330 when
you select the option that makes the AEL button lock focus, you
actually have to USE the AEL button to cause the AF to focus. No
problems with the performance or the logic, but that is different from
what I was expecting. It reduces a two step process on the E-1 to
one. I think it's maybe a good thing. I will however miss the
physical switch to change from S-AF to MF on the E-1. I don't know
how often I have focused with AF and then switched to MF to get the
lock. For handheld shooting, the E-330 method will be better. On a
tripod, I don't know yet.
I got the firmware updates but haven't tried AF in B mode yet. I need
to learn it as I have a couple relatives in Hawaii who are going to be
dazzled by this camera.
Joel W.
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