Uh, oh. Ken and I heartily agree... except on the battery grip. I have
one but prefer not to use it as it makes the camera very bulky. But I
have to admit that it makes it look like a professional piece of gear.
Chuck Norcutt
Ken Norton wrote:
> Yesterday, during my period of convalescence, I did a bunch of test shots of
> an IT-8 target with both the Olympus E-1 and Minolta A1. It is so easy, when
> the "new shiny" comes out, to put the "old dull" away in the drawer. I will
> admit that the poor little A1 has been neglected this past year. But, part
> of that is due to the extensive shooting with film these days. I've used it
> for a couple thousand pictures, but that's pretty much it. The E-1 has been
> the muscle.
>
> Nit-picking is easy. The foibles and failings of the older technology is
> easy to focus on while the advantages are ignored.
>
> Last month, Piers Hemy sent me a battery grip for the A1. Like an idiot, I
> had sold mine and I never realized just how detrimental not having the grip
> is. The battery grip transforms the A1/A2 cameras from dated wannabe cameras
> to the professional tools they were intended to be. It's interesting in
> looking back that my usage of the A1 dropped off when I sold the grip. I had
> pretty much forgotten just how wonderful the camera is to use.
>
> The A1 has slow response, low pixel count and is noisy at anything above
> base ISO (which is almost a true ISO 160 at indiated 100). The EVF is gnarly
> too. But beyond those things, I'm reminded of how sweet the camera really
> is, the colors, the contrast, and the general usability of the camera. What
> is interesting is that the A1/A2 were actually Minolta's "professional
> cameras" at the time as well as new technology testbeds. As such, there is a
> lot of very powerful aspects to the camera with features yet to be seen in
> any other professional camera.
>
> I know this is an Olympus list, but my sparking about this camera in the
> past was responsible for several other listmembers buying them too. I find
> it fascinating that such an "old" camera is still viable for many
> applications and worthy of use. As raw converters continue to improve, the
> raw files from these cameras get better too! I did a comparative test using
> multiple converters yesterday and the image quality is better than ever.
>
> AG
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