Many of you recall my dissertations a couple years ago on my
possibly drifting over to another system. The Nikon won out as
the system of choice for 35mm, and the Contax 645AF was the
overall winner. However, financial trials nixed those plans.
Early this year, I did some serious equipment swapping and
paired my kit down to an OM-4, OM-2S and four lenses, an XA and
the IS-3. For the most part, I've been happy with the results.
This weekend I was asked to photograph a concert and was given a
Nikon kit to use for the task. It was an N90S,
24-120/4.5-5.6(D)lens and the SB-28 flash. Nice setup. The
zoom range worked quite well and the lens was supurb at 24mm.
Problem came into play about 20 minutes into usage. I'm going
along all happy as a clam when my hands started going numb. Not
your run of the mill, numb, but staring at somebody elses hands
numb. I suffer Carpel Tunnel symptoms and the weight of the rig
completely shut my hands right down. It was nearly an hour
before my grip came back enough to even pick the camera up.
I've had this happen to me with Canon EOS bodies (grip
shape/weight), but not with the F100 or F5. Is the grip shape
different with the N90S that would cause me more problems than
with the F100? (I've never compared the two, since I wasn't
interested in buying the N90S).
I know, I will soon have to do the surgery thing, I'm sure...
Anyway, I was comparing my camera kit with the guy who loaned me
his. He picked up the IS-3 and could only keep repeating "wow",
"wow", "wow"... The IS-3 was lighter, faster (focus speed was
at least twice as fast, if not three times faster), more
accurate (focus), easier to use and hold. Best of all, the IS-3
had a much brighter viewfinder. For how he used his equipment
(no extreme lenses), there was absolutely no advantage to the
Nikon.
Then I handed him my OM-4 with the 100/2.8 lens. He almost
cried. I showed him the "analog" scale and the multispot
metering...
If only Olympus could figure it out. Give the world an OM-4T
with decent autofocus lenses and it would have been a
show-stopper.
Ken (Pains and Pleasures) Norton
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