Resolution: 5MgPx is good enough for most users, including professionals. Big
slideshow users, who are becoming a dying breed, will have to use film. The
disadvantages of >5-6 MgPx are speed of capture/storage and space requirements,
so I'd expect to see advances in improving the quality of the 5-6 MgPx images
(e.g., lower noise at high ISOs) and their capture speed. Canon has already
addressed some of this by it's new, custom processor.
Shift? 50/1.2? 21mm? Those are specialized lenses and not ones that I'd
expect any maker to bring out at the opening of a new system. Face it, 950f
the photogs use zooms for most of their work now. Perhaps the wide angle would
be next?
Shooting speed would be nice, but not paramount. Most non-sports pros don't
really use 5fps anyway. Perhaps the technology driving the decision to stick
with 3fps was too expensive?
Sensor size/density - The Canon 1Ds equals 35mm film for anyting up to 16x20 or
20x24, according to some pretty knowledgable pros. That's 11 MgPx. Much more
than that or the 14 MgPx Kodak and the film grain starts to interfere with most
resolution issues. The Canon images are essentially grainless; pretty amazing!
If only it wasn't $8,000.
The net-net is that cameras are designed for what sells, and the ultimate
flexibility of a full system isn't necessary or economically feasible for any
new maker to put up these days. They have to deliver what 900f their market
uses, and that isn't ultra-high resolution, fast motors, or exotic lenses.
Skip
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>Subject: [OM] E1 first thoughts
> From: "Jan Sturm \(GMX\)" <jan.sturm@xxxxxxx>
> Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003 11:56:09 +0200
> To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>Below are my personal feelings towards the E1 and announced acessories /
>tech specs. I'm not talking about price , because what Olympus is
>currently dreaming of is well above the sweet spot. Your feedback is
>appreciated - as always.
>
>Bests, Jan
>
>
>- Sensor resolution is 5 megapixels
>
>Not good enough - You will never do a professional slideshow with
>pictures shot by that camera.
>A scan from a single 35mm slide at 4000 dpi is more like 30 megapixels
>and there are emulsions that are finer than the best scanners available
>today - go figure....
>
>- Maximum shooting rate is 3 frames per second for up to 12 frames
>
>OM2 and above maximum shooting rate is 5 frames per second for up to 36
>or even 250 frames with MD2 :-)))
>
>- Lens Lineup
>
>? ED 300mm, F2.8 tele (600mm)
>? ED 50mm F2 macro (100mm)
>? E 14~54mm, F2.8~3.5 zoom (28~108mm)
>? ED 50~200mm, F2.8~3.5 zoom (100~400mm)
>? E 11~22mm. F2.8~3.5 zoom (21~44mm) (available by end 2003)
>
>A teleconverter and extension tube are also available:
>? EC-14 Teleconverter
>- Rear converter boosts focal length by 1.4x
>? EX-25 Extension Tube
>- For close-up photo shooting with ZUIKO DIGITAL 50mm macro lens to
>achieve maximum image magnification of 0.98x (macro function 1:1)
>
>Fair enough - what about below 21mm ? - What about Shift ? - What about
>f1.2 50mm equivalent ? - What about bellows / auto ext. tube ?
>
>Thanks, but I'm gonna stay with my "analogue" zuikos for the time beeing
>
>- exposure 1/4,000 sec to 60 sec - B at max 8 Minutes
>
>no star trails for any of us on this body (or any other D-SLR - the
>sensors just don't cut it right now) - and where's 1/8.000 ?
>
>- dual USB2.0 and IEEE1394 interfaces
>
>Very good
>
>- Flash Group
>? FL-50 high-power flash (up to GN50) with SuperFP mode
>? Ring flash (available shortly)
>? Twin flash (available shortly)
>
>Good Lineup. Hopefully multi flash capable
>
>
>My Opinion: The Olympus E-System is usable at the "Prosumer" level, but
>there are certain areas you will not want to go to with the E1.
>Hopefully this will improve over time so that when an E2 / E3 becomes
>available, the system will have matured to the level the current OM
>System is at right now.
>
>I know it's hard and in a nutshell, here's why:
>
>The better the Image Sensors get (higher pixel rates, better density,
>etc.) the more data you have to store for a single image. To achieve
>current Image Quality available on 24x36mm silver based film, we are
>talking somewhere between 30 and 200 Megabytes PER FRAME. In addition,
>people want quick sequence capability (5 frames per second is the set
>standard) and to equal what you can have with current analogue tech, you
>would need to be able to stream between
>
>30 MB x 36 frames within 7.2 seconds
>200MB x 36 frames within 7.2 seconds
>
>to your storage media. This amounts to transfer rates at the storage
>media controller in between 150 MB /sec and 1 GB /sec - as far as I
>know, nobody has as of yet built a cacheing raid controller and multiple
>drives to fit in a D-SLR housing to sustain that data rate. Current
>compact flash technology is at about 4-6 MB /sec and there's currently
>not a single card that will hold 200MB x 36 frames.
>
>I'll stay OM for the time beeing - thanks !
>
>
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