on 10/12/03 2:32 PM, Fernando Gonzalez Gentile at fgnzalez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
wrote:
> I recall that when the 1 and 2 were launched here at 34º 55' South, 56º 10'
> West the salesman was one of the first Olympus fans I knew. More than 20
> years ago he told me that the viewfinder was big enough that you could
> compose a picture with both eyes open (normal lens) No need to shut your
> left (right) eye when framing and focusing because viewfinder magnification
> was very similar to naked eye viewing. Maybe he was right, but I rarely did
> this comparison mostly because I seldom use a normal lens and because when I
> need a critical composition, find it better taking off my eyeglasses and
> using a custom made dioptric correction lens into eyecup 1. So my left eye
> comes completely out of focus.
>
> But I've looked thru a few SLRs, and everyone had a quite smalish viewfinder
> magnification. Especially C*n*n I must say, though I never looked thru an
> eos1. Recently I grabed A N*k*n FM2 and was surprised (again) by the fine
> mate screen and big split image, but it was no-way smaller, unbearable
> smaller. IMO, the 4 is just in the limit - I couldn't get accustomed to it,
> and the now you see it now you don't gray LCD display... hope the 4 or 4T
> with blue display overcame this.
OM-1 has a high viewfinder magnification -with normal lens-, something like
.95x or so. In order to include the various 'outside the image' information
this magnification -with normal lens- was reduced for the OM-2S, OM-3 and
OM-4 and subsequent models. Most of the AF Wunderbrick SLR's have also done
this... many new ones use a magnification of .70x or obout that range. This
has the effect of making a smaller focus screen image with a black
surrounding area populated with the various shutter/aperture/meter/status
displays.
This same reduced magnification is incorporated into many rangefinder
cameras to enable the display of wide-angle framelines when needed... Leica
M6/7 is available in three different magnifications (.58x, .72x, and .85x).
The original Leica M3 finder was .95x I think...
The reduced magnification makes focusing accuracy more difficult due to the
smaller perceived size of the image details you sight on. Perhaps this is
less important with autofocus, but I like a big image to look at... I'll
have to see what the E-1 looks like...
--
Jim Brokaw
OM-'s of all sorts, and no OM-oney...
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