Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

[OM] E-1 discussion

Subject: [OM] E-1 discussion
From: Stephen Scharf <scharfsj@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 23:51:51 -0700
>
>  >
>>----- Original Message -----
>  >From: "Joe Gwinn" <joegwinn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
><SNIP>
>  >Even being a die hard Olympus fan, I have to say 10D is at least two stops
>>better than E-1, at ISO100 the noise is not noticable even if you
>>underexpose by two
>>stops and later pull it up; still very low noise at ISO400 and under
>>one stop. The
>>problem is the 10D color does not look as good as the E-1 even with the
>>excellent C1 RAW convertor.

I don't agree with CH on this-he's entitled to his viewpoint as I am 
mine, and granted the perception of color is to some (possibly large) 
degree subjective, but I love the color of C*n*n's CMOS sensor based 
cameras;I prefer it to CCD based cameras including the E-1's which is 
still quite nice, butIMHO, doesn't hold a candle to the CMOS sensors. 
CH has not posted what his post-capture color post-processing 
workflow is, but I have spent the last year getting quite good 
control with respect to post, and I am very happy with the quality of 
color I am getting, both on the monitor, and most importantly, from 
the 2200 (Velvet Fine Art-Yeah!). All capture devices have their 
imperfections, and it's up to the photographer to discern those as 
part of his production values, and develop a workflow to produce 
images whose colors pop, retains shadow and highlight details, and 
has dead-nuts neutrals.
<SNIP>

>So the E-1 has worse noise and yet the pictures look better, likely
>due to better color fidelity.

I don't agree that the pictures look better-I find the noise levels 
of the E-1 to contribute a significant detriment to the image quailty 
at ISOs as low as 400. I find the metering of the E-1 to be quite 
neutral, but the images' color  tend to be a  little cool and flat 
for my taste. Color neutrality is good, though, and one of the 
biggest pluses I've found is that the E-1 metering produces nicely 
balanced histograms.

<SNIP>

>The
>difference in pixel footprint area is about 10%.  The 10D uses a CMOS
>sensor, while the E-1 uses a CCD, but these technologies are neck in
>neck.  All in all, one would expect substantially similar raw optical
>performance, unless one chip is far noisier than the other, which
>seems unlikely in competing products from major camera manufacturers.


CCD chips are generally noisier than CMOS....no doubt due in part to 
the fact that they require higher voltage gains.


>I would have to guess that the 10D does far heavier averaging,
>especially in flat areas, reducing noise at the expense of color
>fidelity.  It appears that the 10D may have gone too far in this.

This sounds like a lot of supposition without any facts to me. 
Everyone I know who has a 10D loves the color quality, as does every 
review I've ever read. The E-1 has many nice qualities, it meters 
very well, produces lovely photographs with nice histograms and 
neutral colors that don't require a lot of post-processing, but it 
also suffers notably from balky autofocus, slow write times,  some 
poor design and ergonomic features,  and unacceptable levels of 
noise. I think it's a quite a good first attempt, but it's not a 
knockout, and I find some things wanting about it. I hear the E-1 
replacement will be quite nice, though, and address many of the 
shortcomings of the E-1...it is supposed to come out this fall. I 
always enjoy using it and taking photos with it, but I think of it as 
a camera that's almost there, but not quite....in that respect its a 
bit disappointing.

Here are Phil Askey's comments, which, as I have used the camera 
extensively over three days, I couldn't agree with more...

  *If you're going to be critical (and I normally am) you see a 
superbly designed camera which isn't achieving its full potential."*


-Stephen.

-- 


2001 CBR600F4i - Fantastic!

==============================================
List usage info:     http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies:        olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz