Well, it arrived today.
Ease of use is actually much better than I expected, in spite of the number of
buttons. If you understand the terminology and the basic principles, which I
do, then getting a grip on how to drive it is basically very easy.
Clarity of the photos is superb: very sharp indeed. It's not like slide film
projected, but nevertheless it seems sharper (and better) than my scanned 35mm
slides. The 8MP image easily stands 1:1 display on a monitor and is very clear.
I think 9 x 6" photos will come out very well indeed.
The camera basically has no manual mode. It's not a natural camera to use for
someone bought up on an OM-1/3, or even an OM-2/4.
The metering seems effective, though it can be fooled. The auto-focusing seems
fairly accurate, if slightly unusual, since it tries to determine the subject
rather than just focussing in the centre and then allowing you to move the
camera. But of course, that ties in with its attempts at ESP metering.
To all inents and purposes, there is no manual focusing.
The left hand is left rather lost. Having been used to focusing & zooming, as
well as controlling the shutter speed and aperture, with the C-8080 it has
nothing to do at all. The right hand, on the other hand, is too busy with zoom
and shutter release to be able to do both effectively. I'd change that and give
the left hand the zoom control, but I expect they've done it so you can't
confuse the camera by focussing (half press) then zooming afterwards...
All in all, it's a nice camera, and I'll enjoy borrowing it.
But unfortunately it just makes me want a digital back for my OM bodies more
than ever. And the only currently available equivalent (that I can think of)
costs £5k *before* you even start on lenses...
Regards,
Simon
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