The first great technical area of development in digital photography has
hit the shoulder of the S curve. Sensors are now big enough, fast
enough, quiet enough, have good enough color accuracy to surpass 35mm
film in essentially all respects for the vast majority of professional
and advanced amateur uses previously done with 35mm film and a good deal
of MF film uses.
There will continue to be advances, but not at anything near the rate
nor with anything like the dramatic improvements of the preceding few years.
So where will the next feature battleground be? Well, what are the
biggest things wrong with current DSLRs compared to their 35mm
predecessors? In my book, the big areas are ergonomics and viewfinders.
Many on this list are keenly aware of the ergonomic advantages and
disadvantages of various DSLRs. Certainly, we will see progress in this
area as the category settles down from the recent wild ride. On the
other hand, it's a fuzzy area, so it's hard to use for features driven
marketing.
I'm thinking the next great battleground may be viewfinders. As it turns
out, the format size of 35mm, derived from another source altogether,
movie film, is about the minimum size to allow a really large appearing,
bright, direct SLR viewfinder. I don't find the viewfinder on my 300D to
be all that bad, but I have exceptional vision in my viewfinder eye. But
I recognize that the 4/3 and APS size sensor DSLRs really have second
rate viewfinders. Of course, millions of people are using them, mostly
without complaint. But that doesn't mean all the old film SLR hands
don't want something better. It also doesn't mean that all those who
don't know any better can't be shown what they are missing with good
marketing.
Can*n fired their first shot in this battle a long time ago, even if we
didn't recognize it in this context. More recently, the 5D is much more
obvious. And in the not to distant future, when it or its replacement is
selling for $1299, it's going to be a major factor. Camera stores will
only need to have the customer look through it and through a small
sensor DSLR to make a lot of bigger sales.
I used to think the EVF would be the next step and eventually replace
the mirror/prism arrangement. I still think that will be the long run
solution, at least for APC and smaller sensor sizes, but it's apparently
not ready for prime time yet, although Sony may think it is. Hard to say
just where the Sony DSC-R1 fits in, but I think it is at least in part
Sony's first effort at finding the right viewfinder combo for an ILEVR,
Interchangable Lens EVF Reflex, or what ever they end up being called.
All they have to do is put a lens mount on it and they are off and
running. And now they own a mount with lenses already available. They
may choose to rethink the AF motor set-up, though.
Now Oly, a player which simply can't go the FF route because it doesn't
have the lenses and mount, mixes things up good with really innovative
thinking and engineering. Whether a bridge to eventual EVF or at least a
medium term solution all on its own, it's a brilliant idea.
Unfortunately, even Oly doesn't seem to "get" it completely, so they've
partially failed in the implementation. With any luck,that can be
quickly fixed in firmware.
As Walt has pointed out, the E-330, and its clone(s), are going to be
the flat out best small sensor macro DSLRs out there. For many uses,
better at that than FF sensor models.
The overall viewfinder set-up is quite flexible too, Mode A live view
for most conditions for those of us who like that, with the normal
reflex finder for dim light or conditions where reflections kill the LCD
display. And the reverse for those who prefer the reflex viewfinder,
with the LCD coming to the rescue for low and high shots and macro.
And then they blow a big opportunity. What none of us knew all these
years, or at least thought about, is that the reflex viewfinders we've
used all these decades are seriously flawed. They have no choice, but
still, the flaw is there, they don't indicate how the image will be
exposed. Now I know we have all prided ourself on learning just how to
judge the proper exposure using our experience and the metering tools at
hand, and it's a nice thing to be able to do. But... We've all had our
share of failures. The metering systems all have their strong points,
but they just aren't smart enough to get it right all the time. Like the
inevitable move to AF, viewfinders will help us more too.
So what if the viewfinder could show you the overall tonality of the
image before you take it? I've really become aware of how helpful this
can be with my F10. The F10 is pretty much automatic, you don't have a
lot of control over exposure, especially without going into the menus to
change exposure compensation and/or iso settings. On the other hand, for
landscape and lots of other shots, leave metering in spot, and just move
the frame around until you have the fight exposure on the LCD, half
press, frame and shoot. I really became aware of this when traveling
with F10 and 300D. Exposure under difficult conditions was so easy and
intuitive with the F10 that I would forget, and blow shots with the 300D
when firt using it after the F10. Sure, its got fancy metering, but it
still doesn't show me what it's doing. On the other hand, in some
lighting conditions, the F10 LCD is almost impossible to see, all I see
is my reflection in the mirror.
Sony 'gets' it. The DSC-R1 "In FRAMING mode the camera attempts to
always produce an image bright and clear with which to frame the shot.
In PREVIEW mode the image you see is most representative of the final
shot (taking into account the final exposure). PREVIEW mode can be most
useful in aperture priority where it effectively gives you a live depth
of field preview, as you change the aperture you see the effect on depth
of field instantly." And the mode is selected with a switch, not down in
some menu! They also put in live histogram and overexposure area
indication. (Of course, they blew it for me in another area, with stone
slow RAW writing speed and enormous RAW files, even bigger that Oly's.
And Oly has finally really fixed their RAW writing speed with the 330.)
If Oly can add something like the choice of submodes to 'A' and preview
histogram and overexposure area indication options, they really have a
unique and useful tool. If it had that I would probably have one at
least on the way here by now. They better get on it, I'll bet that Sony
DSLR with EVF and live view LCD isn't far off (and by the way, the
display options above apply to the EVF too.).
Moose
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