On 1/5/07, Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Dpreview says "....switch to 10x magnify mode, which is extremely useful
> for checking focus (in a static shooting situation)."
Dpreview has certainly been useful at times. Simply to have the
photos of menus, etc., is quite wonderful. The review of the E-330,
however, is a kind of object lesson in why one should never rely
solely on a review if it is possible to get the benefit of many
opinions/reviews about a thing. All I can figure is that Roger is
entitled to a bad hair day like anybody else.
> One down side that I just can't believe is that the live view display
> doesn't reflect the exposure being made. That is different than all the
> gazillion non SLR digicams, which makes it non-intuitive for anyone who
> uses them, like me. It also misses the opportunity to remedy the one
> fault of all optical viewfinders, rangefinder, SLR, etc. by giving a
> rough visual indication of the exposure chosen. That doesn't much matter
> in auto modes, but this is a camera designed specifically for manual
> work in macro.
Well, I'm sure you're on to something, since you are a thoughtful and
thorough person, but I have to say that I don't know what you're
talking about. It is also possible that this is more of an issue for
heavy users of A mode, or for individuals who don't tend to their
exposure settings as the first thing, or for people who don't use the
optical viewfinder for the most part, as I do (which is why I don't
use A mode much). As far as I'm concerned, it is a non-issue.
> That one inexplicable, to me, design decision may have been what tipped
> the scales against the E-330 for me early on. I have used digicams with
> LCDs that show a rough preview of the exposure on the LCD for long
> enough now to value it a great deal and I'm sure I would screw up with
> an LCD live view without it.
If that was the one issue, that's kind of sad. The C-8080 allows one
to toggle this feature on and off so that the LCD approximates light
levels in manual mode. Since it interferes with the live histogram, I
leave that feature off. I can see why it can be nice when you're
dependent upon an EVF, but when you have an optical viewfinder, and an
SLR at that, it is not something I find that I need. Perhaps it means
that Olympus will give the faithful a live histogram as part of the
next firmware update. I might find that more useful, though my love
for that feature is not as strong as it once was.
> The other obvious thing to consider is the sensor noise. Although not
> ideal for me for a general purpose camera, at least it doesn't follow
> the current digicam trend of megapixels at the cost of visible noise
> even at low isos.
Not obvious to me, but I just own the camera and probably haven't read
the right web site yet.<G> Seriously, every ISO is quite usable,
particularly with the noise reduction feature turned on for the
800-1660 range. I like the fact that Olympus leaves the decision on
whether to use NR to the user and the fact that it works so well.
Joel W.
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|