Khen wrote:
> I'm not 100pc sure it would be, AG. This of course has nothing to
> do with whether or not you or I or Olympus regarding it as
> the "digital equivalent" of the XA. The one thing that the C8080
> isn't is overtly compact.
Actual physical size is only one characteristic that I consider to be
XA'ish. There are hundreds of various P&S digital cameras which are
smaller than the XA and even have clamshell designs. What makes the
C8080 XA'ish in my mind is that it is a camera with an OUTSTANDING
lens, full-featured (or close-enough to it) and capable of true
professional quality pictures in a compact, yet easy to use design.
The XA felt good to use and had a very nice viewfinder.
Another aspect, of which I'm really referring to, is the XA's ability
to transcend time and never really being bettered. The C8080, like
the KM A2, is truely at the pinnicle of design. Nothing in this
genre has come out before or since that has achieved such a
well-rounded technical excellence.
> That lens alone actually costs more than the whole
> camera and that is one of several reasons why it also had to be
> halted. The camera was simply too costly to build. Olympus put its
> heart and soul into developing, engineering and getting that
> damn "prosumer king" out and I think it nearly cost them their
> existence. The C8080 is THAT good mainly because the powerhouse
> designers were the ones who worked on developing it.
I agree that it shows. The camera really is a classic. However, is
Olympus in the process of repeating a potential disaster by pooring
it's heart and soul with the powerhouse designers into the E>1 and
end up screwing things up through ineffective marketing (Olympus USA)
or a major FUBAR with some technical mistake (Leica M8). They did us
well with the E-1, but they could have served everybody well if they
would have done a few incremental improvements along the way, like an
8MP E-X body.
AG
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