Jim, my responses to your email:
On 20/10/2007, Jim Couch <zuikoholic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> One of the advantages of the OM-4ti was that is was a lighter - pro
> quality camera with seals and the whole nine yards. The problem these days
> is that the lighter cameras all seem to entry level bodies such as the rebel
> or the D40. You always had the option of adding the Motor Drive if you did
> want more mass on the camera.
Jim, the OM-4Ti is a very difficult act to follow right now. However, it's
the Holy Grail at Shinjuku to reach that goal one day. Don't hold your
breath though.
Maybe, I am not so sure. I think balance and ergonomics are every bit as
> important. It may be that the heavier camera does help steady the mirror
> slap, ect better than a lighter one, but I don't think it is that
> significant.
Mirror noise, vibration and harshness aren't really going to be
significantly helped by a heavier camera body. To a small extent, yes, but
it's in the resin that they use to create a box that is more resilient. What
Olympus has done with the E-3's mirror box is to reduce the required gears
through the use of a direct-drive cam that is more closely positioned to the
mechanism itself. They needed to do this to provide a faster speed without
adding more weight and other issues.
Of course, if the camera is at home because it was to much weight to carry
> then there is no real advantage. The upshot for me is that I still shoot 90%
> film in the hills, largely because I am unwilling to carry the heavier
> weight digital gear.
That is fair enough comment.
I am not saying this is an issue for everyone, in fact probably not for most
> people judging by what the market makes available. but for myself, and I am
> sure a number of other photographers it sure would be nice to have a
> relatively light, compact pro quality system available.
I do agree with you.
We can debate how much a camera should weight, but my real issue is that is
> that Olympus touts one of the 4/3 advantages as being lighter and more
> compact - they have not made good on that promise/benefit in my mind. It is
> a benefit that would be advantageous to me.
Maybe the E-3 mightn't be the model you should be aiming for then. You could
look at the E-510 instead. While I'll eventually get the E-3, my present
E-510 continues to surprise me. I have now used it under two rain shower
conditions fully exposed and it hadn't failed on me at all and I'm not
talking about drizzles here. The E-510 is commendably light; so that point
should be fine for you.
As for the 4:3 advantages of being lighter and compact, there are points I
like to make here. On paper these advantages are obvious but in reality, it
does look like they might not have delivered as much of these. But that
depends on how you see the development of the standard itself. There's so
much one can do with optical science to produce lenses that are super-fast
and yet light. After all there's a heck of lot of glass in there to make
that happen and when you have that, the lens will gain weight. Furthermore,
the faster the optics, the bigger it has to be at least in girth anyway.
However if you look at the 14-42mm and 40-150mm - not this List's favourite
lenses, I'm sure - you have the benefit of lighter weight and compactness.
Sure they don't come within hair's breadth of the costlier lenses in the
range but they're fairly decent performers even when you compare them with
their immediate competition in the market.
There's a lot I can discuss with you on this issue of offering high
performance and keeping everything tight, light and compact and I believe
that slowly, Olympus is getting there. Overcoming obvious limitations posed
by real-world physics is something that doesn't always happen. Perhaps one
day we can see fast lenses that are lighter but to do that, there has to be
an excellent replacement for solid optical glass with excellent aberration
and refractive properties. That's not happening soon though. So when you
consider all these and then look at what Olympus offers in terms of the
"economy" line-up, it isn't all bad.
My two cents' worth anyway.
K.
Khen Lim
Zone-10 LLC
www.zone-10.com
Jim Couch
>
>
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