Hi Dawid:
On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 8:02 AM, Dawid Loubser <dawidl@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Joel, you are right, that in some ways this must be the platform that
> exceeds
> normal 4/3 DSLRs... In the same way that a Leica M exceeds an OM-series
> body: A more conservative range of lenses in terms of focal lengths,
> targeted
> at people, street and documentary shooting, as well as travel. It must
> do fewer things,
> but do some of those things better.
I just don't think the mass of buyers think so critically. If it gets
a big lift from the trade magazines, maybe the Canonistas will buy one
for the little lady. Otherwise, people will have to like the look and
feel if they make it to the display in the big box stores. Will the
Great Unwashed find 12 MP in a m4/3 significant when they can get that
all stacked up in a Stylus? Will they get the difference as they
evaluate the difference in price? How cool is the retro-Pen look?
It's a non-starter, really -- at least the Pen part. If anyone buys
the e-p because of Pen nostalgia, he gets the Super Duffer Award,
presented, I would suggest, with a big wet kiss from Ag Schnozz.
> I get the feeling that Olympus is purposefully keeping the m4/3
> "below" the 4/3 DSLRs,
> but what I think they should have done is very much like Leica - see
> both as
> serving different purposes, and take advantage of the m4/3 mount to
> produce
> small primes with huge aperture and great image quality. Even three
> will do fine,
> just a fast 35mm-equiv, 50mm-equiv and, say, 90mm-equiv. For the
> longer stuff, the
> 4/3 zooms and superteles are good, and for ultra-wide-angle, the
> planned zooms are
> also good.
To my needs, they will definitely serve different purposes as I at
least have no purpose for one while OM and E serve me.
> Let's hope they listen, and not purposefully keep all the m4/3 stuff
> "second-tier".
I just think the second tier placement is almost automatic. It has to
attract people making an entry into serious photographic equipment --
into a system, in other words -- coming from the compact camera
experience but looking for something more. Maybe secondarily it has
to be attractive to the Canonistas, Nikonistas, and E-3/niche users
who are looking for some relief from the pack-animal burdens of their
equipment. It needs to be good enough, but -- as I include myself in
this set -- it wouldn't have to be so good as to tempt me fully away
from my big system completely. If it do so, who am I to object? But
it would take a surprising experience that I can't anticipate in my
imagination currently.
> With a lens legacy like the OM series', where they managed to create a
> super-high-quality
> 50mm f/1.2 that is tiny (49mm filter), nothing should stop them from
> at the very least
> also creating a 25mm f/1.2 (or preferably something exotic like a 25mm
> f/1.0) which is small,
> and of high quality. Nobody said it has to be cheap, but if it costs
> even half of what
> a Leica M 50mm f/1.4 costs, they will have a market I think. And they
> need an image
> builder. The E-P1 / 17mm sample I linked to earlier was everything but
> - more of an
> image shredder, if you ask me.
The 17mm looks like a version of the 25mm pancake raising its ugly head again.
> Perhaps it is indeed time for optical viewfinders to die (with the
> currently available
> technology) so I see no problem in a m4/3 body being the top olympus
> camera.
>
> And yes, you are right, this is what Olympus can use to lure us OM
> shooters to Olympus
> digital.
I would be sorry for optical viewfinders to die as I shoot so much out
in the sun. I could probably live with a good EVF, but I think these
are viewed as redundant on a camera with a SOTA LCD +live view, etc.
The add-on VF for the e-pen is something I'm guessing gets left home
after the first few outings.
Since I shoot both e-system and OM, I can't evaluate what lures an OM
user to Olympus digital if he hasn't already come on or gone
elsewhere. If I can generalize from millions of posts I've read,
there are basically several different needs which Olympus did not meet
for the OM users Olympus lost -- some amounting to actual shortcomings
in experience with the cameras, others amounting to shortfalls in
various comparison specs. E-system partisans have to make the case
for certain qualities which over-shadow direct comparison, and this
doubtless comes across as whimsical to hard-data types and engineers
attracted to photography. I'm just a bonehead poet type. I couldn't
design my way out of a doily.
Joel W.
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