Just a handful of quick observations--come Wednesday I'll have a a good
usage under my belt (several thousand shots, most likely), so I'll save my
indepth for later.
In the brilliant category:
1. The lens. Wow, it is nice. Very OMZ like.
2. Pop-up flash - this works better than I ever dreamed it could.
3. Basic control design. I dislike that they move in 1/3 stop increments,
but I'll take it. I think that this alone is worth the price of admission.
4. Display quality. Low pixel count (207000 pixels) but the gates are
essentially invisible. Much better than even the latest/greatest from
Olympus in my opinion. Also the info/status display is as clean as can
be--no disney colors and unreadable displays.
5. Live-view has a fast refresh and nearly zero delay. Too bad it takes
three weeks to actually take the picture....
6. Levers and buttons for nearly everything picture-taking related.
7. Two programmable function buttons.
8. Body shape. I like bricks.
9. Menus. Please, Olympus, take a lesson from Panasonic on how to build a
menu.
10. Wake-up is faster than any Olympus E-body.
11. Image quality belays the 7.5MP.
Now for the Insanity:
1. The on-off switch is under the thumb. What were they thinking? Oops.
2. Other switches are too easily bumped, but at least they are easily
accessable and not buried.
3. Button layout of non-shooting functions are kinda poorly located. They
put the shooting controls in the right spots, but the computer controls in
the wrong spots.
4. The body is very thick and large. It is a meaty camera. The problem is
that as a brick-shaped camera you need to balance it in palm of the left
hand but the body is so much larger that it kinda pokes into the palm. Had
they rounded the left side a little to match the Leica M-bodies like they
did with the right side, it would have been fine.
5. The lens has the focus and zoom rings in reversed position. The zoom is
out front, the focus is the thin one in the middle. Of course, the aperture
ring turns in the direction of every modern Leica, which is backwards from
the Zuikos.
6. The 14-50 lens is so large in diameter that it extends below the bottom
of the camera. I haven't checked yet, but I suspect that my hex plate will
interfere with the lens.
7. Compared to the E-1 the thing is loud. Kinda sounds like an OM with
Winder-2, actually.
Those are the things that jump out at me right now. My instincts tell me
that this camera is designed for the "thinking photographer" not the typical
soccermom perfectly content with a camera with a green square on the
mode-dial.
I can see why this camera (L1/Digilux-3) have such a loyal following. It
really is special. I was tempted to get the E-330, but for me, I think that
the L1 is superior. I never connected with the E-3, but the L1 is another
story.
AG
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