Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] Another 3T yadda yadda

Subject: Re: [OM] Another 3T yadda yadda
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:25:09 -0500
The viewfinder of the OM-2S and the 3Ti/4Ti are not the same.

Both use the same semi-silvered mirror, but the optics of the
viewfinder itself are slightly different and the 3Ti/4Ti have a
diopter adjustment.

Way back in the dark ages of the OM-2n, Herbert Keppler wrote a
fantastic article which did an interesting comparison between Nikon
and Olympus. The premise was that the water cooler talk around the
offices there went something like this: "Nikkor lenses are sharper and
contrastier than Zuikos". Well, he grabbed an identical selection of
lenses from the pool of equipment and did a little comparative photo
shoot.

The slides were mounted in two unmarked slide sheets and he handed
them around asking everybody to guess which were which. It went like
this: "This shot looks like a Nikkor shot, but this one looks like a
Zuiko..."

Overall, most people gave up and admitted that there really wasn't any
difference other than how the cameras metered the scene. (Olympus was
generally more accurate). The conclusion they came to was the camera
viewfinders! Nikon viewfinders in those days had more snap than the
Olympus viewfinders. The impression the editors and staff at the
magazine had about the picture quality were actually the result of
using the cameras, not the pictures themselves. When you focused the
Nikon, even though it was slightly dimmer and not as big, the contrast
of the focus screen was such that it would aggressively pop into focus
whereas the Olympus focus screen tends to mush in and out of focus.
There is a distinct lack of edginess to the Olympus.

The 2-series screen did change this quite a bit, but not entirely to
the better. With longer focal-length lenses, the 2-series screen has
an aggressive pop or even a shimmer when in focus. But when used with
bright wide-angle lenses (35/2, for example) it is nearly impossible
to judge focus on the ground-glass portion of the screen.

A few days ago I had the 50/1.4 mounted on the OM-2S with the 2-4
focus screen. Without the focusing aids, I found it extremely
difficult to focus the lens. It got to the point where I used DoF
preview just to dim the lens enough to focus.

AG
-- 
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz