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[OM] Where are thou oh brother

Subject: [OM] Where are thou oh brother
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 2013 15:54:29 -0600
If you are suffering from loneliness, you are not alone. Yet, you are
alone, so very very alone. - Despair.com

At some point in the distant past, I felt like I had a brother that
worked for Olympus. This brother knew me and knew exactly what I would
like in a camera. He gave me the OM-2S and later the E-1. He's been
replaced by my evil stepsister.

I stopped off at the camera store here in a major city and looked at
the Sony A7, Olympus EM1 and Fujifilm XE2. Quite the experience. (I
won't get into the misinformation, but evidently "payolla" is alive
and well again). My observations have to do only with the cameras.

Of the three, the Olympus was the best all-around camera. I felt that
it was one I could certainly live with. The shutter is very quiet and
most things fell to hand and eye well. It is certainly a significant
step forward from the EM5.

The Sony wasn't nearly as loud sounding as I expected, based on all
the hoopla on the web. Overall impression is that it's not nearly as
well rounded as the EM1, but makes up for it in megapickles.

The Fuji was an improvement over the XE1, but is essentially a
model-year refresh than anything worth writing home to mom about.

The viewfinders in all three are almost identical, but with
significantly different experiences. The Olympus viewfinder seemed to
be the most distracting (with similar information displayed in nearly
identical layouts), but the refresh was the quickest. Panning was
smoothest with the EM1, but choppiest with the A7. The XE2 had the
most friendly and intuitive display to me. When pointed at a high
contrast scene, the A7 was best as to showing details in the shadows
and highlights. The XE2 looked like the monitor contrast was set far
too high in comparison, but everything was standard settings. The EM1
came in between, but lacked shadow detail. On image review, all the
shadow and highlight detail was there, so this is a live-view issue).
An angled line would saw-tooth (stair step) in the Sony, but stayed
smooth in the others. I gather that the A7 is doing a lot more
line-skipping than the others. This made the high resolution EVF look
as choppy as a low-res EVF of the past. Furthermore, the eye-relief of
the A7 is so short and the viewfinder optics not quite as linear as
I'd like so the image was slightly bowed at the edges. In a way, not
too different than the OM system, you have to kinda move your eye
around the viewfinder a bit in order to see everything clearly. The
EM1 was very good in this regard and I noticed no problem with the XE2
that would bug me. If anything, the XE2, other than the contrast
issue, the XE2 was the most transparent and OVF-like of the three.

Responsiveness. A big time ugh. This is an area where I will agree
with the forum fairies and say that the A7 always felt like I was
trying to drag it to the picture. COME ON COME ON! We even
double-checked the settings, but it felt a beat behind. The shutter
release felt fine, but the camera just didn't seem responsive.
(similar to the OM-2S in this regard). The XE2 actually felt quicker
than the EM1, but I feel like that was more of getting the process
moving than where the actual picture was taken. I would believe that
the EM1 got to the actual exposure quicker. Either way, it worked out
fine. The XE2 we certainly acceptable, though.

Handling. The complaint I had about the EM5 with the mispositioned
shutter-release is true with the A7. The EM1 is a little better. I'm
still ambivilant about the XE2. The entire body of the XE2 is too
small, but the super-clean user interface makes it a pleasure to
handle.The A7 and EM1 are essentially identical in size and shape. My
goodness, the EM1 is sprouting controls out of controls. Isn't there a
Bible verse about heads growing out of a monster's horns? It's kinda
like that. It's bristling with controls and buttons. The result is
that there isn't a square mm of space on the camera to actually hold
it because there are buttons everywhere. While I applaud Olympus for a
job well done, I would say that the size of the camera is too small
for all the controls they have on it. I wish they could have enlarged
the whole thing by a cm and that would have been just about ideal. The
A7 was typical SONY in that it got some stuff right and other things
really really wrong. But I can see where the Olympus engineers have
really helped SONY out and there is some progress. Buying Olympus was
one of the best things SONY could have done.

All three cameras suffer from the modern blight of being too short.
With all three, the ring finger and pinky have to fold under the
camera and I get no palm leverage. The XE2 wasn't much of a problem,
though, because it's a left handed camera. The A7 and EM1 desparately
need a "vertical battery grip" to add that additional height. The
balance of the A7 just seems wrong. I really want to hold it in my
left hand and guide with the right, but it's just not falling quite
right. The EM1 was also very close in that regard, but the EM1 is much
more like the E-5xx body--you either love or hate it.

Would I buy any of these cameras anytime soon? With an adapter that
contains reduction optics so my 100mm lens acts more like a 100mm lens
in coverage, I could actually live with any of these three cameras.
The XE2 has the price advantage, and along with that, the lesser-grade
materials and features. I absolutely love the pictures the Fujis are
taking these days. They have that "roundness" that the SONY sensored
cameras lack. The EM1 would be my first choice if it wasn't for
adapter issues. The A7 (no A7R to test) would be the camera I would
get because of the sensor format (24x36mm) and super-super large EVF.
I would get the additional grip for it though. Even with the lack of
"soul" which the A7/A7R seems to have, and other nits, it is the best
match to my lenses.

But, back to my original statement, I feel like all three cameras are
competent, but none of them grab me and just fall to hand like they
were made for me. The E-1 was certainly that way. The OM-2S is
certainly that way. These cameras remind me of my experience with my
Mamiya TLR. The camera took great pictures, but I never enjoyed using
it as it just didn't fit my hands and eyes right.

YMMV, of course, and I am NOT speaking for Moose on this. However,
knowing what I know about Moose, I am very confident in saying that
Moose would absolutely love the EM1 based on what all he has said
about the EM5. Jim would love the XE2 and Joel would love the A7.

Me? Time to load another roll of film in an OM body.

-- 
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
-- 
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