Watertown, Connecticut
Several astute observers have noted that the pictures in recent postings here at WP have reverted from the expected 2:3 proportion to the 4/3s proportion seen at the beginning of the blog. No, I haven't gone back to using the Olympus E1, but in fact last week got a Micro 4/3s Panasonic GF1 with 20mm f/1.7 and EVF. You can see it in this picture. I'm learning to use it, and finding a lot of interest in the new form factor and the camera's performance.
3 comments:
Carl, for pure commodity reasons - the weight - I am also considering such a camera. I even think about the Lumix LX3 (Juha Haataja of lightscrape.blogspot.com shows its potential every day) but I don't really trust the small sensor. So a m4/3 seems like an excellent compromise. However I would tend towards the E-PL1 with the 20/1.7 - at least here in Germany stabilisation is a non-negligible asset.
Markus, there's no perfect answer yet. I stayed away from the Olympus because I've had my fill of mediocre AF performance from Pentax. I lose far more exposures from AF errors with the K10/20 than I will from unsteady camera holding, and this is proving absolutely true in my first 1,000 frames with the GF1. AF performance is spectacular. It is both accurate and fast, and when you let it do the selection instead of single center point, it's astonishing intelligent. It's also fairly fast and efficient--just three button pushes--to switch between single point and multi when a situation will obviously fool multi. I've also tried the multi with face detection option and it does indeed instantly latch onto a face if there's one in the picture.
The EVF is compact compared to the Oly one, but the view is very coarse. After a week with it I'm getting used to its quirks and learning to cope. I'm also very reluctantly finding that shooting by way of the (superb) LCD instead of a real hold-it-against-your-face viewfinder is not entirely impossible. The Oly EVF is supposed to be much better, but is, in the context of the camera body, ridiculously bulky. Tail wagging dog.
I've been too busy to run formal tests, but I've done some run-ups onscreen and expect that a well-made capture printed at 15x20 inches will easily satisfy my rather stringent quality requirements. That in itself is a bit amazing.
With 12 MP on the 4/3s sensor the image quality and tonal range and even moderate ISO noise seems to rival the K20D with its 14.5 MP on APS-C. And it really helps to have the focus work right...
Carl, it is a bit strange that I seem to completely shield out my frustration with AF on my own camera (Sony A700) - it's the main reason why I do use my 28/1.8 and 85/1.4 only too rarely. AF as good as never is spot on when using the widest apertures. So if I would lust for a new camera, then a much better AF should be in the bag.
And of course this my combination is bulky and eye-catching - difficult to use it in the streets. And I do have a certain shyness to poke my camera into other people's face, strange enough I did not feel too much that way when photographing among the fishermen in Sri Lanka. Maybe it is a kind of a positive language barrier.
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