> But it is not in the same class as the E-1 with respect to > basic quality.
I have a story about the E-1. When it first came out, me and the other guys at Reed's were extensively trained on the camera by Olympus. Olympus was commited to selling the camera through real camera stores, not online or in big box stores. It took a few months for us to warm up to the thing, but eventually most of us came to greatly respect the camera and its fantastic (if limited) lenses, and at one point half of my sales coworkers owned E-1s. When the E-300 came out, we were again trained by Olympus, but this time our normal rep was joined by a Tech Rep. This was the guy who was paid to beat the crap out of cameras, and he sure did prove it. Knowing advanced photographers would not be impressed with the E-300, he taught us how to sell the E-1 even with the "handicap" of its lower resolution. The E-1 that he brought with him, oh man, you should have seen it. Dented, scuffed, scratched, you name it, this camera had been through it all. He told us about taking the camera into the shower once, just to see how it would do (it worked nearly flawlessly). He casually tossed the lensless body up & down with one hand while he talked to us, but missed catching it while reaching for another camera. Everyone in the store let out an audible gasp when the camera hit the floor (thin, stiff carpet on concrete), but he just said "Oops," picked it up, stuck a lens on it, and took a photo of our shocked expressions. The E-1 was built like a friggin' tank, people. I don't know about other brands (their tech reps never tried similar demonstrations), but I had full confidence in the E-1's ability to survive just about anything. John Celio -- http://www.neovenator.com http://www.cafepress.com/neovenatorphoto -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
