Jo�o Moreira escribi�:
I'm gonna spend a month in Houston/TX next November,
and I would like to know if there is any good camera
shop in the area, as I intend to buy a new camera
(*ist?, MZ-S?). I have a ZX-5n and I need faster AF and the multiple
exposure capability, so I think that the *ist will be
enough. Anyway I would like to ear your oppinion.
Hi, Jo�o:
Como vai voc�?
Perhaps I can help you with your choice. I have had an MZ-S for almost three years now, and I bought an *ist out of a consumerism attack in January, so I can comment on the differences of both cameras.
You say you need faster AF, and both cameras show a big improvement in their AF technology when compared to the MZ5n you have. You also have to take into account that AF speed is also dependent on the lens you use. The *ist has got 11 AF sensors, 9 of them cross-type which are both sensitive to horizontal and vertical lines, and the two in the outer part of the AF frame only sense vertical lines. Its AF system is slightly faster than the Safox VII used in the MZ-S, but the latter is better in low light. None of the 6 AF sensors in the MZ-S is a cross-type.I end using only the central point most of the time, so it doesn't make a big difference to me, and I find the MZ-S performance in low light more important than a minimal difference in AF speed.
By the way, B&H states that the *ist has Mirror
Lock-Up with custom function CF-12. What is this? Best regards,
What you get is mirror prefire, the same you can have with the MZ-S. It is a function to minimize camera shake when using a tripod. In that case when you trip the shutter, if you have activated the self timer, first the mirror goes up, and after two seconds, the shutter opens.
The *ist is a nicely specified camera, and it works really well, but if I had to choose between these two models, and money wasn't the main question, I would choose the MZ-S over the *ist. You don't say whether you have K or M series lenses you want to use in your next camera, in that case don't buy the *ist. Your MZ5n or the MZ-S are fully compatible with those older lenses, but using them in the *ist is nearly impossible, but perhaps you are already aware of this problem.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Carlos Royo - Zaragoza (Aragon), Spain
"The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting" Milan Kundera ("La lucha del pueblo contra el poder es la lucha de la memoria contra el olvido")
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