On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 6:32 PM, Godfrey DiGiorgi <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 2:52 PM, DagT <[email protected]> wrote: >>> "... Equipment often gets in the way of Photography. ..." >> >> So true. That´s why I concentrate on size, convenience and non-intrusive >> equipment and how it affects the subject rather than pixels, noise and >> impressive features. That´s why I´m a little disappointed by the >> FourThirds-system. > > Your statement here is a little baffling. Olympus makes several > different SLR models and three lines of lenses. The E-1, E-3 and E-5 > are the professional bodies, which are built very robustly and are > large as a result. The pro and hyper-pro lenses are fast, > weather-sealed and large/heavy as a result. > > The E-4xx series bodies are tiny, the E-5xx series and E-6xx series > about the same size as the Pentax K7 from what I've seen of both. The > Olympus consumer grade lenses are quite compact and still good > quality. > > And then there's the Pen Micro-FourThirds line if you want very > compact and unobtrusive Olympus cameras. Same size sensor, much > smaller bodies and smaller lenses. > > I don't see the problem. Pick the camera that fits your desires. They > all produce excellent quality images. Why complain about Olympus > because the top of the line professional camera and lenses isn't also > ultra-compact ... that doesn't make sense, they have other products > for those that want ultra-compactness. > -- > Godfrey > godfreydigiorgi.posterous.com
Note the only DSLR's Olympus currently makes are the E-5, E-30 and E-620 and the E-5 and E-30 are both on the large side for their class. The E-4x0 and E-5x0 lines are discontinued, although last I'd heard there's still a fair number of E-420/450's floating around new. The E-450 is in fact noticeably larger than a K-x or K-r (or the Sony A33/A55), hardly tiny. Almost all of the supposed size advantage of the E-4x0 series is in the lack of handgrip, which reduces the depth of the body greatly...until a lens is mounted. The E-4x0's are quite noticeably wider than compact bodies from the other major brands and while not terribly tall, they only have around a 0.5mm advantage over the K-m/K-x/K-r bodies or the similar-sized Sony A33/A55, both of whom are around 5mm less wide. Right now if you want a compact, high-performance DSLR (One of the supposed selling points of 4/3rds), your best choice is Pentax, nothing else offers the sort of size/performance ratio of the K-5. The EOS 60D and Nikon D7000 also offer more performance in less body than the Oly's. For super-compact bodies the E-620 trails the Pentax K-x/K-r and Sony A33/A55 in pretty much every regard (IQ, size, performance). Note the E-5 is also hardly a top of the line professional camera. It is the top of Oly's line and a damned good (but overpriced) camera. But it offers IQ and performance which trail the competitions top consumer cameras. The build is nice, but no better than the D300s or 7D, leaving the sealing as Oly's only real-world advantage and it is sealed only a bit better than a D300s or K-5. And the K-5 proves that pro-level build need not come in at E-5 sizes (Frankly, the new Nikon D7000 does as well, being almost as well built & sealed as an E-5 in a package midway between the E-5 and K-5 in size). If you're looking at a top of the line pro DSLR, you're looking at a D3 or 1D series camera, not an E-5. There's a world of difference. -Adam -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
