A new diminutive cave dSLR?

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A new diminutive cave dSLR?

Postby Darklight » Mar 6, 2008 8:04 pm

Having just invested in the Olympus E-3 as a new cave camera (mainly for the water proofing and viewfinder) I'm not ready to try this one yet...

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0803/08030 ... use420.asp

Olympus has just released what has to be the smallest dSLR yet. Looks similar in size to my old venerable OM-2s. No spectacular viewfinder, but does have live view and a nice big LCD, plus wire remote and bulb capability.

Image

I'd be curious to see how easy it is to set up cave shots with the live view feature as opposed to a nice bright optical viewfinder. Maybe I'll get one as a backup.
C.G. Anderson
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Re: A new diminutive cave dSLR?

Postby Todd » Mar 12, 2008 11:46 am

I just got the e410, and now they come out with and even smaller one!
I've only had the 410 underground twice so far, but the live LCD screen is the main reason I went with the Olympus over a Canon or Nikon. It's not as good for judging focus as the viewfinder, of course, but once your focus is set and you want to adjust the framing of the shot by moving the camera around a little, it's much easier and faster than carefully leaning in and squinting through the viewfinder. I can't always get my head behind the camera in the places I want to shoot from, so it's can be a big help.
It looks like they've made improvements to the LCD and shrunk the overall body size by a little bit, but those seem to be the only big changes. A better image on the LCD screen would be a big improvement, so that could be a plus to the new model.
There's probably a setting I missed on mine to control the LCD's brightness and whether or not it lights up as soon as you touch the focus ring, because when using the viewfinder, the LCD displays settings and shines up from under my eye and causes a glare that makes it hard to see the viewfinder. If there's not a way to set this electronically, it can probably be blocked with a little strip of rubber or a bigger eye-cup.
One minor annoyance is that at least on the kit lens that came with the 410, the focus ring does not actually move the elements of the lens, but instead activates a servo that moves the elements. The ring spins freely around the barrel with no stops and the lens can't be focused without power to the camera. It takes some getting used to if you're used to non-autofocus purely mechanical lens with numbers and markings on the rings.
Overall, I'm very happy with the e410 it for it's size, quality and price, but I do wish someone would make a simple digital back for my old Minolta STR101 with a 35mm sensor, an LCD screen and a memory card. That's all I need... No auto focus, no zone metering, no priority modes, no in-camera effects, etc...
I'll post a few pictures from it later.
-Todd
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