Original AX revisited
Written: Oct 06 '00 (Updated Oct 11 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: heritage, compact size, results
Cons: always looking for an excuse to use it.
|
|
|
| OM-4's Full Review: Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 80 QD 35mm Film Camera |
My photography-teacher once lend me her AX1 when my Fujica ax5 broke down. This small wonder was amazing. While the Fujica was at the repairshop I took many great pictures with the small Olympus.
The predecessor.
The AX1 was fixed focus. So when I learned that the top of the range was the AX, I bought one (secondhand) immediately. This baby had it all, manual focus and above all you could set your desired f-stop. Everything under control.
Why am I telling all this? Because the AX made me trust the Olympus quality and design. When my good old AX finally gave up after many, many years of good use, it was time to look for a successor. It was the age of autofocus and auto everything now. Looking for a manual "point and shoot" camera was hard. You have your Contax and Nikon pro "p&S" camera's but that is clearly not within my budget for a small affordable camera.
The successor.
So back to Olympus. What they had to offer was a gorgeous range of small and stylish cameras inspired by the old AX. Same clamshell design with a sleek and sexy modern touch. The range starts with fixed focus to a whopping 115 zoomlens.
Too bad they didn't have one with manual settings. Guess most people aren't interested in the principles of photography anymore. But the upside is convenience and that is worth something too.
The choice.
Coming down to making a choice I choose the Stylus Epic zoom 80. This model has the right combination of zoomrange versus compact size. Optics are excellent, backlight compensation very useful and redeye reducing preflash (if you like to use that)round up the package.
(See manufacturer site for full features).
The nitty gritty.
Any gripes? Maybe one, the wide angle 38 could be a tad wider for my taste. I think Olympus made a small sacrifice here. Also use at least 200 ASA, you need that stop extra to compensate for the widest f-stop on the lens a 4.5 compared to the 2.8/35 on the fixed focus. But todays 200ASA is as good as the old 100ASA back then. You'll see no grain.
BTW, mine is black (far sexier). I carry it around almost all the time even when using my bigger Olympus OM-4ti SLR (see my other review)
The verdict.
Bottomline, if you're looking for a small/compact "P&S" with stunning looks and results to match look no further. The Stylus Epic zoom 80 is it.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
OM-4
|
|
Location: The Netherlands
Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.