Professional quality for everyone
Written: Oct 19 '04
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Pros: Build quality, image quality, optics.
Cons: AF sensitivity, noise at 1600-3200 ISO, light measuring.
The Bottom Line: If you have Canon material, go for a 20D. If you have Nikon, wait some months. Otherwise, look seriously at Oly.
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| aristobal's Full Review: Olympus E-1 Digital Camera |
I just bought any Oly E-1.
It now costs half the price than one year ago.
This camera is incredibly well built. Full metal body, weatherproof, ultrasonic cleaning...
No more worries about dust on the sensor.
The viewfinder is exceptional too, with a 100% coverage. But the consequence is the lack of a small flash which may be useful for fill-in.
The included optical (14-54) is great : very sharp, fast, without any chromatic aberrations and very low distortion. Bokeh is good too. It isn't too heavy (for a 2.8-3.5)... thing about an equivalent one at Canon's...
AF could be better. It is fast and silent, especially with the last firmware update (1.3), but AF sensor is poor in very low light (last Nikon's are a lot better)...
Some people complaint about electronic focusing, but I love it.
Measure is maybe really disappointing thing... Frequent light underexposure (which I dont complaint about because it is better for post-processing), and sometimes (1%...)a completely missed exposure. Maybe I ask to much as I am used to Nikon ;)
Talking about Kodak's CCD sensor, I find it better than Sony's APS-C CCD (D70) in sharpness and color rendition. Just Fuji's give still better skin tones...
I wasn't disappointed neither on the noise side. From 100-400 ISO it is excellent, at 800 ISO it is light and it's only at 1600-3200 ISO that it begins to be annoying. But with cleaning softwares like Noiseware you can still save a 3200 ISO picture... Canon makes still a lot better job on this side.
Ergonomy and softwares are excellent, as the firwmare-update system.
So overall I am very satisfied. It is a very good alternative to Canon 10D and Nikon D70, if you don't need very high AF speed or high sensitivity. Olympus could have make some things better (5 or 9 point large AF, more accurate measuring, some added pixels) but it's not a problem for me. I still hope that Oly will correct these things for the next one which then would become a real must.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1300
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Solid Enough for a Professional
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Epinions.com ID:
aristobal
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Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 0 members
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