Updated the site with two long overdue usage reports. Hope my comments are still of some use to people even with the delay.
Olympus E-P1 w 17mm f/2.8 lens
The EP-1 is a great camera, I think. My one complaint has been that I miss a built-in flash at times.. for example, back-lit photos or whatnot, really just need that flash. Also, I’d say the full-auto “iAuto” mode is unusable… but I stick with P or A modes and have no troubles. The camera has lots of customization options which is a bit overwhelming at first, but also quite nice in the long run. Plus, once you set up the options you want, you don’t really have to delve into them again. Focus is a bit slower than Panasonic GF-1 (I use center focus, so not a huge issue), and the screen isn’t as nice, but the colors it produces and the default JPEGs coming out of the camera are so much better.
I should add, though, that I got this camera to replace a point-and-shoot. So, I’m quite … lax. I don’t care to closely analyze the ISO performance because it beats the camera on my phone and the P&S I used to carry… but then again, I guess that’s also why I miss having a flash built-in. :P
Alas, I have made peace with my Olympus Tough 8000 camera. After pretty much bashing its usage in my own review, I’ve found a way to use this camera to my liking while taking advantage of its unique “Tough” qualities.
This is now the camera that comes with me when I go out for a party or a late night. I don’t have to worry about stuff spilling on it or it accidentally getting dropped on the floor. And full-auto mode works perfectly fine indoors since the camera generally just fires off its flash anyway. When going for a non-flash picture, or on rare occasions when I take this around with me on an afternoon stroll, I turn it to P mode and operate it pretty much in ISO-priority mode. By controlling the ISO, I can insure that the camera-selected shutter speed is sufficient for a non-blurred picture. Finally (and this was my key realization), at higher ISOs there’s a lot of noise, for sure, but by converting the high-ISO pictures to black and white you actually get quite nice results!
100% crop of noise @ ISO800 and this is already taken at a lower resolution of 2560x1920
Original pic @ ISO800, washed out colors & noisy
Converts beautifully to black & white!
Received my Olympus E-P1 pancake lens set one day early! Here are some pictures to share with you all.
Initial impressions?
Negatives: The lens is pretty cheap feeling — makes me wonder if it’s worth spending another $20 for a filter. BUT, i love the fact that it’s so compact and light.. and it fits the camera perfectly. The viewfinder is well-constructed but feels pretty cheap too.. I’m guessing this was to save on weight. The VF lines are useable but not superb. If you’re buying a viewfinder separately and really care about the quality of it, I’d recommend spending the extra money and getting a Voigtlander one or something because this one probably isn’t worth the some $90 it costs when sold separately.
Positives: Lens and viewfinder both mount very securely. I love the way this camera feels in my hands. It’s a good size with just enough weight to feel sturdy without weighing you down. Dials and buttons all have a sturdy feel. Overall, very well made and designed, and very sexy, haha. Can’t wait to use it!
Sony's new super zoom digital still and video camera.
Just handled the new Sony DSC-HX1 VERY briefly and saw a bunch of video and images shot with it. The DSC-HX1 is Sony’s new super zoom digital still and video camera — “still and video” because the AVC video quality is superb! I’d say, even more so than its new auto-panorama function, the video capabilities of this camera are a real strong point. As for handling impressions, in my big hands the camera grip is a bit on the small side, and the function dial & articulating screen both feel a LITTLE cheaper than I would like, but everything works as it should. I was very impressed with my brief use of the intelligent auto picture mode. Focus lock was attained in under a second for all cases I tried, and this included sticking my hand up around 5″ away from the camera — it switched to macro mode automatically and focused within a second again.
I’d say for regular point & shoot mindless usage, this camera is definitely great. Image quality is sufficient, video quality is superb, and the camera is responsive and not too heavy with a great zoom range (28mm-560mm). Downsides for me include the lack of RAW recording, the articulating screen only goes up-down not left-right as well, and.. well, a bit of personal preference here… the colors and tones just seem a bit bland to me. I’m a fan of the color produced by Fujifilm consumer digitals so… yah, there’s definitely some bias there.
Anyway, if you’re shopping for a super zoom compact digital camera, don’t forget to check out the DSC-HX1! Personally, since I’m not in the market for a super zoom, I think I’ll hold out for the next generation “HX2″ (more likely a HX5 or something like that since Sony likes to skip around) .. maybe they’ll throw in the new Exmor R sensor.
Hi! Just letting you know that I’ve updated my Olympus Tough 8000 Usage Report with an example of blurring and with a link to even more photos done by a Japanese photo site. Check it out at the bottom of the Usage Report post, thanks!
A little while back I bought a CanoScan 8800F for my 35mm and 120/220 film scanning needs. My reasoning for purchasing a relatively cheap flatbed film scanner is that 1) I can use the scanner for other purposes (ie, documents) and 2) if I really want a gallery-worthy print I can always bring my negatives to a professional scanning/photo service. And this purchase definitely made more sense to me than spending over US $2000 on the superior Nikon 9000 ED dedicated film scanner.
Assuming that your main reason for buying a film scanner is to share your photos online on sites like Flickr and Picasa etc, my advice is to get a flatbed one that’s convenient. Sure, the D Max is somewhat important and scanning resolution can make some difference. But mainly you just want something that can, for example, scan multiple strips of 35mm in one go. Beats having to sit by the scanner while it does its work so you can be there to switch out or adjust the film strips between scans.
With this in mind, for you medium format shooters out there, remember to look at the film holder sizes before you purchase! I almost shot myself in the foot by buying the Japan near-equivalent of the Epson Perfection V500 [check out the crop of its specs below]. It’s a perfectly good scanner but the 120/220 film holder is only 6x12cm — that means I have to scan in my medium format film one frame at a time! You can place a full 6×22 strip in the holder, but only a 6×12 section will be available for scanning.
For your reference, the top-of-the-line Epson flatbed scanner has a holder for 2 strips of 120/220 film at 6×20 cm each, and the top of the line Canon flatbed scanner (CanoScan 8800F) has a holder for 1 strip of 120/220 film at 6×22 cm.
In short, I have been rather disappointed with this camera. It has become apparent to me that the bulk of this camera’s cost comes in its extra waterproofing (10m) and ruggedness over its competitors, because its image quality and full-auto mode are nothing to brag about.
First, some relatively positive impressions to share:
1) As advertised, the camera was tough as a rock. I enjoyed not having to worry about it at all. Save for a minor scratch on the LCD (apparently you still gotta buy a screen protector!) and some cosmetic scratches on the front face, the camera is, well.. an impenetrable hunk of metal. And it feels it too.
2) I liked the LCD screen a lot. I don’t know how to describe it, maybe it was the lack of an LCD protective screen, but it was just a joy to use, even in bright sunlight.
3) Start up is relatively quick, tap controls work well, zooming is quick, and shot-to-shot times are decent enough for regular use.
4) Its “full auto” mode impressively switches among shot modes by detecting when the camera is submerged in water, detecting faces, macro mode and landscape modes which works well about 80% of the time… we’ll talk about the other 20% of the time below.
5) Self-portrait mode worked like a charm. It worked so well I almost started using it for normal portraits.. I’ll have to test this method of using the camera more before coming to any conclusions about it though.
Now for the negative impressions (oh boy!):
1) The image quality is really not that great. details are almost always blurred (low resolution), even more so out on the edges of the frame, with only a few random shots showing decent sharpness. And there’s also a healthy dose of sharpening in there. (Check out the sample pic below.) If cameras were priced based on image quality alone, this camera would sit in the $100-$200 range.
2) As mentioned at the end of my first post about this camera, the camera CONTINUES to blur pictures. Usually blurring occurs in the shade, more often if you force the flash off, but also in full auto mode. Based on my analysis, the camera seems to believe that an average user can hold the camera steady at a shutter speed of 1/30 of a second.. Basically, to achieve maximum image quality, the camera will set its auto ISO as low as possible so long as a shutter speed of 1/30 sec or faster is preserved.
With this camera, don’t be surprised if most of the pictures you take in the shade (even on the sunniest of days) come out blurred. Image stabilization is working as far as I can tell, but no stabilization system is perfect, no user can consistently hold a P&S camera at 1/30 sec, and no subject is guaranteed to stay perfectly still for 1/30 sec. Very poor design choice. I hope a future firmware update changes this.
3) This camera comes with a fancy “full auto” mode (mentioned earlier), which I thought was very awesome initially… UNfortunately, the system isn’t perfect. The most annoying thing is when you’re trying to take a portrait (bc your subjects do get impatient) and the camera doesn’t find a face so it changes to sport mode (high ISO) or landscape mode (disabling flash during a back-lit picture)… and trust me, it fails to find faces quite often, especially when the faces are too small in the picture.
4) I wish the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture to be used would be displayed after I half press the shutter button. That way I can gauge whether I need to manually adjust any of the settings.
In summary, image quality is sub-par but, to be honest, many other compacts exhibit the same level of quality. I suppose one simply has to remind himself that the high cost of this particular compact is due to the camera’s OTHER abilities such as drop protection, water protection, and crush protection, etc etc. All of which are truly impressive.
It is in actual usage, away from that discerning computer monitor, that this camera disappoints. When capturing portraits of people with this camera, I find myself often having to retake a photo (once I took 3 shots in auto mode which resulted in 3 different mode settings — all wrong — before I gave up and set things manually). Or if I trust the camera and don’t retake any photos, it’s not unusual to find out later that the photo is extremely noisy, motion blurred, or backlit etc and I’d just have to live with it. I’d say maybe around… 20% of the portrait shots have failed in one way or another. Whether that figure is actually accurate or not, trust me, the high percentage of failed shots got a bit frustrating.
[Disclaimer: I did not run controlled tests or comparisons using this camera so make of my "report" what you will.]
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Sample Photo
The pic looks great at a small size, but at 100% you know you’re not getting the $500 quality you’d expect. Note that the following picture was taken at the camera’s native resolution at its optimal settings on a bright and sunny day. You know, maybe I’m too demanding on the quality of this compact, but I was disappointed by the crazy smearing of detail in the foliage..
Hanauma Bay in Hawaii. Scaled down from full rez photo, f5.0, 1/500s, ISO 64, landscape mode. 100% crop area indicated in red.
100% crop... ick
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UPDATE: More Sample Pictures
Check here for more sample pictures: http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/review/2009/03/09/10385.html
I played with the new Olympus E-30 yesterday and found that in live-view mode, it has the same shutter lag that the Panasonic G1 has. So I guess, for now, this lag (negative aspect #3 in my previous post) is simply an unavoidable tradeoff of using the live-view mode.. Kinda sad considering even many compact cameras have significantly less shutter lag than these live-view systems.
[UPDATE: I have posted a usage report for this camera, please check it out here!]
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After thinking a little while about my different options for taking photos underwater (post: “Waterproof Camera Search“), I’ve decided on the newly released Olympus Tough 8000.
My options were the following:
1) Buy a cheap waterproof camera with decent underwater capabilities: Olympus 1050SW submerges up to 3 meters, and the Pentax W60 submerges up to 4 meters. Total price comes in around $200.
2) Buy a cheap digital camera + waterproof housing: basically any cheaper digital camera for around $200 or less + a waterproof housing that also costs around $200. Puts the total price at around $400 with submersion capabilities of around 40 meters.
3) Buy the Olympus Tough 8000: Costs around $500 and can submerge up to 10 meters.
Analysis of options:
1) The problem with this option is that I’m afraid 3-4 meters isn’t enough depth. The last thing I want to be worrying about while snorkeling is my camera. Advantages are the price and the fact that the cameras can be used during rain, skiing, and etc.
2) The problem here is that a cheap digital camera is well… not that great and “behind the times”. Other than for snorkeling, I would never use the camera; without its waterproof housing, the camera is just as fragile as any other digital camera I already have. Not to mention the fact that the $200 waterproof housing will only work with that one camera. Advantage is in submersion capability.
3) The problem with this option is that it’s the most expensive solution, and even so, it’s not the best in terms of submersion depth. But, for an extra $100 over option #2, I have 10 meters of depth to work with (I’m not scuba diving, mind you), no need for clunky waterproof housing, and the camera can withstand quite a beating out of the water as well.
So.. I went with option #3. … Unfortunately, the camera costs a lot of money and my initial impression of it is, well… only mixed: I’m getting a rather high percentage of blurred pictures at the moment. I’ll post up an “impressions” report after I’ve used this camera some more.
