Use an Olympus like a Leica
Below is my Contax. Love the quality of the images, impeccable, superb! But the post processing becomes expensive for me, including the developing and scan. So I just simply go all digital, i.e. I sold the Contax and bought an Olympus C-7070. ( You are looking at the last picture of my Contax, which is from the lens of the new C-7070.)
So how do I made the decision?
I was looking for a digital camera to replace my contax, several things I felt critial for the decision:
1. Response time (startup, shutter lag, focus speed)
2. Control (manual focus/exposure)
3. Image quality
After reading reviews of over a hundred recent digital cameras, I looked down to several cameras:
a) Leica Digilux2 (Panasonic DMC-LC1)
b) Panasonic DMC-FZ5, DMC-FZ20
c) Epson R-D1
d) Canon G5, S50, SD20
e) Olympus C-7070, C-8080
Item (a) seems my ideal choice. It has the awesome Leica tag on it. It has a Vario-Summicron zoom (equivalent to a 28mm-90mm zoom for 35mm film), with manual focus control. Actually all the "photographic" controls (exposure, focus, focal length, metering pattern, etc.) are analog dials. Just what I wanted! And the price is just about right: $1400. But what ultimately turned me off is that it has a shady electronic viewfinder there. I would much more appreciate it if Leica just drill a hole in the place of viewfinder! It seems the owners can still live with the horrid, well, not me. This makes me think twice: Do I really need a Leica? Do I deserve to use a Leica? Here is the review from photo.net.
After getting rid of a), the puzzle gets much more easier. b) is good, but just good, nothing marvelous. And some reviewers complain about the image quality. I don't want to buy a camera and demonstrate to those reviewers, "Hey, you are wrong!". Basically I will just take their words, well, in a statistical sense.
Item c) is ridiculously expensive, let alone you need to buy extral Leica lenses for it. If you already have piles of Leica lenses, or you are filthy rich or your image products can cover your expenses, then you can go for it, but just not me.
Item d) is one considerable option, before I go desperate and find the trueth that after so many years of digital evolution, we still can't find a decent digital rangefinder. I used to have a Canon S40 and very happy with the images. But still it feels clumsy and the sliding cover power switch make it very slow. About the G5, I can't really say nothing. This legendary camera, together with its ancestor G2/G3 and descendance G6, already made their names by producing tons of high quality images. However, they are all not fast enough and just can't be my revolver.
So it comes to the Olympus C-series. I remember some a Magnum photographer is using cheap Digital P&S, and still get the work done! I did a little bit of search and proved that my ever-degenerate memory didn't cheat on me -- I got a name, Alex Majoli from Maganum Photos. His everyday gear is Olympus C5050 and C5060, now adding a C8080. He took those cheapos to Kosovo, to Iraq ... Everybody thought he is a crazy and a joke, but when you see the pictures, you know he is a modern hero! Another online article Use Your C-5050Z/C-5060WZ Like a Leica helped me make my final decision. It gives you step-by-step instruction on how to make the best out of a Olympus camera. That's it, that is all I need. Whether C-8080 or C-7070? They make little difference. C-8080 offers manual focus control, which is nice, but it is bigger than C-7070.
Comments
As the ebay guy, I was very impressed by the quality of your old camera. Great picture and good usage of available light!
Posted by: Francesco | July 21, 2005 10:24 PM
My contax is sold for a good price. The nice pictures from my new Olympus must be a big plus for the selling.
Surprisingly, I got a message from one ebayer:
"Great product photos! I would appreciate a brief description of how you take such detailed photos."
So I replied with some description which I will share with you here:
"So it is all about lighting. I used natural light into the window. The white background is actually my curtain. The key is to get the right amount of reflection at the right spots. It was late afternoon sunlight, not directly into my window, but blocked by another building and bouncing between buildings. I was shooting at about 45 degrees against the outside light. The specular reflection at the edges of the camera gives a sharp and sparkling impression. The white curtain became very good reflector, and you can actually see the reflection in the prism. It looks like the parkling points in eyes. The "Contax" brand names on the leather strap and leather lens pouch are also very important. You need to adjust the angle to get the right effect of shadow and reflection, so that the outlines of the words are clearly presented. It gives a feel of three-dimension letters, popping out. Enjoy."
Posted by: willow | July 18, 2005 11:57 PM
Sure not. I feel flattered. This thead ends up the most popular topic :) I will post more update about the camera from my experience. I simply love it.
Posted by: willow | July 15, 2005 10:39 PM
Hi, I post your article on our BBS, I'm sure a lot of people would benefit from reading this article. You won't mind it right?:)
Have a nice weekend.
Posted by: Bluewoods | July 15, 2005 12:44 PM
From the comparison the only thing I feel sorry for C-7070 is the sensor size. But then it is 7M instead of 8M. The larger the sensor and lens is, the better the resolution. As for zoom, I would prefer none (that is why i like SD20/SD10). Usually, the larger the zoom is, the lower the image quality. Or at least image quality is unevenly distributed over zoom. I prefer fixed focal length lenses, and always like one lens for one camera. And I use C-7070 together with my Canon Digital Rebel, so it better be a compact.
Posted by: willow | July 12, 2005 12:25 AM
A2 is fine, just a little bit thick
see the side-by-side comparision:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=konicaminolta_dimagea2%2Coly_c7070wz%2Coly_c8080wz&show=all
"It's neck and neck between the DiMAGE A2 and Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom for the fastest eight megapixel digital camera (at this point in time). "
one thing you don't like is the EVF
Posted by: fang | July 11, 2005 11:58 PM
About Minolta A2, I would like to put it in another league:
1) Canon PowerShot S2 IS
2) Nikon 5400/5700/8700
3) Fuji FinePix S602Z/S7000Z
4) Minolta A2/A200
You can also put here:
5) Olympus C-8080
6) Panasonic Z20/Z15
Those are the "Prosumer" cameras. They all have decent image quality, enough control. But the problem for most is they are bulky and slow.
Posted by: willow | July 11, 2005 11:09 PM
How amazing you guys are actually reading the post :P
Posted by: willow | July 11, 2005 10:49 PM
how about Minolta A2?
Posted by: fang | July 11, 2005 10:37 PM
tiny flaw in the numbering of your choices: you got 2 b's there... could be confusing, because Canons are not expensive at all. :)
Posted by: nameless | July 11, 2005 12:04 PM
very nice article, should be very helpful to many people.
Hope to see more.
Posted by: bluewoods | July 11, 2005 02:20 AM