That was one of the things that was so clever about Mr. Maitani's Olympus OM design. Moving the shutter speed dial to the lens mount allowed the OM to be much smaller than its competitors and also provided an ergonomic edge. I'd really love to see Olympus go back to that configuration. I hate grabbing for a knob on top of the camera to change the shutter speed. It's much more natural to slip your left hand back from the focusing/zoom/aperture rings to a shutter speed ring.
Will this not perform an excellent mirror lockup procedure to reduce mirror vibration? In other words, when you flip the mirror up, you can still compose your picture (unlike every other SLR) on the LCD. I think that would be pretty cool, and very usable even hand held. Mirror lockup hand held in difficult to say the least with a traditional SLR.
Do you really think so? It doesn't seem like something that's destined to carry a high price to me. Panasonic's line of digis have been very reasonably priced, IMO, and this seems like something in keeping with that ethic. Time will tell. I just wonder how long we're going to have to wait.
Not quite!
That's not really the problem. The aperture control is. With touch-up focus and zooming, your left hand is busy enough as it is. No need to put aperture there when you can get your right thumb into the action.
Leica ergonomics are stuck in the '60s. I'd pick any modern 2-wheel (D)SLR over any Leica.
I've been shooting with 35mm cameras that have an aperture ring for about 35 years and can only recall bumping it accidentally on one or two occasions. It clicks, for one thing, and the other rings don't, so you immediately have a tactile feedback thing going on that tells you it's not something that it isn't. I always liked the shutter speed ring on Olympus OM cameras because of the tactile thing they had, too. Hard clicks from speed to speed, but then when you hit 1/60 and lower the clicks had a "grainy" kind of geared feeling that let you know you were getting into slow shutter speeds. It was like a big warning sign. Something like that could be built into 4/3 cameras pretty easily and it would be a huge benefit to shooters.
Actually, I think they've chosen ergonomics over fashion. Having an aperture ring on the lens and a proper shutter dial at the top was standard for many many years. I like it like that and wish others would follow.
agreed.
I have no idea why anyone would think that these controls are any more "real" or "manual" than others. The aperture and shutter are both electronically controlled and activated just like every other current DLSR.
No, it was the standard because in the days of mechanical linkage it was the most practical implementation. Once mechanical liminations were out of the picture almost everyone abandoned these control positions. (Do you want a lift-and-turn ISO setting control as well? How about a self-timer that's a little lever you push down that slowly clocks back up?)
and more than 20 years ago, they had the same kind of controls in electronic cameras as well. have a look at the older nikon cameras, like the fa. it has electronic shutter (so electronic shutter speed) and even controls the f-stop from the body for program and s-priority modes. i'm willing to bet that had they wanted to use controls like today's standards, they could have.
and once people developed the electronic guts of those early techno-cameras 20 years ago, many cameras did away with manual controls entirely. quite a few lacked any way to control shutter speed, other than exposure compensation dials. manufacturers started to add more and more features tragetted at the amateur consumer. i'd rather have my controls where i want them than a bunch of features i don't need.
those aren't primary control mechanisms. i'll set my iso (and wb) just fine with a button. i think i've used the timer on my camera twice, and both times were for mirror lockup. aperture and shutter speed and focus i use nearly every time i shoot a picture. some controls are simply more important than others.
Now that you mention it, yes I do! In those days, we called it the ASA, and it with the iso setting controlled that way,you NEVER had to navigate thru a menu to remind yourself what the ASA/ISO setting was. A quick glance would tell you. within a fraction of a second, you knew what you wanted to find out and you were free to shoot. No menu,no special mode setting to enter, just galnce and go.
i own a camera that has the shutter speeds in ring-form on the lens. i promise you, there is no place to put a battery in it, either. granted, the shutter is also in the lens...
