Louis_Dobson
Forum Pro
OK, I've had the E330 for a day, here's what I think:
Getting the shot, minus Live View:
This is an E500 in a weird body, minus one button (focus point selection), and with an even dimmer finder.. That means it has excellent handling - you can use menus if you must, there is an excellent back screen setting system, and finally you can make changes with the camera to your eye by touching a button and spinning the wheel. Touching the shutter button confirms (as does the OK button). The last of these has, inexplicably, been removed from the E400. Of course it takes E series lenses, the mid reange of which are the best sanely priced lenses available, and form a comprehensive range.
That's it for the good new - otherwise the camera lags slightly behind the competition in all performance areas. It has very accurate focus, but is slightly slow and gives up a bit earlier than most as the light falls. Low light is a bug bear anyway because it has slightly more noise (in RAW - in JPG it apparently has a brutal and not terribly effective compulsory NR engine, but I didn't test that). 3 or 4 RAW shots fill the buffer (Although card writing is quick - I shoot bracketed RAW and only the slightest pause between sets with a fast card is enough). The viewfinder is, as mentioned, dim, though a reasonable size (an upside is you can read the display quite well in sunlight). There's no IS of any shape or form (except possibly the expensive and poorly matched Leica zoom).
Without LV, it would be hard to recommend this camera, not because it is bad or will ruin your shots, but because the competition all have one or more slight edges.
Shotting WITH LiveVIew, now, that's the raison d'etre. Anyone who can't use LV to get some clever shots is either an umiginative fool or has some very specialist requirements. It isn't a flawed implementation, as some people have unwisely said, with the latest firmware upgrade that lets you focus and expose in mode B, it is quite brilliant. So far, on just two trips, it has saved my bacon three time (see samples).
On Friday night, shooting in Tavira, I came across an unsightly little church with mostly closed doors, with a glowing interior contrasting. There was a cleaner there, looking hostile (probably the door should have been shut). I grabbed a shot with LV - as soon as I raised the camera to use the OVF (which is of course better), she slammed the door. No LV, no shot.
Walking to the car, I noticed a pleasing gold reflection under a bridge arch. I shot it, but there was too much railing. Holding the camera over the water, the result was skewed. Only after I'd walked on did I remember I had an LV camera. Dashed back, hit mode B, switched on the grid lines, held the camera out over the water, bosh. Sadly the light had gone, so I kicked myself. LV works, but you have to remember you have it!
Got up at six to go to Praia Da Rocha for the dawn light. Early morning and I are strangers, so it wasn't until I was halfway to my destination I remembered I was wearing the wrong trousers (dressing in the dark, I had put on the suit trousers from the night before) and taken the wrong car (the all leather bourgemobile, from which sand and seawater are banned, also no boots, filters or tripod). So how do you do clever, low level beach shots without splashing through water and lying on the sand? Why - LiveView, that's how. If Beau Brummel had had this camera, he'd have been remembered as the first landscaper, as opposed to being the over-dressed fop who said of the Prince Of Wales "And who is your fat friend?"
Part two follows:
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acam
http://www.pbase.com/acam/
Getting the shot, minus Live View:
This is an E500 in a weird body, minus one button (focus point selection), and with an even dimmer finder.. That means it has excellent handling - you can use menus if you must, there is an excellent back screen setting system, and finally you can make changes with the camera to your eye by touching a button and spinning the wheel. Touching the shutter button confirms (as does the OK button). The last of these has, inexplicably, been removed from the E400. Of course it takes E series lenses, the mid reange of which are the best sanely priced lenses available, and form a comprehensive range.
That's it for the good new - otherwise the camera lags slightly behind the competition in all performance areas. It has very accurate focus, but is slightly slow and gives up a bit earlier than most as the light falls. Low light is a bug bear anyway because it has slightly more noise (in RAW - in JPG it apparently has a brutal and not terribly effective compulsory NR engine, but I didn't test that). 3 or 4 RAW shots fill the buffer (Although card writing is quick - I shoot bracketed RAW and only the slightest pause between sets with a fast card is enough). The viewfinder is, as mentioned, dim, though a reasonable size (an upside is you can read the display quite well in sunlight). There's no IS of any shape or form (except possibly the expensive and poorly matched Leica zoom).
Without LV, it would be hard to recommend this camera, not because it is bad or will ruin your shots, but because the competition all have one or more slight edges.
Shotting WITH LiveVIew, now, that's the raison d'etre. Anyone who can't use LV to get some clever shots is either an umiginative fool or has some very specialist requirements. It isn't a flawed implementation, as some people have unwisely said, with the latest firmware upgrade that lets you focus and expose in mode B, it is quite brilliant. So far, on just two trips, it has saved my bacon three time (see samples).
On Friday night, shooting in Tavira, I came across an unsightly little church with mostly closed doors, with a glowing interior contrasting. There was a cleaner there, looking hostile (probably the door should have been shut). I grabbed a shot with LV - as soon as I raised the camera to use the OVF (which is of course better), she slammed the door. No LV, no shot.
Walking to the car, I noticed a pleasing gold reflection under a bridge arch. I shot it, but there was too much railing. Holding the camera over the water, the result was skewed. Only after I'd walked on did I remember I had an LV camera. Dashed back, hit mode B, switched on the grid lines, held the camera out over the water, bosh. Sadly the light had gone, so I kicked myself. LV works, but you have to remember you have it!
Got up at six to go to Praia Da Rocha for the dawn light. Early morning and I are strangers, so it wasn't until I was halfway to my destination I remembered I was wearing the wrong trousers (dressing in the dark, I had put on the suit trousers from the night before) and taken the wrong car (the all leather bourgemobile, from which sand and seawater are banned, also no boots, filters or tripod). So how do you do clever, low level beach shots without splashing through water and lying on the sand? Why - LiveView, that's how. If Beau Brummel had had this camera, he'd have been remembered as the first landscaper, as opposed to being the over-dressed fop who said of the Prince Of Wales "And who is your fat friend?"
Part two follows:
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acam
http://www.pbase.com/acam/
