E-20 or new dimage 7i

I will be purchasing one of these cameras soon for serious outdoor photography (still life, not action). The minolta 7i hasn't reached this country yet but is alleged to be improved over the original dimage 7. Any considerations here that someone can point me to?

Be sure to check out other threads on this forum for various complaints people are having re the E-10' and E-20's. I had a terrible time getting Olympus to resolve a problem I had with the manual focus. I was without my camera for a total of three months, including one repair and two replacements before I got one on which the manual focus was correct. Now I have learned that Olympus rates the shutter on the E-20 for only 20,000 cycles. They call that durable. I could think of some other ways to describe it. I shot over 6000 pictures in the first six months I had my camera, so I find the 20,000 figure troubling. Except for those issues, I love the pictures I get with my E-20. Reliability and service are BIG issues for me, and I feel that Olympus has faltered on both. Given my experience, I couldn't in good conscience recommend getting the Olympus.

I haven't had any experience with the other brands, so I don't know how they compare.

If you would like more details on the experience I had trying to get my camera fixed you could check out my website http://www.jphilarnold.com \e10vfmf\focus.htm and http://www.jphilarnold.com \e10Focus\tests.htm

Good Luck,

Phil A.

The 7i clearly has the advantage in its wonderful focal length of 28 to 200mm.

The E-10 has an optical through the lens viewfinder and a set of available teleconverters that give it a potential range of 28 to 600mm and are designed for the camera. I don't own any accessory teleconverters. however, I'm not sure I would sacrifice my E-10's SLR viewfinder as it is such an aid to composition. If you don't mind the EVF on the 7i and would not be buying the added converters then the 7i might be the better choice.

There is also for me a certain psychological advantage to the E-10/20 - it just feels so professional.

Frank B

George Drum said:

I will be purchasing one of these cameras soon for serious outdoor
photography (still life, not action). The minolta 7i hasn't
reached this country yet but is alleged to be improved over the
original dimage 7. Any considerations here that someone can point
me to?

Click to expand...

I should have mentioned that the teleconverters are like prime lenses (except maybe the 28mm) and don't zoom.
Frank B wrote:
Frank B

Frank B said:

The 7i clearly has the advantage in its wonderful focal length of
28 to 200mm.

The E-10 has an optical through the lens viewfinder and a set of
available teleconverters that give it a potential range of 28 to
600mm and are designed for the camera. I don't own any accessory
teleconverters. however, I'm not sure I would sacrifice my E-10's
SLR viewfinder as it is such an aid to composition. If you don't
mind the EVF on the 7i and would not be buying the added converters
then the 7i might be the better choice.

There is also for me a certain psychological advantage to the
E-10/20 - it just feels so professional.

Frank B

George Drum said:

I will be purchasing one of these cameras soon for serious outdoor
photography (still life, not action). The minolta 7i hasn't
reached this country yet but is alleged to be improved over the
original dimage 7. Any considerations here that someone can point
me to?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

George Drum said:

I will be purchasing one of these cameras soon for serious outdoor
photography (still life, not action). The minolta 7i hasn't
reached this country yet but is alleged to be improved over the
original dimage 7. Any considerations here that someone can point
me to?

Click to expand...

What leads one person to a particular camera may not be what leads another. For me it was easy hook up to studio lighting and having that pc port, as well as the accessory support. Then the view finder, I looked at the 7 and decided I couldn't deal with the internal evf vs optical viewer as I'm accustomed to . I may have bought the 7 otherwise, but then the E cameras handle and balance like a pro rig, the 7 feels a bit cheesy.

Maybe they have improved the 7i to be more of a consideration, but they will need to work on it's color profile a bit too, to be the equal out of the box to an E. The E cameras are very neutral in color, to me worth working around a couple of flaws for. With the Minolta you still have flaws and a color profile that needs work as well.

Go through some of the pbase photos and messages at each forum, the photos here are very convincing. At the Minolta forum they seem to be always trying to fix something with their cameras, more than posting photos ( though some of the latest firmaware upgrades have helped that camera out quite a bit). While there are some nice photos there, and even some pro photos there, most are not quite as convincing to my eye at least.

For things not in motion, the E20 will handle ok, it's slow buffer and limited buffer capacity should not present any trouble.

Anyway, I own the e10, looked at the 7, don't know if the 7i would be any better or not, but I'm not trading anyway. When I change systems it will be because something monumental happened, like a real F100 went digital at full film size and they are selling for $1500. Or Foveon totally revolutionized digital. This isn't because I'm cranked up over the e10, but it just makes sense to use up what you got, and a slight improvement isn't enough to get worked up over.

Incidentally, a lot of the guys at the Minolta forum are (or were when I hung out there for a month or so) saying that the latest firmware for the camera really narrows the differences between the up coming 7i and the old 7 quite a bit. You might consider a latest version 7 with upgraded firmware, get it now at a low price before the 7i comes along and start shooting !.

David

Olympus doesn't rate the shutter to last for 20,000 shots only but to last at least 20,000 shots. That's quite big difference!

Personally I think there is no reason to pay attention to this number at all. It has nothing to do with the MTBF (mean time between failure). Actually it hints that MTBF is quite high as no units should break before 20,000.

I don't know about 7i but the EVF of 7 is something I don't like. Also it's plastic feel is quite displeasing.

Phil Arnold said:

Be sure to check out other threads on this forum for various
complaints people are having re the E-10' and E-20's. I had a
terrible time getting Olympus to resolve a problem I had with the
manual focus. I was without my camera for a total of three months,
including one repair and two replacements before I got one on which
the manual focus was correct. Now I have learned that Olympus
rates the shutter on the E-20 for only 20,000 cycles. They call
that durable. I could think of some other ways to describe it. I
shot over 6000 pictures in the first six months I had my camera, so
I find the 20,000 figure troubling. Except for those issues, I
love the pictures I get with my E-20. Reliability and service are
BIG issues for me, and I feel that Olympus has faltered on both.
Given my experience, I couldn't in good conscience recommend
getting the Olympus.

I haven't had any experience with the other brands, so I don't know
how they compare.

If you would like more details on the experience I had trying to
get my camera fixed you could check out my website
http://www.jphilarnold.com \e10vfmf\focus.htm and
http://www.jphilarnold.com \e10Focus\tests.htm

Good Luck,

Phil A.

Click to expand...

I agree. I think the whole shutter issue is a red herring. As it turned out one person who thought her camera might have this problem found out that it did not. There is also a post that says Olympus has stated the 20,000 is not correct and that it is more than that.

Frank B

JuhaK said:

Phil Arnold said:

Be sure to check out other threads on this forum for various
complaints people are having re the E-10' and E-20's. I had a
terrible time getting Olympus to resolve a problem I had with the
manual focus. I was without my camera for a total of three months,
including one repair and two replacements before I got one on which
the manual focus was correct. Now I have learned that Olympus
rates the shutter on the E-20 for only 20,000 cycles. They call
that durable. I could think of some other ways to describe it. I
shot over 6000 pictures in the first six months I had my camera, so
I find the 20,000 figure troubling. Except for those issues, I
love the pictures I get with my E-20. Reliability and service are
BIG issues for me, and I feel that Olympus has faltered on both.
Given my experience, I couldn't in good conscience recommend
getting the Olympus.

I haven't had any experience with the other brands, so I don't know
how they compare.

If you would like more details on the experience I had trying to
get my camera fixed you could check out my website
http://www.jphilarnold.com \e10vfmf\focus.htm and
http://www.jphilarnold.com \e10Focus\tests.htm

Good Luck,

Phil A.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Frank B said:

I agree. I think the whole shutter issue is a red herring. ...

Click to expand...

Frank B said:

There is also a post that says
Olympus has stated the 20,000 is not correct and that it is more
than that.

Click to expand...

Frank,

It may be that we are getting more concerned than we need to be over the 20,000 figure. I wouldn't have even known about it if Oly had fixed my E-10 the way they should have when I sent it in the first time. It took sending my E-10 in three times and finally demanding a refund from Oly to get the MF problem resolved correctly. After that, I suppose I may be a little quick to get concerned.

Can you point me to a link where Oly gives a different figure? I would like to know what their official figure is, if the 20,000 in their FAQ document isn't correct.

Thanks,

Phil A.

Phil,

You probably have seen the post . It is a report of a reply from Olympus that says more than 20,000, but does not provide a number. The link is:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=2600733

Frank B

Phil Arnold said:

Frank B said:

I agree. I think the whole shutter issue is a red herring. ...

Click to expand...

Phil Arnold said:

There is also a post that says
Olympus has stated the 20,000 is not correct and that it is more
than that.

Click to expand...

Frank,

It may be that we are getting more concerned than we need to be
over the 20,000 figure. I wouldn't have even known about it if Oly
had fixed my E-10 the way they should have when I sent it in the
first time. It took sending my E-10 in three times and finally
demanding a refund from Oly to get the MF problem resolved
correctly. After that, I suppose I may be a little quick to get
concerned.

Can you point me to a link where Oly gives a different figure? I
would like to know what their official figure is, if the 20,000 in
their FAQ document isn't correct.

Thanks,

Phil A.

Click to expand...

Frank

Thanks, I found the copy of their reply. Since the reply contridicts Oly's own documentation and doesn't give a corrected figure, it doesn't do much to boost my confidence. If the figure they published in their FAQ was a typo, you would think they could provide us with the correct number. I just hope that my luck is better with the shutter life issue than it was with the manual focus issue. Both seem to call the reliability of Oly and their products into question for me.

Phil A