I really don't think DPR is biased against Oly

Agreed. I've found their reviews very helpful, but only when I 'filter' them as you imply with my own criteria, average in other reviews and user comments from other sites, and so on. However, the very consistent approach taken here is excellent and makes it much easier to compare their various reviews of one camera against another. More so than most other sites.

There do seem to be some inexplicable nits that are picked to death (like startup time), but I've seen some of those things in their reviews of other manufacturers as well (e.g. panny). As someone suggested, I think it may well be that Canon and Nikon are their "standard" against which others are judged based on many years of experience. But that's true for many other sites as well. After all C&N have dominated the market for some time.

I do see them calling out many fine things about the Oly's in their reviews, so I see nothing malicious here, just the subjective nature of all reviews. And, as someone said, the Oly's have gotten some pretty high ratings overall (as have the pannys and others). So I think they do try to be fair.

At any rate, they have the best Oly forum I've found to date, so kudos for that and the reviews which pay the freight.

ljmac said:

I susupect you're referring to the ability to do auto focus in live
view B? If so I don't need it, as I only use live view B as a DoF
preview, which allows me to autofocus anyway (it conveniently
switches to live view A and auto focuses when I half press the
shutter, so it doesn't do the mirror dance when I take the shot). Or
if I want to use live view B for manual focus, then I don't need AF
in any case.

Click to expand...

This sounds like a useful way to preserve the drive button for WB function (vs DOF preview?). Can the camera still be made to operate this way (switching back to LiveView A) if one updates the firmware, I wonder? Also, can it switch back to optical viewfinder instead with half-press of shutter? Controllable by menu items? It would be useful to figure this out before updating the firmware I guess.

Louis_Dobson said:

That's what they understand.

The suggestion there might be another way doesn't occur to them.
Hence the continuous subtext on (say) the E3 test "why is this not a
D300?"

Funny thing is the people doing half the complaining about that are
the people who use an E3 and think "why is this not an E1?"

Actually the E3 is way better than either of those, and I can hardly
be accused of bias, as a Nikon and E1 owner myself, but explaining
why to people who will not see is just too much effort.
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acam

Click to expand...

The biases can be seen in the wording of the text when the tests are released, not in any of the actual graphs or images. Enough people have picked up on it. You don't have to fabricate things to be biased, you simply have to choose words that evoke certain responses in your readership, such that if someone was on fence about two cameras, a certain phrasing on your part pushes them to one side.
--



'I cried because I had no E-3. Then I met a man with no E-510'

Olympus E-410, E-330, Pentax K20D. 40 lenses of various types

dpr's emphasis has been largely on body performance. Started out with P&S's years ago, migrated to dslrs. That's a reason that so many gearheads show up on the forums, the focus on body specs and performance. Easy to understand and somewhat familiar to electronics enthusiasts.

The true beauty of the 4/3 system is the glass. Some of the best made today, certainly all the intermediate and above are as close to flawless and consistent as you will find. Even the kit lenses lead the field in their price range.

As long as Olympus puts most of it's efforts into the lenses, the gearhead sites will continue to low rank it. It remains for the individual to decide how much optical quality balances against electronic performance.

Gidday Trapper

TrapperJohn said:

dpr's emphasis has been largely on body performance. Started out with
P&S's years ago, migrated to dslrs. That's a reason that so many
gearheads show up on the forums, the focus on body specs and
performance. Easy to understand and somewhat familiar to electronics
enthusiasts.

Click to expand...

Yup.

TrapperJohn said:

The true beauty of the 4/3 system is the glass. Some of the best made
today, certainly all the intermediate and above are as close to
flawless and consistent as you will find. Even the kit lenses lead
the field in their price range.

Click to expand...

Yippie.

TrapperJohn said:

As long as Olympus puts most of it's efforts into the lenses, the
gearhead sites will continue to low rank it.

Click to expand...

Yuppie.

TrapperJohn said:

It remains for the
individual to decide how much optical quality balances against
electronic performance.

Click to expand...

I quite agree. This will be different for everyone.

For me, balance is the key. I see the reasoning for the 4/3rds system; the mount size; the lens design paradigm and therefore the parameters.

I used to breed cats. Many in that hobby bred for specific qualities, first and foremost (eye colour, coat colour etc ... ). I bred for strong, healthy cats; THEN for general conformation to the standard for the breed; AND ONLY THEN for improvements in the areas where the cats I bred could have been better. I could (and can) easily see the outcomes from these different strategies at the time. I stopped breeding some 30 years ago. About 9 years ago a Doctor of Genetics told me that the lines that I bred are still highly prized, and sought after. This in a hobby where it is very rare to have more than 8 generations of breeding data available, at about one generation per annum ... There is a moral in this story, I think.

While the Olympus system can produce a result like this from a nearly 40 year old lens, I will continue to value the balance and design; lens and camera quality. Here is a piccy I took of a 540K Mercedes in the atrium of the National Gallery of Victoria a few weeks ago. What looks like chroma noise on the bonnet is actually very fine dust. I reckon the DoF control (i.e. exactly what I wanted to achieve) is good - I had to stop the lens down to achieve the approx. 6 inch sharp DoF; the sharpness and total lack of vignetting, CA and blur is also very pleasing to me. This image is full size (i.e. un-cropped. The RAW is even better ... ). The camera was E-510, lens OM f3.5/28 @ f5.6. Other EXIF data in image:



Regards, john from Melbourne, Australia.
-----

The Camera doth not make the Man (or Woman) ...
Perhaps being kind to cats, dogs & children does ...

http://canopuscomputing.com.au/gallery2/main.php



Bird Control Officers on active service.

BillZM said:

ljmac said:

I susupect you're referring to the ability to do auto focus in live
view B? If so I don't need it, as I only use live view B as a DoF
preview, which allows me to autofocus anyway (it conveniently
switches to live view A and auto focuses when I half press the
shutter, so it doesn't do the mirror dance when I take the shot). Or
if I want to use live view B for manual focus, then I don't need AF
in any case.

Click to expand...

This sounds like a useful way to preserve the drive button for WB
function (vs DOF preview?). Can the camera still be made to operate
this way (switching back to LiveView A) if one updates the firmware,
I wonder? Also, can it switch back to optical viewfinder instead
with half-press of shutter? Controllable by menu items? It would be
useful to figure this out before updating the firmware I guess.

Click to expand...

Actually, I've achieved this by mapping it to the drive button, but as I always shoot RAW, I'm not concerned about WB during shooting. Viewfinder is always available.

I am a little concerned this wondeful functionality will be lost if I upgrade the firmware (and even more afraid of bricking my camera), so I'm just leaving well enough alone.

no text

Nice post - wise words and a good pic to boot! I like that lens, too. Super sharp. And your point about balance is well made.

Gidday Bron

Bron said:

Nice post - wise words and a good pic to boot! I like that lens,
too. Super sharp. And your point about balance is well made.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your kind words. And also those about the piccy.

This has printed at A4 as sharp as they come (Canon iP4000R and Ilford Classic Pearl). Examined under a 5x (?) loupe, it is still as sharp as it is possible to be. I have not dragged out my microscope to look at it (yet ... I have been known to do this - lol)!

What is really staggering about this image is that I uploaded it from the card to my web site. Then downloaded it to my PC (as the card was back in the camera ... ), applied an USM and a bit of exposure adjustment to it, and then re-uploaded it to my web site. Not a guarantee of quality!

You can see the "intermediate" stages here, along with a few others taken with the f2/50 and the 50~200. I am rather partial to "K-9?" (the gold Mo-ped; f2/50) and may do a bit of work on it. I have not printed K-9? yet.

http://canopuscomputing.com.au/gallery2/v/CarsandSuch/

I also like my ZD lenses very much. The OM lenses had me foxed for quite a bit, because I thought "I have owned this lens for 20-30-40 years, why won't it work how it should?". Since I started to think in terms of "I have just got this new lens from the store; how do I use it?" things have improved dramatically - rotfl ;--)).

A mate has lent me his E-1 and 14~54 (nice mate, ... ). So I am having fun playing with this at present. I hope to be able to buy both of these items. The E-1 is very different, but really quite a remarkable camera. I can see how it will be a very nice complement to my E-510. I miss the IS (and a lot of shots - lol), but the OVF, weather sealing, beautiful build quality and the "proper" flash attachment are all great features. The ergonomics are not all that different from the E-510, so have felt very much at home with the camera. My mate does not want to sell his, but someone else I know has a brother with this kit and a Nikon. He likes the Nikon, and doesn't like the E-1, so I may be able to acquire that one.

Regards, john from Melbourne, Australia.
-----

The Camera doth not make the Man (or Woman) ...
Perhaps being kind to cats, dogs & children does ...

http://canopuscomputing.com.au/gallery2/main.php



Bird Control Officers on active service.