It's amazing how defensive some people are.
Right. DSLR preachers coming in here feeling this inexplicable need to tear down M43 by hook or by crook would be amusing if it wasn't quite irritating and polluting the forum with misinformation and childish whining.
Oh, was that not what you meant? Because I don't see 'defensive' M43 people here, just some folks who are tired of DSLR fanboy trolling.
The new, smaller, interchangeable lens cameras are very interesting, and I'm sure many dSLR owners will be looking at them as carry everywhere cameras or full time replacements. I haven't seen anyone really knock them, hard to say where you are coming from.
Well, that'd be because you haven't seen them 'knock them' - but they have been. There's a few in this very thread. Including you, later in this very same comment:
But still crowing over the image quality, as if it were the sole judge of a camera's capabilities, is somewhat silly.
When a camera is compact enough to be just about pocketable with a prime lens and comes in at the same or less than most DSLR models pricewise, then yeah, IQ is one of the primary traits to focus on. Nobody here who owns an M43 is saying it's the "SOLE JUDGE" of any camera's capabilities. Another strawman (lots of those in this thread, lemme tell ya).
Now, 6 years later, we are in the same boat. AF is still slow, FPS is still slow, start up is still slow.
Not sure what camera you're talking about, but E-PL1 AF is no longer slow and it shoots 3 FPS. Maybe not as fast as some DSLRs but certainly ballpark. The much-vaunted (here, by DSLR fanboys) T2i/550D does 3.7 FPS. Not exactly a world of difference.
Startup time is not something I really find a big issue since I have to unlock and de-cap my kit lens anyway, but at about 1.5sec I think it's fine (I think this may have been addressed with the latest FW, because some reviews cite 2.2sec which I can clearly beat).
For the life of me, I can't figure out why they can make a dSLR start up in a fraction of a second, but any non-dSLR style camera seems dog slow.
I don't think it's 'dog slow' to begin with.
Why don't they take what is basically a nice camera, and put some real HP inside it, how much extra could that cost? I mean, you're talking about $600 for a body, and it doesn't need a penta prism or mirror system.
You're aware of the fact that these cameras are much smaller than DSLR, right? And lighter? Tech getting smaller and lighter does take a toll, even counting mirror.
"The start-up time from turning the E-PL1 on to being ready to take a photo is pretty impressive at around 1.5 seconds (dSLR = 0.1 seconds.) Unfortunately the Contrast Auto-Focusing system isn't going to win any speed awards, taking approximately 0.5 second to lock onto the subject (dSLR = 0.0 to 0.2 seconds).
Speed awards being for DSLR models. It's not a DSLR. Again, size, weight, lens size, IBIS, class of camera - all different.
"This in itself isn't terrible but there are further problems if you combine continuous AF with continuous shooting - you either get lots of mis-focused images or, if you set the camera to wait until it's in focus, you don't get many images at all."
I've played with a couple of DSLRs and depending on lighting, matrix, AE and so forth you can get mis-focused AF 'lock' on those, too (albeit more quickly, getting more shots and more potential keepers, I'll admit).
"It takes about 2 seconds to store a JPEG image, allowing you to keep shooting as they are being recorded onto the memory card - there is a brief LCD blackout between each image (dSLR = no black out, 0.2 seconds to save an image). Storing a single RAW image takes around 4 seconds (dSLR the same 0.2 seconds.) "
DSLRs with Live View do have blackout. I don't find the file save times to be grossly out of bounds, and since it doesn't keep me from taking shots, who cares?
"Overall the E-PL1 is below par in terms of operational speed compared to a DSLR, especially hampered by its auto-focusing speed, but faster than most compacts."
You know how this would matter? If the E-PL1 was a DSLR with the same dimensions, weight, price, etc. as a 550D or similar. It doesn't.
Do you take this argument to the compact P&S forums, too? Why not? Same apples to oranges. Just because this particular orange tree is a bit closer to the apple orchard still doesn't make it an apple.
