E5 - getting the weigth down

[rovingtim]

Cheap bodies and expensive lenses ... a lot of people thought that was the way to go some years ago.

And thus it is.

But I also would like to see a seriously good camera built a little bigger than the E420. I like the size of the E420 but I also want good control over all the features and one needs a little real-estate to put all the buttons and dials.

 

[Louis_Dobson]

You're also, I think, in a very small minority - people who want heavy don't generally want a camera with a shrunken sensor, not least because the E3, even with grip, is still not very big, just not very small either. You'd LOVE my D3, it is huge and heavy, and complete strangers stop on the street to admire your enormous camera (I'm sure you can guess what I say to them)..

I agree, there is something very confidence inspiring about shooting with a huge, heavy, solid camera.

Until it has to be taken anywhere, and then it is just a pain in the bottom.

An E420 is no alternative - I want quick multi-point AF, high frame rates, twin control wheels, articulating screen etc etc.

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acam

 

[Louis_Dobson]

Take off the stupid stuff designed to make it "easy to use" and sell it a small premium, that's fine.

Likewise I'd strongly suggest sending the E3 on a diet without losing any of the features, but that would be a more expensive camera than an E3, not a cheaper one.

Making things smaller costs money, not saves it. Culturally speaking I realise that concept has less of a grip in the US than elsewhere, but even so I think Oly cna pull that off in all markets.

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acam

 

[Louis_Dobson]

so be it, but I'd be disappointed. Oly really need to sell cameras at a premium, being smaller, and a body made of a higher technology material is a good differentiator.

Yes, I agree, they need to find ways to draw less power, fit the circuitry on smaller boards, and reduce the size and weight of the optics: all this without compromising performance.

As for the E3xx series - I always thought they looked weird myself, but I don't care what my camera looks like, so I bought an E330 and I came to love it. The shape is really very convenient, All Cameras Should Be This Shape. However, the 300 series was extremely hard to sell, and the job of a cameras is not in fact to take pictures but to persuade punters to pay for it, so it failed.

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acam

 

[esco]

I'm describing some thing more expensive than the E3, not cheaper.

I have a nasty feeling that Oly plan something between the E3 and
E520 too, and I do hope not: there is no technical space, and if they
make a smaller E3 and sell it as something cheaper then 4/3rds
immediately commits suicide - if they manage to give the impression
that smaller means cheaper they might as well go home now.
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acam

suicide? that's a bit comical, I think that we all know that the money to be made in the entry level market dwarfs that of any other segment. It's the entry level market that oly probably has a better success at since the e-3 isn't enough to outclass the d300 or 40d. Personal preference is another thing. Oly would do just fine without a pro-body, heck I doubt they've ever made a dent in canikon's share of that segment which is partially why they never released an e2 even though they should have because they would have at least had a greater presence in that area by now. I believe they take their leisurely time at the semi-pro segment because they really don't make much from it.

But I do agree with you on having something higher than the e-3. I think the top-pro grade lens category is in a funny spot within the olympus system, who are these lenses made for? Who is buying them? Where's the top pro body for these costly beasts?
--
Oldschool Evolt shooter

 

[searun]

There would be a market for a higher speced camera - $3k US to throw out a number. It would have much of what we had hoped the E3 would be, and I say that as a pretty satisfied E3 shooter.

It (E3) could have been much more, but perhaps Olympus just stopped tilting at windmills, as most of the ticket-buying public would be the installed base. But it seems you need a big winner - at least among the faithful - at the top of the line, to really move the high end glass, and that glass is what keeps us here.

--
Rob Davies
Searun
http://www.pbase.com/searun