Rangefinder on the way....

[Stevejac]

I have and love my Fuji X Pro-1. It's not a real rangefinder, but it's got the advantage of the rangefinder that you can see all of the area around what you'll get in your picture. So you can plan ahead as your subjects move. And if you want, it's got an evf at the press of a lever. It's a really elegant solution.

I'm considering selling my fuji setup, because I needed to go on a bucket list vacation (Peru) and I need a water resistant camera. My OM-D was almost a impulse purchase! I love it too!

 

[Guy Parsons]

OM User wrote:

As someone who requires reading glasses I find the use of a dioptre corrected evf (or ovf) essentail in a camera. Even at arms length I find it difficult to check the LCD to see if a picture is in perfect focus or to change menu settings. When I am out and about (think tourist) I don't want to keep having to put my glasses on to take a picture. I'm probbaly not the only one who thinks the same.

That's why proper glasses are essential for not only camera use but for everyday living.The pain of continually swapping glasses on & off never works.

I've always needed glasses since about age 10 (short sighted plus large astigmatism) so was an easy transition to different types as my eyes changed. Mono focal then bi-focal and now tri-focal lenses. Top zone of the tri-focal for distance, mid zone for say computer monitor at arm's length usually, and bottom zone deliberately requested for about 8 to 12 inches for close fine work and LCDs of course.

My wife at first only needed reading glasses and found the half frame type worked for her. No glass to peer through for distance and the half frame prescription for close stuff like reading and LCD viewing - no need for this arm's length nonsense.

Which leads me to LCDs and viewfinders - after a lifetime of viewfinders on film SLRs (1960 to 2002) I then started on digital and learned to cope with the LCD. Now to me it's totally un-natural to use a viewfinder or even to see someone with their face stuck against a camera. Use of the LCD frees photography up so much to be able to use different viewpoints so much more easily. With the up/down LCD of my E-PL5 it's an easy transition from face level shooting to waist level or to as high as I can reach for over crowd shots.

I do have the VF-2 viewfinder, but after an initial burst of enthusiasm I reverted to the more natural stance of using the LCD and the VF-2 only got used before for ground level shooting angled up. Now the E-PL5 does that trick, so the VF-2 gathers cobwebs.

Occasionally with white-out sky and bright ground glare reflections, the LCD become near impossible to see, easy fixed last holiday as I threw my jacket over my head and camera and then was perfectly clear. So much so I think I'll request my wife to make a lightweight dark cape or cloth specifically made for that purpose. OK that's back 150 years in photography, but the LCD was absolutely perfect then. The pioneer photographers definitely knew the right way to use a camera, except it was better resolution and upside down then and needed no batteries.

So for this little bunny, EVFs are not something I'm looking for.

Regards..... Guy

 

[Sean Nelson]

Guy Parsons wrote:
So much so I think I'll request my wife to make a lightweight dark cape or cloth specifically made for that purpose.

I've gotten into the habit of hanging on to the cloth of broken black umbrellas destined for the dumpster for this very reason.

 

[wayfarers]

Google or eBay search "LCD Screen Hood Shade", solved my problem for $15! (unable to insert eBay link here, must be dpreview restriction, but you get many, many matches on eBay and from Google)

Guy Parsons wrote:

...

Occasionally with white-out sky and bright ground glare reflections, the LCD become near impossible to see, easy fixed last holiday as I threw my jacket over my head and camera and then was perfectly clear. So much so I think I'll request my wife to make a lightweight dark cape or cloth specifically made for that purpose. OK that's back 150 years in photography, but the LCD was absolutely perfect then. The pioneer photographers definitely knew the right way to use a camera, except it was better resolution and upside down then and needed no batteries.

So for this little bunny, EVFs are not something I'm looking for.

Regards..... Guy

 

[amalric]

For architecture and in general telezoom shots it is v. handy to have a built in EVF, but for close range, people shooting it's a no no, if you want to shoot stealthily.

As soon as you bring the camera to your eye, people feel targeted.

So in a way the EVF has become an accessory way of shooting, or one for those who cannot give it up.

IBIS also makes it easy to shoot with an LCD, without special precautions, so to me the Pen is almost quintessential. Keep in mind that having a built in EVF would probably mean saying good bye to pocketability, so there is a tradeoff.

At any rate having a RF alternative at m4/3 would stop defections towards Fuji and Sony so it might be a good thing. It takes a lot of waiting though...

Am.

 

[Narcosynthesis]

All I want is the control of the GX1 with the tilting screen of the GF6...

 

[Chez Wimpy]

pegasus1457 wrote:

The corner EVF placement would make such a camera very uncomfortable for these folks...

Why?

 

[Hen3ry]

Sean Nelson wrote:

pegasus1457 wrote:

The problem with a corner EVF is that many people have a favored eye, often due to vision problems in the other eye.

The corner EVF placement would make such a camera very uncomfortable for these folks...

This argument keeps surfacing, but IMHO it's bogus. People manage just fine with centre-mounted EVFs, despite the fact that their noses press against the camera. What is it about a corner-mounted EVF that will make it any less comfortable?

And they’re not even center mounted anyway -- they are off to one side, the left side.

The objectors hven't thought it through -- of if they have, they are just jealous.

If the corner mounted EVF is in the left corner, regardless of which eye you use, it will be an advantage compared with the (more or less) center mounted EVF because it will move more of the right hand side of the camera in the right hand direction so the user's right hand and all the controls under it will be clear of the face.

ALL users will be less likely to poke their right eye when they make on-the-go adjustments.

Right eye users already have an advantage with the left of center EVF because the camera sits more to the right for them so the controls under the right hand are more accessible.

A left hand corner EVF will move left eye users up to about the same level of advantage right eye users currently enjoy with the center-ish EVF, but the right eye users will take a giant step up because they will no longer have to deform their noses to look through the EVF and the right hand controls will be moved quite clear of the face for easy access with the camera to the eye.

Of course, right eye users will suffer in the camera steadiness stakes but the left eye users will (in their one eyed way) play that down.

I began my photographic life as a left eye user but astigmatism forced me to shift to the right eye because of the need for good sight for focusing (I found shooting with glasses on was not an option). Wow, that was not fun and my work suffered for a year or more.

Now, of course, I don’t need the good eye to focus and could shift back to the left eye, but it’s too late. Sigh!

But roll on the EVF in the upper left hand corner!

And why not have it on a hinge? Seriously.

Cheers, geoff

 

[Hen3ry]

amalric wrote:

For architecture and in general telezoom shots it is v. handy to have a built in EVF, but for close range, people shooting it's a no no, if you want to shoot stealthily.

As soon as you bring the camera to your eye, people feel targeted.

Yeah, old Henri found that -- that's why he couldn’t take a decent street picture with his OVF Leica.

Frustrated by the lack of tilting LCD screens, he switched to painting instead.

Dragging the tongue out of the cheek with great difficulty, seriously consider the silver finish cam and lenses. The new black. People see you taking pix and they simply disregard it or react positively in most cases. Try taking the same pix with a black camera and they are more likely to react negatively. My experience, and one reason why I now use silver cams instead of the black cams I used for decades.

Cheers, geoff

 

[Vlad S]

Alumna Gorp wrote:

The problem with built in EVFs is that there fixed and can`t be tilted, the GF range can`t even take them now.

They don't need to be. Minolta Dimage 7 and A series had built-in tilting viewfinders. They can simply pivot in a slot.

Vlad

 

[amalric]

Hen3ry wrote:

amalric wrote:

For architecture and in general telezoom shots it is v. handy to have a built in EVF, but for close range, people shooting it's a no no, if you want to shoot stealthily.

As soon as you bring the camera to your eye, people feel targeted.

Yeah, old Henri found that -- that's why he couldn’t take a decent street picture with his OVF Leica.

Frustrated by the lack of tilting LCD screens, he switched to painting instead.

Dragging the tongue out of the cheek with great difficulty, seriously consider the silver finish cam and lenses. The new black. People see you taking pix and they simply disregard it or react positively in most cases. Try taking the same pix with a black camera and they are more likely to react negatively. My experience, and one reason why I now use silver cams instead of the black cams I used for decades.

LOL. It has been said that at HCB's time people were more trusty, at least they wouldn't end up in social networks. Photography was really a game for the happy few with much less social implications, especially now after the Patriot Act.

Here it is different but there would be no decisive moment if people were aware, and they do not realise when I shoot. Looking as a tourist probably is below the threshold of attention, but others use black T shirts and black cameras. Probably making no visual contact is best, although others are into consensual street portraits. Not me.

m4/3 has been a considerable facilitator, and having the choice I wonder now it the E-M5 or the E-P5 might work better for stealth. One allows the rolleiflex style, the other I would rather use from the hip, with the 14mm, blind, just interiorising the frame and perspective.

Finally I need to use flash for indoor portraits with a slave. Is the kit flash too strong on the E-M5, is the E-P3 style of flash more suitable? Ideally the slave, bounced, should provide most of the light.

Am.

--

Photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amalric

 

[Chez Wimpy]

Hen3ry wrote:

amalric wrote:

For architecture and in general telezoom shots it is v. handy to have a built in EVF, but for close range, people shooting it's a no no, if you want to shoot stealthily.

As soon as you bring the camera to your eye, people feel targeted.

Yeah, old Henri found that -- that's why he couldn’t take a decent street picture with his OVF Leica.

It is why they resorted to zone focusing, and went to great lengths not to stand out. Standing their with your face pressed into the back of the camera working the rangefinder patch into place for precise DOF control is not a great way to catch "the decisive moment." I am sure HCB would have appreciated, and greatly benefited from shooting a variable angle LCD.

 

[captura]

Recent rumors shows that Olympus is going to announced two new cameras: Olympus PEN E-PL6 and Olympus codeword: TRAD2. For TRAD2 please read: “Olympus PEN E-P5″

Loading…

www.cameraegg.org

Olympus PEN E-PL6 has four body colors: Silver, Black, White, Red. And with Body only kit, lens kit, double zoom lenses kit.


Olympus TRAD2 has three body colors: Black, Silver, White. - (Comes with BCL1580) body kit, 14-42mm kit lens, 17mm F1.8 lens kit. Another rumored name is Olympus TRAD1.


• The “Olympus TRAD2″ is “Olympus PEN E-P5″, coming late April.


• Olympus XZ-10 Image Leaked (Update) Digicame posted some Olympus XZ-10 leaked images.


• Olympus PEN E-P5 to be announced soon, no viewfinder, price $1000 Rumors from 43R told us that the new Olympus PEN ...


• Olympus XZ-10 Specs Olympus XZ-10 is to be announced on CP+ Show 2013, ...

 

[Hen3ry]

Chez Wimpy wrote:

Hen3ry wrote:

amalric wrote:

For architecture and in general telezoom shots it is v. handy to have a built in EVF, but for close range, people shooting it's a no no, if you want to shoot stealthily.

As soon as you bring the camera to your eye, people feel targeted.

Yeah, old Henri found that -- that's why he couldn’t take a decent street picture with his OVF Leica.

It is why they resorted to zone focusing, and went to great lengths not to stand out. Standing their with your face pressed into the back of the camera working the rangefinder patch into place for precise DOF control is not a great way to catch "the decisive moment." I am sure HCB would have appreciated, and greatly benefited from shooting a variable angle LCD.

Agree on the rangefinder. And worse -- the Leicas old Henri used had separate rangefinder and viewfinder peepholes.

What he really would have liked, I suspect, is autofocus.

But hey, zone focusing works -- I still use it all the time myself.

If he had wanted the effect of a variable angle LCD -- i.e. being able to look down and steal the pic -- he could have used a Rollei instead of the Leica. But he liked to compose his shot in the 3:2 format.

The trick was to whip the camera up to the eye at the last moment and snap shoot.

And you can do that best with an OVF -- which is a piece of kit every 17mm owner should grab . Olympus offers and excellent one. (I'm just putting mine on eBay having moved myt f2.8 17 on some time ago and preferring the f2.5 14 in fact.)

Cheers, geoff

 

[Hen3ry]

amalric wrote:

Hen3ry wrote:

amalric wrote:

For architecture and in general telezoom shots it is v. handy to have a built in EVF, but for close range, people shooting it's a no no, if you want to shoot stealthily.

As soon as you bring the camera to your eye, people feel targeted.

Yeah, old Henri found that -- that's why he couldn’t take a decent street picture with his OVF Leica.

Frustrated by the lack of tilting LCD screens, he switched to painting instead.

Dragging the tongue out of the cheek with great difficulty, seriously consider the silver finish cam and lenses. The new black. People see you taking pix and they simply disregard it or react positively in most cases. Try taking the same pix with a black camera and they are more likely to react negatively. My experience, and one reason why I now use silver cams instead of the black cams I used for decades.

LOL. It has been said that at HCB's time people were more trusty, at least they wouldn't end up in social networks. Photography was really a game for the happy few with much less social implications, especially now after the Patriot Act.

True.

Here it is different but there would be no decisive moment if people were aware, and they do not realise when I shoot. Looking as a tourist probably is below the threshold of attention, but others use black T shirts and black cameras. Probably making no visual contact is best, although others are into consensual street portraits. Not me.

But in a lot of Cartier-Bresson's pix, it is a collaborative effort between a consenting (not posed, but responding positively) subject and the photographer.

m4/3 has been a considerable facilitator, and having the choice I wonder now it the E-M5 or the E-P5 might work better for stealth. One allows the rolleiflex style, the other I would rather use from the hip, with the 14mm, blind, just interiorising the frame and perspective.

Get yourself the OVF too. Remarkably liberating.

Finally I need to use flash for indoor portraits with a slave. Is the kit flash too strong on the E-M5, is the E-P3 style of flash more suitable? Ideally the slave, bounced, should provide most of the light.

I'll respond to this in a minute. I've only just got a (couple of) FL36R (ain't eBay a wonderful thing?) and except for making them flash to see that they actually worked, I hadn't run any trials. But with my first few tests now, I seem to be stuck on 2nd shutter -- so the extra flashes go off about 4-5 seconds after I press the button!

Say what?

I’ll have to read the manual. :\

Cheers, geoff

--
Geoffrey Heard

Return to Karai Komana

By Geoffrey Heard “My brother’s Dava -- that’s our name for marriage settlement -- is happening in the village on October 29. Like to come?”...

pngtimetraveller.blogspot.com

 

[Hen3ry]

Amalric

Okay, here is how it goes. Somehow (and I don’t know how) I have got the thing out of second curtain mode. You probably think that's simple and obvious -- I tried simple and obvious but I tried the simple and obvious and it didn’t work.

Then after I had been messing around, somehow it worked properly. Sigh!

You set the camera (controlling the flash in the hot shoe) and the second flash to RC mode. Then in the camera, you go into the super control panel (once you have the cam in RC mode that appears when you press the info button, according to the manual, or the okay button, in practice for me, and the super control panel comes up. You can then set the intensity of the individual flashes. The one that is doing the triggering can be set to OFF (so it just does the tiny trigger thing), M (you set the strength of the flash manually), or TTL (so you get auto TTL exposure). In addition, you can set it to under/over exposure.

So looks as though this might be the answer to your prayers (or other entreaties).

Thank you for spurring me on to actually run the tests and see how it works!

Oh -- in the super control panel, the silly little accessory flash is called the built-in flash. LOL.

Cheers, geoff

--
Geoffrey Heard
http://pngtimetraveller.blogspot.com/2011/10/return-to-karai-komana_31.html

 

[Hen3ry]

drpoop wrote:

There are many in the mFT community that have been waiting with baited breath

"baited" breath? They should rinse with some sort of mouthwash, or if the problem doesn't disappear, see a doctor. They could have some sort of serious digestive problem. LOL.

Now if we say 'bated breath then we are looking at an entirely different scenario -- they are holding their breath in anticipation.

Mind you, if they have baited breath I would be really grateful if they would do the 'bated breath bit when around me!

Cheers, geoff

 

[originalhype]

lol @ people defending m43.

sigh, seriously I do not understand why it is so hard to NOT make a m43 that has a rangefinder design.

1. it will not be bulky if there is an evf with tilt screen AS SHOWN BY NEX 6 AND NEX 7.

2. left evf will be a problem for left eye dominants. in from the 60s to 80s, we never had problems with those and those cameras had the VF on left side. so why should it be a problem now?

3. no humps will be needed if there is an evf, again look at nex 7. as for OMD, it was poor design, it would be just a bit wider, it to would be possible.

4. m43 sensor IS SMALLER THAN APSC which NEX 7 has and nex 7 has a bigger sensor and still manage to have a tilt screen and BUILT IN EVF, what is panasonic and Olympus excuses?

in before fanboys defends their m43 gear and telling me its impossible to make a rangefinder bodies with m43.

 

[Hen3ry]

originalhype wrote:

lol @ people defending m43.

sigh, seriously I do not understand why it is so hard to NOT make a m43 that has a rangefinder design.

1. it will not be bulky if there is an evf with tilt screen AS SHOWN BY NEX 6 AND NEX 7.

2. left evf will be a problem for left eye dominants. in from the 60s to 80s, we never had problems with those and those cameras had the VF on left side. so why should it be a problem now?

3. no humps will be needed if there is an evf, again look at nex 7. as for OMD, it was poor design, it would be just a bit wider, it to would be possible.

4. m43 sensor IS SMALLER THAN APSC which NEX 7 has and nex 7 has a bigger sensor and still manage to have a tilt screen and BUILT IN EVF, what is panasonic and Olympus excuses?

in before fanboys defends their m43 gear and telling me its impossible to make a rangefinder bodies with m43.

Excellent. Correct. Right. Exactly.

Cheers, geoff

 

[Ricardo Maia]

I find the tilting EVF a great thing to have. I can look to the LCD at an angle an still see it, but not with an EVF.

Framing with an EFV not having the camera glued to my face is great, which happens with small cameras with integrated viewfinder.

Only a wireless viewfinder would be better...