Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/07/05

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Subject: [Leica] Olympus E 410 in Alicante
From: nathan at nathanfoto.com (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Thu Jul 5 03:18:55 2007
References: <165A6E54-67E8-4C64-BE9D-FD05F720BF0A@nathanfoto.com> <1EDBA5D1-A82E-449A-84E0-50DB4274C90C@btinternet.com>

Hi Frank,

It is not as good as the Canon but not as bad as I expected. I tried  
shooting with the 100mm Leica macro yesterday, and had no trouble  
focusing the lens. It has to be said that I have very good eyesight  
(I do wear glasses, but the correction is perfect) and I have always  
been able to cope with less than optimal viewfinders. Of the cameras  
I have used in recent years, I would rank the viewfinders as follows:

1. Leica M3
2. Leicaflex SL
3. Leica M6 (the 0.85 flavour)
4. Canon 1D2 / Leica R8 (tie)
5. Olympus 410 / Canon 20D (tie)
6. Leica CL
7. Leica IIIf

But of course that is just my subjective opinion, not based on any  
kind of measurement, just actual use.

Cheers,
Nathan

On 5-jul-2007, at 8:29, Frank Dernie wrote:

> Hi Nathan,
> how is the viewfinder? I have never tried one but have heard  
> reports that the Olympus 4/3 viewfinders are small and dim. Since  
> the viewfinder is a most important part of a camera for usability  
> for me this has put me off so far. I am not expecting an M or  
> Olympus OM1 quality viewfinder but how does it compare with the Canon?
> TIA
> Frank
>
> On 4 Jul, 2007, at 21:57, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
>
>> I know this is a Leica list...but still, I have to put in a plug  
>> for my newly acquired Olympus E410. I just came back from a couple  
>> of days in Spain. I took the Olympus because I needed to travel  
>> light. I took about 300 pictures and have just finished culling  
>> them down to 153. Having looked at most of them at 100%, I  
>> conclude that this little Olympus is as close as you can get to an  
>> M camera in a DSLR package. Actually, my Domke 803 bag which  
>> contained the E410 with its 14-42mm lens and a 1.4/30mm Sigma  
>> weighed much less than the same bag loaded with an M outift. And  
>> most importantly, the images shot at night at ISO 800 are highly  
>> usable. "Highly usable" in this context means "better than 800  
>> film". Not as good as what I get from my Canon 1D2 at this speed,  
>> but the margin is not big. And I could squeeze it into my carry-on  
>> bag.
>>
>> I am not going to post 153 images so you'll have to wait a few  
>> days until I have selected 30-40 of them to post. But take my word  
>> for it: highly recommended. Sure, I would like an M8. But the  
>> Olympus is 1/6 of the price of an M8, and in some ways it is more  
>> flexible than an M8. I just got my Leica R-Four Thirds adapter, so  
>> my 100mm Apo Macro (which I have decided to keep since none of you  
>> philistines wanted to buy it) can now be used both on the Canon  
>> and on the Oly.
>>
>> Nathan
>>
>> Nathan Wajsman
>> nathan@nathanfoto.com
>> General photography:
>> http://www.nathanfoto.com
>> http://www.greatpix.eu
>> http://www.frozenlight.eu
>> Picture-A-Week: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
>> Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>

Nathan Wajsman
nathan@nathanfoto.com
General photography:
http://www.nathanfoto.com
http://www.greatpix.eu
http://www.frozenlight.eu
Picture-A-Week: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog



Replies: Reply from dlr at dlridings.se (Daniel Ridings) ([Leica] Olympus E 410 in Alicante)
Reply from Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com (Frank Dernie) ([Leica] Olympus E 410 in Alicante)
In reply to: Message from nathan at nathanfoto.com (Nathan Wajsman) ([Leica] Olympus E 410 in Alicante)
Message from Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com (Frank Dernie) ([Leica] Olympus E 410 in Alicante)