[Leica] Re: Olympus viewfinders

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Jul 5, 2007, at 10:36 AM, Frank 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?
>>
>> you cannot compare a consumer-level camera's viewfinder with the
>> one in a high-end camera, because it's one of the most expensive
>> camera part if you want it bright and clear (aka OM1) made out of
>> high quality glass instead a cheaper set of mirrors.

Curiously, I have the the OM-1, the Olympus Pen F, and an Olympus  
E-500. The question about viewfinders prompted my to put them side by  
side and compare viewfinder visibility, brightness and focusing ease.  
Without a doubt the winner is the OM-1. The view is bright, big, and  
easy to focus. It suffers a bit from short eye relief but I guess  
that's a tradeoff for high magnification. The Olympus Pen F is pretty  
good. A bit dimmer but it focuses well. Bringing up the rear is the  
E-500. It is adequately bright but relatively hard to focus. I guess  
it was intended primarily as an aiming aid because of the autofocus  
provisions built into the camera. Clouding the issue a bit is that  
the two mechanical cameras focused at the f2.0 opening of their prime  
lenses while the E-500 used the f3.5 opening of the zoom lens.

I have the Olympus to 4/3 adapter. When I mount a film Olympus lens  
on the E-500, I get a bright but hard to focus finder image. I have  
been successful in taking pictures with this combination but usually  
at infinity or if the lens is set to the hyperfocal distance. It is  
also a pain to have to manually stop down to taking aperture to make  
the exposure. The image quality of the old and new combination is  
quite good. I know the E-500 is not the E-410. The latter has the  
advantage that it is possible to focus using the LCD screen. This may  
make all the difference. I wouldn't know.

Now if Olympus would only make a DSLR the size and shape of the  
Olympus Pen F, it might be the best of both worlds.

Larry Z