Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/12/14

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Point and Shoot
From: Herbert & Lee Kanner <kanner@acm.org>
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 13:47:13 -0800

Can't remember if I posted this before :-(   When I was trying to 
decide between standardizing on Agfa Optima ISO 400 or Fujia Superia 
ISO 400, I loaded up my Yashica T4 Super (aka T5) with one film, the 
M6 with 35 mm (Canadian) Summicron with the other film, and shot the 
same picture a number of times with each camera.  At approximately 
12X enlargement, I could see that the Leica image was sharper.  What 
really surprised me was that when I looked at the print with a 30X 
microscope, I could see chromatic aberration in one of the T4 
pictures, but not in the Leica one.

Anyway, that's not why I'm writing this.  I'm writing to mention an 
advantage of the Olympus Stylus Epic.  I bought one at a ridiculously 
low price when it was on sale at Keeble & Shuchat.  The reason was 
that I wanted to have a camera that would always be with me.  The T4 
didn't fill that bill. With a Swiss army knife and cell phone on my 
belt on one side, and a Palm handheld in its case on the other side, 
adding a camera in a belt case would just be carrying geekiness to an 
unacceptable extreme.  The advantage of the Stylus is that, sans 
case, it is small enough to slip into a trouser pocket, and when the 
cover is closed, all scratchable windows are securely covered.

The camera has some annoying features in that it tries to think for 
the user.  So, it has this multi-beam focusing that is supposed to 
keep you from getting a sharp picture of the far background when 
photographing two people who are standing a bit apart.  I guess that 
it focuses on the closest object in view.  Then, in bright sunlight, 
if there is a dark shadow in the field, the flash goes off; I think 
the camera is assuming that this is a back lit situation and thinks 
it is using fill flash. Most of this nonsense can be overridden by 
putting the camera in spot focus mode, but it is a fiddly thing to do 
and cancels out when the cover is closed.

Anyway, it has served well as a carry-everywhere.  The lens if f/2.8 
and seems not to be worse than the lens on the T4.  It focuses as 
close: 13 inches.

Herb
- -- 
Herbert Kanner
kanner@acm.org
650-326-8204
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