Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/05/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I think you are saying, Mark, that the way a camera handles is very important. I believe that, too, even if we need to sacrifice a bit in just how big of an enlargement will hold up. Of all the cameras discussed on this thread, I have experienced the FourThirds Oly E-330 as the best compromise - small, a live-view electronic LCD finder plus an optical finder with the M -like quality of being on the left corner of the body instead of in the middle under the prism hump. The E-330 handles very much like an M, and the Zuiko optics in their pro-line are superb. After four years, I am EXTREMELY disappointed that Olympus has abandoned the E-330 design. I had hoped that they would continue its revolutionary features with better and larger megapixels. I am equally disappointed that Leica seems to have designed the M as a luxury item with a retro charm that takes advantage of about 10 percent of the digital camera revolution. In fact, I believe that the FourThirds instant-live-view feature of the E-330 is exactly what the M should have evolved to. With my 25mm f1.4 Leica Summilux attached to the E-330 ( http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Gary+Todoroff/Leica25mm/ ), I am experiencing an increase in photographic creativity which is as much or more as when I switched from an SLR to my Leica M2's many years ago. When I tried to show this approach to a Leica rep, showing him how beautifully the Olympus met the *intent* of Leica photography, the instant and condescending response was, "Zat is not en M!" For me, I want photographs that look like they were taken with the very best that a Leica approach can give and could care less if the camera still looks like an M. Except of course, for the aforementioned small and quiet approach that both the M and the E-330 share. So unless I need a 20x30 enlargement, for me the FourThirds E-330 has taken the M concept into the 21st century. However, for what I have discovered in the photographic capability of the E-330, neither Olympus nor Leica seems to want to take cameras in that revolutionary direction. Gary Todoroff Tree LUGger >Gary its not just a pure format deal its a format / size of camera body >equation. >The S2 is smaller than an EOS. Or D3. >But with a much better sensor making for much bigger quality. >What Barnack said at day one was: >Small negatives big pictures. > >The Leica x1 and the Sony NEX's are using a 15x23 mm format size. >The 1.5 crop circle factor. >Competing against cameras often bigger in size but with a 2x crop circle >factor. 13.5 mm x 18 mm >So you get a pocket size camera but but with big camrea results. >The basic Leica concept. > >Barnack very conscientiously went for double frame with lots of cameras out >there at that day one time using movie film for stills using single frame. > >[Rabs] >Mark William Rabiner > > > > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information