I have been prevaricating for probably about the last six months as to my future with my beloved Olympus E-cameras. I have three currently; E-1, E-30 and the E-620. I have five lenses (did have 6, but just sold one) including the lovely, pin sharp 14-54 mk II zoom.
I love my cameras. There is something about the E-1, the colours, the ease of use and the unbelievable ergonomic feel of the camera. Yes, it is only 5 megapixels, but it punches above that. I love the results from it.
My E-30 is my workhorse. Superbly engineered and just a jot to use, it delivers every time (providing I don’t muck the image up).
My E-620 is my ‘grab and shoot’ camera. It feels and looks superb and takes great images.
So why am I thinking of moving marques?
Three reasons:
- I’m looking to upgrade to a pro camera and it doesn’t look like Olympus will be bring a 4/3 camera out that is purely for that format. It will probably be smaller and will concentrate on m4/3 but engineered so that it can use 4/3 lenses. I don’t want that. I want a bespoke 4/3/ camera. Sure, they bought out the E-5 but it is now lagging behind the opposition in specs and output.
- I’m looking for more DR from my camera. All my Olympus cameras struggle to take noise free pictures above 800 ISO without scouring the image viciously with noise-removal software. The Olympus OM-D can do better, but it is m4/3 and I use 4/3. If they had put that sensor into a 4/3 body, I probably wouldn’t be looking to jump ship.
- Deja Vue. Olympus did this to me in the 80’s when instead of adapting their SLR line to autofocus, they closed up the SLR shop completely. No more OM’s and I was left with loads of equipment that didn’t have auto-focus.
So I’m off to Nikon. I don’t want to, I have money invested in Olympus, but I don’t think they care and in reality can’t afford to care about their dwindling DSLR position.Tthey have a great camera in the m4/3 OM-D and will build on that.
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