KG's Photography Blog II (E-1/E-3)

Finally, I decided to purchase a digital SLR camera!
More and more I take photos with my Canon PowerShot S2IS, more and more my desire to use SLR has been increased - mostly due to the poor EVF and high ISO noise of the S2IS.

So, I tried to choose a right camera for me: and made my decision: Olympus E-1...!! (precisely, E-1 + ZD 14-54mm f2.8-3.5)

Don't ask me why I even choose the three years old camera... I asked myself same question many times. The reason is that just I kind of fallen in love with the E-1's body quality and impression of the pictures it generates. (Of course, there are other factors I considered.)

I compared it with other digital SLR, such as Olympus E-500, Nikon D70s, Canon 350D. Also, Canon's 30D and Nikon's D200 (even though these two are kind of expensive, and need to have strong reason to choose them.)

When I first thought about a digital SLR, my choice (or wish) was Canon 5D.
However, it's far expensive and out of my reach as an armature photographer. (I guess I'll get those full-size sensor digital SLR when it become more reasonable price range.)
I also considered new coming bodies: Sony A100, Pentax K100D.
(Well, there are so many choices right now:)

My primary target photo is landscape.
Therefore, I want a good quality lens, with low distortion and high dynamic range. Browsing photos taken with E-1, they are exactly what I like.

Some points I considered to choose my camera:

1. View Finder
I really want a good view finder. In this sense, 30D or D200 are good.
Those entry level cameras are not good enough for my satisfaction. Pentax seems to be nice, though.
E-1 is actually nice, bright, big view finder (almost same as 30D).

2. High ISO
Well, if you want to have good high ISO camera, go get Canon.
Olympus is not really the one for this purpose. E-1 seems to be OK only up to ISO 400. Some say ISO 800 is OK. (note: It turned out to be OK even with ISO 1600 if I use good raw development software with good noise reduction - I'll post about this later.)

3. Dust Reduction
Olympus is the only one that has dust reduction system. Sony's A100 will have one.
I'm kind of obsessive about the dust in images (or glasses), so this is critical feature.

4. Anti-shake mechanism
Speaking of this feature, recently it is a critical turning point... Pentax and Sony are going to release new DSLR with anti-shake feature in the body, thus, most camera maker now have this feature, either with lens or body. That's really cool.
Both Canon and Nikon require buying lens with this feature - and those are a little expensive.

Olympus - none... I know some rumors say that soon Olympus is going to release a new body with this feature. Hope it will be true.

5. Weather Proof
E-1's (and high level lens from Olympus) unique feature is that those are weather proof.
Here Northwest get a lot of rain in winter, and I'm going to take lots of wild landscape photos - so, this would be nice to protect expensive gadgets.

6. Resolution
Right now I don't print very much (or just L size, or at most A4(letter)), so around 6M should be fine. E-1's 5M is kind of low...but, I guess it's fine. (Some says it's even OK for A3)
When it comes to cropping, then high resolution would be really nice.
So, with E-1, it is limited to do that - that means I need to practice good composition skill:)

7. Price
D70s, E-500 and 350D are all entry level - therefore, they are reasonable. But, I don't think those "kit-lens" is good enough for my purpose, so, it will require to purchase other better lens. Then, it will be expensive. D200 and 30D are a little out of my budget.
The "E-1" is huge advantage here: check out amazon.com; E-1 is extremely low price....!