New Camera
As most of you know, I am an equipment snob. Unfortunately, my funds do not run to the stuff I like. I usually resort to old old good stuff, but this time I bought new. It was not easy coming up with the funds, but I managed to scrape together a few hundred bucks. My choices seemed to be a very used pro DSLR, or this:
Olympus e420 with kit lens
Since I am trying to get that hobby business going (Currently hung up do to weather and my back), I decided I wanting something with a warranty that I could buy locally. The Olympus was cheap ($400) it uses Compact Flash Cards (Important to me), and I thought it would use my Olympus FL-40 flash (It will not. Olympus says it will damage the camera), and it would operate similarly to my C-5050z (Partially correct). Another factor was the availability of adapters to us my Pentax lenses on it; especially the 50mm as that would be equal to a 100mm portrait lens in 35mm (The 4/3 lenses are 1/2 the focal length of 35mm lenses).
So is this going to be a digital replacement for my MX’en? Well it is actually slightly smaller.
Olympus e420 wit 14~42 Kit lens on left, Pentax MX with M100/2.8 on right
How do you like my dramatic photo? All photos with the e420 in them were taken with the C-5050z.
The C-5050z remains my carry around camera and will be backup to the e420. Since I showed the e420 and the camera ir replaces, I will show the C-5050Z and the camera it replaced.
C-5050 on left, Canonet GIII EE1.7 on right
In fact the C-5050z feels a lot more upscale in the hands than the e420, but it does not react as quickly as the e420. Right now I am far more comfortable with the C-5050z, but then I have had it for five years, and have only had the e420 for three days.
The e420 is Olympus’s bottom line DSLR, it does not even have image stabilization like the e520, but it is also the smallest and lightest DSLR on the market. I believe it has been replaced by the e450 which by all reports only has a couple of “software features” added, and is not really available yet anyway It has a 10mp 4:3 image. The kit lens is supposed to be the best of the kit lens on any of the entry level DSLR’s. Since I will be using it mostly on the tripod, the lack of IS is not a hardship
I really do not love auto features. I took a photo out of the window this morning and the camera gave me a perfectly focused image… Of the screen. It selects focus points that I do not want it to focus on. So far the exposures have all been withing the raw of adjustment in Adobe Camera Raw.
I have not used it outside much, this photo from yesterday morning shows why.
Snow Day
Yep, taken with the e420; I did compensate for the snow, but then could not see the mountains in the background, so used the uncompensated photo. We have been having a lot of this kind of weather here in Boone this winter. I pulled my back shoveling the stuff a couple weeks ago, and it has not settled down yet.