civilized ku # 372 ~ m4/3rds update addendum
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 08:44AM 
8×10 Arca Swiss view camera • click to embiggenIn response to yesterday's m4/3rds update, Mary Dennis asked:
How does it feel in your hands Mark, especially with the bigger 4/3rds lenses? It doesn't look like it has much of a grip. Do the larger lenses with the lens mount converter make it front heavy? I remember at one point you said that perhaps the smaller evolts might be a little hard for your bigger sized hands to hold comfortably so I'm wondering about this camera.
my response: Mary, with the 2 Zuiko 4/3rds lenses that I am most apt to use - the 11-22mm f2.8/3.5 and the 14-54mm f2.8/3.5 (I did not purchase the standard kit zoom lens), the camera feels just fine in my hands. I use my "standard" grip - 1 hand (the left) under/on the lens, the other on the camera, stage right. The grip just feels comfortable and natural.
That said, those lenses tend to diminish the camera's visual presence as an "unobtrusive" DMC - it does appear a bit more "in-your-face" than it does with, say, any of the 3 pancake primes. However, when I'm out and about with the intention of picturing a life in pictures or relationships, the pancake primes are on the camera.
All of that said, I'd like to add an addendum / caveat to yesterday's near adorational raves, re: the EP-1 .....
Key to understanding my proclamation that the EP-1 "is the best all-around picture making machine that I have ever used" is my other statement that "I have used just about every camera format known to picture making humankind".
To wit, my experience with a vast number of camera formats has resulted in a firm conviction that there is no such thing as the perfect camera. Every camera that I have ever used has had its strengths and not-so-strengths. In each camera case, some degree of "adjustment" on my part in picture making technique is/was required. Some "adjustments" are/were a pain in the ass, others are/were rather minor but, suffice it to say, I became adept and very comfortable making those "adjustments".
Like the 8×10 Arca Swiss VC pictured above - making a picture required: 1) focusing with a lupe under a darkcloth on a groundglass with the image upside down and the lens wide open, 2) "dialing" in some schiempflug (front standard) and some perspective correction (back standard), 3) then setting the aperture and shutter speed, 4) then cocking both the shutter and the flash sync, 5) then loading a film holder, removing the darkslide, and then 6) tripping the shutter.
So, as you can imagine, waiting a few fractions of a second for the Ep-1 to lock focus (the primary complaint re: the EP-1) is no big picture making adjustment for me to make for 90% of my picture making endeavors.
However, re: the EP-1, I can understand why some who have become comfortable with a particular set of picture making "adjustments", specific camera wise, might not be so glowing in their appraisal of the EP-1. So be it. However, what isn't right on their part are the labeling of some of the Ep-1's picture making adjustment requirements as "fatal flaws" or "design flaws", etc.
IMO, and for the vast majority of picture makers, just do as little Eddy Mikey was told - "Try it ...." and, mostly likely, "... You'll like it."
FYI, "trying it" is about to get a bit easier on your wallet. And, rumor has it that there is an "pro" Olympus m4/3rds in the works.
Reader Comments (4)
was this with a zuikos?
yes it was - 11-22mm f2.8/3.5
It was "Little Mikey". Get you facts straight.
Thought so. This one and the one on "FYI ~ a m4/3rds update" have a lot less contrast and feel "softer". The pancake lens photographs seem more contrasty and "harder".
Maybe it's the processing or maybe it's the lens?