ron_goodenow

Didn't know about that. Thanks. But want to hear from folks with practical experiences, as well.

I travel with an Olympus E-330 and set of lenses, and own a great Oly 5060, but

want a pocketable camera that has the following:

 

- runs on AA's

- will take rechargeable CRV-3's

- has an optical viewfinder

- 28mm wide, up to maybe 108 tele (wide more important than tele; could probably

make due with 35mm)

- good noise control up through ISO 800

- 6-8 megapix max

- durable construction (ideally some shower proofing)

 

I want AA's or RCRV-3's because I do not want to carry a second charger (and

have slews of good NiMh's and RCRV-3's sitting around. I want good noise

characteristics because I do a lot of railway photography, and may not want the

attention a dslr would grab in stations. I own a 3 megapix Oly D-560Z, which has

served me well, but I want to pass it on to my wife, who needs a new snapshot

camera.

 

I'm in the USA. Thanks for ideas!

In the near future I expect to be spending 10 days on a humanitarian project in

a very wet tropical country. Part of my responsibility will be documenting the

work we are doing. I must travel very light when I go to the country's interior.

 

My current kit consists of Olympus 300 and 330 dslr's (with several zoom and

prime lenses), an Oly 5060 and conversion lenses and a small D-560. I am

thinking that my primary kit will be the 330 and two lenses, probably the 45-54

Oly zoom and a very light but pretty good Sigma 55-200.

 

Current thinking is that I should get a weather resistant camera for backup. My

5060 and D-560 are not, and though I have a nice little umbrella I can attach to

my 300 or 330 (and my Oly lenses are splash-proof)for some protection, I am

willing to spring for a new little camera. Here's what I would prefer:

 

- weatherproofing

- 28mm capability, with zoom up to about 112mm (35mm equiv)

- AA's, with CRV3-R capability (or extremely long-lasting proprietary battery)

- 5-7 megapix ok

- decent flash

 

Any ideas? Any practical experience? Thanks much.

I was amazed the other day. My wife borrowed my old Oly 460 with 1.6mp for a trip and took some nice family pictures. With a tad of post processing (mainly Focus Magic sharpening) we got surprisingly good 4x6s. Not at good as what I can get out of my 8mp cameras but she was really happy.

 

You raise a really interesting question that has plagued many of us. Having a collection of cameras all the way up the megapix chain my strategy now is to shoot at the highest resolution I can and then, when I get home and in the confines of my computer, back the originals onto a disc and then triage to death, reducing file sizes to about 500K except for those photos which perhaps someday I will want to print. The exception to this is when I am on a long trip sans laptop and quick backup and then I triage as I photograph and shoot HQ on some occasions. With high quality optics you can get away with a lot.

 

Recently I went back several years and pulled up photos of an Irish trip taken with my first Olympus digicam, a non-zoom D340R. I shot at SQ or HQ (not SHQ) and with some careful post processing recently made some really nice 8x10s. Have made a slew from my 2mp 2020z.

 

My sense is that the sweet spot in all this is 3-5mp. After that it is

crop room and a tad of gravy for the rest of us. Before that, there is room to work if you have decent software, skill and patience.

Let me be the oddball here. If you want to not worry about dust, have a dslr with a tilting live view lcd that allows for super precise focusing, and to be able to use your PK mount lenses (with a $20 eBay adapter), take a look at the Olympus E330, which is now dropping rapidly in price. It produces excellent results, is built like a tank and comes with great kit lenses.

I find that in very wide angle situtations (eg. 22 mm on my Oly 11-22 lens) you can get very uneven skies; different intensities of blue. At 28mm and up no problems. In any case do some test shooting and be sure to review ASAP. Polarizers are especially good for cutting glare, shooting through windows, and even in some macro situations.

I don't want to be gratuitous but have you taken a good look at your lens. A couple of weeks ago I photographed a party that had lots of kids and as I was reviewing a couple on the lcd noticed they were blurry. Alas, discovered that the lens on one had been visited at some point by a little finger covered with goo. Cleaned the lens and voila, no more blur! Otherwise, I would try some manual focusing. But without seeing a photo it is hard to come to any conclusion.

Just fine. I have several PK lenses and an OM. I use an ME-1 eyecup magnifier and it makes a positive difference (I wear glasses).

I have several old PK manual focus lenses and a 2X extender which, with an easily obtained adaptor, my Olympus E300 loves. The addition of an eyepiece magnifier makes it extremely easy to focus them, even in low light.

 

I can use the lenses in the 'P' or Aperture priority mode (doesn't seem to make any difference) and all metering, except spot, options work. Since the glass on these lenses is so good I get superb results, better I think, than from the Oly kit 45-90 lens. I chose Olympus because I have been using their digital cameras for a long time, and really like the anti-dust system. The E300 is extremely well built.

 

Of course there is the crop factor (on Oly a 135mm PK is now a 270mm lens), but the camera is using the center of the lens, where the glass is best, to good advantage. One nice thing is that some of these lenses let in a lot of light. So my now 270mm at f2.5 (an aperture I would never get with a digital zoom at any price I can afford) means lots of latitude and less requirement to shoot at high ISO.

 

Just let me add that it is fun to use some of these old lenses (I also have an OM system one). For those of us who have been around photography a very long time it brings back memories of having to carefully select lenses.

Let me second the 5060, if you can find one. With a conversion lens you can go nicely below 20mm with excellent results. Except for indoor photography, I get results equal to those from my E300 dslr, and I commonly use it in some commercial construction photography. It runs forever on a BLM1 battery, has a nice tilting lcd, a very accurate exposure system, teriffic optics, and uses a good range of flash units (which supplement its own). I've had a number of Olympus digital cameras and would have to rank this one at the top in terms of overall versatility and quality. Only real advantage of dslr is (expensive) lens selection and speed. A few more megapix which aren't needed.

I have an E-300 with the ME-1 viewfinder. Just back from a trip to Bermuda with the camera, its kit lens, and an old PK Tokina ATX 50-250 zoom (100-500 on the 300). The results with the Tokina and my PK adapter were brilliant. Didn't lose a single shot from bad focusing or loss of infinity. I have other PK lenses as well as an OM one and adapter. Not sure where my adapter was made. Paid about $100 for it. The ME-1 does make a big difference in my opinion. It certainly makes fine tuning the diopter easier. I wear bifocal glasses and shooting with the 300 is a pleasure.

Though I do all domestic US travel with a laptop, I am going to Bermuda on vacation and leaving the darn thing home so I don't spend time working. Nor, would I take it to Europe. Here's what I'm going to try:

 

I ordered a Delkin Bridge on eBay for $25. It permits easy connectivity between any two USB devices. So, I will simply offload my camera (Oly E-300 to my three-year old Archos jukebox MP3 player. I'll have other USB devices with me (mainly about 1.5 gig of flash drive and several CF cards I could use as well). This whole kit and kaaaaboooodle will fit in a very small corner of my carry on. The Delkin runs on AA batteries.

 

In the past I have simply burned to cd, using public libraries, internet cafes or a friend's computer. But for $25 this may save some aggravation and time. I don't want to invest heavily in any device I will not use more than two or three times a year.

 

Will post results when I get back.

I use standard Toshiba, PNY, Lexar and SanDisk branded cards with my Oly E-300 and 5060. I seldom shoot raw and so I seem to have plenty of speed to spare. When I do shoot raw with the 300 it seems fast enough for my purposes. One SanDisk did fail and it was replaced immediately. The others have been fine. I'd rather spend the money on extra cards.

I have an Olympus E-300 and an odd set of manual lenses which I use with adapters (OM and PK mounts). Ok, the viewfinder isn't perfect, but with the new M1 eyecup I get extremely good results. Remember, with many 'prime' lenses you can let a lot more light in than with kit lenses for focusing. On the 300 these manual lenses only require manual focusing and settings in fully auto or aperture priority. The camera does the rest. There are two caveats -- the camera's spot metering mode doesn't work with manual lenses (the center weighted does) and the 4/3rds sensor doubles 35mm focal length. This all said I am doing a higher and higher percentage of my photography with these lenses. They are fun to use and require a bit more concentration, which can make for better photos. Oh, and with the Oly's dust shaker you can be constantly changing lenses and not worry about sensor dirt. As for the 300 itself, I am extremely happy with its build quality and overall performance. There's a lot of anti-Olympus yakking in this group by people who haven't used an Oly, but at the very least you might want to check out the 300 or 500.

Dunno about d50 and prime lenses, but my Oly 300 does a great job with OM and PK ones, using adapters. I get good metering in stop-down mode using both the automatic exposure system and aperture priority. Except for having to manually focus, these lenses are a snap to use.

 

The 300 is extremely well built and the dust system is a great feature. I photograph around construction sites and haven't had a speck. It has a terrific set of white balance settings, allows for dual flash use (I have the FL-20 and FL-36 Olys, but it will easily take standard external ones in auto mode), and is very fast to write on regular CF cards. The only possible down side is a tendency to not like extremely bright lights in the metering area, but that is easy enough to avoid once you have practiced a bit. I do a lot of landscape photogaphy and coming back from recent trips have found that results are so crisp, clean and beautifully saturated that almost no post-processing is needed. Oh, and it is easy to be over concerned about high noise. I generally leave that camera set at ISO200 and often use 800, and now and then at nighttime sporting events 1600. Whatever noise there is can be handled easily by any number of programs.

 

Just an 'unbiased' view. Good luck with your choice. Whatever you do you'll have lots of good shooting days ahead.

Gosh Susan, beautiful images -- and I don't often send my kudos along.

 

Be wary of the new Oly cameras. The 8 meg Stylus is getting poor reviews and I think we've noted some of the problems with the SP series. Why not look around for a 5060, 7070, or 8080? I have the 5060 (as well as E-300) and love it. I think that good color from a really fine lens is as important to the kind of photos you do as high megapix.

 

/ron

And, as time we learn more and can answer questions from practice, not theory. I welcome repeat questions because it causes me to think more about what I am learning.

 

In this case, I have both a 5 and 8 megapix camera (Oly 5060 and E-300) and find very, very little difference in anything. In fact, the noise reduction system on the E-300 sometimes makes things like grass less sharp than on the 5060, something customers have noticed. So, it ain't just megapix. Oh, I get beautiful prints with a little tweaking from my ole 2020z, which has a hell of a lens. At the end of the day there are a lot of factors, including the quality one starts with.

I also shoot all day at 200 with my E-300 and get fine results. In fact, my 5060 does well at 200, surprisingly.

 

For Sandor, the remote that came with my 2020z and a backup I purchased on Amazon for almost nothing work well on my E-300 as 'triggers'. I don't know if the 500 will use them but you might check on that.

Susan:

 

At least one review I've seen really did not like the power management in the SP-300. NiMh atteries drained quickly. Might be far better (as is sometimes the case with Olympus cameras) to use rechargeable CRV3's, so I would be sure to check this out. I personally would not want a camera that did not provide a full day's shooting of at least 100 photos with lcd.

Shortly after I purchased my E-300 I called Oly tech service in Long Island and they sent me an adapter gratis. It works fine. My understanding at the time was they would send them out as long as they were in stock.

 

I also got a Pentax K one for my set of K mount lenses and get great results shooting in automatic, aperture and manual modes -- I set the aperture for the lens, manually focus and the camera does the rest. Only deficiency is that one cannot use spot metering. The manual focusing requires careful diopter adjustments for me, but for all intents and purposes my lenses are as easy to use as they were on my slr system. And, I love the extra couple of stops I get. My OM 1.8 50mm lens is very good as a portrait lens.

I agree very much with the previous statements. I use my Pentax K lenses on an Olympus E-300 (with adapter) and had a lot of focusing problems until I got serious about diopter adjustments, which I need to make frequently for some reason. If you wear glasses be sure to take that into consideration. The results are just great and I find using these lenses an absolute joy -- far more fun than the very good Oly kit lens.

Steve:

 

I believe this is a recurring problem with the 5050. Check out

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MyOlympus/

 

Never, never, never....never, never put a camera (or anything else of value) in checked luggage.

Ruth:

 

A couple of years ago I purchased an Oly D-560 which runs on two AA batteries, which I use for some travel and backup. With regular alkalines it would drop pretty dead after five or six shots. With decent NiMh's it would give the low battery warning after maybe 10-15 shots, sometimes turning itself off a bit later. My solution has been to use rechargeable CRV3's. Now I can get a couple of hundred shots without a hint of a problem. I'm petty sure I would get similar, if not better, results from Lithium Ion AA's, which can be purchased quite inexpensively in Cosco, etc.

 

There is something about some of these Oly cameras that require a very high initial voltage. You haven't mentioned the model, but my guess is that you may have my problem, perhaps in a more extreme case. Incidentally, Olympus has come out with a new series of SP cameras to replace its great lineup of 5060, 7070, 8080 cameras. They run on AA's and reviewers are eating them alive for poor power management. Maybe a corporate disease.... Good luck and let us know what works or doesn't. I'm sure this is a frustrating situtation. I hope your daughter enjoys Costa Rica. It's a beautiful place with very friendly people.

 

/ron

Hi Kris:

 

Dunno if you have a Kiron 2.0 28mm in Pentax K mount, but I do and it works wonders on my Oly E-300 with a PK adaptor (comes out just a bit above 50mm and perfect for low light situations). Fabulous lens. Probably not a lot of them around and in use.

 

/ron

Might be best to take card to a dealer that sells Fuji cameras, and try to format the card in one of them. That should work. As others have suggested, always format in camera. Good luck.