My search for the ideal lightweight, compact riding camera has taken me nearly 15 years so far. And I still haven't found it. Along the way I've tried (and rejected) several:
- Ricoh GR1 (the original film version). Too fiddly, controls too easy to knock, lens not nearly as good as the hype.
- Olympus 8080 - too bulky, too menu-driven and just too damn slow. Shame - it had a great lens.
- Nikon F80 - horrible slow flappy mirror and dreadful shutter lag
You'll notice that, Olympus 8080 aside, there's nothing digital in there. That's because there's never been anything compelling enough to make me want to break out the credit card. There's always a compromise somewhere, whether it's noise above base ISO, shutter lag or the lack of a viewfinder.
And now Olympus comes along with something that's got a decent-sized sensor, is ridiculously small and light, has a full range of manual controls and with access to some of the best lenses ever made for digital cameras. Since I've long had a soft spot for Olympus (my first camera was a Trip 35 and I still have my OM1N), it's not hard for me to see the appeal.
And yet... early hands-on reports suggest that the new camera's achilles heel may be sluggish AF. That might be excusable if the manual focus option were reasonable, but the electronic viewfinder isn't exactly over-endowed in the pixel department.
Let's hope Olympus pulls something out of the hat for the production cameras. Panasonic developed an entirely new - and remarkably fast - AF system for its micro Four-Thirds system, but didn't share the technology with Olympus. Shame. With decent AF and / or usable manual focus, I could see one of these with a 7-14mm f/4 and something a bit longer being a permanent companion on rides...
Interesting I had been meaning to email you about something similar for a while and ask your advice.
I had a shortlist of:
Sigma DP-2
Canon G-10
Ricoh GR Digital
Nikon P-8000? Windows only RAW so no.
But dismissed them all for similar reasons, slow auto focus, shutter lag etc. For less than some of these I could get a D40x... Shame as it seems like it could be a good market.
Posted by: Andy | June 17, 2009 at 02:12 PM
Funnily enough, of all my attempts at a smaller, lighter camera, the D40X is the only one that stuck - I still have it. Good value for a 10Mp dSLR IMHO, especially if you can pick one up at a decent price second-hand.
Intriguingly, Olympus claims (http://tiny.cc/HOHs4) that the new camera is just the first of a line of smaller, lighter models, and hints that a more 'pro' body could be one of them.
Posted by: Seb Rogers | June 17, 2009 at 03:33 PM
I preordered the EP1 yesterday, but just cancelled, early reviews leave me underwhelmed. Still waiting for perfect mini cam.
Posted by: stikman | June 17, 2009 at 06:23 PM
Nice marketing video for the EP-1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Et7UQh1tg
Posted by: Andy | July 13, 2009 at 01:22 PM