43 Rumors

stimmer says:
“The GH1 is looking better to me everyday. ”
I second that.

stimmer says:
Panasonic got it right the first time.
No. The second time.

To be fair to Olympus, they didn’t really hype it that much at all. If anything, our disappointment is a reflection of our collective hopes. I feel that we are representative of the camera enthusiasts, the ones who are educated about all the options and technical merits of different cameras. Our feedback seems to indicate that the camera is not going to do well with those of our profile. It is a “.1″ upgrade rather than a system that brings real advancements with it. i also feel that it will not do too well with the non-enthusiast crowd either, the casual shoppers.

price, odd color combination of lens / body, and awkward ergonomics of the accessory items
there are no features that make this camera stand out from the competitors and thus will likely be passed over for a GF1 or even the original E-P1 at a discounted price.

I personally will not buy a GH1, even though it is the closest thing that meets my needs. I don’t like the SLR’esque form factor and the codec could have been a bit better. If I absolutely had to buy a camera now, it probably would be the GH1, but I can just make due with what I have. Nor will I buy another Olympus E-# SLR style professional camera. The thing that made the rangefinder style body attractive was its compactness and ability to discretely shoot video in casual environments. I would have bought the E-P2 for $2000 if it actually met my needs, even if it meant throwing out the kit lens and bolting something better on. The orange carrot cam is a nice memory, but the promise that it brought to me has not ben realized.

Interesting, but not what I want. Why don’t they just make a camera the size and build quality of a Voigtlander Bessa R3A with a built in EVF? The clip on EVF is better than no EVF, but I can’t use my wireless triggers with that mounted on…so it has no use for me. Also, what’s with the slow zooms? What doesn’t Olympus understand about needing FAST glass for m4/3′s? Shallow DOF is just too hard to achieve with the 4/3′s sensor unless you’re shooting wide oped at f/1.4-2.0.

E-P2 is what Olympus should have done in the first place.

I keep on waiting the next model. I’m not into video shooting but splashproof design and set of fast primes would be welcome addition. Hope the new Olympus primes will be faster than the 17mm pancake.

How about Fuji?

I would not be so skeptical about E-P2 for serious photographers. Put there nice, compact high aperture rangefinder legacy lens (just consider 2x crop factor for needed *field of view) and focus manually by checking the image in the high resolution EVF (this is not suitable for sports, but this camera it’s not about that), but usable for rangefinder style shooting (streets, documents. It may needs some practise. So if you considering about shooting with manual M mount lenses this camera could be for you (and relatively cheap to digital rangefinder cameras prices). The EVF looks big, but it is high quality and better than practically non usable small one (GF1). When VF-2 is attached to E-P2 it looks like Hasselblad designed camera and that is really not ridiculous but serious professional looking tool. The investment in good lens is reliable and those kind of lenses are already made in rangefinder era (old Leica lenses are still stunning and reasonable priced on Ebay or so).

Notice:
*this reduce wide lenses field of view (FOW) but for normal FOW can be achieved easily (40-50mm equiv.).

Eric is absolutely right . . . the micro 4/3 manufacturer who makes a camera like the Voigtlander rangefinders will have a huge success on its hands. There are zillions of people who want to shoot with a Leica, but not many people who can afford one. The m4/3 company that taps into this market will sell hundreds of thousands of units. I love my E-P1 and may buy the E-P2, but to be honest, Olympus hasn’t significantly advanced the E-P format with this new version. With that enormous EVF, we really aren’t that far off the Olympus 620 in terms of size. Maybe it would be better to wait for the 630, which will probably have some of the advances of the E-Ps built into it. Hats off to Olympus for starting us down this road, but I hope that they–or one of the other companies–will eventually wake up and go straight for the traditional rangefinder-style format.