[LRflex] Re: Lympa Lives!

Congratulations, David! I don't think that the Olympus Zuiko optics will disappoint you, not even after years of having Leica glass as the standard. I finally held an E-3 a couple weeks ago at Samy's Camera in Santa Barbara (they have moved into a HUGE new store there). The heft felt fine, but for me the brighter viewfinder does not make up for the lack of the fast Live View Mode A like on my E-330. The E-3 "Mode B" gives live view, but with considerable shutter lag. Somebody said that with the new E-3, Olympus was being "retrograde" - I agree. However, the E-3 looks great if your primary focus was on action, such as sports or wildlife, where you primarily will be using the optical finder.
Steve Barbour recently ordered the focus-confirm FourThirds adapter, too, so I will be curious how that works out for both of you. I love my Vario-Elmarit 70-180/2.8 on the E-330, but accurate focus can be a pain in some situations.
Wonderful sharpness in the cat photo! What was the second Zuiko lens you bought? 

Gary Todoroff
http://northcoastphotos.com/Lympa.htm

At 08:26 AM 2/29/2008, you wrote:
Gary Todoroff has praised the performance of the Lympa for a long time now. And the recent E3 shots posted by Steve Barbour have also been of exceptional quality. 

So much so, that I just had to take a look at the new Olympus E-3.
I went, last Wednesday, to the store, intending to add two Canon lenses to my LeiCanon 30D. I walked out with the E3 and two Oly lenses, instead!
Is it perfection? I doubt it. But it has the brightest, easiest to see finder I've used since the R8/9. Very easy on my failing eyeballs. :-) It's large, but comfortable to hold (even Rose finds it a delight, despite it's weight.) And the lenses are incredibly bulky for a small sensor'd camera. But the optics appear to be very close to Leica's, and the build quality of both lenses and body seems excellent.
The 50~200 f2.8~3.5 zoom is incredibly good and with the 1.4x converter (on it's way to me, as I write) will yield a FOV equivalent to a 560 f4.5 AF lens! And the Telyt will work, with focus confirmation (or at least, it will, as soon as my FC-Leica-R to 4/3rds adapter arrives) & IS!
Yes, Doug, I know.... Manual focus is still better, but my eyes are getting to a state where my failure rate with MF is huge! AF seems the way for me to go, and the R10 + all new Leica glass is beyond my financial reach.
For those who are interested, a 1/2 size jpg is at http://www.furnfeather.net/Temps/Riff.htm This shot was taken, hand held, at 200mm at 1/45th of a second. I'm quite pleased with it!
Be warned that this is a 1.5mb jpg ... so you'll need either high-speed internet access, or a lot of patience! 

More, of course, to follow.

Cheers!

David Young,
Logan Lake, CANADA

Limited Edition Prints at: www.furnfeather.net
Personal Web-site at: www.main.furnfeather.net
Stock Photography at: http://tinyurl.com/2amll4

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