Anyone see the PMA previews?
Lots of new cameras coming out - The E-330 is yet another interesting twist.

A common moan about a DSLR is that you can't frame with the LCD. The reason for this is very simple. There are two issues:

1) The sensors of SLRS are not meant for high frame rate. They're designed for image quality. This is why there is no movie mode (unless you want one at 8 fps). I suppose you could try to autofocus at 8 fps although that'd be horribly herky jerky, at best.

2) Given fact #1 autofocus is done by, sending part of the light to a special autofocus sensor. So when you view through the viewfinder, most of what comes in through the lens is reflected up to your eye. The rest is reflected off to the autofocus sensor that makes DSLRs focus so well.

Now, once the mirror is flipped up, all the light goes straight to the CMOS/CCD. No more autofocus.



Anyway, Apparently in the E-330, there are now four (!!) mirrors, which allow LCD usage with viewfinder enabled, or disabled.

It's a pretty interesting camera. I don't know offhand if the tradeoffs are worth it, but it's certainly nice to see some innovation out there.

 

35D news > E-330 news

 

Who makes the E-330.....and I dont want to be able to frame with the LCD on a SLR camera...thats blasphemy.

 

Olympus..

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0601/06...se330evolt.asp

 

What a shitty looking SLR.

 

I thought the Canon 20DA has had a live LCD preview since its introduction.

 

 

I wouldn't care to ever have a live LCD on a DSLR. The only good it would have would be not being able to look through the viewfinder, like shooting over someones head in a crowd and if you come into that situation, just take a crapload of pics. You wouldn't be able to zoom or follow the action as fast as a viewfinder or keep the camera as steady. It would have to hurt battery life also.

 

Technically, , but not like this. It's kind of a hack job, but it serves its purpose. It can only be used at night and only for short periods of time. I guess the idea is to provide a magnified view to make focusing easier. Since I have never done any true astrophotography (other than star trails or moon shots) I really don't know how useful it is.

From what I've heard though, the 20Da is an awesome body with lower noise than the regular 20D and of course the removed IR filter.

Have you used one Billiam?

 

Shows what I get when I try to go from memory. I had forgot that the 20DA's live LCD view is only usable at night.

I haven't used one, but the stuff I've read in some astronomy circles said that the 20DA makes for a perfectly fine daytime camera as well despite the official line from Canon. The consensus was seemed to be that any color shift introduced by the sensor's different spectral response was either barely noticeable or very easily corrected in Photoshop.

 

haha I thought the same thing... who the f designed this.. it would be good for a line called "My First DSLR" or something.

 

There's been a handful of times where I would have really liked having a Live LCD.
Sure, you can blast pictures, but why not have the ability to frame it right?

That's a handful of times out of ohhhhhhh, maybe 15 thousand pictures.

 

the 500 is much better looking than the 300/330

 

I just sold --- or should I say, in the process of selling an older Olympus E20n that did have an LCD preview option. The LCD viewfinder actually pulled out and tilted up for low angle shooting. It was very nice for certain situations.

I enjoyed the E20 very much, however it was old and, while it seemed fast in the beginning, was actually pretty slow in comparison to the other cameras.

The one great thing about it was the lens. It was a pretty fast F/2.0 lens. The images were beautiful.

I will agree though, that the 330 looks terrible. Olympus has always been different and some people like that, others dont.

Best,