mistwalker

Wonderful Compact Single Lens Reflex　　2008.10.21

As expected, a photo taken by a single lens reflex camera, with its lens performance and depth of field capabilities, is much different from a compact-type camera. I’d like to take photos with SLRs as much as possible, but its weight is an issue. The weight of the lenses is also particularly heavy. Thus, it all ends up collecting dust at the back of my shelf.
I stopped using my Nikon I had from my film days over 10 years ago and switched over to a weight emphasis model by Olympus called the E-420. It’s really light; really small. The lens, a 25mm F2.8 is called the “pancake.” It’s equivalent to a 50mm standard lens for 35mm film because of its relation to the size of the digital camera’s sensor. The lens has a similar field angle of a human eye, so a photo can be taken as my eyes see it.
It’s difficult to capture the fine details when trying to take a large landscape photo. Without a zoom, I have to physically move.
I quickly approach, then ‘click.’
I walk back another 500 meters, then finally, ‘click.’ Just like that.
If I consider this a journey, it’s fun as I discover new things. This is why I only use one standard camera.
Recently, an area I feel has progressed technology-wise is ISO. Back in the day, taking a photo without a flash in a dark area meant using a bright (a.k.a. large) lens. Now with settings like ISO6400, you can use high speed shutters. And there are almost no noise artifacts. This is just fantastic.

Personally I don’t like photos taken with a flash; it makes it feel very flat. Unfortunately, I had to use flash photography on special days. But recently, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. The way shadow fall in the darkness is very beautiful. Its times like this I herald the digital camera. Of course, the special depth of film has disappeared. Though there are still a lot of advantages. You can increase the capacity of media to take photos continuously, download to the PC immediately and edit it as digital data.

I have a request for Olympus. Please take out the onboard flash (we don’t need it because of the high ISO), and make the media smaller so you can make the camera twice as small. But don’t take out the prism (viewfinder); it’s pointless if I’m not able to see what the lens sees with my own eyes. Please make a compact type (^^;