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Rambling With Resnick
Film or Digital?
Cheaper, higher-resolution digital cameras turn up the heat
on film-based photography; plus, a bonus field test: the Olympus Stylus Epic
By Mason Resnick
I have this reputation at family gatherings. Perhaps it's because I make a living writing about photography. Whenever there is a get-together it is always assumed that I will show up with a new camera. It's been about 9 months since the last one, but in late August I the gang got together and everyone looked at me to see what new marvel I brought along. But something different happened this time. For the first time, as I showed the camera around, several people asked, "is it film or digital?" It was a momentary shock: with the rapid rise in popularity of digital cameras, it can no longer be assumed that a shiny new camera is recording images on film. (By the way, the camera was a tiny Olympus Stylus Epic, a convenient snapshot camera, with a fast 2.8 lens).
Take a look at The Photo Times for the latest news at Seybold, where a bevvy of 2 megapixel cameras were unveiled. There was, for instance, a 2 megapixel point and shoot camera for under $500, andCanon's PowerShot, a 2.1 megapixel zoom camera that's so small you might need a magnifying glass to find the shutter release. (Is there such a thing as too much miniaturization?). The most interesting one for me is the 2.5 megapixel Olympus C2500L, an SLR with a built-in zoom lens. Touted as a "professional quality" camera, it offers something called "Ture Pic", a new technology that Olympus claims improves color gradation and quality within the camera. The proof is in the prints, however...and with PhotoPlus Expo coming up in October, I will go straight to the Olympus booth and demand to see the output...and will report on it here. Oh yeah, the most important part? The price tag, $1500, is considerably less than any pro-oriented digital SLR that has been produced until now.
Prices are dropping, quality is slowly but steadlily rising. Anyone care to guess when the price/quality scale will tip towards Digital?
Smaller, Faster: A Quick Field Test
Back to film-based photography--and that little camera I brought to the family get-together: it was an Olympus Stylus Epic. Ever since I owned a Rollei 35 (the made in Germany model, not the Japanese version), I've had a fond place in my heart--and gadget bag--for really small 35mm cameras. Over the years I've owned several flavors of the Olympus XA, the Yashica T3, a Ricoh G1 and a Samyang something-or-other that I got at a press conference and which my kids use these days. I needed a new compact camera, and this seemed (on paper, at least) to provide the most bang for the buck. With a shutter speed range of 4 sec. to 1/1000 sec.a fast 35mm f/2.8 lens and a price tag of around $100, this one seemed like a real winner.
The field test. Pros: The Stylus Epic's autofocus is fast and decisive, with a relatively short lag time. It focuses down to 1.1 feet, so you can get really close to your subject. Its water resistant case let me bring it with me into a lake (no, I didn't submerge it!) to photograph my 4 year old daughter's newly-discovered swimming skills up close without fear of ruining the insides. Thanks to its fast 2.8 lens (I challenge anyone to find a 2.8 lens on another new P&S camera for less than $100), I was able to turn off the flash more and use natural light. Lens quality was quite good, even when viewing negatives under 15x magnification. Cons: The Stylus Epic proves there is such a thing as too much miniaturization. My average sized hands had trouble getting a good grip on its small, contoured body, and it took me a while to get used to where the largish shutter release was. The other side effect of miniaturization is that the flash is located less than an inch from the lens, making red-eye a perpetual problem (it's a good thing that 2.8 lens was there!). A smarter move would have been to at least set the internal programming so when you opened the camera for shooting, the default setting would be Flash Off. I am anti-"red-eye reduction preflash" because the strobe effect is at least annoying, at worst a potential trigger for epileptics, so I was not about to use this energy and time consuming "feature". The light weight and small mass made the camera difficult to hold still at times, although my wife, who has smaller hands, felt comfortable operating it.
Conclusion: despite its flaws, which are mostly due to its size and flash placement, for around $100 the Olympus Stylus Epic is a great deal and a good camera to bring as a back-up or just for play. Just try to shoot with natural light as much as you can, and avoid using the flash except for fill.
Patience, Patience
Last time I rambled, I mentioned Photohighway, a new web site that I was involved in and had high hopes for. Since then I've gotten several complaints that it just isn't working for people. Yeah, I know all about it, and have been working with the editorial and development teams to address all of the problems. I should remind the general public that there was once a time that Black & White World wasn't very good, but I think we've grown out of it. Photohighway will, too--and will have a lot to offer the online picture-taking community when it does! What you see there now is the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned and please be patient!
Read All About It!
Check out the October issue of Popular Photography, due out this month, for my first article for them, How To Build a Web Site! And if you want a sneak preview, look at http://www.photogs.com/forpop to see a little web site I put together to compelement the printed version. (Hint: download the HTML code to get the whole story!)
About the author: Mason Resnick, the editor and publisher of Black & White World and now a contributor to PhotoHighway.Com, recently performed the ultimate sacrelidge by shooting his entire summer vacation in color! Please don't hate him for it, his family made him do it. At least he didn't shoot it digitally (this time). You can send fan mail to him at bwworld@mindspring.com.