Sony 828 vs Olympus 8080 (chronic palpitations aside)

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I have tried and tested for a long time and came up with the Olympus
8080. Now after fondling the Sony I find it to be most tempting. The
very fine quality finish, Carl Zeiss lens F2,wide angle are most
impressive. However, I am an amateur with a good eye and need some
imput.
Most "review" websites emphasize chronic palpitations, aberations and
faults that appear as BS to 99% of photos. These review sites carry
heavy advertising and links to buy - which may cloud their photographic
eyes.
Sony has traditionally not been a favourite of dealers. Perhaps profit
margins are not as large and with retail pricing being higher less
comissions would be forthcoming.
Which camera would be better for shooting still life with artificial
light and some indoor skylight lighting? Is the Carl Z lens superior?
Odly enough the HP945 has a computerized indoor flash that beats both
and the pics were outstanding but that Made in China plastic body don't
look too robust.
Any comments anyone?

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Your questions was:
Which camera would be better for shooting still life with artificial
light and some indoor skylight lighting? Is the Carl Z lens superior?

The answer is:
The Oly 8080 would produce better images in those conditions. No
prosumer camera has a better lens than the 8080.

Q

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Ignore the ignoramuses.
I own both a Sony 828 and a Nikon D70 with more lenses than anyone should.
The Sony 828 is the most maligned and misunderstood camera in history. Most
of the absolute garbage you read on this website is by people who have never
used the thing and whose wisdom about most things seems suspect.
The downside to the 828:it is heavy (significantly heavier than any other
8mp EVFs using the Sony sensor), it is slow to write to storage even in
jpeg, impossibly slow for RAW format unless you are at a leisured pace or
doing still studio work. The size of raw and tiff images is uncompressed
(around 19mbs, jpegs are around 3mbs at high quality setting).
The adjustment allowed on the built-in flash is limited, but this is not a
factor for amateur uses. Many reviewers zero in on "purple fringing." After
several thousand images I cannot say this is any kind of problem at all. In
fact I find moire with the D70 to be a more frequent artifact.
Because of the small sensor size on these cameras the minimum f stop is only
f8 (this is not a problem for depth of field because of the short focal
lengths of the lens compared to 35mm equivalent; it can be an issue under
bright sunlight: carry a polarizer outdoors if you want to be able to use
slower shutter speeds and slow ISOs).
There is significant noise when you start shooting above ISO 200 and the
camera defaults to an effective ISO much less than 100. However the noise at
high ISOs when I compare side to side to D70 images taken at the same ISO is
absolutely comparable: they are both fairly noisy at high ISOs. I laugh at
reviews that laud the D70 at high ISOs (in fact I just reviewed a series of
D70 images made at ISO 800-1600: pretty ugly).
The EVF takes getting used to. In bright sunlight it can be impossible to
follow a small moving object. The EVF is a new form factor and can be a real
pain under some circumstances. A better eyecup that shields light would be
helpful, as well as a shield for the LCD.
In truth if you want a fast handling camera for outdoor sports type image
making this is probably not the right camera for you, nor is any EVF. You
should get a dSLR. However I did a series of images with the 828 of my son
paragliding and they all came out great (I admit I could not see the image
in the EVF as clearly as I would have liked).
The upside to the 828: absolutely spectacular image and color quality,
superb lens with a real wide angle end and a real wide aperture. You can
simultaeneously use compact flash and memory sticks. You cannot write from
one to the other but I have no idea why you would want to. The D70 has only
one compact flash slot an no one criticizes that.
The bottom line:
I do not regret for a minute purchasing this camera (because of the way I
pre-oredered it from Sony I think I must be one of the first people in the
US to have one of them, months before the stores had them). The 828 image
quality is so good that the limitations are not that much of an issue for
most amateur uses. If I had not been inculcated in the SLR mystique over the
last (I hate to admit it) 30 years I would not miss the D70 if I only had
the 828. As much as I have come to admire the D70/raw image quality I know
the D70 is a camera that will be technologically obsolete before the Sony
828.

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"birdman" <apquilts@pacbell.net> wrote in message
newswxhe.4484$Y81.3083@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com...
> Ignore the ignoramuses.
<Snip>

Everything said seconded. I love my 828, but it is not a DSLR.

If by artificial lighting you mean flash, make sure you pick up a HVL-F32X
Sony Flash to go with it.

Sample pages:

http://www.lookbefore.wading-in.ne [...] na_zoo.htm

http://www.lookbefore.wading-in.ne [...] FL2004.htm

http://www.lookbefore.wading-in.ne [...] Boston.htm

Jim Kramer

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Bob Salomon wrote:
> In article <1116116826.381197.144410@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
> "Q" <hugemoth@access4less.net> wrote:
>
>> No
>> prosumer camera has a better lens than the 8080.
>
> That is an awfully strong statement. According to whom?

It depends on the defintion of "better"! If you make wide-angle "better",
Nikon wins. If you make wide-aperture image-stabilised "better",
Panasonic/Leica wins.

For taking smooth images, I would suggest a 5MP 8.8 x 6.6mm sensor camera
like the Nikon 5700 (in preference to an 8MP sensor of the same size), or
a DSLR.

David

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

>Try setting the 8080 to iESP with P-AF.
>It gives you much better AF performance.

Yes, I've experimented with all settings, and settled back on iESP.
But it still goofs up occasionally, as you noted. I do a lot of
landscape photography, and even when there is little or no foreground
detail, the camera just 'misses' infinity focus sometimes. The Sony AF
is fast (not as fast as a dslr but way better than most prosumers), and
it even has a lovely little set of green squares that pop up to tell
you where it focused - very reassuring, and very accurate.

A good example of the Oly menu system causing issues is the weird way
white balance is implemented. You can have Auto or Daylight easily set
as default, but if you want to swap around between other modes, you
have to go through at least two menu levels, even if you use the
`quick`-button. Yes, MyModes can be a solution, but if you have
several, you then almost need to keep notes on which is which - they
should be nameable! I don't much like the
hold-button-then-roll-control-wheel method, so I tried the other
control methods, but the only one that was vaguely usable lost me the
ability to call up Info on the LCD (for no apparent reason - the Info
button just doesn't do *anything*!!! Aaaargh!!!

In contrast, I LOVE the Sony's little joystick-and-push method, along
with sensible menus! Admittedly it offers less control, but nothing
that I would miss terribly.

Oh, one other thing the Oly is better at - long exposures. The Sony
won't allow any exposure beyond 30 seconds and has odd, inconsistent
metering limts well under that (eg 1 second in P mode, 8 seconds in A).
The Oly allows 8 minutes in manual mode and meters to 15 seconds in
all modes.


Anyway, I've now resorted to putting the camera into the control panel
display mode, which means I can fairly easily flick the LCD into
information mode and check *everything* before I shoot. Ah well. It
still gets me a lot of very good images, and the Sony was just too
expensive..

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Q wrote:
> Here's yet another column that agrees with my conclusion. Mike
> Johnston's June column on Luminous Landscape. "Best Lens in Any
> Digicam: Olympus C-8080z 5X zoom"
>
> http://www.luminous-landscape.com/ [...] e-05.shtml
>
> Q

The poor quality of the resampled images on that page says a lot about the
writer to me!

David