Informal Oly Gathering Of Sorts - 17 Dec @ Oly River Point Office

[chancy]

Hello Fellow OlySnappers,

Being neither a moderator, champion & guru of any sort on Oly matters, I pondered over philshots' suggestion for an Oly gathering, and wondered if Oly Spore's E300 event this Fri at Oly's River Point office (7-9pm) would be an ideal opportunity & venue to meet up informally.

You will need to register with Karen @ 68335323 as seating is limited (40 places), but surely they won't turn extras away if 40+ Oly enthusiasts shows up :-)

For those who have concerns with the Oly's service, MA-1 adapter & availability of the 50mm macro, I guess you could take this meetup as BBQ grilling session :-)

No need to poll attendance, no secret OlySnapper entry password, bringing Oly equipment is optional, nothing like you've heard the idea from me too :-)

Cheers & Thanks Philshots,

(Event info on Straits Times 11 Dec Edition pp42)

[philshots]

Hi Chancy,

I was surfing for more info on Oly equipment and by chance found this reply. Thanks for acknowledging my humble suggestion for a Oly gathering. I'll be there this Friday night to "hands-on" the E300

From your postings, I realised that you are well read and informed about your camera/lens equipment purchase; unlike me, who buy at the spur of the moment

Being new to this digital stuff, there is much to learn from fellow photographers. Believe it or not, I chose Oly over the rest of the competition was because the salesman talked me into it! I initially had the Sony 717 in mind but ended up buying the Oly 5050Z! Fearing that I might have made a serious mistake, the 1st thing I got home was to log on the web to check out 5050's specs and users' opinions - but that was way too late if Oly was a bad choice in the 1st place. The following months proved that I did buy a good camera and was proud of its image quality

This is the trouble when we buy equipment without first checking out their specs and making informed decisions! I hope through (yourself & many other) expert's advices, many photographers will benefit from the combined pool of knowledge and sharing. May we all end up buying the right equipment at a good price to meet our needs. Thanks again Chancy.

[chancy]

Originally Posted by philshots Hi Chancy, I was surfing for more info on Oly equipment and by chance found this reply. Thanks for acknowledging my humble suggestion for a Oly gathering. I'll be there this Friday night to "hands-on" the E300 From your postings, I realised that you are well read and informed about your camera/lens equipment purchase; unlike me, who buy at the spur of the moment Being new to this digital stuff, there is much to learn from fellow photographers. Believe it or not, I chose Oly over the rest of the competition was because the salesman talked me into it! I initially had the Sony 717 in mind but ended up buying the Oly 5050Z! Fearing that I might have made a serious mistake, the 1st thing I got home was to log on the web to check out 5050's specs and users' opinions - but that was way too late if Oly was a bad choice in the 1st place. The following months proved that I did buy a good camera and was proud of its image quality This is the trouble when we buy equipment without first checking out their specs and making informed decisions! I hope through (yourself & many other) expert's advices, many photographers will benefit from the combined pool of knowledge and sharing. May we all end up buying the right equipment at a good price to meet our needs. Thanks again Chancy.

Hello Philshots,

You're lucky. I remember looking at an Oly ad on the now defunct Modern Photography magazine years ago, walked in asking for an OM3 at a random photo store, came out with a Nikon FE2 (which served me well) and bought an OM4Ti years later (which served me just as well) for the nostalgia of catching up with an old flame at work. I had to ogle at ad pages & greeky tech specs for false assurance. I did not have a modem, much less an internet to turn to for solace after my purchase then :-)

Well Kah Heng just corrected me (again) on details. With his experience & access to equipment hands-on, I'm sure you'll find his insights weighty. And then ... there's Sriram, humble, "platform-agnostic" enthusiast whom I owe on OM 135mm E1 photo of still :-)

Anyway, I hope I won't look like a fool on Fri looking out faces that match your nicknames or Avatars ... right Avatar morphin' Kah Heng and some more :-)

Cheers,

[kahheng]

Originally Posted by chancy Well Kah Heng just corrected me (again) on details. With his experience & access to equipment hands-on, I'm sure you'll find his insights weighty. And then ... there's Sriram, humble, "platform-agnostic" enthusiast whom I owe on OM 135mm E1 photo of still :-) Anyway, I hope I won't look like a fool on Fri looking out faces that match your nicknames or Avatars ... right Avatar morphin' Kah Heng and some more :-) Cheers,

You think I'll turn up for this thing?

I will not have you drop my name in vain. This is my last post in this part of the forum. Goodbye

[Bean]

Originally Posted by chancy Being neither a moderator, champion & guru of any sort on Oly matters, I pondered over philshots' suggestion for an Oly gathering, and wondered if Oly Spore's E300 event this Fri at Oly's River Point office (7-9pm) would be an ideal opportunity & venue to meet up informally.

How's the E300 event last night at Oly's River Point office?

[chancy]

Originally Posted by Bean How's the E300 event last night at Oly's River Point office?

Dear Oly Enthusiasts,

A late posting as I was helping out shooting some flowers for a friend over the weekend. There was a short period of drizzle but the E1 & the 14-54 kept going despite operating in the drizzle. I was as wet but happy that the camera & lens coped.

Here's a disorganised summary of what happened last Fri.

Having to rush from work & dinner, I was 45 minutes late into the Oly E300 event and entered a roomful (capacity 40) of attendees.

There was a presentation in progress with John Arifin sharing his nature photography experiences with the E1/E300 & the DZ including the yet-to-be released 7-14mm. I remember John as the featured photographer for Oly's E1 roadshow at Suntec last year.

This was followed by a technical presentation by the Olympus in-house guru on the various aspects of the 4/3 system, some of which were shown at Sitex.

Much of the information presented are already available at Oly official site & elsewhere, so I took time looking for potential Oly clubsnappers in the midst of the roundtable. The tone & manner of writing from the clubsnappers does not commensurate with a majority of the age-group present, so much for an informal gathering :-)

Item of specific interest: A sample picture of an dedicated underwater housing for the E300 was shown, UW photographer's take note. That the Supersonic Wave Filter vibrates at 35,000 times a second to bust dust. The top plate of the E300 is strengthened & designed to handle the stress of heavy lenses including the 300mm, so you could pack one along for your world tour :-)

With the conclusion of presentation was a break for snack. Those that stayed from good food at the pantry were rewarded with first hand experience with the E-System. John together with supporting staff from CP brought out 4-5 units of E300 for test rides together with a majority of the ZDs namely the 14-45, 40-150, 14-54, 50-200, 50 Macro. Unfortunately, the silvered ring endowed 150mm was unavailable, neither was the FL36 or the vertical battery grip for the E300.

Although the 11-22, 7-14 lenses were unavailable as well, sample photos were available for scrutiny in print of A2 in size.

John also brought along his camera haversack & showed his STF-22 twin & the SRF-11 ring flash for macrophotography and the 300mm 2.8 was available for handling if one is patient & asked politely :-)

I picked the E300 with the 50mm Macro because I thought that's the closest to an OM1 with an fast 50 and was rewarded with a bright viewfinder image and a very compact manageable package.

Handling - This is just my 1st hands on of an E300 & it's of my opinion, actual experiences will vary. It wasn't a suitable venue then for optical performance testing, so I won't comment on image quality.

As an E1 owner, I've been pampered by the accessibility of many dedicated buttons for common photography tasks. I was initially worried for having one control dial to set the myriad of options for digital photography. But realized the button's are sticky & setting changes in combination with dials were made faster than I had envisaged, even though manual mode & exposure compensation requires taking your eyes from the viewfinder to dial the correction values. I found the rear information display to be sharp & clear under average room lighting conditions that evening. The menu's are generally familiar & I was able to access most of the features of the camera on my own. As intuitive to use as the E300 has been, I have come to value the ergonomics of the E1 even more. But the illuminated AF points of the E300 is something I miss in the E1, the ability to zoom 10x in playback/review to check focus is also a big plus and it zooms much faster than my E1 (4x), such is progress :-)

Built-in Flash - Very well constructed & quick-to-operate. I was happy that subjects taken with the built-in flash photos taken at 3 meters & at eye level were evenly lit & showed little hot spots. The flash doubles an an AF illuminator which strobes in dim light to assist focus. I found this distracting but this shortcoming is not of Oly's alone and is found in a popular digi SLR as well.

The 40-150 lens is very compact & the zoom extension is not intrusive. However, the front element rotates when focusing, so filter users take note. Zoom action is smooth & well damped. It's a real plus for travel photography.

In additional to key members of the sales team, as a show for the importance of the E300 to Olympus, the head for sales for Singapore was present & was chatting informally with the visitors & spared no effort to illustrate the full line of ZDs for the E300. I did inform Oly representatives that topics on Oly use are picking up activity on Clubsnap. I was also requested to inform the forum here that Oly would not be making the MA-1 OM adaptor available here :-(

Lastly, someone called for my nickname at the lift on my way back & it turned out to be Philshots, that makes two identifiable Oly clubsnappers at the event :-) We're off to a good start :-)

Cheers,

[bariq]

hi thanks for bringing this topic. On the eve of oly gathering i was there too, i spoke with the divisional manager and he said that there is hard and fast rule that the OM adapter should be given or not, it all depends on how the customers represent to Oly that they want the adapters. So the message in the bottle is to write up to Oly collectively about the adapter.
I personally feel that now Oly SG is trying to listen to customers as they feel they are loosing much of their base here. Divisional manager is a cool guy and he assured me that what happened in past was past, from now on Oly SG will really listen to what customers want etc etc.

cheers
Bariq

[chancy]

Originally Posted by bariq hi thanks for bringing this topic. On the eve of oly gathering i was there too, i spoke with the divisional manager and he said that there is hard and fast rule that the OM adapter should be given or not, it all depends on how the customers represent to Oly that they want the adapters. So the message in the bottle is to write up to Oly collectively about the adapter. I personally feel that now Oly SG is trying to listen to customers as they feel they are loosing much of their base here. Divisional manager is a cool guy and he assured me that what happened in past was past, from now on Oly SG will really listen to what customers want etc etc. cheers Bariq

Hello Bariq,

Hmm, while I certainly did not speak to the division manager that night, I'm pretty sure of what I've heard from his team, but I guess the divisional manager calls the shots at the end of the day & more importantly, availing the adaptor to customers by assessing their needs for its use is very reasonable but needs to be carefully managed.

By this I mean that customers need to know that not all lenses from the OM line operate optimally when mated to the E system using the MA1. Not only are important functionalities lost, those that perform sub-par are likely the zooms (except the 35-80mm) & wide-angles.

It is important to Olympus that customers discern that poor (relatively) performance of these lenses digitally are not representative of the abilities of their best of the OM Zuikos & especially the Zuiko Digitals, which provides Olympus a competitive advantage in the digital photo arena.

It is a delicate situation between managing the needs of the customers & setting their expectations right when providing a path of compatibility with the OM lenses. It will be a nightmare for Oly if customers report poor optical performance of OM Zuikos with the MA-1 when Oly is fighting hard for recognition of the DZ's optical performance & ruggedness with its competitors.

No matter, I would love to be corrected to see the MA1 is back on the table :-)

I'm too have sensed an air of receptiveness of Oly that nite, I guess Oly enthusiasts have a role to play by engaging them with their real needs.

Thanks for your comments & clarifications.

Cheers,

[bariq]

Originally Posted by chancy Hello Bariq, Hmm, while I certainly did not speak to the division manager that night, I'm pretty sure of what I've heard from his team, but I guess the divisional manager calls the shots at the end of the day & more importantly, availing the adaptor to customers by assessing their needs for its use is very reasonable but needs to be carefully managed. By this I mean that customers need to know that not all lenses from the OM line operate optimally when mated to the E system using the MA1. Not only are important functionalities lost, those that perform sub-par are likely the zooms (except the 35-80mm) & wide-angles. It is important to Olympus that customers discern that poor (relatively) performance of these lenses digitally are not representative of the abilities of their best of the OM Zuikos & especially the Zuiko Digitals, which provides Olympus a competitive advantage in the digital photo arena. It is a delicate situation between managing the needs of the customers & setting their expectations right when providing a path of compatibility with the OM lenses. It will be a nightmare for Oly if customers report poor optical performance of OM Zuikos with the MA-1 when Oly is fighting hard for recognition of the DZ's optical performance & ruggedness with its competitors. No matter, I would love to be corrected to see the MA1 is back on the table :-) I'm too have sensed an air of receptiveness of Oly that nite, I guess Oly enthusiasts have a role to play by engaging them with their real needs. Thanks for your comments & clarifications. Cheers,

Hi Chancy,
I agree with the concerns and the thin line Oly guys are treading on regarding to hand the adapter or not.

But for a second look in this way, as a OM used i have some lenses and i dont like to see them gather dust while i use my digital lenses. I would like to use my OM lens if i have a adapter cause iam used to those lenses too. Look at the prices of digital lenses, they are too expensive for me so buying anything apart from 40-150 is out of question for the time being. E300 is 8mp cam so you can crop the picture when u take pics with the older Zuicos.

Moreover a free adapter will give some initiative for some of the old Oly enthusiasts to move to the newer cams and slowly will be buying digital lenses rather than just dumping their older lenses and taking a new technology which is not supported by many in the industry.

So lets see how it goes. I suggest we start a thread to request for the free adapter and collectively request Oly sg to heed to our request.

Cheers

[raycsk]

started. See new post

[philshots]

Originally Posted by chancy Dear Oly Enthusiasts, A late posting as I was helping out shooting some flowers for a friend over the weekend. There was a short period of drizzle but the E1 & the 14-54 kept going despite operating in the drizzle. I was as wet but happy that the camera & lens coped. Here's a disorganised summary of what happened last Fri. Having to rush from work & dinner, I was 45 minutes late into the Oly E300 event and entered a roomful (capacity 40) of attendees. There was a presentation in progress with John Arifin sharing his nature photography experiences with the E1/E300 & the DZ including the yet-to-be released 7-14mm. I remember John as the featured photographer for Oly's E1 roadshow at Suntec last year. This was followed by a technical presentation by the Olympus in-house guru on the various aspects of the 4/3 system, some of which were shown at Sitex. Much of the information presented are already available at Oly official site & elsewhere, so I took time looking for potential Oly clubsnappers in the midst of the roundtable. The tone & manner of writing from the clubsnappers does not commensurate with a majority of the age-group present, so much for an informal gathering :-) Item of specific interest: A sample picture of an dedicated underwater housing for the E300 was shown, UW photographer's take note. That the Supersonic Wave Filter vibrates at 35,000 times a second to bust dust. The top plate of the E300 is strengthened & designed to handle the stress of heavy lenses including the 300mm, so you could pack one along for your world tour :-) With the conclusion of presentation was a break for snack. Those that stayed from good food at the pantry were rewarded with first hand experience with the E-System. John together with supporting staff from CP brought out 4-5 units of E300 for test rides together with a majority of the ZDs namely the 14-45, 40-150, 14-54, 50-200, 50 Macro. Unfortunately, the silvered ring endowed 150mm was unavailable, neither was the FL36 or the vertical battery grip for the E300. Although the 11-22, 7-14 lenses were unavailable as well, sample photos were available for scrutiny in print of A2 in size. John also brought along his camera haversack & showed his STF-22 twin & the SRF-11 ring flash for macrophotography and the 300mm 2.8 was available for handling if one is patient & asked politely :-) I picked the E300 with the 50mm Macro because I thought that's the closest to an OM1 with an fast 50 and was rewarded with a bright viewfinder image and a very compact manageable package. Handling - This is just my 1st hands on of an E300 & it's of my opinion, actual experiences will vary. It wasn't a suitable venue then for optical performance testing, so I won't comment on image quality. As an E1 owner, I've been pampered by the accessibility of many dedicated buttons for common photography tasks. I was initially worried for having one control dial to set the myriad of options for digital photography. But realized the button's are sticky & setting changes in combination with dials were made faster than I had envisaged, even though manual mode & exposure compensation requires taking your eyes from the viewfinder to dial the correction values. I found the rear information display to be sharp & clear under average room lighting conditions that evening. The menu's are generally familiar & I was able to access most of the features of the camera on my own. As intuitive to use as the E300 has been, I have come to value the ergonomics of the E1 even more. But the illuminated AF points of the E300 is something I miss in the E1, the ability to zoom 10x in playback/review to check focus is also a big plus and it zooms much faster than my E1 (4x), such is progress :-) Built-in Flash - Very well constructed & quick-to-operate. I was happy that subjects taken with the built-in flash photos taken at 3 meters & at eye level were evenly lit & showed little hot spots. The flash doubles an an AF illuminator which strobes in dim light to assist focus. I found this distracting but this shortcoming is not of Oly's alone and is found in a popular digi SLR as well. The 40-150 lens is very compact & the zoom extension is not intrusive. However, the front element rotates when focusing, so filter users take note. Zoom action is smooth & well damped. It's a real plus for travel photography. In additional to key members of the sales team, as a show for the importance of the E300 to Olympus, the head for sales for Singapore was present & was chatting informally with the visitors & spared no effort to illustrate the full line of ZDs for the E300. I did inform Oly representatives that topics on Oly use are picking up activity on Clubsnap. I was also requested to inform the forum here that Oly would not be making the MA-1 OM adaptor available here :-( Lastly, someone called for my nickname at the lift on my way back & it turned out to be Philshots, that makes two identifiable Oly clubsnappers at the event :-) We're off to a good start :-) Cheers,

yup, thats me
Glad we met. There are so many people there. Its a bit hard to find "Chancy" or anyone else in CS. O by the way, from the way you write, you seem to be taking minutes of the whole event So, are you or have you become a secretary for Oly or CS