Like an OM1, Only Digital

Some of you may remember back to the early seventies, when Olympus introduced the OM1.  It was, very simply, the smallest 35mm full-frame SLR made.

It was an excellent camera, coupled with superb optics that rivaled the Nikkor, Canon and even Leica lenses of the day. But, man!, was it small! When I chose my first 35mm SLR in the late seventies, I could have had just about any camera I wanted – the Olympus, or models from Canon, Nikon, Pentax or Minolta. I chose a Canon AT-1. At the time, the OM1 just felt too small to me.

Fast forward to the present, and my growing dissatisfaction with my current imaging choice, the Nikon D70s (which I’ve written about at length this year).

Now, I want you guys to see what I’m talking about. So, here are a couple of pictures, taken with the D70s at ISO 1600. The lighting is marginal — that’s why it’s taken at ISO 1600. The lens is a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8. Image processing is very minimal — open in Adobe Camera RAW and adjust color balance and exposure, then pass to Photoshop CS2 to add the label in the upper right and convert to an 8-bit JPEG.

On the left is the full-frame image, reduced to an 800-pixel-wide. Click it to view the 800 pixel wide image. This image is down-sized from the original, which you can see here (it’s huge, so be patient). The cropped picture is exactly that. I took the original image, and used the Photoshop ”Canvas Size” function to create an 800×600 slice from the center of the image. There’s no resizing or interpolation. Click it to see the 800×600 version.

Pretty cruddy, huh?

So, where is all this leading? Last night, I trundled down to Penn Camera in Laurel, and, after much discussion and fondling of cameras (30D and XTi), I returned home with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi body (black version) and a Tamron 28-75mm f./2.8 lens. Why didn’t I get the 30D, like I’ve been talking about? We’ll get to that. For the moment, I want to show you a couple of pictures.

These should look kinda familiar. I applied the same lack-of-processing to these images as I did to the D70s images. For comparison, the monstrously large full-sized version is here. Yes, there is still some noise. There’s going to be. But, notice how much less digital noise there is in the pictures from the Canon.

So, why the Rebel XTi instead of the 30D? While the XTi certainly costs less than the 30D, that really wasn’t a factor. But, after some conversation with my father over this past weekend, I started to thinking. There’s certainly going to be a “40D” camera at some point — the 30D model is over a year old, and is really not much more than a rehash of the 20D. And, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I can’t really see the difference between the images produced by the two cameras, all other things being equal. So, I figured, get the XTi now, and start building my Canon systems. When the newer camera becomes available, then I’ll move up to that, retaining the XTi as a backup body.

So, what did I “give up” by getting the XTi? Not a lot, really. There’s no spot meter, the ISO settings are “full stop” increments only (ISO 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600), and the body framework is plastic instead of metal. I had a Rebel SII film camera for some time, with which I took some great pictures, and it never showed any signs of wear. I did give up some “heft.” The XTi is a very small camera — like an OM1, only digital — and light. I think the lens weighs more than the body does! But the grip is decent, and the camera balances well. I think it will be even more comfortable with the BG-E3 vertical grip attached.

I went “minimal” on the purchases last night, though, as the XTi is on “probation.” I’m going to shoot with it over the next several days before making a final determination as to whether or not it becomes the Nikon-to-Canon jump point, or I spring for the 30D. Penn gives a 14-day satisfaction guarantee, and there’s no restocking fees — especially if you go ahead and buy something else. Penn’s a great place to buy gear, even if it does cost a few dollars more than B&H, etc.

Later on, I’ll make some commentary on some things I’ve learned about Canon’s flash system — which works very similarly to the Nikon CLS system I love so much.