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<\/a>Canon 5d, EF 85mm f\/1.8<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Canon 5d, EF 35-70mm f\/3.5-4.5<\/p><\/div>\n
That’s why I have no issues with “Olympus” raiding their own parts bin for OM-D cameras, designing a new case and selling it as a new camera. That’s what people did in the 1980s with film cameras – my Minolta X-300 was basically a cheapified X-700, and I couldn’t care less, because it worked great for me. I used it well into the digital era. Today’s digital imaging is so good, you can use five year old parts, make a “new” camera, and it’s going to work great. And why wouldn’t it, since you can also take a 20 year old Canon 5d with the lenses that were its contemporaries, and if you know what you’re doing you’re going to make excellent large prints? I mean, people used the same film emulsions for decades. They still use Leica rangefinders despite all sorts of developments in technology. I’m sure some people still use 4×5″ field cameras. Why not? I think we’ve all been sold the story about technological progress and how we need to keep up and always have the newest stuff or we’ll be left behind. The truth is, sometimes the old stuff is good enough.<\/p>\n
Just take a look at smartphones and laptops. Sure, the new stuff is better, but your old iPhone is basically the same thing as the new one. I replace mine every 4-5 years because they are worn out, not because the new tech is that much better. A 6 year old Macbook Air M1 is going to be just fine now unless it’s worn out; in fact, Apple recently made a Neo model that’s essentially M1 Air made with iPhone parts to be cheaper, and it’s fine for most people. It’s not because those people aren’t “demanding users”; no, it’s that the technology got so good 6 years ago that it just worked for almost everything people do. So, why wouldn’t companies raid their parts bin and market a “new” product that works just fine? If you expect technological revolutions every year, guess what: people used the same colour negative films for 20 years and they were fine. They were better than early digital, and digital had to become really good for one to migrate to it because it was better than film. When the technology is mature, you don’t have technological leaps every generation. The sensors in my cameras were first released in 2019, which makes them older than the M1 Macbook Air, and they are still great. Did Sony raid their parts bin for the A7RV and A7CR? Absolutely. Do I have a problem with that? Absolutely not. At this point, it’s like a film company developing some great emulsion, like Velvia or E100G, and that’s what you shoot in every camera. They tweak the autofocus, the viewfinder and the LCD screen, but the “film” is basically as good as it gets and so what? Kodak introduced Tri-X in 1940 and people still shoot it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Embargo has been lifted for multiple lenses and cameras simultaneously, and my YouTube feed has been full of reviews for the last few days – Sigma 85mm f\/1.2, Sony 8-14mm f\/3.5 fisheye, the new Olympus Pen with a viewfinder, Sigma … Continue reading