Anyone here got an Olympus XZ-1 yet?

Jeremy Z

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I'm thinking about getting one, and am curious to hear other photographers' opinions.

I have a Canon S90 as my current compact. I love this little camera to pieces. Hoping the XZ-1 will be an improvement in some areas. (faster lens, hot shoe)

I thought about a Canon G12, but it has the same sensor as my S90 and only a marginally faster lens. (more telephoto though, and it has the hot shoe)
 
Just ordered mine from Amazon. Wanted the white one, but it is $10 more and no free shipping.

FYI - I read some reviews on the Olympus flashes, and they don't seem to be worth the premium. There are a couple reports of the $200 FL-36R failing two months out of warranty, and the customer had to pay $95 to get them fixed. The smaller bounce one, I forget the model, has overheating issues, and is also $180.

I'm going to get one of the dedicated Metz units when I recover from the camera purchase.

Also, I'm glad to see that name brand Olympus battery packs are only $10 ea. Generic are $3, but not worth the risk. I bought a couple of generic for my Canon S90, and they only last about half as long as the name brand ones.

For anyone who is curious, I'll probably make a comparison video between this and my "old" S90 soon. Lots of it should apply to the current S100, since the lens is the same speed and it has no hot shoe.
 
I am really leery on anything Olympus these days. They are headed the way of the Edsel...
 
How so, Leek?

I seem to be a fan of the underdogs; my SLR is Pentax, and they seem to have been bought and sold lately.

For a compact, one lens camera, there's no need to worry. We don't need much support for them in the way of optics; just a few accessories up front, and batteries for a good few years.
 
Congratz. I played with one at my local shop because my partner was looking for a P&S. Her exact words were..... "I want to be able to point at something and shoot it." BTW, she is NOT a photographer in the slightest, more a capture the moment girl. :lol:

The XZ-1 specs read nice, the camera handled nicely but it was slightly out of her budget. She went with the Canon S95. With the S95, at least I could have a little fun with it too.
 
I have an XZ-1 - bought it because it looked good on paper (fast lens, shoots RAW, previous Olympus I have used years ago were good) - really really regret it.

The images are noisy and suffer from distortion - I think the sensor is out of date . The included Olympus Viewer 2 software is not very good - actually it's terrible.

The main problem however is that you are limited in your options to correct images (why we shoot RAW in the first place). I use DxO Optics Pro (free 30 day trial) - fantastic program if your camera and lens (in this case your camera as lens is built in) is supported as each combination has a separate (free) module to correct distortion / CA - it isn't and I doubt that they ever will (have been requesting it for months).

Before you buy my recommendation is that (1) check that it can shoot RAW, and (2) is supported by DxO (go to www.dxo.com and check supported cameras and lenses) so at least you have the option of improving your images.
 
How so, Leek?

I seem to be a fan of the underdogs; my SLR is Pentax, and they seem to have been bought and sold lately.

For a compact, one lens camera, there's no need to worry. We don't need much support for them in the way of optics; just a few accessories up front, and batteries for a good few years.
Pentax is much more solid a company than Olympus. On top of that if they get on the ball with their higher end DSLR's they'll be sneaking up on Sony, Nikon and Canon. If I were buying an entry level DSLR without plans of going pro? I'd go Pentax. They don't cripple their entry level's like the rest do.

At this point it is strongly hinted that eventually Panasonic will buy out what little bit of Olympus that is left. And it's not much.

If you'd like to shorten my name it's MLee. MLee Kneer.
 
........ If I were buying an entry level DSLR without plans of going pro? I'd go Pentax. They don't cripple their entry level's like the rest do.
That's all well and good, but the OP was asking about a high-end compact camera, you know... a P&S.
 
If I were buying an entry level DSLR without plans of going pro? I'd go Pentax. They don't cripple their entry level's like the rest do.

I agree. At least I did 5 years ago when I bought my dSLR. Pentax had the only steel lens mounts in an entry level camera. The only kit lenses with all glass elements. One of the only SLRs that had body-integral anti-shake (along with Minolta :( )

If you'd like to shorten my name it's MLee. MLee Kneer.
Noted.


kundalani said:
That's all well and good, but the OP was asking about a high-end compact camera, you know... a P&S.

Yeah, but no one seems to have one, so I kind of went off topic with one of the only people that replied, hehehe.
 
I agree about Pentax. I'm waiting to see what the future of Pentax is now that it is a Ricoh subsidiary. If they go ahead and make a successor to the K-5 and maybe think about going full frame I'm inclined to jump ship.

But what's all this stuff about Olympus. I thought they were kicking ass in the m4/3 market? The PEN cameras consistently score better than the GF series.
 
But what's all this stuff about Olympus. I thought they were kicking ass in the m4/3 market? The PEN cameras consistently score better than the GF series.

I don't know for sure Nick, but I think they may have had a management screw-up or something. I was trying to surf to their site, so I entered 'olympus.com' in my browser, and it took me here. Seems there was some major dishonor in Olympus, to the point someone was investigated.
OLYMPUS | Global Homepage

I don't even know what happened! Still!

Olympus used to make great cameras for enthusiasts, and they are getting back to it now. That XZ-1 was a serious entry to the high-end compact sector. I think it may hamstring the new Canon GX-1 handily. We'll see. :) It has already hamstrung the S100. Canon went and put GPS in their camera, instead of a faster lens. The 24-120 lens is nice, but f/5.9? That is not the spec. of an enthusiast's camera, IMHO.
 
I agree about Pentax. I'm waiting to see what the future of Pentax is now that it is a Ricoh subsidiary. If they go ahead and make a successor to the K-5 and maybe think about going full frame I'm inclined to jump ship.

But what's all this stuff about Olympus. I thought they were kicking ass in the m4/3 market? The PEN cameras consistently score better than the GF series.

I see a lot of BUYER BEWARE kind of postings for the M4/3 saying... "is it going to be around forever if you invest?" ...and it's only getting louder as time goes on.
 
I would look for something used from the PEN line.

No thanks. I'm of the feeling that if I'm going to carry lenses and have a lens that protrudes so much, I may as well just carry my regular APS-C dSLR. It isn't the weight that has steered me towards point & shoots, it is the bulk. I guess I'm just not that committed of a photographer.

MLee - I'm not going to be an alarmist and contribute to any companies' demise. I like Olympus, and I want to see them succeed. Ditto for Pentax. I ALWAYS look at these underdogs before buying into Nikon or Canon. Sometimes, I'm happily surprised with what I see. (for example, on my old Pentax K100D, it was the best in class that year) Other times, I have to sigh and buy a Canon. (for example, with my S90)

If they're still around when my kid is old enough for her first camera, I will get an Olympus Tough for her. Or the Pentax equivalent.
 
But what's all this stuff about Olympus. I thought they were kicking ass in the m4/3 market? The PEN cameras consistently score better than the GF series.

I don't know for sure Nick, but I think they may have had a management screw-up or something. I was trying to surf to their site, so I entered 'olympus.com' in my browser, and it took me here. Seems there was some major dishonor in Olympus, to the point someone was investigated.
OLYMPUS | Global Homepage

I don't even know what happened! Still!

Olympus used to make great cameras for enthusiasts, and they are getting back to it now. That XZ-1 was a serious entry to the high-end compact sector. I think it may hamstring the new Canon GX-1 handily. We'll see. :) It has already hamstrung the S100. Canon went and put GPS in their camera, instead of a faster lens. The 24-120 lens is nice, but f/5.9? That is not the spec. of an enthusiast's camera, IMHO.

You might want to look at fourthirdsphoto.com. There's plenty of talk there about Olympus going under. Also good site for 4/3 info.
 

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