> Anyways, seems we are not disagreeing much, just a peeing contest. 
> Also
> seems you win, so I will defer to the amateur with 1.5 eyes, has 
> played
> with the E330,  and has a big wedding to capture...

Sorry if I came across over enthusiastic.
I was hoping to convey the very real advantages of the EVF which I 
know is typically much derided by SLR true-believers. One needs to be 
something of an evangelist in such cases and it's easy to overdo it 
:-).

And to set things straight, I didn't mean to imply I'd actually laid 
hands on an E-330 - I haven't - don't know what I said that conveyed 
that, but wasn't intended. All I know is from the superb DPREVIEW and 
Stevesdigicams pre-release reviews.

And I'm certainly not wanting to suggest that the E-330 is perfect. 
It's just that I see it as the 'breach in the dam' that others must 
and will follow. Once someone makes an EVF plus optical DSLR the 
advantages will be seen (pun intended) and others will join.

The E-330 does at least one thing really really really badly, and you 
can expect to see the competition remedy this really promptly. In EVF 
mode there is a totally bizarre 1 second shutter delay while it, 
apparently, drops out of EVF mode, closes the shutter and restarts its 
brain in picture taking mode. My dear departed 7Hi quite happily went 
fro very quick EVF update mode to photo taking mode with a shutter lag 
that was so small as to be essentially unnoticeable. While one learns 
to "lead" a camera to compensate for shutter delay I believe that any 
there was was minimal. Certainly under 0.1s and I think well under 
that. If an EVF/LCD hybrid can't match that then it's in trouble.

Summary of what I was trying to say

- SLRs and DSLRs have the advantage of providing an optical path to 
the viewfinder. Many people value this for various reasons including 
smooth response (obviously) and high resolution.

- A camera with an EVF (electronic view finder) allows many advantages 
that are *impossible* to obtain with a pure SLR/DSLR. This is not just 
a matter of "different" - because an EVF can deal with the data prior 
to the photo being taken the user can be shown information which the 
DSLR cannot access until after the photo is taken. Users may not use 
the live histogram, real view of what will be captured, zoom 
focus,true DOF at all times (if desired) , .... BUT the capabilities 
are there if desired to be used.

- A SLR may provide alternatives to compensate for the facilities that 
are provided by the EVF camera but these equally able to be added to 
the EVF camera. The SLR forever lacks certain abilities. Whether these 
are felt to be important is up to each user.

- EVFs typically lack visual resolution compared to optical view, and 
response times can be poor. But the best EVFs are becoming extremely 
good and EVF delays can be as good as eg LCD monitor screens - 
essentially "realtime". An EVF camera can use many software "tricks" 
such as bright up, zoom focus etc to compensate for less than optical 
quality performance.

- A camera with an EVF and true DSLR capability will bridge the gap 
between the two modes.  The E-330 does this.

- The E-330 is a first attempt and is crippled by a stunningly bad 
shutter response time in EVF mode due (apparently) to inexplicably bad 
design decisions. No doubt these are a product of practical realities 
and cost.

- Despite the above, IMHO, the E-330 is the start of a landslide that 
will see ALL DSLRs incorporate an EVF mode.

- As EVFs improve the capabilities of the optical path will be 
equalled and then exceeded until ultimately the SLR fades into 
history.

- There will always be a place for SLRs as long as there are old men 
(or very old boys) in the world :-)
(I still have my SRT303B).



            RM 

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