Certainly, but as I will point out below, there are some parts that will fall in opinion, others in fact. The subdivision of computer science and psychology that explore human understanding/interfaces is real and without a way to get beyond mere subjective opinion, they would not exist.
That would be the case except there are some real reviewers in this list that have quite a bit of experience by now with Olympus interface, and the commentary on interface issues is pretty much at this point unanimous vs the competitors, from them. This is not a coincidence, nor is it because 'it's Olympus."
To be clear, when I speak about Olympus here is from my own direct experience. I have been using several Olympus models since 4/3rds days starting with the e-volt e-300.
Certainly one can learn work arounds. But a work around is not the same as not having the issue in the first place.
To be clear when I commented on explanations- the issue is not whether the explanations are useless or useful but that they added them as a bandaid instead of solving the increasing complexity of their UI.
You just gave a valid example of something that is better than virtually the rest of all m43rds cameras Olympus did UI wise, and an example where Olympus tried to make things better. It's still in need of simplification though. But I want to point out just how one change makes things a bit better, pointing out to the fact that Olympus UI in several areas is unnecessarily complex.
Finding work arounds while better than nothing, is not better than solving the problem.
Several of the issues I talk about that go beyond opinion have nothing to do with extra buttons on the grip.
Certainly. But I have been doing quite a bit at the PenF, and again, this doesn't mean the UI doesn't have issues that should be resolved.
But again, that's not the issue. The issue is not whether you can use muscle memory to overcome issues, but whether there are issues that could be resolved int he first place and/or competitors solved them and do better.
The Panasonic UI and several competitors are better than Olympus. So they could be improved, but they are not as in dire improvement as Olympus is. This part could be part opinion but shooting with a Panasonic and Olympus side to side reveals several obvious conveniences for the Panasonic over the Olympus.
I am going to give you just one example of a factual- not opinion, not subjective- thing that Olympus is doing right now that competitors are doing better. I think I mentioned it before- but it's the lack of AF rectangle point mode that clearly shows you where the camera will focus.
On the Panasonic, Fuji, Pentax Q, Nikon 1 J4/J5 for starters, the single focus point is clearly delineated by a white rectangle. Both Pentax and Panasonic have a small black outline so in super bright situations you can still see it, but with Fuji they get visibility in the vast majority of the cases anyway.
Olympus PenF/ OMD EM5? Not so. If you are using the view finder you can see the little alpha blended grey dark brackets. You can mark the display. With EVF not a huge problem. With LCD, particularly trying to shoot at an angle- good lord. At night? Impossible to see pretty much.
This alone makes it extremely difficult to know where you are single-point AFing. You can tap on the Olympus once to reveal it with a green outline, but now every time you take a shot you have to tap again.
Turns out Olympus has the rectangle touch / re-sizable area mode but it has several obvious issues:
- responds a bit slow (You really need to try this on the Panasonic)
- most importantly- it's completely exclusively modal with bringing the super control panel with the OK button. So you get out of that mode if you want that.
- Worse- it shares the magnification with both the super spot focus mode and the MF magnify assist (those two should be separate on their own right anyway).
What this ends up being is a *lot* of tapping, clicking and sometimes making mistakes because you are at the wrong magnification and/or mode, making this mode where you do have a visible rectangle an unnecessary PITA to use, particularly compared to what you see in other workflows.
These extra clicks are obvious. So is the fact that the other mode doesn't show you in a clear manner where you are focusing when using the LCD. This is not subjective- this is pretty factual.
The UI has several things like these. If you pick an original E-1 / e-300 you won't see this kind of complexity. Olympus just kept adding and adding getting new UI over old/keeping the old.
Anyhow, there are more examples but this should be good enough. You should really check how Panasonic implemented pin point focus- it runs circles around Olympus super spot focus.
I love the PenF raw files and color, but I decided to finally put it down in favor of using the GX850 for street life (it focuses also far faster and much more accurately overall). And later on hopefully Panasonic will release a 20 MP with new sensor GX85 or GX8 follow up and I may very well consider that as my pro camera option.
I'll keep the PenF for a bit longer. I used to shoot an event last weekend. The IBIS was nice, though IBIS is something that is starting to show up in more and more Panasonic models.
- Ricardo
