No, this is not about the quality of a budget hotel chain! This is about EVIL IBIS cameras!
EVIL = Electronic View-finder Interchangeable Lens
IBIS = I Body Image Stabilization
In other words, cameras able to stabilize images by legacy glass, despite lacking a mirror equipped with an eyepiece.
CSC, i.e. Compact System Cameras, put me off for quite a while. Why would you want to buy a camera having the worst of both worlds, the price of a decent SLR set and the cumbersome composing of a picture using a small close-by screen unfit for bright light?!
For a long time, it did not make any sense to me, why people would actually like those CSCs. Cameras like the Canon G15 (which I really love using) have the resort of an optical view-finder, helping out in certain situations. Furthermore, looking at a small screen, which requires a close distance, puts a lot of strain to the eyes. Using a cheap point'n shoot for a while causes me problems with my eyes. (this may just be me...)
As I wrote above, the hype about CSCs does not make any sense to me.
However, there is an exception to this! The solution of which will follow downstream the text... I promise!
There is a P&S camera, which I love a lot and therefore frequently use, the Panasonic Lumix LX7. The camera sports a brilliant lens (f/1.4 by Leica!) and some very outstanding electronic features, e.g. AE-bracketing@11fps. However, there is no view-finder coming with the camera, causing the problem stated above.
Have I mentioned Leica above?! Leica and Panasonic together make photographic equipment onder the brand Lumix. Panasonic and Olympus are in close collaboration with Epson. Epson is making EVFs (Electronic View Finders) for both, Olympus and Panasonic. Some of said EVFs actually fit on Leica digital cameras. Knowing all that, I made a mistake (or was it)!
I bought an Olympus VF-2 via ebay (the VF-2 is discontinued!) since it was mentioned to be compatible with the Leica cameras, and also since it was discussed as the superior EVF for Olympus PEN cameras (cf. youtube for both those statements).
The VF-2 came, all the way from Japan.... and did not fit onto my Lumix LX7... (bugger!)
I am not religious in any way, I think. Also, I do not believe in karma... But maybe there is some to the last mentioned... be it fate...
What to do with the best EVF Olympus created, not fitting any camera? Sell it? No, not really! In the future (and this I experienced a lot) things one really wants, may be harder to get!
Hence, I decided to go back to my
original digital-photography roots and bought an Olympus camera! The
E-PM2 (an EVIL IBIS!), w/ 2 lenses and an external flash. Of course there is a story behind selecting the PEN Mini 2, and not the E-PL5, but this wont be discussed here.
There may even be a point in time were I will discard any other system, following the example of David Thorpe.
My EVIL IBIS is an Olympus E-PM2, which, without the EVF (VF-2), I would have never considered in the first place. Karma made me buying a discontinued thing, which wont fit my gear, so that I could find out, how cool cameras w/o a flipping mirror are (not putting any strain on my eyes when operating it!).
