Optical Viewfinder - Olympus XZ-1 Tips And Tricks Manual

XZ-1 Tips page 9 of 29
XZ-1 ... a 448mm lens?
Discovered today that my Olympus XZ-1, with its 28mm - 112mm lens, actually has a
28mm - 448mm lens!
Well, sort of. As you know, the glass lens, the 'optical lens', enlarges an image 4 times,
when it zooms from 28mm to 112mm. But then, the camera's computer can enlarge it 4
more times, from 112mm to 448mm... what's called 'digital zoom.'
Now, your little camera probably can do this too. But nobody likes digital zoom, because
the image quality isn't as good as optical zoom. Pro photographers and advanced
amateurs actually SNEER at digital zoom. How bad is it? Well, my Olympus manual
flatly states "Avoid using digital zoom to take pictures (p.75)" That's bad!
But is it really? You tell me. Here are three XZ-1 pictures, taken from the same camera
position, handheld, at 28mm optical wide angle, 112mm optical telephoto, and 448mm
digital telephoto --
jon404 > digi-tele-test (Original)
Dec 31, 1969 16:00:00
My take? The digital one isn't that bad... worth trying another tomorrow with the camera
on self-timer and a beanbag. We'll see. But as of tonight, looks like my little XZ-1 just
went super-zoom!
VF-1 Optical Viewfinder
The Olympus Optical Viewfinder VF-1, which was an accessory for the Pen cameras,
works just fine on my XZ-1. It is much simpler (and a LOT less expensive) than the
newer VF-2 electronic viewfinder. It slides into the hotshoe. On a bright day, when the
LCD screen is hard to see, it's a Godsend. The field-of-view is close enough to the XZ-1's
28mm wide-angle startup lens setting... great if you're snapping pictures of fast-moving
people or objects.
There's something else. Like many of you, I treasure the XZ-1's form factor... it fits in a
shirt pocket... always there, always ready. My shirt has two pockets, and I keep the VF-1
viewfinder a polarizer, and a spare battery in the other. And that's all I need, DSLR folks!
That's it! No lens adapter, no other filters, no teleconverter adapter, no teleconverters.