RE: [pct-l] Film and Olympus Stylus Epic

[Ronald Moak <ronm@fallingwater.com>]

		Mark wrote >>

		In response to your comments about the Olympus Stylus
Epic. I carried the
		camera all the way on my thru hike this past summer. I
had purchased the
		camera for the very reasons you state in your post.
Unfortunately this
		camera, like so many autofocus cameras, don't always
focus where you would
		like them to. I have too many pictures from my trip
where the people in the
		foreground are out of focus and the background is in
focus. Enough pictures
		are like this to make my slide show quite disappointing.
I was sufficiently
		pissed off about it that I almost smashed the camera.
Anyway, I am going to
		get rid of the camera and find a fixed focus point and
shoot like my old
		camera. My friend Jim had the same camera, I don't know
yet whether he
		experienced the same thing or if it was a glitch in my
camera. It seemed to
		take fine landscape type photos when the camera is
focused out to infinity.
		The other annoying thing about the camera was that it
always wanted to use
		the flash if there was any kind of shadow in the frame.
You can turn it
		off, but it becomes a pain in the ass after a while.
Using 200 ASA film
		seemed to help both these problems a bit, because of the
increased depth of
		field. <<
		
Mark hi-lighted  some of the problems that are common when a point and
shoot camera is crossed with an intelligent one. His two main complaints
with the camera can be overcome with proper usage. With Autofocus you
need to put the object of interest in the hot spot of the viewfinder
first, slightly depress the shutter then re-center the frame to cover
the area of interest. The stylus has 6 different flash modes.
Unfortunately it often tends to flash when not wanted. It is possible to
disable the flash or select a different mode. For example a fill mode
maybe better for eliminating some shadows without making the primary
object to over exposed.

With this camera you need to spend sometime prior to the trip to learn
it. Shoot a couple of rolls of film in different conditions and make
notations of the type of flash etc.  When you're on the trail it's too
late. It's weeks between the time you take the photos and see the
results. With proper preparation you can get great results. However,
it's not a point and shoot camera.

Ron
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