I bought a compact camera - Olympus ZX-1 first look by me

[Mondo]

A quite summary/review, I won't go into great details on its spec, if you want to read up on it. There are plenty of info for that online. The main one that I concern about is

F/1.8 lens (with IS) (F/2.5 at length)
HD 720 video at 30fps
10mp
SD card

First - Size

It is tiny to what i am used to, actually fit in my pocket.

Picture speaks a thousand words.

Aluminium (or some kind of metal alloy) body, well screwed together, the only plastic part is the flash pop up, lens cap, dials and some buttons.





Second - Photo

First outing with it, it cannot be in a more difficult situation. I basically got the camera at 1pm at Birmingham, took the train to London and charge the battery on the way down on the train and in the hotel, then left at 6. Didn't read the manual (can't, the manual is in the CD, not a booklet!) so I winged it like a man would lol

So I went to see Kate Voegele in a gig in Dingwalls in Camden...dark, spot lights (red for that matter, it is a bitch for camera sensors).

I set the ISO to 100, and intend to take more videos than pictures really but I did take some pictures. All these are 1/15th, ISO 100, some at 1.8, some at 2.0 or 2.5.

I shot all the photos from the same spot. (can see in photo 3)

1


2


3


4


I am pretty please with it, considering the condition, first time using it (it means it is not difficult to get to grips with), really good IS capabilities to compensate 1/15th that I was shooting with.

Most of my rejects were blurred shots from her moving as I was shooting at 1/15th.

Third - video

What is odd is the metering, spot metering in particular. Although you can choose different zones to focus, when I used spot metering (had to, 1 singer with spotlight on stage), when shooting video, you get a grid that has a centre part and if I deviate out the main subject out of that centre square, it over expose the singer.

Also, the AF also keep on hunting in video mode in the dark...then later I found out when I got back to the hotel there is a manual focus, although it was too late so I haven't figure out how to use that yet.

Video is pretty good, not had a chance to watch them all yet so may put them up later but pictures wise...not bad eh! All in all considering!