gfen, The slanted top plate has a dial that surrounds an LCD. By spinning the dial, you change shutter speeds. Pretty much the same. One general fault with a true dial like the MZ-5n is that it has a limited number of positions so you can't set as many shutter speeds - for example, faster than 1/2000 (MZ-3 goes to 1/4000) or longer than 1 second, or half stop speeds, etc. Using the dial plus middle LCD readout, you can have an almost infinite (seeming) number of positions. With the readout changing as you spin, it has much the same general style as a traditional shutter speed dial.
There is an added bonus, when the camera is not in shooting mode, the dial doubles as the interface for other settings, like setting the ISO. It is quite an ingenious, clean, simple design. In fact, when you learn to lightly pull with your thumb instead of pushing against the dial, you can very easily change shutter speeds while looking through the viewfinder and still keeping your shutter finger properly placed. A traditional SS dial requires a thumb and finger to operate - clumsier. Bruce Wednesday, November 13, 2002, 8:42:51 AM, you wrote: g> On Wed, 13 Nov 2002, [iso-8859-1] Pål Jensen wrote: >> The question is whether or not the MZ-5n/3 has played out it's role. >> There's not much you can do with the MZ-5n/3 and still keep it simple. >> You can of course update the AF but you cannot have several AF points >> without redesigning or complicate the user interface. I feel that the >> MZ-S really is the updated MZ-5n/3. g> I've never held or seen an MZ-S in the flesh, does it have the same g> general layout, that is a real dial on the top to do shutter speeds
