« [ IN THE PRIME(S) ] | Main | [ HELP, MY CAMERA IS AN IDIOT–PART 2 ] »
January 30, 2008
[ REVIEW—OLYMPUS E-3 DSLR ]
Price: $2500 (body only)
Olympus woos the pros
The low-down: The E-3 is aimed at professional and well-heeled amateurs. It is built around the Four Thirds system and has a 10 megapixel sensor. As befits a professional camera, bound to take some hard knocks, it is rugged and well sealed against dust and water. Effective image stabilisation is built into the camera body – a 5 stop advantage is claimed and we found that hand-held telephoto shots were sharp down to 1/25 second. The viewfinder displays 100% of the image area and the LCD screen can also be used as a viewfinder in “Live” mode. The LCD swivels, but it is small by comparison with the Canon/Nikon alternatives. Olympus pioneered automatic dust removal and the E-3 has an improved version of the Supersonic Wave Filter system. Both CF and xD memory cards can be used.
Like: Picture quality is consistently good, although we found the default saturation and contrast settings a little high. The shooting information is displayed on a body-top LCD and on the preview screen as well as in the viewfinder. The 12–60mm f2.8–4 lens (RRP $1500) that most customers will buy as part of the kit is of a higher quality than the lenses supplied with lesser cameras. The designation “kit” does it an injustice.
Dislike: The only reservation we have about this camera applies to all in the Four Thirds camp – the sensor area is smaller than the more conventional APS-C cameras. This means that the photo receptors are smaller and therefore noise is slightly more noticeable. However, up to ISO400 this is not an issue. Ergonomics could be better. We prefer a mode selection dial to the E-3’s combination of button plus selector wheel.
Verdict: The Olympus E-3 is a fine camera, but whether it will woo professionals away from their Canons and Nikons with larger sensors and bigger installed lens and accessorie bases remains to be seen. The price seems about right by comparison with the competition, being $400 cheaper for the body than for a Nikon D300. And while the 12–60mm lens is expensive it is also high quality. We achieved consistently satisfying results straight from the camera with no Photoshop tweaking needed.
[There are sample images from the Olympus E-3 in the Gallery]
*
Posted by terry at January 30, 2008 05:32 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://bleedingedge.com.au/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1411