The bundled lenses were as big as most equivalent competing designs, and sometimes bigger. But these two lenses finally deliver on the promise of smaller optics. The 3x lens is only smaller by a nose, but the takes you to mm equivalence in a remarkably small space. The other major goal of the Four-Thirds system was to be "designed for digital. This was a smart way for these companies to keep their loyal lens owners by giving them a safe upgrade path.
But Olympus argued that digital sensors themselves required a different approach to avoid light falloff in the corners, among other problems. According to our tests, the approach may be helping. Though other manufacturers have come out with their own digital-specific lenses, it seems these two new lenses outperform the two most popular manufacturers' kit lenses. More on that later. Look and Feel. I should note that the E body style is not new to most of the world, as it's essentially identical to the E introduced in Europe last year.
But it's new to the US, so I'll go on about it as if it's new. Old and new. The Olympus E is so small that it begs comparison to many cameras. I happen to have all of these here, including the OM-1, and the comparison is interesting. It's amazing to think that the OM-1 is all gears and springs, and the E is mostly transistors. Olympus says they hid a little tribute to the OM-1 under the E and E's pop-up flash. I won't actually compare the two, except to say that the OM-1 is wider and thinner, with a shorter prime lens.
Olympus took an extra step, however, to invoke the memory of their OM-series cameras. If you pop up the E's flash, you can see the same shape found on the OM-1's pentaprism housing. It's a subtle, but interesting homage. Because of the natural shape of a pentaprism or Penta-mirror, you'll find a similar shape under the Rebel XTi's flash; but I'll take Olympus's word that they did this on purpose. It's more of a contour than a grip, but easy to get used to, with a nice textured surface.
It's more of subtle arrangement of contours that help enhance your hold. There's a soft well on the back for your thumb, and a raised ridge on the front. Both are enhanced by a soft, textured, rubbery surface to improve traction.
The sensation really does bring back the old days of slim, gripless camera bodies. It reduces the bulk of the camera overall, and makes it look slimmer. Holding the E for long periods of time is not as easy as holding an E or even the Rebel XTi, whose grip is very small, and it gets even harder if you attach a long zoom or heavy prime lens to the E, but when I'm just headed out for some casual shooting, the E's small profile and small lenses are just right.
I was pretty partial to the E's power switch on the top deck just behind the shutter button, so I'm a little less excited about the power switch jutting out from the back of the E When off, the switch is a little close to the Control dial, so you have to press your thumb into it to get a good grip.
Though less than ideal for speed, it's probably better, since it makes accidental activation less likely. Simple controls. From placement to function, the controls work very well. The Mode dial sits atop the power switch, and has just the right stiffness to maintain its position while riding around in a bag.
The Control dial to the right of this is excellent. It has just the right feel as you turn it through its detents, with a tactile feedback and sound that's very similar to the OM-1's dials. The Shutter button is out on the front of the top deck.
I prefer grip-mounted shutter buttons, but once my hand has found a comfortable grip on the E, my index finger quite naturally rests on the shutter button, so no harm there.
If you shoot in Manual mode, you press this button to adjust the Aperture, since there's no dedicated dial. Most consumer SLRs have this requirement. Flash and Drive mode buttons are on the left of the top deck, and a very common set of buttons is on the back. Card door. The card cover conceals not one, but two types of memory card slot. Storage and Power. This is great for those already invested in either kind of card. Most pro SLRs use CF, so E-1 owners will already have storage for these new cameras; but consumers who own a digicam that uses xD can also step into the E with less initial cost.
There are two benefits to using CF, however: speed and capacity. Using a regular speed xD card, we managed only 9 frames, and it took 26 seconds to save the data off. With Live View mode off, the E can capture around shots with its slim 7. I have trouble getting the pack to come out of the unit we have. It seems like the spring on the retention latch is a little strong, and the pack doesn't come out far enough to grasp.
Initially I had to use my Leatherman to grab the battery, but it's loosening up a bit after a few weeks of use. An optical viewfinder is where you get the best speed with any SLR, and that's true with the Olympus E The viewfinder is cramped, unfortunately, and Olympus puts the status display off to the right of the viewfinder window, rather than across the bottom, which means I can't see it without pressing my glasses into the rubber eyecup and peering to the right of the viewfinder.
There is good news, though. If I take off my glasses and press my nose in against the left of the camera, I can get right in there, and the diopter can compensate for my vision. No other brand makes a camera that compensates for my nearsightedness out of the box. I think most users would appreciate greater magnification from the viewfinder, as well as a higher eyepoint.
Live View. Though it increases shutter lag, Live View offers some intriguing possibilities. As these roll by above, you'll see the different modes available by pressing the INFO button.
The green box can be moved around the Live View screen; then you press the OK button to zoom in 10x and verify focus. Handy for fine tripod work. If you press the OK button when out of the zoom mode, a modified translucent Status display comes up allowing you to change major settings on the fly. From a technology perspective, the company that gave us smaller SLRs, Focal Plane flash sync, and automatic dust removal is once again taking the lead, deploying the second generation of full-time live preview SLRs for consumers.
Unfortunately, their implementation doesn't jibe with consumer expectations. It's not just expectations, but the problem of the marketing department promising something that the engineering department hasn't quite built.
I'm reminded of something close to my heart, the Apple Newton fiasco. They were incredible handheld computers, and people who see them today -- even those who own the most advanced modern handheld computers -- marvel at the design and interface. But because the Newton's handwriting recognition wasn't perfect, the public and media panned them. Handwriting recognition was only one aspect of the Newton, but because that was its most potentially impressive feature, when it didn't work perfectly for all types of handwriting, people saw it as flawed.
After all, it had no physical keyboard, so bad handwriting recognition made it worthless, right? Not quite. Onscreen keyboards were also part of the Newton, and data entry was easy with this method; and the Newton would gradually learn your handwriting. Today, digicam users seldom look through their optical viewfinders. They've grown accustomed to holding their cameras out in front of them and composing on the LCD. Never mind that this method introduces more shake than holding the camera to your eye; it's more comfortable, usually more accurate, and easier to envision your print on a larger, backlit screen.
Surely a digital SLR with a Live View mode will attract millions of digicam users looking for the same functionality they love in their digicam. And that's what buyers will think and retailers will emphasise when discussing the Olympus E and E But there's a problem. One thing digicam owners quickly grow to dislike more than small, cramped optical viewfinders is extreme shutter lag. That's the time between when you press the shutter button and when the camera actually captures an image.
Well, Live View introduces significant and widely varying shutter lag, ranging from a half second to three or more seconds depending on whether the camera can focus on the subject.
There's your handwriting recognition on the wall. It's not that Olympus is entirely marketing these two cameras exclusively as Live View SLRs, but because they're the first with Live View, people will expect the E to work just like their digicam; and further, because it's an SLR they will also expect it to have lower shutter lag than their digicam. But both notions are incorrect. Compared to XTi. One is taller and the other wider, but the E is just a little smaller overall than the XTi.
Both have dust reduction, but only the E has Live View. When you do, the image freezes and the mirror and shutter flip closed until focus is achieved. Then your live image returns and the selected AF point illuminates onscreen.
Depending on how contrasty your subject is, you can focus in around a half second, or it might take a few. It also might never focus. You can move the camera to a more contrasty subject, but you won't be able to see just where you've moved it until the camera focuses and your live view returns. Sound frustrating? It is. You can also just trust that the Olympus E will focus properly, press the shutter all the way, and it will usually focus right before it fires.
Shutter lag in this mode is 0. For comparison, if you shoot with the optical viewfinder, the shutter lag does full autofocus in 0. The preflash is a lot faster, but somehow the E manages to be slower overall. And that's the true pitfall of Live View: those who choose it as their main shooting mode will think the E is the slowest camera they've ever used. It's the perception, not the truth that stands to hurt Olympus's reputation.
But that need not be the case, which is why I've bothered to explain all that. As I suggested in my preview of the Olympus E, you'll want to use the optical viewfinder for most shots, because you want to eliminate as much shutter lag as possible. But as I've spent time with both cameras, I have been surprised by just how often I use Live View mode. Taking a picture of my son sleeping on the floor, I realized the shot would be a little better if I could get directly above him, but without my feet in the shot.
If only I could hold the camera out over him and still see through the viewfinder, I thought to myself. Then I remembered Live View. Just press the button on the back, compose on the LCD, and press the shutter button.
So long as there's sufficient contrast under one of the three AF points, and I hold the camera still, the mirror will flip down, the camera will focus, and the mirror will flip back up to capture the image.
In this situation, I don't care that it's slow. He's sleeping, after all. The noise of the multiple shutter sounds might wake him up, but not in this case. The point is that Live View is a feature of the Olympus E that you won't get many other places, but it's not the main mode you should use. Most of the chief benefits of an SLR are found in the optical viewfinder: You're seeing exactly what the lens sees, and what the sensor will see once you press the shutter.
Compared to an LCD display, you're getting your information at the speed of light, not filtered and delayed through oodles of electronic circuits before it gets to the LCD.
Live View is great -- a worthwhile feature -- but it's nowhere near as great as an actual live view at , miles per second , km per second. Keep it in perspective, and the E is a little more versatile than most digital SLRs because it offers both. I was also surprised to see the Live View image change to black and white in very low light.
This presumably allows the Olympus E to gain up without significant color speckles dancing on the screen. It also gives clearer detail. You can't see it in the first shot, but open the Auto Levels version and the dust becomes visible click on the images to see larger versions. In our testing, the E apparently gathered no dust from start to finish, but it didn't manage to shake any loose, either.
These are just stubborn pieces of dust that will have to be cleaned from the SuperSonic Wave Filter. Dust suppression. Olympus was also the first to take on this challenge. Dust was always a problem with film, but now it's worse. Film caused scratches on the emulsion while moving through the camera, and stuck to negatives and slides in storage. Seldom did it affect a single frame during capture; and if it did, that would change when the film advanced to the next frame.
With digital, there is no advance to the next frame. The sensor is the same shot to shot, so any dust that sticks to the glass just sits there, affecting each frame the same as the last. Now that Olympus has enabled Live View, the problem is magnified because the sensor can be exposed to dust for minutes instead of fractions of a second.
So far, it looks like Olympus's dust solution is still the most effective. What dust it doesn't shake off is substantially blurred in the final exposure.
I'll have to take brief issue again with the marketing strategy, because once again they're overselling a good thing. The main E brochure I received is full of wonderfully worded overstatement: "Dust.
It's everywhere. It's annoying. It's relentless. It must be stopped. We've declared war on dust. And driven it out of our cameras. I'm an Olympus fan from way back, but I'm concerned about these claims. Any experienced camera owner can tell you not to change lenses in areas where dust -- especially sand -- is "swirling. My understanding is that while some of Olympus's high-end lenses are sealed to resist dust and moisture, these two new lenses are not.
You'll never get all of it out, and your camera will never be the same. The E might indeed be a good camera for use in dusty environments, but please wait for the dust to settle before you change lenses.
Had Olympus not made these claims, I'd have been able to say that their Super Sonic Wave Filter works well to remove many types of dust, and the body is sealed to keep most dust out.
Be aware, however, that even if the body were perfectly sealed and you never removed the lens, dust still enters through zooming and focusing the lens, and dust can even come from the camera's internal components, especially the fast-moving shutter and mirror mechanism.
The good news is that Olympus's system works well; but the truth is that you'll still periodically need to clean the sensor, as you will with all other brands. As I mentioned, the buttons and dials are great on the E, but the digital interface is important too. Their implementation of the Status display makes adjusting most settings very easy. Unless you're in Live View mode, the Status display is present for about ten seconds after you release the shutter button.
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Razer has announced a major refresh of its Blade notebook series. The Razer Blade 14, 15 and inch models have received performance upgrades, design improvements, a new webcam, a new keyboard and much more. Submit a News Tip! Reading mode: Light Dark. Login Register. Best cameras and lenses. Tags: olympus.
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