Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert
Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert
Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert
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4<br />
olympuse-30<br />
A Four Thirds SLR with semi-pro aspirations<br />
T he<br />
E-3isbased on the<br />
Olympus Four Thirds<br />
system, introduced for<br />
the ‘digital age’.Itseems<br />
alittleodd to stick with the :<br />
aspect ratio nowthe worldhas gone<br />
widescreen, but at least the E-3<br />
can also shoot stills in the more<br />
conventional : aspect ratio,as<br />
well as in : widescreen. Another<br />
downside is thatlenses have a.x<br />
focal length conversion factor, so<br />
depth of field isn’t as tight as with<br />
<strong>Digital</strong><strong>Camera</strong> July2010<br />
most SLRs. This is bad news for<br />
portraiturebut canbeabonus when<br />
shooting landscapes.<br />
The build quality feels reassuringly<br />
weightyand rugged, despitebeing<br />
based on aglassfibre-reinforced<br />
plastic shell, and enablescomfortable<br />
“Olympus claims a five-stop<br />
advantagefor itsSensorShift<br />
image stabilisation system”<br />
Around the back… OLYMPUS E-30<br />
not a great button layout, but some nice features<br />
Viewfinder<br />
The pentaprism<br />
design offers a huge<br />
1.02x magnification<br />
with 98% coverage<br />
LCD screen<br />
The tilt and pivot<br />
function is handy<br />
forLiveView, but it<br />
only has 230k pixels<br />
Control buttons<br />
They're not laid out<br />
well, but do provide<br />
quick access to key<br />
camera settings<br />
IS button<br />
The three-mode<br />
image stabiliser has<br />
to be manually<br />
switched here<br />
Second LCD The top plate LCD is flanked by<br />
four dual-purpose shooting option buttons<br />
Mode dial A wide selection of effects and<br />
scene modes are available on the Mode dial<br />
handling. The big,bright pentaprism<br />
viewfinder is particularly easy on the<br />
eye,offeringaclass-leading 1.02x<br />
magnification and a secondary LCD<br />
on the topplate makes it quick and<br />
easy to keep tabs on camera settings.<br />
Around the back, the main LCD<br />
includesapivoting system, which is<br />
handy for Live View shooting.<br />
Other headline features include<br />
Olympus’sprovenTruePic III+ image<br />
processing system and afast11-point<br />
autofocus system with the advantage<br />
that all focus points are fully biaxial,<br />
whereasonlythe central AF point is<br />
bi-directional in mostcameras, the<br />
other AF pointsonlyworking in<br />
either the vertical or horizontal plane.<br />
Other finery includes a built-in<br />
sensor-shift imagestabilisation<br />
system, which Olympus claims gives<br />
a five-stop advantage, although our<br />
real worldtests suggestedthree stops<br />
was about the limit and if you feel the<br />
need for speed, the E-30 has a nippy<br />
burst rate of 5fps and an impressively<br />
fast maximum shutterspeed of<br />
1/8000 sec. Ultimately, however,<br />
the E-30 feels very pricey without<br />
the inclusion of HD video.<br />
FEATuRES<br />
IMAGE QuALITy<br />
Overall<br />
hANDLING<br />
VALuE
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