Olympus E-3: First Impressions
This has been a long wait: in a market where the life of a digital camera can be measured in months rather than years, the three year wait for Olympus' follow-up to their i* (where * can be either '-conic' or '-diosyncratic', according to your taste) E-1 DSLR has been an ice age. While competitors' cameras, and even Olympus' own consumer DSLRs have leapt ahead in resolution and specification, the E-1 has soldiered on with its modest 5 Megapixel sensor and tank-like build quality, continuing to delight those of us who value a photographer's camera over one designed to tick specification checkboxes. That's something of an Olympus tradition – like that other industry iconoclast, Apple, Olympus have rarely headlined on numbers, but have usually delivered where it counts: build quality, lens quality and sheer usability - I'm actually sitting here with my heirloom Olympus OM-2n beside me, rediscovering just what a joy it is to hold and use – I really do believe that cameras that feel the product of precision engineering by people who care inspire better image creation than those that come across as marketing-led, cost-driven consumer electronics. So does the new 10MP E-3 fall into that most desirable of categories?
Firstly though, a small disclaimer: This isn't a press review camera but my own beast, purchased with semi-real money. Nor is this intended to be a 'numbers and menus' review - life being far too short for that – but rather my first impressions of it and how it performs in daily use.
I've also have had a Canon EOS 5D on hand, so I'm now working on some comparisons with that, for publication as soon as I can set some Photoshopping time aside.
First Impressions
Tearing aside an infeasibly large shipping box reveals a surprisingly small Olympus box inside – surprisingly as my biggest pre-purchase disappointment with the E-3 has been its apparent bulk and weight: I went with the 4/3 System partly to minimise the lardage of my camera equipment, so to find a 4/3 DSLR that appears to outweigh and outbulk both APS-C and Full Frame-based Canons and Nikons was something I was less than gruntled about.
Equally reassuring is that the feel and heft of the camera haven't changed: the build quality is superb and right up there with the E-1, with the exceptions of a slightly flimsier feeling card access door and lighter weight catches for the memory and battery doors. Picking up the Canon 5D, I'm struck by how it feels both insubstantial and bulky by comparison - the E-3 is both more compact and denser, as though carved from neutronium. This I like. The next thing that strikes is the sheer number of buttons scattered over the surface of the E-3, enough to elicit an awestruck "blimey!" from the passing 5D owner. Three things contribute to this: Olympus' philosophy of providing at least three ways to do anything; to the fact that there is a lot of functionality here and to the fact that Olympus do arrange their buttons around the camera, in places that make sense ergonomically rather than visually - the straight rows of buttons on other cameras might look less cluttered to the eye, but are complete buggers to use by feel, with camera to the eye. That said, I'd say that the basic ergos of the E-3 are slightly inferior to those of the E-1: the mode dial has been moved into software and the front selection dial is now below the shutter release rather than above it, restricting the number of digits that can be used with it and the directions from which it can be accessed: minor but occasionally significant stuff. Likewise when the HLD-4 battery grip is fitted: it's just a little less curved along the front edge than the E-1's HLD-2 and thus feels just a touch more cumbersome to hold – the whole ensemble feels (and is) notably bulkier than the E-1/HLD-2 combination.
One further disappointment: The E-3 ships with the BCM-2 battery charger, rather than the BCM-1 that came with the E-1. The BCM-2 is notably smaller and lighter than the BCM-1, but takes twice as long to charge the battery: not what I'd expect from Olympus' pro product. The HLD-4 takes two BLM-1 batteries, but does not ship with any means of charging two at once. Again, Olympus not thinking through its users' needs. Tch.
Weights and Measures
Never trust manufacturers' weight figures, as they all clearly fill cameras with helium and then weigh them on Mars. I use my trusty digital kitchen scales and measure camera bodies with strap, battery and card (but no body cap) and lenses with lens hood, lens cap and (where applicable) tripod mount, but without back cap. Doing so gives me an idea of just how much I'll instantaneously be hanging off my neck, as opposed to stuffing in my backpack. So, some numbers:
- E-1 Body only: 806g, 1291g with the f2.8-3.5 14-54mm lens
- E-3 Body only: 936g, 1421g with the f2.8-3.5 14-54mm lens
- E-1 Body only, with SHLD-2: 1156g, 1641g with the f2.8-3.5 14-54mm lens
- E-3 Body only, with HLD-4: 1320g, 1805g with the f2.8-3.5 14-54mm lens
- Canon 5D Body only: 954g, 1699g with the f4 24-105mm IS L lens
Getting Started
Battery and card inserted, the E-3 powers up very smartly, now with a spurious flashing blue LED to indicate that the SuperSonic Wave Filter is doing its stuff. Menus are bright and clear, with most of the core functions accessible from the main menu, navigated by the keypad, from the status LED atop the camera using the mode dials and from use of the "direct access" buttons scattered liberally around the body. More confusing to describe than to use, I like having the flexibility to set the camera up however I choose. A number of the buttons are customisable to a high degree, and it'll be a while before I've got everything set 'just so' for me – it's even possible to customise the controls so that their function depends on the mode the camera is in, and there are two complete 'my mode' settings to allow you to save common shooting settings and access them with a single touch.
Once I discover that the direct access buttons do different things depending on which of the two mode dials I'm using, I get set up to shoot quickly enough: card in, drop the camera into RAW mode and Aperture Priority, program the rear shooting dial (referred to as the 'main' dial - something that confuses me) for exposure compensation and I'm away.
The view from the bridge is good: the viewfinder is notably larger and brighter than that of the E-1, although both are put to shame by the size (but not the brightness) of the viewfinder image of the OM-2n: a camera half the size and a quarter of a century older! The apparent size and brightness of the viewfinder appear very similar to the Canon EOS 40D, once allowance is made for the difference in aspect ratio.
Comprehensive shooting information is displayed along the bottom of the viewfinder and the autofocus, indicated by the 11 focus points, is fast and precise. It's a real pleasure to have a thoroughly modern focussing system – the three-point system of the E-1 was fine for most 'normal' use, but completely useless for fast action work: whenever I was shooting motorsport I'd have to switch to manual focus and pre-focus on one spot on the track. The E-3's continuous autofocus mode also appears to have a predictive servo, which I'll put to the test the next time the local swans do a low flypast in what passes for daylight at this latitude.
Now we come to two 'new' features of the E-3: the image stabiliser and the Live View LCD. I've been looking forward to the IS system - to suddenly have every Zuiko lens I possess stabilised is a wonderful notion, and one that seems to work very well in practice - a couple of the shots in the test gallery were, you will see, shot at 1/50s at 400mm equivalent, not normally a workable combination for handholding. Olympus claim a hefty five-stop advantage for the IS system - something that's hard to verify but, even on first trials, I'll allow it an easy three stops until I have the chance to put it through its paces more rigorously.
I wasn't, to be honest, bothered about having the Live View feature. Until I used it, that is: it's axiomatic that the best height to have a tripod set for creative purposes always turns out to be the least comfortable height for looking through the viewfinder, so to be able to rotate the LCD to a comfortable position then just switch to Live View is an absolute godsend, and one for which my creaking knees will be forever grateful. It's not for action shooting, being rather slow in switching modes or in focussing, but for tripod-based landscapes, macro work and the occasional over-the-head shot, it's brilliant. Live view also provides a very useful live colour histogram – there doesn't appear to be a facility to have this displayed when shooting through the viewfinder, something that is rather deeply annoying, and I'd very much like to see Olympus remedy this with a firmware upgrade.
Focus is very fast, and works well in low light, even without popping up the flash to act as a focus assist lamp. It's worth noting that I'm using my existing 14-54mm lens rather than the new 12-60mm SWD lens, which in combination with the E-3, Olympus claim world-leading autofocus speeds. In any case, it's usefully brisk, noticeably better than either the E-1 or the 5D. Even without using the pop-up flash as the autofocus illuminator, the E-3 is very noticeably better than the 5D at low light focussing. While the use of the flash as a focus-assist works well, it scarcely makes for unobtrusive low-light shooting: the red pattern grid projected by the E-1's built-in lamp was far more subtle.
I haven't played overmuch with the metering yet, but the ESP metering is a useful evolution of the excellent system in the E-1, and the E-3 adds both highlight and shadow-biased spot metering to its portfolio of tricks. What's missing from this and every other current camera (warning: personal hobbyhorse forthcoming) is the old multi-spot metering system from Canons of yore, where the camera would integrate multiple spot meter readings of your choice into an overall exposure value – something I still miss from my T-90 days and a perfect Zone System tool.
Also tweaked rather than changed is the White Balance setup, which continues the Olympus irony of providing a huge range of adjustments to White Balance whilst not actually needing them – the auto White Balance is so good that it rarely needs the range of adjustments provided.
A few trial shots in the can and it's time to hook up to my Mac for transfer. Unlike the E-1, which provided both USB2 and Firewire interfaces, the E-3 has only USB2, this time behind a simple rubber flap rather than a proper door. On the E-1, the Firewire was notably faster than the USB2, but I'm happy to say that the E-3's USB2 implementation is one of the faster that I've come across. Both transfer and storage are also helped by Olympus' use of lossless compression in the RAW file format of the E-3, resulting in a camera with double the resolution of the E-1 but which generates smaller files - 9.5-11MB RAW files from a 10MP DSLR is a nice trick.
Interestingly, when you connect to a computer, by default, the E-3 pops up a menu asking what connection mode you want - it offers to behave as a USB disk or to connect in MTP (Mass Storage) mode - the E-1 only offered the former. Now that worked fine under Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), but simply doesn't work under Leopard 10.5.1/Lightroom 1.3 (Build 396184) - you have to manually "Import from Disk" to get it to work. I'm pleased to say however that MTP (Mass Transfer) mode works perfectly and can be set as the default in the cameras menus.
Software
The E-3 comes bundled with Olympus' own software: a full version of Olympus Master 2.0 and a trial version of Olympus Studio 2. Which is just stupid – why bother shipping very inferior image-handling tools when Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom already support the E-3, although an update to improve Lightroom's handling of the E-3's RAW files is imminent - ACR 4.3.1 has already been updated to resolve some artefacts with the E-3's RAW files. It's worth noting that, as of this moment, Apple's Aperture does not so far support the E-3, although it is possible to hack it to read the E-3's .ORF files once they've been translated to Adobe .DNG format. Not what's wanted, and Apple's deplorable tardiness in updating Aperture for new cameras (my Ricoh GX100 came out in April and they still haven't provided support for it) was a deciding factor in my ditching it for Lightroom. Bibble Pro and Capture One also now support the E-3, but I've not yet had a chance to test either.
What the Olympus software is needed for however is to update the camera and lens firmware and to provide tethered use features. Right now however, neither Master nor Studio's update or camera control features will work with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. And that's before we get onto the issue of wondering why on earth Olympus don't simply bundle the Studio package with what is, after all, their pro camera. That or just ditch all image cataloguing and editing functions and just provide a maintenance and tethered use utility.
Price
While I bought my E-1 in the US, I ordered the E-3 in the UK, despite the current exchange rate against the US banana-dollar. A UK body-only price of £1099 (VAT inclusive) plays against a US price equivalent to about £850, plus shipping, courier handling fees and VAT and the difference becomes marginal at best. However, there seems to be more of a premium for the body plus the 12-60 SWD lens bundle - £1699 in the UK vs $2500 US - allowing for shipping, handling and tax, you'd currently come out about £170 ahead – a useful saving.
First Images
The spirit of McMurphy has been active around here: since the moment my E-3 arrived, the weather hereabouts has been dank and drear, meaning that such images as I've been able to take have been more of a test of the weatherproofing of the camera and the effectiveness of the IS system rather than of the dynamic range of the sensor. So be it, and the images at the top are a few examples, with more to come if the sun ever appears again. Click on each image to load a full-size jpeg, or click here to browse the gallery, with EXIF data, on my image server.
Link to this gallery: http://www.two-worlds.com/imageination/2007/12/olympus_e3_firs.html