Table of Contents

Main News

01. Introduction
02. Jpeg & Raw Thoughts
03. Creative Art Filters
04. Level Gauge
05. Live View
06. Body build
07. Auto Gradation
08. More coming soon
09.Image Quality & High ISO performance
10.Overall Impressions

Image quality and High ISO performance

In both respects the E-30 performs at least as well as the E-3. I had understandable concerns over the new 12 MP sensor, but Olympus has surpassed my expectations. High ISO seems to be nearly as good as the E-3 performs (which to this point is the best performing SLR in the system), and the E-30 is missing the slight banding that the E-3 still produced. (But remember the E-3 was light years ahead of the E-510/410 in this manner), so perhaps on some levels we can say that the E-30 out performs the E-3. The overall dynamic range, too, is at least as good as the E-3. But it seems to help hold in the highlights slightly better than the E-3, but still has the great depth of shadow dynamic range as the E-3 has (which is arguable the best in class, the only camera which had better shadow DR in my experience was the D3).

2007 vs 2008

A year ago I recieved the E-3 right before the Fillmore Christmas Parade, this year one day before the parade I recieved the E-30. Really the overall image quality is superior to the E-520 and E-420. But for me the question is, "Is the E-30 equal to the E-3?" So I took the Christmas Parade photos from 2007 and tried to match them up to the shots from this year. Basically the weather was about the same, the time was the same, and the approximate date was the same. You can always go through my personal gallery if you want to see 100% images. http://photos.allplaces.net. If you so desire. But you can click on any photo for a larger image. Also with a smugmug gallery if you desire you can change the size from L to O to see the original size (Right before the .jpg).

Here are a few more (I have have had a chance was family shots-

Now Some High ISO Pictures from my life - More full sized images in the gallery.

ISO 2000

ISO 3200 (sorry I had IS off, so a bit shaky)

ISO 2000 100% here.

ISO 2500 100% here.

ISO 3200 100% here.

ISO 2000 100% here.

Diffraction limit

With the smaller (not small! Avoid Hype) type 4/3 sensor, Diffraction does become a issue earlier than other sized sensors such as “Full Frame”. (Though many can argue that 4/3 is full frame because it’s the digital standard…. But I will let people on the forum take up those arguments)
With the beautiful sharp and clean lenses I believe that you can see the diffraction at around f11 at 100% and at f22 I begin to notice it at screen size of 66%. But in reality, I am impressed. The sharpest point with this little test it appears that f8 is the sharpest point. (Though I very rarely shoot slower than f5.6 in 4/3 format.)

Please click on the image for the original sized screen shot. My opinion is we still don't have to worry - yet.

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