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

Overall feelings

Similar to what I stated in the previous pages, I have not had a ton of time to really give this camera much work (maybe 30-40 hours), but with the desire to get information out about it, I wanted to give some first impressions. Olympus has put a lot of work into this camera, and as a version 1 mid-tier camera they have produced a very fine tool. What it should do is push the top end camera (e.g. E-3 replacement) even higher, which in my opinion has a lot of room to grow. Olympus to me has put a very strong emphasis on the art filters, and for a version 1 camera they are very good. I would like to see an Infrared filter, as well as some filter adjustments, such as having the ability in grainy film mode to emphasis different Color channels, or Sepia film, etc. Overall, the filters are a good idea, but in my opinion I think that the sole focus on the creative filters is a miss focus for this camera. They may be nice, but in my opinion more important is its overall image quality, the level gauge, the increased DR from Auto Gradation, and the high quality viewfinder.

The overall question many are asking, would I buy (as of January 09/December 08) an E-3 or an E-30. After playing with this camera I would recommend the E-30 higher than the E-3, unless weather sealing is essential. The E-30 is a very fine camera with some very useful tools built into it, very high dynamic range, and exceptional noise control of the high ISO images. We have to remember the E-30 is a year further developed than the E-3, it should out perform the E-3 in many regards. Hands down in my opinion, this camera is a real winner.

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