Customer Reviews

Olympus Evolt E-3 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera with Mechanical Image Stabilization (Body Only)

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3 star:		(1)
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I have toyed with the 4/3 digital SLR system several times since it was introduced in 2003, shrugged my shoulders and gone back to Nikon or Canon. Frankly, I had about given up on 4/3, but Olympus dropped the E-3 on us a few weeks ago and showed us it could be all they promised with 4/3 when it was first introduced over 4 years ago.

ANY DSLR system is about lenses in the end, and Olympus 4/3 is blessed with superb optics. To get an idea of how really great the new Olympus glass is you need to use some of the top lenses, or read a few of the big photo sites like dpreview, imaging-resource, or DCRP. They have all finally acknowledged in reviews of the E-420/410 and E-520/510 that Olympus has the best quality kit lenses of any camera maker, and that the Olympus claim that lenses designed for digital produce better quality images is proving to be true. www.slrgear.com even went so far as to test most of the current Olympus lens line after being so impressed with the kit lenses on the 510/410.

Olympus 4/3 is also by design an all-electronic lens mount - like Canon. Reviewers on the web tend to be so Canon and Nikon biased that they often forget really basic things like this. The 4/3 system has all motor driven lenses, and the lenses were ALL designed for digital photography. I am frankly tired of seeing reviews that talk of Canon as if they are the only company with all motor lenses. There are actually 3 - Canon, 4/3, and Sigma - although some of Sigma's other features are archaic and sales are very low so most just ignore them. Sony/Minolta and Nikon are not similarly blessed with an all-electronic lens mount, and many lenses are still noisily driven by screws on the lens mount in both systems. In fairness, Nikon has been moving rapidly to motor-driven lenses, but Sony seems stuck in their noisy and slower screw-drive AF even though they have used lens motors in a rare few long telephotos. The point here is that the 4/3 mount at least matches the best, and it is better than most.

The Olympus issue has never been glass or lens mount , it has really been the options you had (or rather didn't have) in camera bodies to use with this excellent Olympus glass on an all electronic mount. As great as the current E-410 and E-510 really are, they are still saddled with an ancient and not particularly low-light sensitive 3-point autofocus system. Shooting in truly low light was all but impossible and your Olympus searched for focus while Canon, Nikon, and Sony locked on focus. There just wasn't a choice of anything better from Olympus. That is until the E-3.

The E-3 takes Olympus AF from Sigma territory to state-of-the-art, and as soon as the new 11-point, all cross sensor, dual-plane AF module makes its way down the food chain, no one will ignore Olympus any more. I hope Olympus can also find a way to move the terrific E-3 feature of AF with manual touch-up down the food chain as well - because the other big Olympus issue is that stupid "Manual focus by wire" feature and Manual Focus select by menu - and it is mostly fixed in the E-3.

This time around I bought an E-3 and a 12-60mm - and the tiny little excellent-quality kit lenses for when the 12-60mm weighs too much and I can compromise just a little on quality. I have added other Olympus equipment to my E-3 system quickly, like the unique 70-300mm (140 to 600mm equivalent with 1:1 Macro), the superbly sharp little 35mm f3.5 Macro that does equivalent TWICE life-size macro right out of the box, and the E-3 grip.

I am completely and totally impressed with the E-3. All the lenses are designed for 4/3 mount and for best performance on a 4/3 camera - they aren't 35mm film designs. No other camera offers the combination of effective live-view, built-in image stabilization, the best auto sensor cleaning you can buy, an articulating LCD that can fold away for protection (AND a top LCD for basic data), a built-in pop-up flash, effective dust and splash sealing of the camera AND the lenses, a popularly-priced zoom that covers the equivalent of 140mm to 600mm and does Macro up to equivalent life size (70-300mm), MUCH improved noise reduction that goes to ISO 3200, user-programmable Auto ISO that can cover the full ISO range (Canon still stubbornly refuses to fully offer this option), and the best range of available lenses DESIGNED FOR a digital camera system.

The E-3 is a bargain for a true PRO grade camera - and it is easily built as well as the Nikon D3 or the top Canons which are $5000 or more. You will get real value for the $1699 you spend on the E-3 body compared to any competing system from any company. However, most will find the E-3 expensive unless they are serious photo hobbyists or Pros, and Olympus needs to move the E-3 refinements down to E-510 price levels as fast as they can.

The E-3 is a great piece of creative engineering, an area Olympus is known for. After all they invented auto-sensor cleaning and live view - which is now finding its way to every DSLR. This is the best Olympus camera EVER, and once you have used it you will be hooked.

Length:: 3:27 Mins

I uploaded an improved review, my previous one turned out to be not all that helpful, maybe this one is better. Let me know by clicking Yes! :)

A quick summary:

Olympus made major improvements to their pro line in almost every facet-- structural, design, robustness, lens and imaging performance.

The SWD lens performance paired with this body is outstanding, as you'll see in my video demo. The imaging sensor and processor are very good also. Noise levels are on par with the Digic3 processors from Canon. A fantastic buy, I highly recommend this camera for both professional and serious photo enthusiasts. There are plenty of very good ind-depth, technical reviews available. Here are a few I recommend:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E3/E3A.HTM
http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Olympus-E-3
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/17474/olympus-e3-review/

I upgraded to the E3 from my e500. Some of the things that enticed me were the additional focus points, and articulated screen. Everything else about the camera was just added niceness.
The camera is pretty great. It's an obvious step up from the e500 in terms of quality, and performance. Images look beautiful, focus is a lot faster and more accurate. The tilting screen and live view are things that I wonder how I ever lived without....a HUGE boost to my shooting and the types of shots I can get.
I think Olympus is underrated in the DSLR business. Because it uses a 4/3 sensor people talk a lot of bad trash about the system. But in real-world shooting, the E3 really stands tall. And I say this as someone who also shoots with a Nikon D300. Another great thing about the Olympus system is the availability of Olympus lenses. And the lens is what it's all about. Olympus lenses are second to none. I actually find that the Olympus lens lineup makes me frustrated about Nikon's comparably dinky lineup--and Nikon has A TON of lenses, but none that can match the quality/speed of Olympus lenses. Good luck finding an f2.8 telephoto lens of the same price or quality as Olympus' 50-200. Olympus beats Nikon in terms of lens quality, easily.

Having said that, the things I don't like about the E3 are its low-light performance (the E3 is better than the e500 or e510 in low-light shooting but it still falls behind the competition) and its tendency to clip highlights. In low-light situations the E3 tends to produce noisy shots at higher ISOs or during long exposures--considerably noisier than many other cameras (but I wouldn't say they're unusable). Highlight clipping speaks for itself....overall the dynamic range of the E3 isn't as good as some cameras, but it's on par with others. Depends on the camera you compare it to. Those are the only two negatives I can think of. In terms of metering, it's very good, in fact I prefer how it meters to how the D300 meters (though the D300 doesn't clip highlights like the E3 does) because the tones are closer to the mood I want to get. More moody, tones whereas the D300 is a little too LOUD in its tones. Some of you may dig loud tones. Your mileage my vary.

All around this camera is as good as my D300, and in many ways its better. In just those two areas (low-light, and highlight reproduction/dynamic range) its a little disappointing. But, for whatever it's worth, I do all of my "serious" or "important" shooting with my E3, not my D300. My E3 lenses are better, the articulated screen of the E3 is a life-saver, I like how it meters better...it's just a really great camera that I love shooting with.

The E3 is an excellent camera, and easily on par with anything that Canon offers--and even better than a lot of what Canon offers. And its on par or better than everything Nikon offers, with the exception of the D300 (in my opinion). Nikons D300 is ever so VERY SLIGHTLY superior in some ways but then you don't get the same lens quality with Nikon, and that's the deal maker or deal breaker for me...lenses. If I could only keep one camera, I'd keep the E3...in a heartbeat. Get this camera!

Although I have been a Nikon f4s & Contax G2 User (35mm) for years, I have switched over to digital - and I am glad I choose the Olympus E-3 as my dslr. The camera is just a great piece of Photographic Equipment - providing me with a great way to transition from Pro 35mm to Pro Digital SLR. It is much lighter and compact than my workhorse f4s with all the same features plus many extras.

Impressive metal body frame, water and air tight as a drum, progressive electronics and intuitive controls the camera rates a 5 star from me - would give it a 6 star if available. The camera cleans itself electronically - end of dust problems which is the plague of digital slr's. The auto focus is spot on perfect and really NASCAR fast! The meter is very good and can be set to matrix, center weighted average, spot, and a few others to experiment with. I have used the matrix which is very good, but prefer the center weighted metering strictly out of years of habit. For very akward lighting I prefer spot metering or manual to get the job done correctly. The camera for all practical purposes (except frame size) is a 35mm slr. One can choose aperature priority, shutter priority, programed auto, or manual exposure modes. There is plus and minus ev compensation up to 5. Bracketing, bulb, just about any shutter speed one could want are all included. There are numerous other features that can be turned on if one prefers.

The 'noise' most people hear about in digital cameras (which is nothing different than grain on 35mm print film) is not present at 100-200 ASA. It is only minutely present at 200-400 ASA if you use a microscope to examine it - or for the rest of the world not present at all. At 400 - 800 ASA it is hardly noticable. As a matter of fact, there is less noise from ASA 400-800 than I have ever seen in the same ASA color print film, that is saying something for this digital.

As I said, you can use this just as you would a 35mm slr and with a 2gig memory card you can have about 200 photos using the super fine mode which I prefer. For most shooting the fine mode would be perfect - super fine is just my preference.

From what I have read the Sandisk 2gig III memory card is about the best you can buy. Most reviews say to stay away from every manufactures 4 or higher gig memory card, I listen to the reviewers on this aspect.

The photos already taken with it have been exposed predominately in aperature priority and printed directly without the need for touching up through photo shop - a lengthy way to take photos, in my opinion - call me old fashioned. To me that is very impressive - almost back to using 35mm without spending hours on touch up for a '24 exposure roll' of film. However, I have cropped in photo shop and have changed some of the photos to experiment with it (e.g. from super sharp focus to soft focus for effect) and it is useful and may even be necessary for that one complicated lighting condition that only photo shop could improve upon. For the most part though, the camera photos are pretty near perfect right out of the memory card.

The Olympus 12-60mm lens I purchased is superb, the optics are as good if not better than my Contax G2 lens (previously my sharpest lens, even over costly Leica's) and to have the proverbial 'cake and eat it too', it is a zoom lens! The lens offers me 35mm equivelant of 24-120mm in one lens - perfect for wide angle to telephoto which is the range most pros and 'civilians' use anyway.

I have not experimented with the raw feature yet to the chagrin of my photographer friends. I understand from them that it basically produces a negative which is refined and printed through a program such as Photo Shop. For the professionals doing magazine layouts and covers, this gives them the ability to produce a job-set print without shooting hundreds of photos to get that one or two elusive top notch photo. I will try this, albeit I still like the old fashioned way of taking photos without photoshop or raw programs.

Digital Camera Pros:
A great thing about a digital is you can look at your photos and decide if they are good enough to keep, or you can delete them right then and there and re-shoot.....a definate advantage over film! Imagine going to Europe, Tahiti, Australia, China, Japan or somewhere else far away and not having to bring 30 rolls of film! You never have to worry if your photos will come out good either. No more worry about airport x-ray security ruining your high speed film either.

Comparing Nikon D300 to Olympus E-3:
While I was planning all along to get the Nikon D300, when holding both the Oly and Nikon in person and going through the motions with both, I picked the Olympus. The lens was exactly what I was looking for as an all purpose lens, the feel was great and I was very impressed with the camera feel and function.

My only suggestion to Olympus and Nikon and the rest of the group is put the Aperature setting on the lens, not the camera body and put the speed on top of the body like the 'good old intuitive days of 35mm'.

Cons of the E-3:
So far I have not any cons to speak of, the camera performs perfectly doing what a camera should do..... allowing the photographer to be creative and concentrate on composition. While the Nikon does offer the D300 with 12MP and the Olympus E-3 offers 10MP, the difference is minimal, actually 8MP is all one really needs. Of course if you plan on blowing every photo up to poster size then wait for heavy, clunky, medium format digitals to come way down in price and when resting use the camera as a dumbell, if you can still lift your arms!
Good Shooting.
-Ray

I mostly photograph wild birds, usually with a Zuiko 300mm f2.8 lens, often combined with a 2.0X teleconverter. It's a lot of lens, but the E-3 handles it superbly. Quick, accurate focus. Terrific exposure control, even in automatic settings. Enough pixels that you can crop in post-processing without compromising quality. Rapid shooting, even in RAW mode. I'm a fairly serious photographer and this camera does everything I need. It even feels good in the hand. All this an in-camera image stabilization as well. The IS alone allows you to shoot hand-held with a long lens down to 1/250 second.

It's sturdy, too. The camera and lens set up spend most days clamped to a tripod, balanced on my shoulder, banging into shrubbery, or perched on rocks or in swamps. It's amazingly solid.

Unlike the E-500, the E-3 sports a true USB-2 connection, so downloads of photos are much quicker.

Other reviewers have said that some earlier Olympus accessories don't work with the E-3. That's inaccurate. Some older lenses and flashes can't take advantage of some of the advanced features in the E-3, but they still work just fine. My Zuiko 300mm f2.8 is proof of that. And yes, it does focus more quickly on the E-3 than on the E-1 or the E-500.

If you are a nature photographer, I strongly recommend the Olympus E-3. It's a terrific example of a state of the art digital single lens reflex camera.

What a wonderful camera! It's a litte pricey, but the first time you use it will validate the money spent. This is my first dSLR purchase and I couldn't be more happy with the choice. I spent months researching cameras at local stores and online, and I don't feel I could have made a better decision in buying this product. The product is user friendly and puts every control necessary at your fingertips. The viewfinder is huge! The images are absolutey breathtaking. I will never go outside of the Olympus line if this model exemplifies the trend and commitment that they have to both product and customer. Buy this camera, you won't rgret it. I will update this review further after I've had the product a little while longer.

Long time E-1 fan but moved to Nikon D-200 when Olympus didn't release a 10mp body for years. The E-3 is fantastic and will keep it and the D-200!
1.Extremely fast focus
2.Low light focus blows away any camera I have ever used
3.Waterproof
4.Olympus Pro glass is wonderful...don't scrimp, get the Olympus Pro lenses with SWD, you won't regret the extra cost.
5.Love the dual chip setup...cf and XD...you choose which chip to write to
6.One very minor negative...when using the live view feature, autofocus does not function. Autofocus only works through the view finder. HOWEVER, manual focus does work with the live view. Now that I have played with this for a bit, I actually like it better the way it is. It's really nice to be able to use the live view for closeup shots and be able to manual focus. It would be nice to be able to turn the autofocus on and off for the live view just like you can through the viewfinder.
7.High ISO produces some amazingly good images. You can easily shoot 400 and 800 with little grain. Just starting to work with the 1600-3200.
8.Controls are a little different than the Nikon but easy to learn and easy to switch off using one camera or the other.
9.Built in flash is pretty good but not over about 20 feet

I can't speak highly enough of this camera, it is outstanding.

Pro:
- Great built, solid piece of hardware
- Excellent image quality and ISO performance
- Good menu layout (intimidating at first due to the astounding number of features)
- Fast and reliable
- Excellent lens line-up. Zuiko lenses are among the sharpest and lightest and most rugged out there. One of my favorites is the Leica 14-50mm

Con:
- a little big for a Four-Third body
- no main dial for shooting modes (but you get used to it after a while and it doesn't impede handling speed)
- When shooting continuously, user must wait for the buffer to be fully emptied to play back pictures.

Great camera.

I own the E-300 and E-500 with both flashes and a couple of lenses so I desired to stay within the Olympus family, and I'm glad they came out with the E-3.

-Unbelievably solid.
-The tilt and turn screen is nice (mainly just to protect the screen).
-Live view is neat for certain applications.
-Auto WB is amazing with it's external sensor and TTL white balance detection.
-High ISO is good. I shot Auto ISO 100-800 and 800 with no noise reduction is superb!
-Viewfinder is excellent!
-Image Stabalization is wonderful. I've been able take sharp hand held shots at up to 1/6 of a second and even managed a couple at 1/2 a second! With a telephoto lens you can get down to 1/20th of a second with sharp results.
-Autofocus is very fast even with "slow" lenses.


This camera is a worthy competitor to the nikon D300, canon 40D, Sony A700.

I don't regret my purchase.

I've been using the E3 for several weeks now, and, frankly, I couldn't be happier! For me, all the controls are in the right place, and it didn't take long to memorize their locations and compose shots without pausing to look at the LCD screen menu. Not only that, but the Live View with the articulating screen has been an extremely nice addition especially when I need to shoot close to the ground or overhead. It takes a bit of getting used to (there's a slight delay when you shoot via Live View), but once you've tried it, it can be a godsend. What's very nice about the Live View, however, is composing a shot and actually seeing - real time - what the shot's going to look like before you take the picture! Regarding the "fastest auto focusing system," it does seem to be blazing fast; however, in low light conditions (like any auto focusing lens), it can lag a bit. Mostly, though, quick, blazing focus. If I had one nit, it would be the weight of the camera. It's a bit on the heavy side; however, it's solid, sealed, "splash proof," and I worry less about it than any other DSLR I've owned. I know I'll get used to the weight. Bottom line: A simply FANTASTIC DSLR! I am more than satisfied; I'm elated!