Olympus C-3030Olympus extends their high-end compact to 3.3 megapixels, adds sound to its movies!<<Optics :(Previous) | (Next): Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests>> Page 6:Exposure & FlashReview First Posted: 5/18/2000 |
Exposure
Exposure control is similar to the setup of the C-2020 Zoom, with an LCD menu
system that controls most of the camera's settings. Four exposure modes are
accessible through the mode dial: Program AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority
and Manual. Shutter speeds in all modes except Manual range from one to 1/800
seconds. The range broadens under the Manual setting to 16 to 1/800 seconds.
A useful added feature relative to the previous model is that as you scroll
through the various aperture/shutter settings in manual mode, the camera's exposure
system remains "live". The camera tells you how it judges the exposure
setting you've chosen, showing not only whether it thinks you're high or low,
but by how much. It does this by displaying what it believes the over- or under-exposure
to be using the digits on the LCD screen that normally indicate exposure compensation
in automatic exposure modes. If you're more than plus or minus 3 EV units away
from the correct exposure, the digits light up red, showing just +/- 3EV. This
is really very helpful as it gives you a good idea of what the exposure will
be like before snapping the shutter. (Other manufacturers take note: This is
a nice feature, and shouldn't be too hard to add, if a camera already has a
manual exposure mode.)
Exposure compensation
is adjustable in 1/3 EV increments from -2 to +2, in all exposure modes except
for Manual, by pressing the right and left arrow buttons. Additionally, the
auto exposure bracketing function ensures you'll get a correct exposure by automatically
bracketing up to -/+ 2 EV in steps ranging from 1/3 to 1 EV unit. This feature
lets you select either 3 or 5 shots in the series, and steps of 0.3, 0.6, or
1.0 EV units. Thus, the bracketing range could be as small as +/1 0.3EV, or
as great as +/- 2EV. Once set, you just hold down the shutter button until all
3 or 5 exposures are captured. Very slick!
ISO is also adjustable, with available settings of Auto, 100, 200 and 400. The
more sensitive settings do produce noisier images, but they provide welcome
exposure flexibility. The default setting in Program exposure mode is Auto,
whereas Aperture, Shutter, or Manual exposure modes force you to choose one
of the explicit ISO settings. In Auto ISO mode, the camera will normally shoot
at ISO 100, but will gradually increment the ISO setting in very dim conditions,
trying achieve the best tradeoff between shutter speed and image noise. We're
not sure what the thresholds are for increasing the ISO rating in Auto mode,
but it does seem to be pretty conservative about it: In some brief experimentation,
it arrived at a shutter speed of 1/2 second (pretty slow) in a dimly lit interior
scene, yet still only bumped the ISO up to 200. "Automatic" systems
like this are always a compromise, but we felt the C-3030 Zoom was doing about
what we would have most of the time. It's also interesting to note that the
Auto ISO settings aren't restricted to the 100/200/400 available manually -
At least one of our experimental shots showed an ISO setting of 180 in the playback
picture-info display.
The C-3030 Zoom provides two choices for exposure metering, Spot or the default
Digital ESP metering system. Digital ESP is Olympus' name for matrix metering,
but we don't know the specifics of it, how many segments it uses, etc. - For
those of you unfamiliar with the term "matrix metering", it refers
to a sophisticated exposure-metering technique that samples the brightness from
multiple points across the image, and then applies some intelligence to set
the exposure so as to not blow out highlights, plug shadows, etc.
The C-3030 offers a 12 second self-timer. You can also use the infrared remote
to trigger the camera from a distance, which decreases the time delay to only
three seconds. (This is one of our few quibbles with the otherwise excellent
IR remote unit: Why are we forced to wait three seconds when using the remote?
We'd greatly prefer relatively instantaneous triggering of the camera!) White
balance can be set to Auto, Clear, Cloudy, Tungsten or Fluorescent to accommodate
a variety of lighting situations. White balance is another area where we have
a request to make of Olympus: So-called "manual" white balance options
are becoming more and more common on high-end digicams, and (properly implemented)
they're very useful. Manual white balance options generally let you set the
camera's white balance by pointing it at a white card and clicking the shutter
(after appropriate menu setup, etc.) This usually provides a more accurate white
balance than the automatic or preset options. The C-3030 Zoom is a sufficiently
advanced camera that we'd expect to see a feature like this on it. Not a crippling
omission by any means, but one that we think would be appreciated by the 3030's
targeted audience of enthusiast-photographers.
The C-3030 Zoom incorporates a few entertaining options on the Picture Effect
menu, enabling you to capture images in black and white or sepia tone. There
are also White and Black Board settings for capturing text on light or dark
backgrounds. These could be useful if you needed to grab meeting or lecture
notes in a hurry. Oddly though, the resulting images, while purely black and
white, are stored as RGB JPEGs, taking about the same amount of memory space
as normal full-color images. This is rather odd: Overall, we'd strongly suggest
just leaving the camera in color mode, and using a program like Pixid's White
Board Photo to clean up the images later. (See our review
of White Board Photo for more info on this unique program.)
Flash
The built-in flash on the C-3030 Zoom offers four main modes: Auto, Red-Eye
Reduction, Fill-In and Off. According to Olympus' specs, the flash is effective
out to 18.4 feet (5.6m) in wide angle and to about 12.5 feet (3.8 m) in telephoto.
The internal flash provides good coverage in all but the widest-angle lens position:
It's angle of coverage appears to correspond to a lens focal length more on
the order of 35mm than the 32mm equivalent of the 3030. (Another holdover from
the C-2020 Zoom?) You can adjust the flash intensity setting from -2 to +2 in
1/3 EV increments. Any of the flash modes can be combined with the Slow Sync
setting, which allows the ambient lighting to make a greater contribution to
the final exposure of the image. You can also produce shots which combine a
motion blur on the subject (from the long ambient light exposure) with a sharp
initial or final image (caught by the flash exposure). The C-3030 supports both
"front curtain" and "rear curtain" triggering in Slow Sync
mode, firing the flash at either the beginning of the exposure or at the end.
So-called rear curtain sync is necessary to produce motion blurs on moving objects
that trail the sharp, flash-exposed image, rather than precede it. A plus with
the design of the C-3030 is the inclusion of an external flash sync socket,
giving you even more exposure flexibility. It's important to note though, that
the sync socket on the C-3030 is a proprietary design, set up for use with Olympus'
FL-40 flash unit. Olympus apparently offers an accessory grip/cable combination
that serves as an adapter for third-party flashes, but we don't know the model
number or details on its availability.
To use an external
FL-40 flash unit, the camera should be set to Aperture Priority or Manual exposure
mode to control the amount of flash illumination reaching the CCD via the lens
aperture setting (standard operating procedure for film cameras as well). The
camera will attempt to produce a good exposure with its automatic settings,
whether involving its own flash or not. Thus, if you've disabled its internal
flash, you'll get a rather long exposure time in Aperture Priority mode, rather
like the Slow Sync mode, whether you want that or not. Use Manual exposure mode
with faster shutter speeds selected to avoid this problem. The C-3030 Zoom is
unusual in that when you couple it to the FL-40 external flash, you have the
option of using the internal and external flashes together. - This could be
a bit of a help when you're really reaching for a distant subject, or for interesting
bounce/direct flash lighting. The FL-40 also cooperates with the camera by allowing
its power level to be controlled by the camera's flash exposure adjustment,
mentioned above.
The manual is a bit unclear on using the 3030 with flash units other than the
FL-40. To use any external flash (FL-40 or other unit), you do apparently need
both the optional flash holder and flash cable. Info in the manual about third-party
flashes is confusing and contradictory: In one place, it says the external flash
must be used with the internal all the time. In another place, though, it says
the external flash will always fire, regardless of whether flash is enabled
in the camera or not. We'll seek clarification from Olympus, but here's what
we think the case is: 1) The external flash will always fire, as the sync contacts
are linked to the shutter, and not affected by the internal flash status. 2)
Third-party flashes won't accept flash-metering information from the camera,
meaning that you'll have to regulate the light either by running the flash in
Auto mode and making whatever adjustments it provides onboard, or by essentially
operating the flash in "manual" mode, controlling the exposure via
the camera's lens aperture.
A few caveats about external flashes with the C-3030 Zoom, or digicams in general
for that matter: 1) Some external strobes have the polarity reversed on their
sync connectors, and won't fire. (Cameras these days use SCRs to trigger strobes,
rather than mechanical contacts, and SCRs are polarity sensitive.) 2) Some flashes
put their full voltage on the sync connector, which is virtually guaranteed
to blow the inner circuitry of the camera. (!) Always check the voltage on your
sync connector before plugging a non-manufacturer flash into your digicam! -
If you find more than a few volts there, save yourself an expensive repair,
and buy a flash with a lower trigger voltage. (Studio strobe packs are particularly
prone to this: Use extreme caution before attaching one to your digicam!) 3)
If you're going to be shooting at wide angle, make sure your flash will cover
a field of view equivalent to a 32mm lens on a 35mm camera. (Most will, some
won't.) 4) If you get unexpectedly dim shots when operating at full flash power
(distant subjects or small apertures), it may be that your flash is producing
a light pulse longer than 1/200 of a second (Olympus' spec), so not all the
light from the flash may be contributing to the exposure.
We didn't test the FL-40 with the C-3030 Zoom, but did have an opportunity to
use one earlier, when we reviewed the Olympus C-2500L SLR camera. You can read
our review of
the C-2500L for more info on how it worked with the flash: We suspect the
story with the C-3030 would be much the same. (To save you clicking the link,
the short of it was that we liked the FL-40 very much indeed, and found it worked
exceptionally well with the C-2500L's internal flash.)
Sequence Shooting Mode
The C-3030 offers a Sequence mode that mimics a motor drive, letting you
capture between six and 12 separate pictures (depending on the complexity of
the image, selected image size/quality, and the available SmartMedia space)
at approximately 1.4 frames per second. In our own measurements, we indeed measured
a frame rate of 1.39 frames per second at all resolutions, in autofocus mode.
We discovered though, that the non-autofocus mode increased the frame rate to
3.17 frames per second (!), since the camera didn't have to wait for the lens
to focus each time. The manual states that the maximum shutter speed in sequence
shooting mode is 1/30 of a second, to avoid blurring. (Seems odd, we suspect
it has more to do with managing the timing of the shots, rather than a concern
over camera shake.) It also notes that the mode is available with all compression
levels except for uncompressed TIFF. One obvious limitation of sequence mode
is that the camera's internal flash may not be used with it. (The flash can't
cycle at nearly 1.4 frames per second.) However, if you have an external flash
capable of cycling at the 1.4 frame per second rate and shoot in aperture priority
mode, you can use a flash with this mode.
Movies and Sound
The C-3030 continues the ability to record short movies, now extended to include
sound. Movie mode is entered as a separate option on the main command dial.
Movies may be recorded in either HQ (320 x 240) or SQ (160 x 120) resolution
modes. Thanks to the C-3030 Zoom's huge buffer memory, the maximum recording
time is limited only by memory card capacity, apparently up to a 32 megabyte
limit. (The manual lists maximum seconds of recording time as a function of
card size, but just lists "Larger than 32 megabytes" as the highest
category, implying that large cards convey no additional recording time. - This
makes sense, given that 32 megabytes is the size of the RAM buffer memory the
C-3030 Zoom carries on board.) Here's a copy of the recording-time table from
the manual:
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(15 frames/sec) |
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(15 frames/sec) |
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The available seconds of recording time appear in the status display panel (and in the LCD monitor if activated), based on the quality mode selected and space remaining on the card. You can use the zoom control while recording movies, but the motion of the zoom is somewhat slower than in still recording, and the zoom is apparently only a digital zoom. (Not an issue though, given the large difference between the CCD resolution and movi recording resolutions - This means that digital zoom in movie mode has the same effect as optical zoom in normal still photography, in that no image degradation should be visible as a result of using the zoom.) Manual focus, exposure compensation, focus lock, the self-timer, ISO setting, white balance and picture effects are also available while in Movie mode.
A first among cameras we've tested (May, 2000), the C-3030 even offers in-camera "editing" of movies in Playback mode. This capability is accessed via the Function->Movie Edit option on the playback menu. In this mode (see screen shot above), you can scroll forward and backward in the movie, and set cut points at the beginning and end of the sequence. Movie content between the two cut points will be preserved, the rest discarded. In a nice touch though, Olympus allows you to choose whether to modify the original movie file, or just save a new copy of it, reflecting the effect of the edit you've made. A very nice feature that we're surprised we haven't seen before. (Kudos to Olympus for thinking of it first.)
You can also record small "sound bites" to accompany images (both in Record and Playback modes). You get approximately eight seconds of record time for each image, assuming of course that there's enough space left on the memory card. This is a handy feature for "labeling" photos.
The only quibble we have with Olympus' implementation of Movie mode on the C-3030 Zoom (and it's a significant one) is that you don't get to hear the movies you've recorded when playing them back on the camera. Adding sound recording is a big feature improvement relative to the C-2020 Zoom, but it sure would be nice to at least be able to hear what you've recorded during playback. (The camera can output both video and sound to a TV or VCR via the included A/V cable, making that an effective playback mode if you have a TV handly. Still, it would be preferable to have some ability to hear a movie's soundtrack without resorting to external equipment.)
Panorama Mode
As with most Olympus digicams, the C-3030 offers a Panorama exposure mode when operating with Olympus' own panorama-enabling SmartMedia memory cards. In this mode, the exposure and white balance for a series of shots are determined by the first one taken. Images are saved individually and can then be assembled on a computer after theyve been downloaded. While Panorama mode provides a useful function, it's less of an issue on cameras like the C-3030, which offer full manual exposure control. True, the panorama mode does lock the white balance in addition to the exposure, and does provide outline guides on the LCD screen to help align successive images, but doesn't offer the "ghost" images provided by some cameras to further assist image alignment. (Cameras with this feature retain a small portion of the previous image each time, moved to the other side of the LCD display, to help you line up objects in the scene with those in the frame you just captured.) The C-3030's Panorama mode also limits you to 10 exposures in the series before resetting the white balance and exposure values. Ten pictures is plenty for most situations, but almost certainly not enough if you're interested in stitching full 360 degree panoramas. For those, use Manual exposure mode, and a fixed white balance preset, such as "daylight." Overall, Panorama mode on the C-3030 Zoom is handy, but less useful than it could be, and in our mind largely obviated by the camera's manual mode.
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