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Olympus EVOLT E-300 By: Shawn Barnett and Dave Etchells 8.0 megapixels, ZUIKO DIGITAL lens mount, digital SLR design, and loads of features! Select a topic Reference: Datasheet E-300 Sample Images E-300 Imatest Results E-300 Photo Gallery! --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Comparison with Nikon D70, Canon EOS Digital Rebel, and EOS 20D 3. User Report 4. Design 5. Viewfinder 6. Optics 7. Exposure & Flash 8. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 9. Operation & User Interface 10. Camera Modes & Menus 11. Image Storage & Interface 12. Video, Power, Software 13. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Design :(Previous) | (Next): Optics>> Page 5:Viewfinder Review First Posted: 11/08/2004, Updated: 03/12/2005

Viewfinder

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The Olympus E-300 is a true digital SLR design, meaning that the optical viewfinder presents the view directly from the lens. The rear panel, "Advanced Super View" 1.8-inch, TFT color LCD screen is just for menu and image review. The optical viewfinder accommodates eyeglass wearers with a diopter correction adjustment and a reasonably high eyepoint, leaving a modest amount of room between your eye and the finder for eyeglass lenses to fit in, although as I mentioned earlier, I generally found myself pressing my own eyeglasses up against the rubber eyecup.

Fixed in the center of the viewfinder display are central autofocus and exposure targets, but an information display lines the right side of the frame area. This (slightly cryptic) display reports basic camera settings, including aperture, shutter speed, focus confirmation, flash mode, white balance, AE lock, exposure compensation, metering mode, battery level, and the current exposure mode.

As mentioned earlier, the Olympus E-300 doesn't have the usual top-panel data readout for displaying camera settings separately from the LCD viewfinder. What it does have is one of the nicest LCD-based camera-status displays I've yet seen. This screen appears in capture mode when you press the Info button at the lower left corner of the camera's rear panel. It shows current exposure settings (whenever the shutter button is half-pressed), main exposure mode, exposure bias and metering mode, focus mode, drive mode, image size/quality setting, ISO, White Balance and color mode settings. Saturation, contrast, and sharpness settings, and the number of shots remaining on the memory card at the current file settings. Very nice.

When using the LCD monitor to review captured images, you can zoom in up to 10x on displayed images by turning the Command dial, and then scroll around the enlarged image using the arrow buttons. This is very handy for small details, or precise framing, and the 10x magnification is enough that you can actually check focus in the LCD display. Another handy feature with the EVOLT's playback enlargement option is that you can check which portion of the image you've enlarged by pressing the Info button during enlarged playback. The full image is then displayed, with a green box highlighting the enlarged area. There's also an Index display option which shows 4, 9, or 16 images at a time, by rotating the Command dial toward the Index position (left).

Pressing the Info button during normal image playback scrolls through a range of information and image display modes. The default display is of the image only, without any information. One press of the Info button shows the image with a limited information screen (battery level, quality setting, DPOF, filename, and image sequence number), while a second press increases the information overlay to include the date and time of capture, and resolution). A third press of the Info button eliminates the information overlay, except for quality setting, and instead overlays a histogram for checking the tonal values. Pressing the button one more time only displays the image with the quality setting, with the blown-out highlights flashing white to black to reveal areas of overexposure. The final press shows a thumbnail of the image with more detailed shooting information, including the AF point used to determine focus, indicated with a red box over the selected area.

Like some other Olympus digicams, the E-300 also offers the ability to resize your images post-exposure, to create smaller versions more suitable for emailing. An image editing menu option lets you change the color mode to black and white or sepia, also post-capture.

 

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