Olympus E3 Review

Overview

Olympus E-3 Overview

by Shawn Barnett
Date: 10/16/2007

Update: 11/15/2007 Full test results and analysis posted. Look for the full review by the end of the month.
Update: 11/17/2007 Shutter lag data updated to account for "finger detector" in shutter button, see performance tab.
Update: 12/06/2007 Added index to RAW files! Click on the RAW File Index subtab under the Exposure tab.
Update: 12/22/2007 Added Imatest results! Click on the Imatest Results subtab under the Exposure tab.

Olympus has finally announced their long-awaited flagship DSLR camera, the E-3. Billed as a pure pro camera, the Olympus E-3 is really more comparable to the cameras by Olympus's competitors that we've been categorizing as semi-pro, such as the Pentax K10D, Canon 40D, and Nikon D200. Whatever you call it though, there's no question that the new E-3 represents a sizable leap forward in technology and sophistication for the Olympus SLR line.

With the E-3, Olympus introduces their first new autofocus sensor in years: an 11-point array, each point consisting of twin cross-type AF sensors. They're claiming this is the fastest AF system on the market. Combined with greater 1.15x magnification in the E-3's viewfinder, framing and focusing with this Four-Thirds camera is a lot easier than past Olympus models.

A new shutter mechanism in the Olympus E-3 delivers 1/8,000 second speed, and 1/250 flash sync, and an expected lifetime of 150,000 cycles. Mirror blackout time is also said to be low, but there are no official numbers yet. Three dedicated processors handle three separate functions: one for image stabilization, one for autofocus, and the TruePic III for image processing. A UDMA-compatible CompactFlash slot promises fast write times, and the additional xD-Picture Card slot adds extra storage.

Body-based image stabilization is built into the Olympus E-3, taking advantage of the company's Supersonic Wave Drive motor technology to drive the anti-shake system. A separate motor drives the Supersonic Wave Filter to remove dust.

Though the Olympus E-3 has a 10-megapixel sensor like the E-510 and E-410, the new sensor has been improved to support the faster read speed to help enable five-frame-per-second continuous shooting. Metering options include 49-zone ESP metering, Spot, Center-weighted, and a new Highlight/Shadow spot metering mode.

Another major highlight to the Olympus E-3 is the articulating LCD on the camera back, which makes Live View mode so much more valuable. It's not the first such design to appear on a digital SLR, that distinction goes to the Panasonic Lumix L10, Olympus's Four-Thirds partner, but it's an incredibly versatile design, with the ability to face up down, left, right, and even forward, toward the subject.

Built on a magnesium alloy frame the Olympus E-3 feels solid, and is sealed against dust and splashes. Connections include a USB 2.0 high-speed jack, an AC power jack, video out, remote control, and an x-sync terminal. The introduction also includes five new optics and two new flashes that can be remote controlled from the Olympus E-3's onboard flash in three groups. A new battery grip works with the E-3 to double capacity, and duplicate key controls for vertical shooting.

The E-3 is exactly the camera Olympus needs to break into this prosumer SLR market, which is already dominated by Canon and Nikon, with Pentax, Sony, and Panasonic starting to fill in the gaps. Expected to retail for about $1,700, the Olympus E-3 is slated to ship in November 2007.

Olympus E-3 Hands-On Preview

by Shawn Barnett

Look and feel. Aimed squarely at the Nikon D300 and Canon 40D, it's no surprise that the Olympus E-3 is big and teeming with buttons and controls. Its overall feel is very tight, solid, hefty, and well-thought-out. It is easily the finest experience I've had with an Olympus SLR, and probably the best Live View experience I've had with any SLR to date.

The Olympus E-3's large pentaprism protrudes proudly above its sloping shoulders, just a bit higher than its competitors. Inside is a real glass pentaprism that's bigger and brighter than any Olympus has offered on its Four-thirds cameras. Its 1.15x viewfinder is big and bright, appearing just slightly larger than the Canon 40D, despite the E-3's smaller sensor size.

The Olympus E-3's viewfinder status display runs along the bottom, not off to the right as on the E-410 and E-510. It's still a little tight to see all of the frame plus the status display with my glasses on, but there's a nice big rubber eyepiece protector to prevent my glasses from scratching.

The Olympus E-3's grip is very comfortable, shaped a little differently from the E-510, a little less aggressive on the forward curve, which gives the middle finger a more confident grip overall. It's also a little fatter and contoured, with a nice, tacky rubber surface for excellent traction.

Though it looks a little high in pictures, the Olympus E-3's shutter button is in just the right position when I grip the camera, with a nice finger well to guide me to the button. On the rear, the thumb grip is so comfortable it's easy to forget it's a grip at all. Function and AF-point selection buttons are nearby, but not easy to press accidentally.

Olympus has moved the Olympus E-3's Main Dial on the back relative to the more recent models, but this is indeed where it's located on the Olympus E-1, so they stuck with what upgrading E-1 owners will be used to. Also, both the E-410 and E-510 had no monochrome status display on the top deck, so there was room for a top-mounted Main Dial. The Olympus E-3's dial does not have as good a feel as the metallic dial on the E-510, but it does have good, firm detents. The same goes for the Sub-dial on the front of the Olympus E-3's grip.

Speaking of dials, there's no Mode Dial on the Olympus E-3, instead you press a button on the top deck, left of the pentaprism, and roll the Main or Sub-dial, while changes appear on the Status display.

The E-3's four-way navigator, which Olympus calls an Arrow pad, is well-positioned for easy access, and it's even angled a bit toward the right to accommodate the thumb's angle of attack. Other buttons on the back and top are clearly marked for easy comprehension. The Olympus E-3's rear LCD also serves as a Status display whose settings are accessible via a press of the center OK button.

The Olympus E-3's Power switch is located in a familiar place for Canon prosumer SLR owners, just off the lower right corner of the LCD display.

Opening the Olympus E-3's Card cover is awkward at first, but if you just rock the camera to the left and hold it in your left hand, a simple upward flip of the right thumb moves the release lever and the door pops open to reveal not only a CF card slot, but an xD-Picture Card slot as well.

Build. The Olympus E-3's body is a die-cast magnesium alloy whose two shells pretty well completely enclose the E-3 for a very solid feel. Olympus says they use a Thixomold process to make these shells, a method that promises greater durability, with less potential for bubbles or seams in the magnesium alloy shell structures. We don't know whether other manufacturers do the same, but this low-temperature technique is one of three major methods to cast this increasingly popular metal, and is supposed to give better crystalline structure to the material than the more common hot die-cast method.

Without a lens, but with a battery and a CF memory card, the Olympus E-3 preproduction camera weighs just under two pounds (1.97 pounds), or 31.6 ounces (896 grams). Add a lens, and the E-3 is hefty, but it's a good heft. It is a lot of body for a Four-Thirds sensor, but regardless of sensor size, I prefer some substance in an SLR. For comparison, the Canon 40D weighs 1.86 pounds, or 29.8 ounces (844 grams) with card and battery, and the Nikon D300 weighs 1.8 pounds (825 grams) without battery and card.

The body of the Olympus E-3 is sealed against dust and water, even the flash and swiveling LCD. Technically, the body is splashproof, not fully waterproof.

Size comparison: Olympus E-3 vs Canon EOS 40D

Slightly bigger. Though the Canon 40D got bigger than its predecessors, the Olympus E-3 is bigger still. Nevertheless, it's a great fit in most hands, with an excellent grip and good control placement. I also like that the E-3 has a slightly better grip area on the left of the camera, for better two-hand control when working the menu and looking at photos.

11-point AF. Olympus says they analyzed thousands of photos to determine the most common positions of the primary subjects in photos to determine where to place the E-3's 11 autofocus points. They also interviewed professional photographers. The above pattern shows where the main subjects most frequently appear, overlaid with the 11 AF points.

Multi-point AF. Olympus has had a three-point autofocus system since way back in the film days with the Olympus IS-1 ZLR. That's finally changed, and in no small way, as the E-3 has an 11-point autofocus system. Each of those points is a twin cross-type for greater accuracy across the frame, and greater accuracy at each point. 11 small squares are arrayed across the frame, looking very similar to Canon's AF-indicators, and they light when a given point is in focus.

You can select focus points manually, let the Olympus E-3 do the picking, or confine the pattern to a group of four to five AF points across the array, and again let the camera do the selection from those points. Changing among these three modes is the only difficult part, as you have to use your thumb to press and hold the AF area button on the back and use the Sub-dial on the front to choose.

You can also set the E-3's autofocus sensitivity to the sensor's full width (Normal), or confine the focus to consider only the area inside each AF box for greater precision.

In use, I found the AF system on the prototype we saw to be pretty reliable, and though it sometimes took its time deciding where to focus, it fairly zipped into focus once the decision was made, thanks to the SuperSonic Wave Drive motor on the new 12-60mm lens. This of course was a prototype, so the finished Olympus E-3 could very well be faster at the decision-making aspect. Olympus says they will be calling their AF system the fastest on the market, so we'll be interested to run the production version through our tests.

Articulating LCD. While having a live LCD view can be useful for taking shots from odd angles, its value is not complete without a display that can turn to face you from at least a few of those angles. The Olympus E-3's LCD looks rather military-grade, but feels a little lighter than I expected. You have to insert your left thumb into the relief on the right of the LCD and give it a good tug to release the frame from the locking cam down inside. Then it articulates pretty much like we've seen on most Canon-style swivel-screens. You can view it from in front of the Olympus E-3, from the left or right, and from above and below, and you can fold it in toward the camera to protect it. The hinge is just a little loose, but again, this is a prototype camera, so we'll reserve judgment.

There's an Illumination sensor in the upper left corner of the Olympus E-3's LCD that can be set to dim or brighten the LCD automatically depending on the ambient light.

Live View. All 11 AF points appear in the Olympus E-3's Live View mode, and light up very similar to how they do in the optical viewfinder, except that the whole dot illuminates. There's not much else new to Live View, it works just like the E-510, except that there are more autofocus points. You can still preview the exposure, white balance, and depth-of-field accurately on the screen, a major benefit to Live View, and there's a new Shadow Adjustment Technology that helps you assure that you'll maintain detail in the shadows.

To focus when in Live View mode, you have to press the AEL/AFL button, or just press the shutter release and the Olympus E-3 will focus before it captures the image. As is true with all Live View SLRs, there's significant shutter lag, but that's the price of the feature at this point. Though the E-3 by default re-focuses whether you've pre-focused with the AEL/AFL button or not, you can set it Release Priority S or C and it won't attempt to refocus. There will still be some delay as the Olympus E-3 re-checks exposure, but not nearly as long or as random as it can be while the camera tries to focus.

Finally, you still have to close the Olympus E-3's optical viewfinder's shutter when enabling Live View to prevent stray light from affecting the exposure. I submit that they should have either built-in an electronic viewfinder shutter that closes automatically, or let the shutter-close switch also activate Live View.

Shutter. Shooting with the Olympus E-3 was a great experience. The shutter is very quiet, with no buzzing or winding like many other cameras do, including the E-410 and E-510. Viewfinder blackout is brief enough that you can stay on your subject.

The Olympus E-3's new mechanism can deliver up to 1/8,000 second shutter speed, and can actually stick with you for up to 60 seconds on long exposures, twice as long as the usual 30 seconds. X-sync is up to 1/250 second, and FP mode can sync up to 1/8,000 second.

Flash. Which brings us to Olympus's new flash system. Two revised strobes, based on the existing flashes, will allow the Olympus E-3's built-in flash to wirelessly control the new FL-50R and FL-36R strobes. The new RC Data Transfer System built into the E-3 allows the built-in strobe to control up to three groups of RC flashes inside a 120 degree area in front of the camera without requiring an separate on-camera commander unit.

At right you can see the Olympus E-3's on-camera commander screen, which seems to allow the E-3 comprehensive control options.

Sensor. Though it's still a 10-megapixel sensor, Olympus says that the E-3 uses a newly developed Live MOS sensor. The two major changes include less space between the microlens array and the light sensitive area, and a faster readout speed to help enable five-frame-per-second shooting.

Meter. Information from the Olympus E-3's new 49-zone metering sensor is paired with data from the autofocus sensors, according to the company. It's part of a revised ESP algorithm.

A 2% spot meter is also available on the Olympus E-3, marked by the circle in the center of the viewfinder frame. Of course there's also Center-weighted average metering. A new Highlight/Shadow metering mode biases exposure to maintain either shadow or highlight detail. Details on this mode were not available as of this writing.

Dust Reduction. Like all Olympus SLRs, the E-3 has the company's Super Sonic Wave Filter, which shakes the sensor's cover glass at more than 30,000 times per second. There appears to be nothing new here. Be aware that no current dust reduction technology can completely remove dust from a sensor, but Olympus's system is quite good.

Battery pack. An optional battery pack/vertical grip is available for the Olympus E-3 as well, the HLD-4. The pack duplicates the Function and AF-selection button, the Main dial, the Sub-dial, and the shutter button. It takes two BLM-1 lithium-ion batteries, and also comes with an AA battery holder for alternate power. It uses a tower that goes up into the E-3's battery socket, so it only doubles the Olympus E-3's capacity. There's also a grip strap available, as shown at left.

Lenses. Four new lenses and a 2.0x teleconverter were also announced with the Olympus E-3: the Zuiko 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 SWD; the Zuiko 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 SWD; the Zuiko 14-35mm f/2.0 SWD; and the Zuiko 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6. The first three three use Olympus's new Supersonic Wave Drive focusing motor, which the company calls the "World's quickest."

We were able to try Olympus E-3 with the Zuiko 12-60mm SWD, which offers the equivalent of a 24-120mm lens, and were impressed. We haven't tested its optical quality, but its feel and focusing speed were quite good. I've used a lot of autofocus SLRs over the past 20 years, and this may be the fastest I've seen. That's just a sense, though, so we'll have to try to figure out a way to either compare or test this when we get the shipping unit.

Analysis. The Olympus E-3 is by far the most advanced Olympus digital camera I've used, very satisfying to shoot with, and one of the more compelling SLRs launched this season. Its design, though big, is ergonomically pleasing and handsome, and it gives you a feel of confidence and control. The E-3's build matches the sturdy feel of Olympus's high-end lenses, which are some of the tightest we've seen.

At this point we can't comment on image quality, because what we saw wasn't final, but overall mechanical performance was quite good.

The Olympus E-3 is expected to ship in November 2007, at an estimated street price of US$1,699, body-only.

Design

Olympus E-3 Design

Roll-over the various controls and features with your mouse for a brief description.

Front View.

Left View.

Right View.

Top View.

Back View.

Bottom View.

Operation

Olympus E-3 Operation

The Olympus E-3 is big and teeming with buttons and controls. Its overall feel is very tight, solid, hefty, and well-thought-out. It is easily the finest experience I've had with an Olympus SLR. While you can quickly feel comfortable using the Olympus E-3, getting to know everything it can do can take a little time, given the large number of custom settings and setup options. However, once you get the hang of it, the control layout and overall feel of the camera should become natural. Right out of the box, you could probably snap a few images with just a cursory look at the manual, but plan on investing more time to get better acquainted with all of the camera's controls and settings.

Olympus E-3 Control Panel LCD

As with most prosumer and pro DSLRs, the Olympus E-3 is equipped with an illuminated top-panel data readout LCD that communicates a lot of information about current camera settings, and provides an interface for setting many camera functions when used in conjunction with the various buttons and dials. Whenever you press one of the control buttons to change a setting (exposure compensation, white balance, ISO, etc), the current value of the chosen parameter appears in the top-panel readout. This makes for very fast and easy settings changes, without having to resort to the main LCD menu system. The illustration below (courtesy of Olympus) shows the meaning of the various icons and readouts in this display.

Olympus E-3 Main LCD

Record Mode Display
In record mode and not in Live View mode, the main LCD monitor displays a "Super Control Panel" that you can navigate around in and make changes to menu options (ISO, White Balance, flash mode, etc.). If you're in optical viewfinder mode, pressing the Info button displays the Super Control Panel. Pressing it again turns the LCD monitor off. Pressing the OK button in Live View mode also displays the Super Control Panel. See the illustration below (courtesy of Olympus) for callouts of the info that is available.

Live View Display
In Live View mode, the LCD displays the subject, along with optional overlaid information, showing AF points, exposure mode, shutter speed, aperture, metering mode, file format and which memory card is in use, the number of exposures that can be stored on the card with the current settings, etc. A live histogram is also available. See the illustration below (courtesy of Olympus) for callouts of the info that is displayed in Live View mode.

In Live View mode, you can also optionally display various alignment grids over the image, as an assist for lining up subjects. While in Live View mode, pressing the Info button a few times brings up a small green box. You can use the arrows to move the box around the screen and press the OK button to enlarge the center of the frame 5x, 7x or 10x for more precise focusing or focus verification (manual focus must be enabled in advance).

Playback Mode Display
In Playback mode, the default image display shows the most recently captured image, with a modest information overlay present. Pressing the Info button cycles through the main display (with no information), a basic information overlay, more detailed information overlay, a thumbnail display with main and RGB histograms, a main histogram overlay, a blinking highlight display, and a blinking shadow display. Pressing the Display button returns you to the status display or Live View mode, depending on the last setting.

Turning the main Control dial to the left cycles through a four, nine, 16, and 25-image index display, and finally a Calendar display. Turning the main Control dial to the right enlarges the captured image from 2x to as much as 14x. You use the four arrow keys to move around the zoomed image.

Optics

Olympus E-3 Optics

The Olympus E-3 is a Four-Thirds camera, so is compatible with the full range of lenses made for the Four-Thirds mount by Olympus and several other manufacturers. (Notably Panasonic and major lens manufacturer Sigma.) As this report on the E-3 is being written, we're in the process of testing a number of Olympus' Zuiko lenses for the Four Thirds mount over on SLRgear, our camera lens test site (the reports of our testing should appear within a week or two of the E-3's announcement). I mention this here because we're being quite impressed with the optical quality we're seeing in the Olympus Zuiko glass.

One always tends to take manufacturers' claims with a grain of salt, and I have to confess that we did so to some extent with Olympus' claims about the superiority of their "digital specific" Zuiko lenses. The claim is that, being designed for use with digital sensors from the ground up, the Zuiko optics will perform better, with less distortion and better edge-to-edge sharpness than conventional designs. In fact, we're finding that even the inexpensive "kit" lenses are testing quite well, delivering performance better than we're accustomed to seeing in bargain optics.

This is a review of the E-3 rather than its lenses, but lenses are in fact a critically important part of any SLR system, and those from Olympus test out as among the best. (As noted, look for some test results for Olympus lenses soon, over on SLRgear.com.)

Olympus E-3 Autofocus

Autofocus is one of the more challenging technologies in modern cameras, as witness the fact that even industry leaders have difficulty with it from time to time. While the AF systems in past Olympus SLRs have worked well enough, they've lacked the sophistication found in some models from competing manufacturers.

The Olympus E3 aims to change all that, with an AF system that represents not only a quantum leap in sophistication, but that Olympus claims is the fastest of any camera currently on the market. We don't have any way to really evaluate AF speed (and we've only seen a prototype E-3 at this point, not yet in final trim for performance testing), but Olympus appears pretty confident that the E-3, combined with one of their new ultrasonic-motor lenses can more than hold its own with anything else out there. (They obviously haven't had a chance to test the Nikon D3 and D300 or Canon EOS-1DS Mark III yet, as those cameras haven't yet reached retail shelves, but they claim that the E-3's AF is faster than that of any DSLR that's currently shipping.)

Beyond its claimed speed though, the E-3 AF system increases both the number and capability of AF points over its predecessors, and also challenges the AF systems of the industry giants with all eleven of its AF points being full cross-type sensors (that is, sensitive to both horizontal and vertical detail), and a unique biaxial sensor layout, designed to improve focus accuracy.

In moving up to 11 AF points from their previous 3, Olympus engineers first analyzed thousands of photographs and interviewed many pro photographers, to find the optimum AF point positions. The illustration above (courtesy Olympus) is a plot showing the most frequent locations of subjects within the frame, overlaid by the E-3's AF sensor array. (It's fascinating to note the bias most photographers have for placing the subject in the upper left-hand quadrant of the "rule of thirds" grid -- We were surprised to see this, would have imagined that subjects would have been more evenly distributed over the frame.)

The illustration above highlights the fact that all 11 AF points are cross-type. There's more to the story though: Each AF sensor is actually doubled, with a slight offset between the pixels of the two "halves" of each point.

The dual, "biaxial" nature of the AF points is shown more clearly in the illustration above. At upper right, you see the "hounds tooth" pattern of the pixels that make up the individual lines of the sensor array. (To be clear, each cross-type AF sensor has two of these biaxial arrays, arranged at 90 degrees to each other.)

The drawing on the left side shows how the half-pixel offset between the two sides of the sensor improves discrimination of the precise focus point. The illustration shows a "subject" as a small, pixel-sized object that's straddling two pixels of the sensor array. In actuality, what will be imaged on the AF sensor pixels will be the pattern of light and dark from the subject. Think of the "Subject image" in the illustration as being an eyelash or a light/dark edge in a piece of clothing, etc. (Still a simplification, but perhaps one more connected to reality.) What's being shown is that, for any given size of sensor pixel, the biaxial sensor array can find the point of precise focus more accurately than could a single line of pixels.

Just how this will play out in the Olympus E3 will depend on a number of factors. If Olympus uses pixels in its AF sensor similar in size to those of competing AF systems, the E-3's AF would be more accurate. Alternatively, they could use AF pixels that are twice the size of those in competing systems, and achieve the same AF accuracy with better light sensitivity and therefore better low-light performance.

It's interesting to see how technology advancements pace each other between camera manufacturers: Until recently, we weren't aware of any camera that used a "biaxial" sensor layout of this sort. Just a couple of months ago though, Canon describes what they call a "zigzag" AF sensor on their new EOS-40D model, and similar designs have apparently been used on other recent cameras of theirs, including the Rebel XTi. Sound familiar? We can't be sure based on the limited data we have on both cameras, but it certainly sounds like the horizontal-line-sensitive sensors in the middle of the 40D's AF array (top center, center, and bottom center) use this same sort of sensor design for improved accuracy. Where Canon uses these dual sensors only up the middle of their array, and only for the horizontal-sensitive points though, Olympus uses biaxial AF sensors for all AF points, and in both horizontal and vertical directions. As noted though, it remains to be seen what difference this technology might make in the E-3's actual AF operation.

Olympus E-3 AF Assist

An AF illuminator option can be turned on through the camera's Custom menu, to help the camera's AF system determine focus in dark shooting conditions. The camera actually uses light from the flash as the AF illuminator, so the flash must be upright for this option to be available. The flash can however be disabled, so that natural light images can be captured with AF assist enabled, however this is not as convenient as a dedicated AF assist lamp.

Olympus E-3 Image Stabilization

The Olympus E-3 is equipped with sensor-shift image stabilization. Olympus claims it can provide up to 4-stops of compensation. That is, images taken hand-held at 1/25s can be as sharp as ones taken at 1/400s without IS (your mileage may vary). This is very handy in low-light conditions when you're forced to use a slower shutter speed, or when shooting with a long telephoto lens, where even slight camera movement can cause image blur. Having IS built into the body has the advantage that all your lenses are stabilized, and you don't incur the expense of an IS system for each lens. The disadvantage is that you don't see the effects of stabilization in the optical viewfinder, though you can see it when using Live View. The Olympus E-3 even lets you enable IS for non Four-Thirds lenses mounted via an adapter. You'll need to manually enter the focal length for those lenses. The Olympus E-3 offers two image stabilization modes to handle different shooting occasions: Mode 1 works to stabilize images in both vertical and horizontal axis and Mode 2 in the vertical axis only. Newer Olympus models equipped with IS offer a third mode that works in the horizontal axis only. This enables you to use IS in a range of situations. As is usually the case, it is recommended to turn IS off when using a tripod.

"Supersonic Wave Filter (tm)" Automatic Sensor Cleaning

The built-in Supersonic Wave Filter was first introduced on the E-1 SLR, and has been carried forward to newer models including the E-3. This is a feature that's hard to evaluate in any sort of a rigorous, quantitative way, but that appears to work fairly well, based on subjective observation. However, it's important to remember that no dust removal system is completely effective, so you're going to have to clean your sensor at some point, or have it cleaned professionally, regardless of the type of dust-removal system your SLR might have built into it.

Dust has proven to be a bane for digital SLR users from the beginning. In film cameras, the imaging surface (the film) is constantly refreshed as each new frame is advanced. Any dust that might accumulate on one frame will thus not affect subsequent ones. In digital SLRs though, the sensor surface is fixed, so any dust falling on it tends to stay there, the surface becoming increasingly dirty over time. Various accessories are available to clean CCD surfaces, but their use presents an ongoing risk of accident. (That is, while the cleaning gadgets themselves may be perfectly safe, every time you open your SLR and start sticking things inside the camera body, there's a finite risk that you'll do something to damage the sensor chip.)

In the E-3, every time the camera is turned on, an ultrasonic system activates, vibrating the protective cover glass over the sensor at a frequency of 35,000 cycles/second, thereby dislodging dust particles that may have settled on the sensor's surface. (Dislodged dust is collected and trapped in an internal receptacle, so it won't float around the mirror compartment to cause more problems down the line.) A full cleaning cycle takes only 200 milliseconds (0.2 seconds).

To set appropriate expectations for Olympus' Supersonic Wave Filter system, it's important to note that it certainly isn't effective against grease smudges caused by fingerprints. -- So continue to be careful about putting your fingers inside the mirror compartment when the sensor is exposed.

Zuiko 12-60mm f/2.8-4 ED SWD Lens Optical Tests

Zoom
Excellent performance from the newly-announced 12-60mm lens.

The Olympus Zuiko Digital 12-60mm f/2.8-4 ED SWD lens was announced at the same time as the Olympus E-3 digital SLR was , equivalent to a 24-120mm lens on a 35mm camera. It doesn't appear that this will technically be a "kit" lens for the E-3, but it's a lens that's clearly intended for use with the camera, so we thought it would be an appropriate optic to use to test the E-3 with. (The 12-60mm's fast SWD focus motor is essential to getting the most out of the E-3's fast AF system.) This focal length range is both wider and longer than the typical 18-55mm kit lenses often bundled with SLRs with 1.5x crop factor sensors. With a maximum aperture of f/2.8 - 4, it's also faster than most kit lenses. Results were very good at 12mm, with minimal corner softness and strong detail throughout the frame. Coma distortion in the trees is very low, though minor chromatic aberration is visible in the corners and edges. Results are very good at the 60mm setting as well, with no signs of visible coma distortion and only minor chromatic aberration. All in all, a great performance, a very nice-looking lens.

Macro
An better than average-sized macro area with the 12-60mm lens, though good detail and high resolution. Flash exposure was uneven up close.

The Olympus E-3's macro setting performed well, though macro performance will obviously depend entirely on the lens in use. With the 12-60mm SWD lens, the E-3 captured a minimum area of 2.30 x 1.72 inches (58 x 44 millimeters), somewhat better than most moderate-ratio zoom lenses that we've tested. Detail and resolution were both very good, though details are a bit soft overall, with minor softening in the corners. The built-in flash produced a very uneven exposure here, partially blocked by the lens barrel, so plan on using external lighting for macro shots with this lens.

Distortion
An average amount of barrel distortion at wide angle, and average pincushion distortion at telephoto as well.

Barrel distortion at 12mm is 0.7%

Pincushion at 60mm is less than 0.2%

This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel -- usually at wide angle) or inward (like a pincushion -- usually at telephoto). The Olympus E-3's 12-60mm lens produced about 0.7% barrel distortion at full wide angle, and was noticeable in some images. This is about average performance, and not at all unexpected at such a wide angle. At the 60mm telephoto end, barrel distortion was about 0.2%; also average, but not as noticeable.

Chromatic aberration
Moderately low, though bright.

Chromatic aberration is moderately low, showing about 3-4 pixels of fairly bright coloration on either side of the target lines at both wide angle and telephoto focal lengths. The effect is only slightly visible in some shots. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.) The CA extends a fair ways into the frame, but diminished as it went, and we found it to be quite unobtrusive. A good performance here.

Corner Sharpness
Low to moderate softening in the corners of the frame with the 12-60mm SWD lens.

The Zuiko 12-60mm SWD lens produced moderately soft corners at wide angle, with the lower left corner being the softest, but the softening didn't extend very far into the frame at all, so the net effect was really quite minimal. At full telephoto, the corners were only slightly softer than the center of the frame. Again, very good performance.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Olympus E-3 Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Olympus E-3 Exposure

Metering
Five metering systems are available on the Olympus E-3: Digital ESP, Center-weighted, Spot (approx. 2% of viewfinder screen), Spot HI (highlights), and Spot SH (shadows). All are accessed through the Metering button on the camera's top panel. Depressing it and rotating the front dial selects the current Metering mode. It can also be changed from the Super Control Panel menu. Under the default Digital ESP setting, the camera takes an exposure reading from 49 zones or segments and chooses the best exposure based on brightness and contrast across the entire scene, though there is an option (ESP+ AF)that takes the active AFpoint into account. Center-weighted metering reads from the center of the frame, but from a fairly large area. Spot metering simply reads the exposure from the very center of the image, so you can pinpoint the specific area of the photograph you want properly exposed. (Spot metering is very handy when you have a subject that's backlit, or that has a very different brightness, either lighter or darker, than the background.) The two additional Spot options provide highlight and shadow control, whenever shooting in very bright or very dark conditions. Metering range is from 1 to 20 EV, at room temperature with a 50mm f/2 lens at ISO1 100.

An AE/AF Lock button locks the current exposure settings whenever pressed, so you can independently lock exposure and focus. (AE Lock is useful when you want to base your exposure on an off-center subject. Point the camera at the subject, lock the exposure, then recompose your shot however you like. Your subject will be correctly exposed, regardless of what might be in the center of the frame when you finally snap the shutter.) Through a Custom menu, you can designate the function of the AE/AF lock button, and how it works in conjunction with the Shutter button. This button will also lock the flash exposure.

In situations where exposure compensation is necessary, simply press the Exposure Compensation button and turn either Control dial (in all exposure modes except Manual and Bulb) and the EV value will display on the LCDs and viewfinder. You can increase or decrease the exposure in either 0.3, 0.5, or 1.0 EV increments (selected via a menu option), up to a maximum of +/- 5 EV. Or, you can use the Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) function to automatically bracket three or five frames at 0.3, 0.7, or 1.0 EV steps each. The auto bracketing will center its efforts around whatever exposure you've chosen as the starting point, including any exposure compensation adjustments you've made. AEB is handy for those times when you want to make sure you get just the right exposure for a critical subject.

White Balance
White balance options include Auto, Tungsten, Fluorescent 1, Fluorescent 2, Fluorescent 3, Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Flash, One-Touch (up to four can be registered), and Custom, to accommodate a variety of lighting situations. Pressing the White Balance button and turning either Control dial adjusts the setting, and the Kelvin temperature is displayed in the LCD monitor. The Olympus E-3 offers a Custom setting, which lets you choose from a range of Kelvin temperature settings, from 2,000K to 14,000K. The One-Touch options are useful for basing the white balance on a white card. You can also adjust the white balance, controlling the amount of amber-blue and green-magenta bias in the color balance, in any of the selected modes. This ability to "tweak" the white balance, called White Balance Compensation, is very helpful when dealing with difficult light sources. The E-3 also features a white balance bracketing. If activated, the camera will take three successive images, either biasing between amber and blue or green and magenta. You can set the images to vary by two, four, or six arbitrary adjustment steps.

ISO Sensitivity
The Olympus E-3 lets you adjust its light sensitivity, in either 1 or 1/3 EV steps, with options of 100 to 3,200 ISO equivalents, or to an Auto mode in which the camera selects an ISO appropriate to the subject's brightness. You can set a maximum ISO point for the Auto mode which won't risk noise in bright situations, from 100 to 3,200, as well as the default (minimum)ISO. The higher ISO settings are helpful when you want faster shutter speeds under normal lighting, to help freeze fast action. There is also a unique ISO bracketing feature, where the camera takes three images, varying the ISO but keeping the shutter speed and aperture fixed. Of course, as with all digicams, the higher ISO settings produce photos with more image noise, in much the same way that higher-ISO films show more film grain. To combat this problem, the E-3 offers a Noise Reduction option through the Record menu, which reduces the amount of image noise from long exposures, particularly at the higher ISO settings, as well as variable high ISO noise reduction Olympus calls Noise Filter. Noise Filter options consist of Off, Low, Standard, and High.

Picture Modes
There are also options on the Record menu to set the color mode, which offers Vivid, Natural, Muted, Portrait, and Monotone, as well as custom options. Contrast, Sharpness, and Saturation levels may be adjusted in five steps for Vivid, Natural, Muted, and Portrait; while Contrast and Sharpness levels can be adjusted in five steps for Monotone. Yellow, Orange, Red, or Green filter effects are available for Monotone, as well as Sepia, Blue, Purple, or Green picture tones. In addition, the Olympus E-3 has a Gradation setting to control the brightness of the entire image. You can choose between the Auto, Normal, Low, and High Key settings. A color space option under the Record menu lets you choose between sRGB (for Windows machines) and Adobe RGB (for Adobe Photoshop) color options.

Self-Timer
The Olympus E-3 also offers two Self-Timer modes for self-portraits or those occasions when you don't want to risk camera shake on a long exposure by pressing the Shutter button to trip the shutter. You can choose between a 2 or 12 second countdown. The 2 second countdown is useful for times when you're taking a long exposure with the camera on a tripod. The E-3 also offers an Anti-Shock feature which lets you set the delay (from 1 to 30 seconds) between the mirror raising and the shutter actuation, for when you want to minimize any camera shake from mirror slap. The Drive setting also accesses the Remote Control modes, for use with an optional remote. You can specify immediate release, or two-second delay with a remote.

Sequential Shooting Mode
The Olympus E-3 offers two Sequential modes that mimics the motor drive on a film camera. Sequential High captures images at 5 frames-per-second (we managed about 5.2 frames-per-second in our testing), while the frame rate for Sequential Low is programmable to 1, 2, 3 or 4 frames-per-second in a Custom menu. As is usually the case, the number of frames you can capture continuously is limited by the camera's buffer memory capacity, the speed of your memory card, and the image file size and quality.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Olympus E-3 Photo Gallery .

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Olympus E-3 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Performance

Olympus E-3 Performance

Imaging

Olympus E-3 Image Quality

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Slight oversaturation of strong red and blue tones, and very undersaturation of some greens, but better than average accuracy and pleasing color overall.

In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located towards the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center.

Saturation. The Olympus E-3 oversaturates reds and blues a little. It also undersaturates some greens very slightly, but results are still pleasing, and overall color accuracy is considerably better than that of much of the field. Some may find overall saturation somewhat subdued, but this is typical of semi-pro and professional SLRs. (And as you'll see below, the E-3's saturation adjustment gives good control, if you'd like a bit brighter color.) Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. In this case, the E-3 did render skin tones a bit on the pale, pink side in most cases. Still, results are quite reasonable, well within an acceptable range. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. Overall results here are pretty accurate, though some reds are pushed toward orange, and cyan towards blue. Still, overall color is quite good, closer to accurate than many DSLRs on the market. The other important part of color rendition is hue accuracy. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Saturation Adjustment
The Olympus E-3 lets you adjust the image saturation, contrast, and sharpness in five steps each. As can be seen below, the saturation adjustment worked very well, providing a reasonably fine-grained adjustment over a useful range of control. The saturation adjustment also has almost no impact on contrast. That's how it should work, but we've often found interactions between saturation and contrast (and vice versa) on the cameras we test.

Saturation Adjustment Examples
-2	-1	Default
+1	+2

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Auto white balance is a quite warm, but Incandescent and Manual white balance settings both produce very good color, though more than average positive exposure compensation required.

Color balance indoors under incandescent lighting was very warm with the Auto white balance setting, with a strong orange cast. The Incandescent setting was actually pretty good, producing nearly accurate color, though just a hint pinkish overall. (This is unusual for this shot, the Incandescent white balance option on most pro cameras is set to the 3200K color balance of incandescent studio lighting. That setting for the E-3 is much closer to the roughly 2800K temperature of the household bulbs used in the shot above.) I felt the Manual setting had the most pleasing overall results. The Olympus E-3 required a good bit more than the average amount of positive exposure compensation here, at +1.7 EV. Overall color is quite good, if just very slightly on the pink side, but the blue flowers didn't look too purplish as they often do with this shot. (And many users would prefer a little bit of the warmth of the lighting to be left in the final image, as the E-3 does here.) Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S. Apologies for the missing Kelvin white balance shot here: The E-3 has a Kelvin option (called "Custom" on the White Balance menu), I just didn't notice it when I was shooting.

Outdoors, daylight
Good color overall, though a tendency toward a warm cast and slightly high contrast under harsh lighting. About average exposure accuracy outdoors.

In the "Sunlit" test shot above, the Olympus E-3 tended to lose highlight detail under harsh lighting while requiring a below average amount of positive exposure compensation of +0.3 EV. Contrast was slightly high, resulting in some clipped highlights in Marti's shirt and some of the flowers, and lost shadow detail in the darker areas, but the E-3 does better than most in this regard. The outdoor house shot is slightly overexposed at default exposure, but with natural looking color.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
Very high resolution, 1,700 lines of strong detail.

Our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 1,700 lines per picture height in both the horizontal and vertical directions, with extinction past 2,000.

Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail. Our interpretation of this standard is somewhat conservative. We watch for artifacts and color fringing then move back to the nearest pure part of the scale. In our opinion, detail with artifacts shouldn't be considered detail. You may see other numbers quoted elsewhere, but across the site, our reviews judge this parameter by the same conservative standard.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Reasonably sharp images overall, though slightly soft details in some cases. Some noise suppression visible in the deep shadows.

Sharpness. The Olympus E-3 captured fairly sharp images, though details are a hint soft overall. In the high contrast shot above, there's only slight edge enhancement visible along the edges of the white house trim and roof. This means that, while the E-3's JPEGs are a little soft straight from the camera, they tend to take sharpening in image editing applications pretty well. There are some minor artifacts from the in-camera sharpening though: Sharpening on the computer does tend to bring out the slight halos that are present in the original images, but generally not noticeable unless additional sharpening is applied. (Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.)

Detail & Noise suppression. The crop above right shows some visible noise suppression in the shadows, though quite a bit of fine detail in the strands of hair remains visible. Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

JPEG vs RAW

JPEG vs RAW Comparison
Camera JPEG (Default Settings)	RAW via Olympus Studio (Default Settings)	RAW via Adobe Camera Raw (No sharpening in ACR, USM in Photoshop)

Mouse over the links to compare the difference in sharpness and detail from camera JPEG versus RAW file processed with Olympus' Studio software and Adobe Camera Raw 4.3. Camera settings for the JPEG settings were the defaults.

In our testing of many DSLRs, we're finding that there is often more detail locked up a the camera's RAW files than makes it out in the camera-produced JPEGs. In the case of the Olympus E-3 though, the only RAW converter we had available when we were doing the testing that could process its RAW files was the Olympus Master software (version 2.0.4). It appears that Olympus Master is using virtually identical algorithms to those employed by the camera itself, as we found virtually no difference between JPEGs made by the camera and those made by the software from camera RAW files. We did find that exporting JPEGs from Olympus Master with the sharpening set to its lowest value, and then applying unsharp masking in Photoshop let us produce sharper-looking images without sharpening artifacts. It's quite possible that third-party RAW converters will be able to extract more detail once they can decode the E-3's RAW format, but we won't know that until some point in the future.

Update: Adobe has since released a version of Adobe Camera Raw (4.3) that supports the E-3, so we've updated this comparison to include results from ACR. We had sharpening set to 0 in ACR, but used USM 500% with radius=0.3 pixels in Photoshop.

ISO & Noise Performance
Low to moderate noise at the normal sensitivity settings, higher noise with some blurring at the highest settings.

Noise levels are low to moderate at the Olympus E-3's lower sensitivity settings. We start to see some luminance noise in deep shadows already at ISO 200, but its a very fine, with a tight pattern. A little more noise is visible ISO 400, but detail is still superb. "Grain" is more apparent at ISO 800, but most fine detail is still intact. At ISOs 1,600 and 3,200, noise is much higher (as you might expect), more blurring, increased chroma noise and a slight shift in color balance. In the shots above, we like that Olympus chose to leave more subject detail present, at the expense of higher image noise. (Our Still Life shots though, seemed to indicated that there is some deliberate blurring going on at high ISO settings, even in the RAW files. - Although that last conclusion will have to remain tentative until we can look at the E-3's RAW files with good third-party converters, where we can be certain of seeing the file data with no noise reduction applied.)

Extremes: Sunlit and low light tests
High resolution with strong overall detail, though details are slightly soft. Slightly high contrast and slightly limited shadow detail, however. Good low-light performance, capable of capturing bright images under average city street lighting and much darker conditions.

Sunlight. The Olympus E-3 struggled a little with the deliberately harsh lighting of the above test, producing slightly high contrast with some washed-out highlights and slightly plugged shadows. The E-3 did much better here though, than did its consumer-oriented siblings, the E-410 and E-510: There's much more detail present in the shadows than the consumer models managed to hold onto. Though Marti's face still looks a little dark at +0.3 EV, I preferred it to the image at +0.7 EV, which had too many blown highlights for my preference. (In "real life" though, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown above; it's better to shoot in the shade when possible.)

Contrast Adjustment Examples
-2	-1	Default
+1	+2

The series of shots above show the results of the different contrast settings. While it can be difficult to evaluate small differences in contrast on small thumbnails like these, it's pretty easy to see the impact of the Contrast adjustment in the images above. At its lowest setting, the E3 actually does an excellent job of handling the deliberately horrific lighting of this shot. (Although the deep shadows are a bit noisier than I'd like.) Like the Saturation adjustment, the control for Contrast is quite effective, and interacts very little with color saturation.

Note: Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here.)

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16fc No NR
ISO 100	1.6 sec f2.8	2.5 sec f2.8	5 sec f2.8	10 sec f2.8	15 sec f2.8	13 sec f2.8
ISO 200	0.8 sec f2.8	1.3 sec f2.8	3.2 sec f2.8	5 sec f2.8	8 sec f2.8	8 sec f2.8
ISO 400	0.4 sec f2.8	0.8 sec f2.8	1.6 sec f2.8	2.5 sec f2.8	4 sec f2.8	4 sec f2.8
ISO 800	1/5 sec f2.8	0.3 sec f2.8	0.8 sec f2.8	1 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8	2 sec f2.8
ISO 1600	1/10 sec f2.8	1/5 sec f2.8	0.4 sec f2.8	0.8 sec f2.8	1 sec f2.8	1 sec f2.8
ISO 3200	1/20 sec f2.8	1/10 sec f2.8	1/5 sec f2.8	0.3 sec f2.8	0.5 sec f2.8	0.5 sec f2.8

Low light. The Olympus E-3 performed well here, able to capture usable images down to the 1/16 foot-candle light level (about 1/16 as bright as average city street lighting at night), at all ISO settings. The E-3's metering and exposure at these low levels was a bit non-linear though, as can be seen from the somewhat uneven exposure times. Color balance is just a bit warm from the Auto white balance setting. You'll probably want to keep NR on, as quite a few hot pixels are visible with it off - and there are also some present even when it's on, particularly in long exposures at high ISOs. Some very slight banding is present at ISOs 1,600 and 3,200 in darker areas of the target. (Slight at ISO 3,200, almost invisible at 1,600.) The camera's autofocus system was able to focus on the subject down to below the 1/16 foot-candle light level with its AF assist light turned off. Do keep in mind that the very long shutter times necessary here absolutely demand the use of a tripod or other camera support to get sharp photos. (A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.)

How bright is a foot-candle? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Digital SLRs like the Olympus E-3 do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects.

Output Quality

Print Quality
Good print quality, great color, great 13x19 inch prints. ISO 1,600 images are surprisingly good at 8x10, even better at 5x7.

Output from the Olympus E-3 was good enough to produce sharp 13x19 inch prints. At 20x30, its images were softer looking, but would be just fine when seen at the viewing distances typical for such large prints. High ISO images were actually better than we had been expecting from the smaller 4/3-format sensor. There's more noise present than the very best cameras with APS-C size sensors manage, but the difference is one of good vs a little better, rather than terrible vs wonderful.

Shots under daylight lighting at ISO 1,600 were a little soft and noisy at 13x19 inches, but really not bad at all (they'd be quite acceptable for wall display), and at 8x10 inches they looked great: You could see noise in the shadows, but we didn't find it obtrusive. Images shot at ISO 3200 were definitely noisy at 8x10 inches, but again, would probably be acceptable for wall or table display. Under incandescent lighting, noise becomes more of a problem. As with any camera, the yellowish cast of the lighting requires the more noise-prone blue color channel to be amplified, emphasizing the noise more than is the case with daylight illumination. Even the incandescent ISO 1600 shots made decent-looking 8x10s though: Again, there was noise to be found, but it was for the most part pretty fine-grained, so wasn't as obtrusive as it might have been.

Color-wise, the Olympus E-3 acquitted itself very well. Its color isn't oversaturated the way many consumer digicams and SLRs are, which might lead some people who like very bright, punchy color to be underwhelmed. In our shots though, we felt its rendering was very natural looking, and plenty colorful enough for our tastes. (And if you'd like your color a little brighter, the saturation adjustment works very well.) Hue accuracy was good, and the overall effect was quite pleasing. A very good performance overall.

Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon i9900 studio printer, and on the Canon iP5200 here in the office. (See the Canon i9900 review for details on that model.)

Viewfinder

Olympus E-3 Optical Viewfinder

One of the more pleasant surprises we found in the Olympus E3 was its viewfinder. Previous Olympus DSLRs have tended to have small, tight optical viewfinders. The availability of the Live View function on recent models has somewhat compensate for this, but when you need maximum responsiveness or in very low-light , you'll need to use the optical viewfinder, and on previous Olympus Four Thirds DSLRs, it was tight and small. By contrast, the optical viewfinder on the new E3 is huge, bright, and beautiful, and it offers a true 100% field of view. (Why can't more SLRs do this?) The illustration above right shows the relative size difference between the viewfinders in the original E1 and the new E3, but really doesn't do it justice: It feels much larger when you're looking through the eyepiece. The official spec on the E-3's viewfinder magnification is 1.15x, much larger than the typical 0.9 or so found in many DSLRs.

The viewfinder eyepiece is surrounded by a soft rubber eyecup, and has a diopter adjustment dial on the left to adjust the view for eyeglass wearers. The range of adjustment is -3 to +1 diopter, and Olympus also offers DE-P3 and DE-N3 diopter compensation replacement eyecups. Below the diopter dial is a small lever that controls a shutter for blocking light from the viewfinder for preventing stray light from affecting exposure when shooting without looking through the viewfinder.

The Olympus E3's viewfinder makes good use of its larger viewing area, packing lots of operating information into a clear display across the bottom. (The difference in viewing size isn't subtle: We had the experience of squinting through the E510's viewfinder and then looking into the E3's, it was like peering through a window, vs stepping into a room.)

Viewfinder Test Results

Coverage
Excellent accuracy with both the optical viewfinder and LCD monitor's Live View mode, but there was a little tilt in the optical viewfinder.

The Olympus E-3's optical viewfinder proved very accurate, with about 99% coverage at wide angle and telephoto (with the 12-60mm SWD lens), though it was tilted off axis from the sensor somewhat. The camera's Live View LCD mode was extremely accurate, with about 100% accuracy at both wide angle and telephoto.

Flash

Olympus E-3 Flash

The Olympus E-3 features a built-in, pop-up flash, which operates in either Auto, Red-eye reduction, Red-eye reduction slow synchronization, Fill-in, Slow synchronization, Manual, or Off mode. Flash control modes consist of TTL Auto (TTL pre-flash mode), Auto, and Manual (with full, 1/4, 1/16, 1/64 power output settings). First or second curtain synchronization options are available. To release the flash from its compartment, press the flash button on the top panel to the left side of the pentamirror housing. Close it again by pushing the flash head back down. The Olympus E-3 also has a top-mounted hot shoe for attaching an external flash unit, as well as a PC-sync connector for non-dedicated flash units, studio strobes, etc.

Flash exposure compensation can be set to three stops lower or greater, in 1/3-stop increments, and there is a 3-shot flash bracketing feature as well.

The Olympus E-3's built-in flash has a Guide Number (GN) of 13 meters or 43 feet at ISO 100. Maximum sync speed is 1/250s. Super FP shooting with shutter speeds up to 1/8,000s is available with Olympus FL-50R, FL-36R, FL-50, and FL-36 external flash units.

A Wireless mode lets the Olympus E-3 work with compatible remote flash units with wireless capability, specifically the Olympus FL-50R and FL-36R. Four separate control channels are available for wireless operation, to allow multiple photographers to work wirelessly in the same area without interfering with each other. There is also support for controlling three separate groups with individual control for flash mode and flash intensity per group.

Flash Test Results

Coverage and Range
A fairly powerful flash, but poor coverage at the widest angle setting of the 12-60mm lens we tested with. Our indoor shots required an average amount of positive compensation in the normal flash mode.

Coverage. Flash coverage was somewhat uneven at wide angle, with the lens blocking part of the flash and some rather dark corners, though results at telephoto were more uniform. (This may not be a fair test, in that very few on-camera flashes (none?) are set up to cover the field of view of a 24mm equivalent wide-angle lens.) In the Indoor test, the Olympus E-3's flash underexposed our subject at its default setting, requiring an average +0.7 EV positive exposure compensation boost. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode resulted in a more even exposure and a brighter overall image at +0.3 EV, though the longer shutter time resulted in an orange color cast from the ambient studio lighting.

Flash Range: Wide Angle
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/60 sec f2.8 ISO 100	1/60 sec f2.8 ISO 100	1/60 sec f2.8 ISO 100	1/60 sec f2.8 ISO 100	1/60 sec f2.8 ISO 100	1/60 sec f2.8 ISO 100
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/60 sec f2.8 ISO 100	1/60 sec f2.8 ISO 100	1/60 sec f2.8 ISO 100	1/60 sec f2.8 ISO 100	1/60 sec f2.8 ISO 100

Flash Range: Telephoto
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/125 sec f4.0 ISO 100	1/125 sec f4.0 ISO 100	1/125 sec f4.0 ISO 100	1/125 sec f4.0 ISO 100	1/125 sec f4.0 ISO 100	1/125 sec f4.0 ISO 100
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/125 sec f4.0 ISO 100	1/125 sec f4.0 ISO 100	1/125 sec f4.0 ISO 100	1/125 sec f4.0 ISO 100	1/125 sec f4.0 ISO 100

ISO 100 Range. Flash power remains pretty strong to about 15 feet at wide angle, though there is some minor exposure variation along the way. At telephoto, the flash exposures were dim even at 6 feet, but brightness didn't fall-off all the way out to the 16-foot point. Again, there were some minor exposure variations.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range
Telephoto
10.8 feet ISO 100

Manufacturer Specified Flash Range. The E-3's flash is rated with a GN of 13m at ISO 100. That works out to about 10.8 feet at f/4, the maximum aperture at full telephoto for the 12-60mm SWD lens we were using. Results were dim at this distance and aperture, perhaps indicating that the flash isn't quite as powerful, or that the lens isn't quite as fast as Olympus says it is.

Note: Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.

Imatest Results

Olympus E-3 Imatest Results

We routinely use Norman Koren's excellent "Imatest" analysis program for quantitative, thoroughly objective analysis of digicam test images. I highly recommend it to our technically-oriented readers, as it's far and away the best, most comprehensive analysis program I've found to date.

My comments below are just brief observations of what we see in the Imatest results. A full discussion of all the data Imatest produces is really beyond the scope of this review: Visit the Imatest web site for a full discussion of what the program measures, how it performs its computations, and how to interpret its output.

Here's some of the results produced by Imatest for the Olympus E-3:
(Note that data from competing cameras have been updated since the original E-3 review.)

sRGB Accuracy Comparison
Olympus E-3	Canon 40D	Nikon D300	Sony A700

The Olympus E-3 showed good color accuracy, with the accurate saturation levels that we're accustomed to finding in Pro and semi-pro SLRs. Hue accuracy was very good, with most of the hue shift occurring in the cyans, sky blues, reds and oranges. Average saturation was 105.2% (oversaturated by 5.2%, mostly in the reds and blues). Average "delta-C" color error was only 4.91 after correction for saturation, making the E-3 one of the more hue-accurate cameras we've tested. (Delta-C is the same as the more commonly referred to delta-E, but delta-C takes into account only color differences, ignoring luminance variation.) All in all, a very good color response for an SLR. Mouse over the links below the illustration above to compare results with competing models.

Adobe RGB Accuracy Comparison
Olympus E-3	Canon 40D	Nikon D300	Sony A700

Using the Adobe RGB color space (which provides a much wider gamut, or range of colors that can be expressed), the Olympus E-3 delivers more highly saturated color, with an average saturation-corrected hue error of 4.81 "delta-C" units, and average saturation of 111.4%. Again, mouse over the links below the illustration above to compare results with competing models.

This image shows how the Olympus E-3 actually rendered the colors of the MacBeth chart, compared to a numerically ideal treatment. In each color swatch, the outer perimeter shows the color as actually captured by the camera, the inner square shows the numerically ideal color, after correcting for the luminance of the photographed chart (as determined by a second-order curve fit to the values of the gray swatches), and the small rectangle inside the inner square shows the numerically ideal color, without any luminance correction. This image shows the E-3's excellent hue accuracy, as well as its slight tendency to render some highly-saturated colors with higher luminance than the numerically "correct" level.

There's a lot in this particular graph, a lot more than we have room to go into here. (This set of plots has also changed a little in the more recent versions of Imatest. Some of the plots that were shown here previously are now shown in other Imatest output. Since we largely focus on the Noise Spectrum plot, we'll only show the graphic above, which includes that plot.) Bottom line, the Olympus E-3 noise levels are low at low ISO (although marginally higher than some competing cameras), with a frequency spectrum that has more energy on the higher frequency (right-hand) side of the curve than do many cameras.

In comparing these graphs with those from competing cameras, I've found that the Noise Spectrum graph at lower right is the most important. Cameras that manage to shift their noise spectrum to higher frequencies have much finer-grained noise structures, making their noise less visually objectionable. In the graph above, this would show up as a noise spectrum curve that remained higher on the right side, representing higher noise frequencies. The champion at this was the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, which produced remarkably fine-grained image noise, even at very high ISOs. The Olympus E-3 shows relatively low noise near zero frequency for the red, green and luminance channels, while the blue channel spikes higher, producing a little blotchiness in the blue channel. The overall noise curve has a fair bit of energy on the right-hand, high-frequency side, so what noise is present at low ISOs is for the most part very fine-grained.

Here's the same set of noise data at ISO 3,200. Here, the Noise Spectrum graph is shifted a quite a bit toward the left-hand, lower-frequency side than it was at ISO 100, coarsening the "grain" of the image noise patterns. Once again, not bad, but not a standout among recent competing DSLR models. (Interestingly, measured noise levels at ISO 3200 are almost dead-even with those of the Canon EOS-40D, but the E-3's images are visually much rougher, apparently due to the 40D's greater success at pushing the noise energy into the higher spatial frequency domain.)

This chart compares the Olympus E-3's noise performance over a range of ISOs against that of other cameras. While I continue to show noise plots of this sort because readers ask for them, I each time point out that the noise magnitude is only a small part of the story, the grain pattern being much more important. Here, we do see that E-3's noise magnitude is on average a little higher than the competition.

Olympus E-3 Dynamic Range Analysis

A key parameter in a digital camera is its Dynamic Range, the range of brightness that can be faithfully recorded. At the upper end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is dictated by the point at which the RGB data "saturates" at values of 255, 255, 255. At the lower end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is determined by the point at which there ceases to be any useful difference between adjacent tonal steps. Note the use of the qualifier "useful" in there: While it's tempting to evaluate dynamic range as the maximum number of tonal steps that can be discerned at all, that measure of dynamic range has very little relevance to real-world photography. What we care about as photographers is how much detail we can pull out of the shadows before image noise becomes too objectionable. This, of course, is a very subjective matter, and will vary with the application and even the subject matter in question. (Noise will be much more visible in subjects with large areas of flat tints and subtle shading than it would in subjects with strong, highly contrasting surface texture.)

What makes most sense then, is to specify useful dynamic range in terms of the point at which image noise reaches some agreed-upon threshold. To this end, Imatest computes a number of different dynamic range measurements, based on a variety of image noise thresholds. The noise thresholds are specified in terms of f-stops of equivalent luminance variation in the final image file, and dynamic range is computed for noise thresholds of 1.0 (low image quality), 0.5 (medium image quality), 0.25 (medium-high image quality) and 0.1 (high image quality). For most photographers and most applications, the noise thresholds of 0.5 and 0.25 f-stops are probably the most relevant to the production of acceptable-quality finished images, but many noise-sensitive shooters will insist on the 0.1 f-stop limit for their most critical work.

The image below shows the test results from Imatest for an in-camera JPEG file from the Olympus E-3 with a nominally-exposed density step target (Stouffer 4110), and the E-3's contrast setting at its default position.

The numbers here are a bit of a mixed bag. At first glance, the dynamic range spec at the highest quality threshold is only 6.42 stops, rather lackluster for a high-end DSLR. If you're willing to accept just a little more noise though, the numbers get a lot better, to the point that they're quite competitive with many DSLRs currently on the market..

Processing the E-3's RAW (ORF) files through Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) version 4.3 improved dynamic range by 0.8 stops at the highest quality level, and by 0.7 stop at the next-highest level. Results were similar with both ACR's automatic settings and when fiddling with the sliders manually, although (as is often the case) ACR's auto option did slightly better than I managed manually. The net result is pretty competitive: The results are ahead of those from other 4/3-format bodies we've tested, across the board, and at the "medium-high" quality level (allowing 1/4 stop of noise), the dynamic range is very competitive indeed.

Dynamic Range, the bottom line:

The net result was that the E-3 trailed much of its competition at the most stringent 1/10-stop noise threshold, but was very competitive at the 1/4-stop level. So if you don't mind a little noise in the shadows, the Olympus E-3 does very well indeed.

To get some perspective, here's a summary of the Olympus E-3's dynamic range performance, and how it compares to other digital SLRs that we also have Imatest dynamic range data for. (Results are arranged in order of decreasing dynamic range at the "High" quality level.):

Long-time readers will know that I'm a little conflicted about the numbers in the table above, in that they haven't always correlated well with our experience of the various cameras' images: The Nikon D2x was a particular case in point. Its in-camera JPEGs tested very poorly, but we found loads of shadow detail in its images when we played with them in Photoshop. That said though, over the long haul, we've found that these results from Imatest track pretty well with what we find when working with the images themselves. In that vein, the "Medium-High" quality results for the Olympus E-3 seem to correlate well with what we found in Photoshop: There's more noise in the shadows than the best of its competitors provide, but if you're willing to accept some of that, its dynamic range is quite good, and definitely a long step up from Olympus' consumer-level 4/3-format DSLRs that we've tested to date.

Olympus E-3 Resolution Chart Test Results

The chart above shows consolidated results from spatial frequency response measurements in both the horizontal and vertical axes. The "MTF 50" numbers tend to correlate best with visual perceptions of sharpness, so those are what I focus on here. The uncorrected resolution figures are 2,023 line widths per picture height in the horizontal direction (corresponding to the vertically-oriented edge), and 2,003 lines along the vertical axis (corresponding to the horizontally-oriented edge), for a combined average of 2,013 LW/PH. Correcting to a "standardized" sharpening with a one-pixel radius results in an average of 1,943 LW/PH. This is just slightly below the uncorrected results, indicating very good but slightly overstated in-camera sharpening, with resolution results a bit below the best we've seen for a 10-megapixel camera.

To see what's going on, refer to the plots below, which show the actual edge profiles for both horizontal and vertical edges, in both their original and corrected forms. Here, you can see that there is in fact a little too much in-camera sharpening applied (the noticeable bump at the top ends of the black curves), that the standard sharpening operator partially corrects. While we didn't run the graphs to prove it, you'd likely do well to run the E-3 with slightly lower than default in-camera sharpening and the use strong/tight sharpening post-exposure in Photoshop or some other image editor.

Shooting Modes

Olympus E-3 Modes and Menus

Olympus E-3 Capture Mode

When powered on, the camera is automatically placed into Record mode. The Olympus E-3 doesn't have an Exposure Mode dial on top of the camera typically found on consumer models, but instead has a Mode button. Exposure modes are changed by press the Mode button and rotating the rear Control dial. The current exposure mode is shown in the viewfinder and on the LCD.

The following exposure modes are offered:

• Program AE (Program Shift): This mode places the camera in control over both aperture and shutter speed, while the user has access to all other menu functions. Turning a Control dial cycles through a range of equivalent exposure settings, enabling the Program Shift mode.
• Aperture Priority: The opposite of Shutter Priority, this mode puts the user in control of the aperture setting while the camera selects the best shutter speed. (The aperture range varies with the lens in use.)
• Shutter Priority: Allows the user to set the shutter speed, from 1/8,000 to 60 seconds, while the camera selects the most appropriate aperture setting.
• Manual: Provides complete user control over the exposure, including both aperture and shutter speed settings.
• Bulb: A Bulb shutter setting allows variable length exposures for as long as you hold down the shutter button. Bulb shooting can also be done with an optional remote control (RM-1 or RM-CB1), and there is also a Bulb Timer feature which can automatically end a bulb exposure after a specified period of time.
• My Mode 1/2: You to save two individual sets of camera settings for quick recall. Useful when shooting an event with multiple light sources, these custom modes let you register camera settings for specific conditions and easily switch between them.
• Underwater Wide/Macro: These are the only "scene" modes the E-3 has, with optimized presets for underwater shooting, both wide-angle and macro.

Playback Mode

The Playback button on the rear panel accesses Playback mode, where you can review captured images. The left and right arrow keys, as well as the up and down keys, scroll through the images on the card. You can enlarge captured images or display them in an index format for quick viewing.

Olympus E-3 Menus

Pressing the Menu button provides access to the camera's full menu system. The Olympus E-3's menu system is pretty straightforward, with a tabbed interface and navigation via the 4-way arrow keys, the OK button, and the Menu button. The right-arrow takes you into the sub-menus for each setting option, OK confirms a selection, and the Menu button itself backs out of any given sub-menu screen without making a selection. This last isn't unusual, but we find it a little counterintuitive: If the right-arrow takes you down into a sub-menu, why doesn't the left-arrow take you back out?

The following options are available in most camera modes as menu tabs at the left of the display:

Record Menu 1:

Record Menu 2:

Playback Menu:

Custom Menu 1:

Custom Menu 2:

Rawindex

Digital Cameras - Olympus E-3 RAW Test Images

The tables below show selected representative images from our test shot series that were shot in RAW mode.

Depending on your browser, you can download the images by clicking on the links, or by right-clicking on the links and selecting "Save Target As...", or similar. Some browsers change the file extension to .TIFF. In that case, just rename to .ORF after downloading. You can see the full set of in-camera JPEG shots, including exposure information extracted from the EXIF file headers, on the Thumbnail index page.

NOTE: These are very large files (10+ megabytes each). They're here for you to use, but please be considerate of our bandwidth; don't just download everything willy-nilly. - Thanks!

Still Life

Multi-Target

Indoor Portrait, No Flash

Outdoor Portrait, Sunlight

Far-Field

Comparison

Olympus E-3 Comparison

The chart below compares the E-3 with other current Olympus DSLRs. We've used color tints in the cells to highlight differences. A red cell means that the the camera involved has lesser specs than the others, a green cell that it has better, and a yellow cell that its specification is somewhere between.

Note: if you're having trouble seeing the entire width of the table, try the "Print this Page" link near the bottom of the page.