Olympus E-3 Review
Review Date: January 9th 2008
Author: Gavin Stoker
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 10 megapixel SHQ
JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around
6Mb.
Noise
There are 6 main ISO settings available
on the Olympus E-3 which you can select at any time if
the camera is in the normal shooting mode. With the same
combination of processor and sensor, unsurprisingly the clean
bill of health awarded to shots taken on the E-410 at high(er)
ISO's is also deserved by the Olympus E-3. Stick to ISO
800 and below in the main and there are no problems to report,
while noise levels at ISO 1600 are more than acceptable.
Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for
each ISO setting:
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have
been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand
image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the
camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening
setting. You can change the in-camera sharpening level to
one of the different preset levels if you don't like the
default look.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Olympus E-3's 24-120mm kit lens
handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review,
with very small levels of purple fringing mainly present
around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations,
as shown in the example below.
Flash
The flash settings on the Olympus
E-3 are Auto,
Manual, Red-eye reduction, Slow syncro with red-eye
reduction, Slow syncro, 2nd curtain and slow syncro,
and Fill-in for exclusive flash. These shots of a white
coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Auto
Flash - Telephoto (82mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots.
The Auto setting caused a tiny amount of red-eye, which the
Red-eye reduction mode successfully removed.
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Auto
(100% Crop) |
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Auto & Red-eye
reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Olympus E-3's maximum shutter
speed is 60 seconds and there's also a Bulb mode for exposures
up to 30 minutes long, which is excellent news if you're
seriously interested in
night
photography.
The
shot
below
was taken
using a shutter speed of 1 second, aperture of f/3.2 at
ISO 800. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show
what the quality is like.
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Night
Shot (100% Crop) |
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Overall Image Quality
I was initially – yet pleasantly – surprised at how warm and well-saturated images
are straight out of the E-3 when left to its 'natural' default
settings; that is to say skin tones looking healthy rather
than Judith Chalmers/Donald Trump orange. When using the E-410
and E-510 DSLRs I often switched to the in-camera vivid setting,
as the default seemed to lack the punch of the scene before
me – but didn't feel the need of it here. At the supplied lens'
maximum wide-angle setting it's undoubtedly perfect for
capturing landscapes
or getting up close for that sub-fisheye 'in your face' look.
The detail it delivers is also sharp and pleasingly crisp
– and I'm not only talking about the winter frost that was
on the ground for some of our test shots. Other than that,
images are well exposed, with a pleasing degree of both highlight
and shadow detail
maintained, plus purple fringing noticeable only under extreme
magnification and if shooting in particularly contrast-y
scenarios. Under artificial light is when white balance suffers,
the image taking on a hue of whatever the dominant (obviously
non-white) colour in the scene is, unless of course you've
manually set up the white balance beforehand. So, it's not
a deal breaker by any means. And, although noise is visible at
most settings from mid point in the E-3's ISO range and upwards,
it's only the case if you zoom in particularly closely –
meaning that it's well controlled and shouldn't present any
adverse issues. Overall, image quality is impressive,
with little or any post processing required bar possibly
an application of unsharp mask.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Olympus E-3 have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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