Olympus FE-300 Review
Review Date: November 26th 2007
Author: Gavin Stoker
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12M mode, which
gives an average image size of around 4Mb.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available
on the Olympus FE-300 which you can select at any time
if the camera is in the normal shooting mode. As expected,
the Olympus FE-300 overreaches itself when attempting shots
at ISO 6400 – the results similar to
a watercolour
painting on which the colours have run. Stick to ISO 800
at a push, but ideally ISO 400 if you don't want image detail
to noticeably suffer the higher up the admittedly broad range
you go.
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 soft at the default sharpening
setting. Alternatively you can change the in-camera sharpening
level if you don't like the default look.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Olympus FE-300 did suffer from
chromatic aberrations during the review, but it was generally
well controlled. Limited purple fringing was mainly present
around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations,
as shown in the examples below.
Macro
The Olympus FE-300 offers a Macro
setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 10cms
away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle.
The first image shows how close you can get to the subject
(in this case a compact flash card). The second image is
a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Olympus FE-300 are Auto, Red-eye
reduction, Fill-in and Off. These shots of
a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Auto
Flash - Telephoto (105mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots.
As you can see, both the Flash On and Red-eye
reduction settings caused a small amount of
red-eye.
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Flash
On (100% Crop) |
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Flash
On + Red-Eye (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Olympus FE-300's maximum shutter
speed is 4 seconds in the Night Scene mode, which is not
great news if you're seriously interested in night photography.
The
shot
below
was taken
using a shutter speed of 1/30th second, aperture of f/2.8
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
That broad ISO range looks very enticing on paper, but how does it shape up in
practice? As expected, the Olympus FE-300 overreaches itself
when attempting shots at ISO 6400 – the results similar to
a watercolour
painting on which the colours have run. Stick to ISO 800
at a push, but ideally ISO 400 if you don't want image detail
to noticeably suffer the higher up the admittedly broad range
you go. Perhaps more of a disappointment is the visible softness
towards the edges of nearly every frame, particularly pronounced
when shooting
at maximum wideangle. And despite its 12 megapixel claims,
there's no more noticeable detail captured than say a 7 megapixel
camera from one of Olympus' rivals, the FE-300's images generally
benefiting from later sharpening. Laying the blame partly at
the fact that the camera is so slender that there's not much
to actually
get a good firm grip on – camera shake and blurred images
are also something of a problem if shooting in less than
bright light. I took the camera out on a dull afternoon
in Tokyo and only half the shots – at a push – were 'keepers'.
Turning off the flash when shooting indoors for a more naturalistic
look resulted in yet more soft shots worthy only of deletion.
On the plus side there's a flattering softness and warmth to
skin
tones when utilising the Olympus FE-300's
portrait mode, and, when using flash, red eye thankfully
doesn't seem overly problematic. Left to its fully auto devices,
compensatory white balance is unfortunately less than spot
on, bathing
daylight shots in a blue cast for example, while interiors
are given that familiar orangey/yellow glow. If you've vast
expanses of blue sky in your shots the results are vivid,
but colours overall are less than realistic. In short you have
to work harder than you should – given its snapshot status
– to get an image
from the Olympus FE-300 you'll be truly pleased with. Still,
metering is adequate and exposures commendably even, with an
acceptable
to good handling of pixel fringing.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Olympus FE-300 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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