The E-1 is the first — and to date the only — 4/3
SLR camera to be released. Likewise, to date, only Olympus
has released lenses designed for the standard. The 4/3 standard
however encompasses Kodak and Fujifilm, and is supposed to
be a standard that is open to other manufacturers. It is therefore
likely that lenses made by others will become available as
time passes. Likewise, the Zuiko lenses that have been developed
for the E-1 should work with 4/3 cameras from other manufacturers
Aperture: f4, Shutter Speed:1/125 s.
Aperture: f4, Shutter Speed:1/125 s.
The line of Zuiko lenses Olympus developed for its 4/3 system
are digital specific. These are lenses designed to ensure that
light is delivered more directly to the sensor, which in turn
improves colour, contrast, and brightness at the edges.
The E-1 reviewed here was supplied with a Zuiko 14 to 54mm f2.8-3.5 lens.
For the 4/3 system, such a focal length is comparable to a 28 to 108mm
lens with a 35mm camera, making it able to capture photos that range from
a very reasonable wide angle to a short telephoto that is perfectly suited
to portraits.
The 14 to 54mm also provides a minimum focus distance of 10 cm (3.9 in.)
when the lens is at its widest angle, and 6cm (2.34 in.) when the lens
is set to the maximum telephoto; making it perfect for some excellent macro
and close-up shots.
The other lens supplied for this
review was the 50 to 200mm f2.8-3.5. Both of these lenses yield
excellent images that exhibit a good sharpness and excellent
colour saturation.
The AF system of the
E-1 is fast and reliable and provides either a fully automatic
system that selects the focus from one of three horizontal points
in the frame, or allows the user to choose one of the three precisely.
One valuable feature of the system is that the precise focus
point can be manually adjusted, moving it slightly from front
to back so as to fall precisely where desired.
The Continuous AF mode is similarly efficient, and tracks well as long
as the subject remains within the wide focus area.
Aperture: f3.5, Shutter Speed:1/20
s.
Just like the AF, the metering of
the E-1 is also reliable. The default ESP system is adept at
producing exposures that take both the highlights and shadows
into account. And should alternate metering patterns be required
to increase the importance given to the centre of the frame in
the exposure, they are quickly accessible, as is the auto bracketing.
Aperture: f2.8, Shutter Speed: 1/60
s.
Overall the E-1 handles noise
quite well. Normal exposures contain little noise up to 400 ISO,
and even photos captured at 800 ISO are usually acceptable, although
some noise can be detected. With the ISO Boost turned on, the
E-1 can be used to capture photos in some dimly lit places and
still maintain a shutter speed that prevents camera shake. The
trade-off is more noise — 1600 and 3200 ISO shots are noisy
but 1600 ISO images could be used.
It also appears that it is with
high ISO (up to 800) photos that the Noise Filter of
the E-1 is most effective. While it does not eliminate noise
altogether, it does noticeably lessen it making the process worthwhile,
even if it does extend the amount of time it takes to process
and save images somewhat (for instance saving a TIFF image with
the noise filter turned on increases the time it takes to process
and save the photo from 7 seconds to 17 seconds).
Aperture: f3.3, Shutter Speed: 1/30
s.
In any case, with its generous buffer
memory, even while the noise filter function is active the E-1
retains the ability to capture photos until the buffer is full.
Still, the increase in processing time is most noticeable with
JPEG (SHQ) photos. With the Noise Filter off, the E-1 processes
and saves a photo in under 4 seconds. With the noise filter active,
that time increases to 13 seconds.
Aperture: f5, Shutter Speed:1/640 s.
As with most cameras that provide
a RAW format, the RAW mode photos have to be processed with the
bundled application, Olympus Viewer, but we would recommend purchasing
a full copy of Olympus Studio as it is much more powerful, and
reasonably priced at $149 US (See the next section, Interface
and Software, for an overview of the E-1's software.)
TIFF format images require no post processing and are immediately useable.
Each TIFF image requires 22.9 MB of storage space, but the E-1 is able
to buffer 12 of these (the same number as for SHQ JPEGs) before it needs
to write them to the memory card.
As mentioned above, saving a single TIFF file to a 1GB Microdrive takes
7 seconds; saving a burst of 12 photos takes 1min 20 sec. Timings that
are quite reasonable and make the E-1 a capable camera for many professional
environments.
And indeed, the E-1 is intended
for the professional, a market that may not be taken aback by
its price, or the price of the lenses and accessories that are
currently available, but may feel that 5 megapixel is not enough
resolution for some applications.
Moreover, as the only 4/3 camera system on the market at this point in
time, the acquisition of the E-1 and of appropriate lenses is a bit of
a gamble. There is no certainty that others will in fact jump onto the
4/3 bandwagon, and that the system will take hold. And, at this point in
time no other company has announced the imminent release of compatible
equipment.
Image Quality
