The Olympus
E-3 can best be classified as a digital dreadnought. At over two pounds
(32.5 ounces) without a lens and over three pounds with one (53.2 ounces),
this isn't a camera to be taken lightly. It is nicely balanced, however,
which makes toting it around in the field less onerous than might be expected.
The controls on the DSC a well-organized, clearly labeled
and easy to reach. One feature conspicuous by its absence is the omission
of a mode dial. Olympus chose to move the functions ordinarily found on
that dial to the camera's 2.5-inch LCD, a move that some photographers
may find disconcerting, but one that I quickly learned to like.
At the front
of the camera at the top of the handgrip is a Sub Dial. It's complemented
by a Main Dial at the back of the camera. Together the dials can be rotated
to modify settings or scroll through menu choices.
Above the Sub Dial on a beveled surface is the shutter button.
Partially depressing the button will snap a subject into focus. Fully
depressing the button will capture an image. If the camera is in continuous
shooting mode, keeping the button depressed will corral photos at five
frames a second.
To the left of the shutter button is the camera's white balance sensor and
below that, nestled between the handgrip and the lens mount is a preview
button for displaying in the viewfinder the focused area, or depth of field,
for a shot at a given aperture.
The front of the camera is dominated by the lens mount. At 10 o'clock
on the mount is a red dot. When attaching a lens to the unit, you line
up the dot with a red bubble on the glass and rotate clockwise until the
lens locks into place. To remove the lens, you depress and hold down a
button found at three o'clock near the mount and rotate the glass counterclockwise
until the dot and bubble are aligned and detach the lens from the camera.
Changing lenses is a fast and smooth operation.
The lens included with my review unit was a Zuiko Digital ED 12-60mm
(24-120mm equivalent) F/2.8-4.0 with Supersonic Wave Drive (SWD) support.
A manual focus ring was located at one end of the unit and a zoom ring
at the end closest to the camera. In addition to being amply sized, the
rings have different groove patterns to make them easy to distinguish
by touch, a big plus when an eye is glued to the viewfinder or the LCD.
Above the lens release button, is the self-timer and the remote-control
lamp and receiver. When a 12-second delay is chosen for the self-timer,
the lamp will light for a approximately 10 seconds and then blink for
two seconds until the picture is snapped. When a two-second delay is chosen,
the lamp blinks until the image is captured. An optional remote control
can also be used to fire the shutter immediately or after a two-second
delay.
Above the self-timer
lamp, is a socket for an external flash.
The most prominent feature on top of the camera is the housing
for its pop-up flash. On top of that housing is a hot shoe for an external
flash.
On the left side of the housing is a button to manually
pop-up the flash, as well as buttons for directly accessing the DSC's
flash modes and flash intensity settings; shooting and sequential shooting
modes; autofocusing and exposure settings. The buttons are used in conjunction
with the Sub Dial and Main Dial to change the camera's options. For example,
when you hold down the mode button, rotating the Main Dial will cascade
through the camera's shooting modes--Program, Aperture, Shutter and so
forth. Rotating the Sub Dial, will cascade through the sequential shooting
modes--single shot, high-speed continuous, low-speed continuous, two-second
self-timer and so on.
To the right of the flash housing
is a monochrome LCD, which acts as a control panel, and buttons for turning
on the LCD's backlight and for controlling white balance, exposure compensation
and light sensitivity (ISO).
Behind the flash housing at the back of the camera is the viewfinder.
It's framed by a very comfortable eyepiece. On the side of the viewfinder
is a -3.0 to +1.0 diopter and a lever for shuttering the eyepiece when
using Live View mode. Live View is used to shoot directly from the LCD
without using the viewfinder. It's important to block light from entering
the eyepiece when using Live View because that light can skew the exposure
reading for a shot.
To the right of the viewfinder are buttons for locking the exposure for
a shot (in Playback mode, this button is used to protect images stored on
a CompactFlash card in the camera), storing a favorite function for quick
access and choosing an AF targeting mode.
Below the exposure locking button is the Main Dial and below that the
Playback button for displaying images on the camera's screen. Under the
Playback button is the arrow pad, a button for controlling the DSC's image
stabilization modes, an LED that signals that the camera is accessing
a storage card and levers for turning the camera on or off and opening
the storage media compartment.
Much of the real estate
at the back of the camera is taken up by its 2.5-inch LCD. A nice feature
of this display is that it pivots. When shooting in Live View, the feature
allows you to get creative with the angles of your shots without having
to contort your body to do it. In addition, you can collapse the LCD with
its face against the body of the camera to protect it when you're not
using it.
Below the LCD, are four buttons and a
small LED that lights when the snapper's dust reduction system is operating.
The buttons allow you to trash photos, display information on the LCD,
enter the camera's menu system and switch to Live View mode.
On the left side of the unit are the remote cable connector, a video-out
jack, a USB port and a DC-in jack. On the right side of the E-3 is the
compartment for storage media cards. And at the bottom of the DSC is the
battery compartment and tripod socket.
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Ergonomics
