When it comes to the information
presented in the viewfinder, the E-300 has a similar user
interface to the E-1. The viewfinder has an area for an information
display to the right of the main window that indicates the
most basic camera settings, and which, once the user is familiar
with the location of the buttons and controls on the camera,
can be used to make certain changes to camera settings without
having to look away from the viewfinder.
For a greater level of detail, the INFO button instantly
displays a summary of photo-relevant camera settings on the
LCD monitor, including such things as settings for sharpness,
saturation, and contrast, without having to sift through the
menus to ascertain each option's status.
The menu system is clearly laid out and easy to read thanks
to a good use of bright colours and very legible characters.
The last section of the menu, itself common to all camera
modes, contains the Setup options:
Time/Date Settings: serves to set the time and
date on the camera.
Reset: returns all options to their original factory
defaults.
File Name: to select whether image files are numbered
consecutively, or reset to 1.
Rec View: Decides whether or not an image is displayed
on the LCD monitor immediately post capture (Off, 5 or 20
seconds).
Warning Tones: On or Off. Decides whether or not
the camera beeps during operation.
Monitor Brightness : serves to adjust the brightness
of the monitor over a range of ±7 increments.
Sleep: sets the delay after which the camera goes
to sleep if it is inactive (Off, 1, 3, 5, or 10 minutes).
PC Mode serves to set the USB protocol:
Auto: lets the user choose the mode to use
every time a USB cable is plugged into the E-300.
Normal: is for a Mass Storage connection, allowing
the E-300 to be recognized as a removable hard disk
by a computer.
Control: is to control the camera from a computer
using the optional Olympus Studio software.
Print: sets the camera to communicate with
a PictBridge compliant printer, making it possible to
print images directly to the printer without a computer.
Language sets the language for the interface: English,
French, German, Spanish or Portuguese.
Video Out: NTSC or PAL.
Pixel Mapping: checks, detects, and corrects any
problems with the CCD and/or the image processor. Olympus
recommends using this function once a year.
Cleaning Mode: allows access to the CCD so it can
be dusted using a commercially available dust blower.
Reset Lens: On or Off. Resets the lens to infinity
when the power is turned off.
Erase Setting: allows customizing the Erase
option so that when it is called up it is pre-selected for
YES or NO.
Colour Space selects the camera's colour space:
sRGB or Adobe sRGB.
Focus Ring: decides if infinity is reached by turning
the manual focus ring to the left or to the right.
Firmware: displays the version of the camera's
firmware.
The E-300 is supplied with a printed manual that covers all
aspects of the camera's operations. However, the explanations
are sometimes a bit too simple and it is often necessary to
have the camera in hand, and step through an explanation slowly
to understand the manual's instructions.
Software
In North America the Olympus
Evolt E-300 is retailed with a single CD-ROM which contains
Olympus Master (Version 1.1) for Windows and Macintosh,
and with versions in English, French and Spanish.
Olympus Master starts by displaying a Main Menu window
that provides accesses to sections of the software that handle
Image Transfer, Browsing, Backup of Images, Online Printing,
At Home Printing, and Creating and Sharing.
The Olympus Master Browser window (shown at right) starts
out by presenting directories or folders in the left pane
of the programs window, and thumbnails of the photos from
the currently selected folder in the right-side pane.
The thumbnail size can be varied using a slider at the bottom
of the window and, when an image is selected, the program
displays the image's shooting data in another window pane
on the far right side.
Olympus Master is able to open Olympus
RAW files produced by the E-300 and can save them as BMP,
TIFF or JPEG (with different levels of compression).
RAW images can be worked on one at a time or as a batch,
and the processing window allows the image settings —
recorded along with the RAW image as part of the Exif data
— to be applied when the image is processed, or altered
so it can be processed with the new settings.
This way modifications can be made to exposure compensation;
white balance can be set using a specific point in the image;
and contrast, sharpness, and saturation can be adjusted.
This version of Olympus Master
can be upgraded to a more powerful version called Olympus
Master Plus, for a cost of $19.99 US. (purchased directly
from Olympus' web site).
This upgrade adds capabilities to Olympus Master itself,
and allows for the creation of VCDs and DVDs using a separate
program from Pixela called ImageMixer VCDDVD2, which,
while it is installed concurrently with Olympus Master, does
not function until Olympus Master is upgraded to Olympus Master
Plus.
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Interface & Software
