While the E-330’s design
clearly follows in the footsteps of the E-300, internally,
where it counts, the E-330 is very different.
Although it continues the use of a Porro type viewfinder
— a viewfinder design that places the prism on its side
as it is in binoculars — the E-330 uses a new 7.5 megapixel
Live MOS and has the capability of showing the image coming
from the sensor on its high definition 2.5-inch variable angle
monitor: a true innovation for a digital reflex camera.
Aperture: f6.3, shutter speed:1/20 sec.,
320 ISO.
Aperture: f6.3, shutter speed:1/60 sec.,
100 ISO.
The E-330 offers the user
the best of both worlds when it comes to framing a shot: a
TTL viewfinder that is able to deliver a picture that is far
more detailed than any current EVF system, and the use of
a large and sharp monitor to capture images that would be
difficult to capture using the TTL viewfinder.
With the E-330, not only can fine details be perceived in
the viewfinder, the monitor can be used to take photos with
the camera positioned close to the ground; giving this digital
SLR unprecedented flexibility.
Moreover, with the E-330, Olympus
carries on with some of the features that it had introduced
on previous cameras, such as the ultrasonic sensor cleaning
system (SSWF), or the possibility of selecting specific compression
ratios for different image sizes, and a mirror lock up feature
that prevents mirror vibration affecting long exposures.
In comparison with the E-300,
the E-330 also receives an enhanced metering system that was
developed for the E-500. The ESP metering takes into account
the focus point when metering the frame, allowing the camera
to deliver perfectly exposed images with great regularity.
Colours are well reproduced as well, but when capturing photos
on a sunny day, using the Vivid setting, which
increase saturation, produces photos with even snappier colours
that look more cheerful, without being over saturated.
The E-330 also stands out because
of its low sensitivity to noise. Sensitivity can be pushed up
to 400 ISO without any serious penalty on the image quality
as at this level, noise is nearly undetectable.
Aperture: f9, shutter speed: 1/80 sec.,
100 ISO.
In fact, noise is minimal
even at 640 ISO when photos are captured in bright light,
and noise can only be found when images are seen at 100% scale
on a monitor, but does not really impact the image quality,
particularly if the image is printed. Beyond this, noise becomes
more easily visible. Nevertheless, the fact that the E-330
offers control over the ISO increment and in turn over the
steps in between the ISO settings available, allows for greater
control over when noise starts appearing.
The built-in flash of the E-330
is powerful, and using the 14 to 45 mm kit lens at the wide
angle end — equivalent to a 28 mm — the built-in
flash has no trouble providing even lighting with no light falloff
in the corners. Moreover, the power of the flash can be adjusted,
and it can even be used to capture close up shots. Worth noting
however, with the E-330 the flash must be open for the auto
focus assistance to operate, as it uses short pre-flashes instead
of a separate AF Assist lamp, and it must be opened manually.
Since the lens included with
the E-330 is the same 14-45 mm f3.5-5.6 lens that was included
in the E-300 and E-500 kits, observations made while these
cameras were reviewed can be repeated. At the wide angle end,
the lens yields images with a slightly soft focus, and with
a subject that lends itself to it, a bit of barrel distortion
can be detected. Past the wide end however, no distortion
is perceptible, just as there is no detectable chromatic aberration
from wide to telephoto.
Beyond the kit lens, Olympus now offers a wide variety of
lenses and zooms, making it possible to adapt the E-330 to
a multitude of applications.
Just like its predecessor, the E-330
offers an impressive array of image formats and sizes. Images
can be saved as RAW (which uses Olympus’ proprietary extension
.ORF) free of any image processing, or as TIFF, a processed
image that has sustained no compression, or even in any one
of three JPEG compressed formats that offer control over the
compression ratio.
RAW format images, which have
a file size of approximately 13.2 MB, take about 5 seconds
to save, but prevent the use of the Sequential mode. RAW images
need to be interpreted and Olympus provides Olympus Master
for that purpose. Worth noting however, the bundled version
of Olympus Master is a bit light when it comes to processing
RAW files, and more flexibility can be had if the RAW 3.4
plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS2 is used.
TIFF format images weigh in at 22.1
MB and require approximately the same time to be saved, and
when the excellent image quality of the SHQ format on the E-330
is taken into consideration, the space requirements of the TIFF
format seldom make it an advantageous option.
After what seemed to be hesitant
start, the Four-Thirds format seems to be developing a following,
and Olympus is no longer the only manufacturer introducing
Four-Thirds products. Panasonic has announced the DMC-L1,
and Leica will be producing lenses for the format, stabilized
with Panasonic’s Mega OIS.
The Olympus E-330 is yet another step in that development
and with the introduction of its Live View system adds a flexibility
that was lacking to the SLR level.
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