Aside from the menu, the user interface of the Olympus E-330
is composed of two systems: the information presented in the
viewfinder, to the right of the image, and the information
that is shown on the monitor when the INFO button is
pressed. The E-330's TTL viewfinder is a touch small, and
seeing the settings displayed on the right requires having
the eye right up to the eyepiece, difficult if the user is
wearing glasses. With the monitor, information is well organized
on the Control Panel, and changing any of the settings is
fast and efficient.
When Live View is used, camera settings appear on
the edge of the image, leaving most of the image visible.
Moreover, Mode B offers additional framing assistance through
a scale or composition grids, all of which are particularly
useful with macro photography.
The 5-section menu is also very legible, each section identified
by a tab. The first four sections (detailed in Characteristics
section of the review) contain settings that relate to
capture, playback or preferences. The fifth section, Setup,
contains options that relate more to the basic operation of
the camera:
Date and Time: to set the date and time on the
E-330.
CF/xD: to select the card that will be used first
when both are present in the camera.
File Name: to decide whether image files are named
sequentially continuously, or if they will re-start from
1 every time a blank memory card is used, or a card is formatted.
Edit Filename: serves to rename images so they
can be recognized easily.
Brightness: to adjust the brightness of the monitor
over ±7 steps.
Language to select the interface language: English,
French, Spanish or Portuguese.
Video Out: NTSC or PAL.
Beep: to activate or deactivate the beep sounds
produced by the camera when buttons are pressed.
Rec View: to decide if the image is automatically
displayed on the monitor after its capture (Off or 1 to
20 seconds).
Sleep: To decide whether or not the camera enters
sleep modeor off after a period of inactivity (Off, 1, 3,
5 or 10 minutes).
4h Timer: Off or 4 hours. When active, the camera
turns itself off completely if inactive for 4 hours.
Button Timer sets the time allocated to the selection
of a setting: 3, 5 or 8 seconds, or Hold, which leaves the
menu or option on screen until it is set.
Screen: On or Off. Decides whether or not the Control
Panel is automatically displayed when the camera is turned
on.
CTL Panel Colour: selects the background colour
of the Control Panel screen.
Priority Set: to choose whether "Yes"
or "No" is pre-selected when the erase and format
functions are accessed.
USB Mode: selects the USB protocol:
Auto: the selection screen for the USB connection
will be displayed every time the camera is connected
to a computer or a printer.
Storage: allows USB connection to a PC and
transfer of data to the PC.
Control: allows control over the camera from
a PC using the optional Olympus Studio software.
Easy: to connect the camera to a PictBridge
compatible printer and print photos directly without
the use of a computer.
Custom: serves to specify preferences when
printing photos directly to a PictBridge compatible
printer.
Colour Space: sRGB or Adobe sRGB.
Shading Compensation: allows the camera to brighten
the corners of the frame when a lens causes vignetting.
Pixel Mapping: checks the CCD and image processor
for proper operation, identifying and correcting any deficiency.
The system should not be used more than once a year.
Cleaning Mode: moves the mirror and curtain out
of the way, exposing the CCD so it can be cleaned.
:
serves to change the Scene modes that are engaged when the
Mode dial is set to the Sport or Night modes, replacing
them by Underwater Wide and Underwater Macro.
Firmware displays the firmware version of the camera,
and of the lens currently mounted on the camera.
In North America, the Olympus E-330 is retailed with a manual
printed in English, French and Spanish. The manual is very
complete, covering all the functions and numerous options
of the E-330. Some explanations, however, are occasionally
confusing reflecting the complexity of some of the options,
and the difficulty encountered when describing them.
Software
As retailed in North America,
the Olympus E-330 is bundled with a single CD containing Olympus
Master (Version 1.41) for Windows and Macintosh, in English,
French and Spanish.
Olympus Master starts with a screen from which the
task to be performed is selected: transfer images from the
camera or a memory card, view images on the computer or CD,
organize images into albums, print images online using a service
(Ofoto is suggested), or at home, or create panoramas, screen
backgrounds, albums, slide shows, or even prepare photos for
e-mailing or uploading to the Web.
In the image browser window of Olympus Master, photos appear
as variable size thumbnails, and a window showing all the
shooting data of a selected image can be opened on the right.
At the top, a toolbar provides tools to to correct or transfer
images. While at the far right of the widow, links to various
services — help, online printing, online accessory purchases,
etc. — are offered.
Olympus Master must be used to decode
RAW images shot with the camera, and these can then be processed,
and re-saved as BMP, TIFF or JPEG at variety
of compression levels.
RAW images can be processed one after the other, or in
batch. and the processing window allows making modifications
to the capture settings that were recorded at the same time
as the image.
Prior to processing, modifications can be made to settings
for exposure compensation, white balance, white point, contrast,
sharpness and saturation.
This version of Olympus Master
can be upgraded to a more full-feature version on the Olympus
site. The upgrade, called Olympus Master Plus, offers
additional tools over the free version included with the E330,
allowing the creation of Video CDs and DVDs, operations taken
up by Pixela's ImageMixer VCDDVD2, which is also installed
at the same time as Olympus Master, but remains inoperative
until the program is upgraded.
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Interface & Software
:
serves to change the Scene modes that are engaged when the
Mode dial is set to the Sport or Night modes, replacing
them by Underwater Wide and Underwater Macro.
