jonoslack
Active member
Hi There
After a month with the Olympus E3, and in the light of the fact that lots of users have always thought of 4/3 as a good, but ultimately flawed concept. I think in the past they have always been 'almost' cameras, but the E3 really is different. There are a number of things that Olympus have going for them with 4/3 in general and with the E3 in particular.
First - toughness
For travel they are incredibly tough and almost completely waterproof (some fool even took some pictures underwater with the E1). All the mid range and upward lenses are water and dust sealed. I spent a week on a windy Greek island, and every evening the camera bag would have 1/4" of powder fine grit in it - putting the lens hoods on and off took the paint off the front of the lens, but I never had a graunchy zoom or focus ring, and I never had a dust spot on the shots. Rain is a complete non-issue - you don't even need to think about it, and I don't bother to take the camera off my shoulder.
Second - lenses
The 'top-range' lenses are rather expensive, and rather heavy (things like the 90-250 f2.8 - equivalent to 180-500 f2.8)
The real winners (IMHO) are the mid range lenses - they're relatively small, relatively light, and unlike any Nikon lenses I've used, you simply don't need to consider what aperture / focal length you're using. The zooms have minimal distortion, and you can shoot them wide open without any concern. the 50-200 for instance is half the size of the nikkor 70-200 and has an equivalent focal length of 100-400 f2.8-f3.5 (and it only gets to 3.5 at the very long end). The new 12-60 f2.8-f4 is such a contrast to the nikon 24-120 - you can shoot wide open at any focal length, it's faster, it's sharper from corner to corner and shows almost no vignetting.
Third - focusing
Nikon and Canon have the complex tracking autofocus end tied up. But the E3 on single point focusing is apparently twice as fast as Nikon. To all intents and purposes it's instantaneous, and with the new SWD lenses one hardly knows it's happened. It's also brutally accurate - something I've never found Nikon to be.
Colour
Evening light is a real case in point - I still feel that everything I've got out of Nikon looks like someone has been around the place with a yellow brush - The Olympus colour is fantastically good, and in evening light it simply imparts a gentle glow, rather than a crass yellow.
In Camera image stabilisation.
It's great - it really works, and it works with wide angle and mid range lenses - those focal lengths you use most, but which Nikon rarely covers with VR
Live View
I know the new Nikons have live view as well, but for me it's only really useful for:
1. low angle shots
2. on a tripod for macro etc.
In these cases, if you don't have a flip and twist LCD, then it's pretty much useless, but with it . . . it's wonderful.
Suffice to say, if someone suggested I could have my D2xs back, together with the 12-24, 17-55, 70-200 and 105 VR macro in exchange for my E3 plus 7-14, 12-60, 50-200 and 50mm macro I'd very rapidly tell them where to get off!
After a month with the Olympus E3, and in the light of the fact that lots of users have always thought of 4/3 as a good, but ultimately flawed concept. I think in the past they have always been 'almost' cameras, but the E3 really is different. There are a number of things that Olympus have going for them with 4/3 in general and with the E3 in particular.
First - toughness
For travel they are incredibly tough and almost completely waterproof (some fool even took some pictures underwater with the E1). All the mid range and upward lenses are water and dust sealed. I spent a week on a windy Greek island, and every evening the camera bag would have 1/4" of powder fine grit in it - putting the lens hoods on and off took the paint off the front of the lens, but I never had a graunchy zoom or focus ring, and I never had a dust spot on the shots. Rain is a complete non-issue - you don't even need to think about it, and I don't bother to take the camera off my shoulder.
Second - lenses
The 'top-range' lenses are rather expensive, and rather heavy (things like the 90-250 f2.8 - equivalent to 180-500 f2.8)
The real winners (IMHO) are the mid range lenses - they're relatively small, relatively light, and unlike any Nikon lenses I've used, you simply don't need to consider what aperture / focal length you're using. The zooms have minimal distortion, and you can shoot them wide open without any concern. the 50-200 for instance is half the size of the nikkor 70-200 and has an equivalent focal length of 100-400 f2.8-f3.5 (and it only gets to 3.5 at the very long end). The new 12-60 f2.8-f4 is such a contrast to the nikon 24-120 - you can shoot wide open at any focal length, it's faster, it's sharper from corner to corner and shows almost no vignetting.
Third - focusing
Nikon and Canon have the complex tracking autofocus end tied up. But the E3 on single point focusing is apparently twice as fast as Nikon. To all intents and purposes it's instantaneous, and with the new SWD lenses one hardly knows it's happened. It's also brutally accurate - something I've never found Nikon to be.
Colour
Evening light is a real case in point - I still feel that everything I've got out of Nikon looks like someone has been around the place with a yellow brush - The Olympus colour is fantastically good, and in evening light it simply imparts a gentle glow, rather than a crass yellow.
In Camera image stabilisation.
It's great - it really works, and it works with wide angle and mid range lenses - those focal lengths you use most, but which Nikon rarely covers with VR
Live View
I know the new Nikons have live view as well, but for me it's only really useful for:
1. low angle shots
2. on a tripod for macro etc.
In these cases, if you don't have a flip and twist LCD, then it's pretty much useless, but with it . . . it's wonderful.
Suffice to say, if someone suggested I could have my D2xs back, together with the 12-24, 17-55, 70-200 and 105 VR macro in exchange for my E3 plus 7-14, 12-60, 50-200 and 50mm macro I'd very rapidly tell them where to get off!