If you're looking for an Olympus DSLR but don't have the bank for a $1,499
E-3, yet couldn't be seen with a pedestrian $599
E-520, Olympus is about to fill your niche with the upcoming $1,299 E-30, a shooter that sits neatly betwixt the two in most stats despite actually having a higher megapixel sensor than either. (We all know that doesn't necessarily mean more quality,
right?) Like its higher and lower cousins it too offers in-body image stabilization and Live View, borrowing the 2.7-inch LCD from the E-520 while snagging the 11-point auto-focus function from the E-3. It also nets a built-in level that displays roll and pitch, plus an integrated wireless flash receiver, making it sound very much like a prosumer model -- though it has enough consumery shooting modes like "Grainy Film" and "Pop Art" to make any would-be-photog cringe. Best of both worlds or unwanted offspring? We'll wait for the first round of reviews when it launches in January before being too judgmental.
Update: As it turns out crave was perhaps a
wee bit premature in announcing the E-30, but it's all good now, as Olympus has made the cam
officially official.
posted November 4th 2008 8:02AM
When are they gonna implement, When?!!?
raise your hand if you have an Olympus DSLR
cause i have yet to see anyone with one. lol
Actually I do, and I love it. SO MUCH easier to use then any Canon.
Actually I have one too! And it has been working perfect for me. And it's so small and light - I have a e-420, but wouldn't mind a e-520...
I own the E-3 , this camera will fill the gap quite nicely i hope. Haven't played with a better SLR system yet. Try the olympus e-system, image quality will astound you.
I don't have one. I have two.
The image quality is a lot better than naysayers will have you believe. It reviews very well against Canon and Nikon. You don't have to get special image stabilization lenses like you do for those cameras because it is built into the body. Noise at high ISOs has gotten A LOT better with the E 510 and newer cameras (E520, E3, E420). DPreview has always given them "Highly Recommended" ratings.
I also have 2.
An e-500 and an e-420. I have had no problems with either one. Between the two I've shot over 80k pictures and I've kept over a third of them because i could not find any real flaws in there picture quality. Most of those shots deleted were my fault not the cameras and i think that's saying something. There just so easy to use that your not constantly fighting the controls to get what you want out of your camera.
e-500 silver edition baby
much better bang for the buck back in the day when it was bought when you compare it to canon, nikon, and konica minolta when they sold DSLRs
so many features and so easy to use...although the sluggish autofocus on my 18-180mm f3.5-5.6 lens gets to me a lot...
I have an e520 and an e3 (I was a Pentax user but much prefer Olympus). Even though I have been a SLR user for many years (since film) and not a P&S convert, I still appreciate the swivel tilt screen on the e3 (ir is the only way liveview is useful IMO)...
Their lens quality is a bigger advantage than their cameras, but the e3 is a very fine camera in its own right..
This new model seems strange to me though, they are just going to cannibalize their own e3 sales, the price is just too high..
E-520 n00b owner here.
Bought into 4/3 just because was lazy to grok all the compatibility cruft about Canon/Nikon/3rd party lenses. With 4/3 it's much easier: if you see 4/3 logo - than it is compatible. And http://www.four-thirds.org/en/ even let's you match lens to your body to see how it would look. (What can be really entertaining when checking pro lens e.g. ZD 14-35 on compact body e.g. E-420)
Though twilight performance could have been better, I can hardly complain.
JPEG quality is outstanding: for several weeks shot in JPEG without (1) realizing that and (2) ever running into the need to correct something.
I was expecting something that actually split the gap between the E520 and E3's pricing. This thing is only $200 less than an E3. Unless that price includes a kit lens or two, I think I will keep saving for the E3.
I agree. If it was sold for 999 bucks, then you have a nice gap to the E-3.
Agreed as well.
This camera is pointless in the Olympus line-up, although I'm sure it'll be good, much like all of Olympus' lenses, and most of their cameras.
Dell is running a special on the Canon EOS Rebel XS for just $479 including an 18-55mm lens. If you're like me and want a DSLR, but don't want to spend $2K for a camera, this is a good bet (It's gotten great user reviews).
Link: http://www.techdealdigger.com/deals/canon-eos-rebel-xs-101-mp-479-at-dell-home--home-office/4770
Amazon has an equally great deal on the Olympus E-510 with two lenses, a 14-42 (which is 28-84mm in full-frame mm, or 18-52mm in Canon mm) and a 40-150mm (80-300mm full frame). It's going for $559 right now. It has Image Stabilization in the body, too.
Firstly, Olympus DSLRs are regarded by all the Nikon and Canon fanboys I've ever met as excellent kit, just not the "gold standard". Secondly, Zuiko lenses are some of the finest glass you'll ever shoot through. I'm a proud owner of an E-410. A camera I specifically bought for it's compactness in both size and weight. You won't find another camera that fits the bill like this thing does.
With regard to RBoyett's comment, I agree completely. There's not much of a price diff there, and B&H has E-3s for $1100 at the moment. My guess is that the actual retail price will fall in at just under a grand. Maybe just over with some 2.8 glass.
Darkstar, I hear ya, but we're out here!
Personally, I can't wait to get my hands on this thing. Might be my next purchase, as I find myself wanting IS more and more.
Link to amazon E510:
http://www.amazon.com/Olympus-Digital-Stabilization-14-42mm-40-150mm/dp/B000NVXF30/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1225816121&sr=8-1
I bought one of these six months ago and couldn't be happier with it.
I own an E-510. I love the ergonomics and build quality. I believe Olympus is one of the few (only?) makers that provides kit lenses with proper focus rings (not at the end of the barrel which disrupts filters). My only gripes are smaller sensor size and 4/3 aspect ratio.
This is great news. I'll have to see about getting one.
I have a 510 and I like it a lot, mainly because I like to hike and lugging 20Lbs of camera equipment is not an option, but only having a P&S is too much of a waste. The only things I see as downsides are the high noise at greater than 400 ISO and the slow focusing (with the kit lenses at least).
Other than that, the 4/3 lenses could be cheaper. Meh.
As a Nikon D300 owner, I do admire Olympus' lens quality. Lens quality is highly underrated by non-photographers. People look at DPReview's tests and use it as irrefutable proof of this and that. It's silly. All their real tests are done on default settings. What if you shoot in RAW format?
My D300 is absolute rubbish if I leave it on the default contrast, sharpness, and colour saturation settings. In fact, I'd say it was the worst camera I have ever used. However, after I adjusted the settings, the results have been outstanding. Every D300 owner knows that the default settings are unusable, and yet you'd never see it using the method that DPReview, DCResource, etc, use to test their cameras. You can't see how bad it is until you start photographing people, landscapes, etc.
Olympus' cameras can be tweaked to create some incredible photos. Also, I like the 4/3rd ratio for people photos. Normally, I need to crop my photos to that ratio, which means my images aren't 12 MP anyway.
And here I thought that E-3 was in fact middle-range camera...
Having seeing in action E-3 versus D200, frankly, E-3 is weak: sensor is crappy and picture quality degrades very quickly as shooting conditions worsen.
Disclaimer: E-520 owner.
P.S. Any rumors when Oly's going to drop that "xD" gag? It's so old it's not funny anymore.
For the E-30 naysayers wanting to save for the E-3, I'd guess that unless you need the more weatherproof construction, the E-30 is in fact great. I'll be picking one up as a second body - with long glass (only) - for wildlife and a few similar applications, to augment my D700 and full range of the better Nikkors from 14 to 300 (plus a 20-y-o 500mm reflex which isn't great on the D700). My $.02.