Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Features and specifications
• Body
• Lenses
• Image sensor
• File format and compression
• Storage
• Exposure control
• Viewing system
• Live View
• Shutter
• Drive modes

• Focusing
• Image stabilization
• Flash
• Image processing
• LCD monitor
• Power
• Other features
• Controls
  • Direct controls
  • Control Panel
  • Menu system
• Customization

• Image quality
• Documentation
• Software
• In the box
• Conclusions
• My other E-30 articles
• Other E-30 resources

Body

A closer look at the two promotional images at the left seems to confirm this: no metal frame like the one in, say, the E-500. This may (or may not) affect the dimensional stability of the body; I'm a bit worried about that.

The camera shape is a bit less sculpted than that of the E-3; in particular, the left side of the body, where the hand supporting the lens rests; there is just less room to do that. The control display on top is, still, tilted backward, which I like.

The grip fits just right my, medium-sized, hands. A small indentation near its top accepts the medium finger, leaving the index one to operate the controls; some ingenious sculpting on the back works equally well with the thumb. I always thought I preferred smaller cameras, but this one fits better then the E-510, E-500 or E-300 (even if for smaller, lighter cameras this is less important). With the size and weight more manageable than those of the E-3, it feels better to me, too.

This is, perhaps, the most subjective part of my impressions on the camera. Your feelings on it may vary, but a number of friends who tried to handle it concur with me on what I just said. Best check for yourself.

The card compartment does not have a lock lever like in the E-3, but the cover itself has to slide out before it can be opened. I like this solution: it seems to be more robust than a spring-loaded latch used in the E-xxx (although I never experienced any problems with that one).

The camera's front is covered with a rubberized, grippable layer, so is the thumb rest area in the back. The remaining surfaces (including, but not limited to, the finder hood and top plate) have a crinkled matte surface, similar to other recent Olympus models.

I'm not quoting the body depth here, as it is not really meaningful in comparisons: it is usually the lens which defines the overall depth of the camera.

While I would prefer seeing the E-30 size reduced even more (say, to the size of the Nikon D90), in my hands it handles better than the E-3, without a doubt. Much of that difference can be attributed to shrinking the camera down.

Here is a quick comparison of the E-30 against the other models from Olympus, as well as against two current competing models from Canon and Nikon. (The weight figures include batteries and memory cards.)

Index

Lenses

• Olympus: eleven cameras, four being current: E-3, E-520, E-420, E-30;
• Panasonic: two cameras, one current: L10.

While any Four Thirds lens will work and autofocus on any Four Thirds body, some confusion may arise due to the fact that Olympus and Panasonic use different approaches to Image Stabilization. When using a body/lens combination by different manufacturers, the following has to be kept in mind:

• Olympus cameras use body-based IS. This will work just fine with Leica/Panasonic lenses, as long as the in-lens stabilization is turned off. (Alternatively, the in-body IS can be disabled, and in-lens one used.)
• Panasonic cameras depend on lens-based IS. This means that image stabilization is not available when an Olympus (or Sigma) lens is used on a Panasonic body.

While this is a small issue, I believe Panasonic went in the wrong direction here.

Another minor incompatibility is related to the recently introduced contrast-detection autofocus in the Live View mode (this is available in Olympus SLRs from the E-420/E-520 and E-30 onwards; not, for example, the E-3 or E-510). This is supported only by the most recent Olympus lenses:

• 14-42 mm F/3.5-5.6 ZD ED,
• 40-150 mm F/4.0-5.6 ZD ED,
• 25 mm F/2.8 ZD ("pancake"),
• 9-18 mm F/4.0-5.6 ZD ED,
• 14-54 mm F/2.8-3.5 ZD II
• 70-300 mm F/4.0-5.6 ZD (with firmware update)

The first two of these were introduced with the E-410 and E-510 in 2007; the next two are from 2008, and the ZD II is a recent update of the first Four Thirds "standard zoom", originally introduced with the E-1 back in 2003. The manufacturer's decision to release a new version of this (excellent) lens indicates that contrast-detection AF compatibility cannot be provided by just a firmware update to an existing lens.

Three Leica/Panasonic lenses are also listed as ready for CD AF.

Now the good news. The optical quality of Olympus lenses ranges from good to outstanding. The less expensive offerings cut down more on specs than on performance, and the mid-to-high ones are just uniformly pleasing. In particular, the 7-14 mm, 12-60 mm, and 50 mm Macro ZD are among most desirable lenses on any platform, regardless of brand and price (some people say the same about the 50-200 mm ZD with which I have only a limited experience).

This may be enough of a reason (if not the only one) to consider investing in a Four Thirds system. A great lens from twenty years ago is still a great lens; a great digital camera from five years ago is quite obsolete today, easily matched by entry-level offerings from almost any manufacturer.

Such a kit is sold on some markets already: I've got a report that it is offered in Latvia, just $120 above the one with the 14-42 mm ZD. (On the other hand, the camera itself is more expensive there.)

It is all too easy to dismiss the 14-42 mm ZD as just another cheap piece of plastic; actually, in spite of inexpensive construction (plastic mount!), it turns out to be a respectable performer within its modest specifications.

The lens is incredibly small and lightweight: just 61 mm long at 190 g. To get an idea how well it may perform, have a look at my E-510 Image Samples and More Samples, where it was used for most of the shooting; the results from the E-30 may be only better. If you do not have this lens already, then spending just $100 to get it is a no-brainer. Besides, with this lens you get imager (contrast-detection, see here) autofocus, not available with most better ones.

Most probably, however, you will also want to get a higher-quality, all-around zoom to go with the E-30. There are two obvious choices here:

• The new 14-54 mm F/2.8-3.5 ZD II;
• The almost-new 12-60 mm F/2.8-4.0 ZD ED ZWD

This is where things get tricky. Both lenses are great performers; I have used the original 14-54 mm for a number of years and I'm very happy with it (yes, I'm aware some people were disappointed with it, but I never had any complaints). The "II" version is optically identical (the only difference being a rounded aperture shape, which should improve the bokeh rendition), so it is really easy to recommend. But then I've tried the 12-60 mm:

[...] it was a love affair on first sight [...]. Great resolution on- and off-axis, well-controlled chromatic aberration, moderate geometric distortion at the wide end — I am thrilled.

For more on this jewel of a lens, see its review and my E-3 samples: Part 1 and Part 2, as well as the E-30 sample page. Yes, it is heavier and bigger than the 14-54 mm (575 g and 99 mm in length, compared to 435 g and 88 mm), but the two extra millimeters at the wide end is nothing to sniff at, either! This is why I wanted a 12-60 mm ZD with my E-30.

The decision was made easier by the fact that the lens dropped considerably in price over the last year: from $950 to $736; compare this with $600 for the "new" 14-54 mm (B&H, January, 2009) — a difference of just $136 (a dinner for two), and the choice is quite easy. True, the lens will not do contrast-detection AF in the Live View mode, but this is not something I really need (and then I can use the 14-42 mm ZD).

Exposure automation will work, albeit it would require stepped-down metering (with the aperture closed down to the working value), but autofocusing, obviously, will not. Unfortunately, the E-30, like all previous Olympus DSLRs, will not confirm the manual focus. On the positive side, image stabilization will work just fine with legacy lenses (the focal length has to be entered manually, though, as the camera has no means of knowing it otherwise).

(The latter feature is relatively new in the Olympus line; it was introduced in a firmware update to the E-510 and E-3 in 2008.)

Index

Image sensor

The sensor is made by Panasonic, and the term "high-speed" often used in promotional literature may (but does not have to) mean something.

My Google search did not find any specification sheet for this sensor, but one may suspect that the same chip is used in the Panasonic G1 introduced in 2008.

Note that the aspect ratio is 4:3. All other digital SLRs on the market use the more elongated ratio of 3:2, while 4:3 is a rule in non-SLR digital cameras, still ignored by most photofinishers (in the smallest print size offered, that is).

For a more detailed discussion of sensor size issues, see here.

Increasing the pixel count from 10 to 12 MP is, I suspect, a marketing ploy. People still count pixels, people still want more pixels, even if these pixels are not filled with image detail. Increasing the resolution of analog-to-digital conversion from 12 to 14 or 16 bits per channel could, I believe, bring more benefit to image quality. That's, contrary to often-voiced opinion, not a matter of increased dynamic range, but of less rounding noise in image processing, see Color Depth below.

In Bayer matrix cameras (read: all except Sigmas based on the Foveon sensor) the actual information captured by the camera is about one third of the nominal pixel count: for every pixel in the image two out of three RGB components are interpolated from the neighbors. For more, see When Is a Megapixel Not a Megapixel.

All current Olympus DSLRs use 12 BPC, and here is what others do:

• 14 bits per color: Canon 50D, 40D, 450D (XSi)
• 12 bits per color: Canon 1000D (XS), Nikon D90, D80, D300

Interestingly enough, Canon decided to downscale back to 12 BPC in their recent 1000D. Processing speed issues? Maybe the gain is just not worth the trouble?

See also ISO Settings in the Exposure Control section.

A typical IR exposure with the E-30 (sunny mid-day) is 4 seconds at F/4, ISO 100, with the R72 filter used.

For most the Olympus cameras I've checked, I've been using the same lake view (see at left) on a sunny afternoon, so the results should be roughly comparable. For this particular picture re-shot in visible light I needed an exposure of 1/320 s.

Scenes with less direct sunlight usually require a higher offset, being less rich in infrared. Therefore treat my numbers just as a starting point to your own experiments.

Still, if you must, you can do it. The AF and AE circuitry should still work (although the light level, affected by the IR filter is below the official low limit of both). Interestingly, when the regular AE circuitry does the reading, the infrared exposure should be about 6 EV above the indicated one; when AE is computed from imager data (Live View with compatible lenses), the adjustment should be 1 EV below: a huge difference!

When originally introduced with the E-1, the solution was dismissed by other manufacturers as a non-essential feature. Now everybody offers it.

This system works. I never had any persistent specks in shooting with the E-300, E-500, E-510, and E-3, and I never had to clean the protective filter by hand. A good habit (not just for this reason) is to change lenses when the camera is off, so that the anti-dust cycle will be run before any further use.

A comparative study of anti-dust systems was published by Róbert Irházy at PixInfo.com; according to it, Olympus is more effective than others here (some do not seem to work at all).

(Warning: it the battery runs out of charge in this state, the shutter and mirror may return to the working position, with disastrous results!)

Index

File format and compression

For more on the raw format, refer to another article.

With my previous Olympus cameras I found that the 1:4 compression is good enough for anything I do; therefore I switch to 1:2.7 only for critical applications (like image samples for analysis). The 1:8 compression may be adequate for vacation snapshots, and I really would not recommend going to 1:12.

In other words, a memory card will hold about 175 1:4 JPEGs, the format I consider good enough for most applications, per gigabyte.

My advice is to use only the native (12 MP) size and forget about the others, for a number of reasons. Consider yourself warned.

The image captured on the sensor is actually a few dozen pixels larger in each dimension. This is normal; the manufacturers usually discard this information because the raw-to-RGB conversion (more exactly: Bayer demosaicing) would have to be done differently for those edges. Some third-party converters, however, handle this, providing a slightly larger final result, about 1-2% extra each side. I don't know exactly, what is that margin in the E-30 as so far I only used Olympus software for the task.

The E-30 (like the E-3 before it) does not allow for direct and independent setting of JPEG image size and compression. Instead, you have to choose (or "register") four size/compression combinations, and only these will be accessible from the Control Panel (or, the hard way, from the menu system). Each of these four presets will be available alone, or together with ORF (two files), in addition to the ORF-only setting.

Defining a preset boils down to choosing the image size (Large, Medium, or Small) and compression (Superfine..Basic) in one of the Settings menus. The meaning of Medium and Small is defined in yet another menu option (Large is hardwired to the native image size).

For reasons that escape me, Olympus stubbornly refers to the Middle image size. Perhaps they are in a medium of a language crisis?

I consider all this too much of a hassle about a feature of little, if any, usefulness. Why not using just two independent settings accessible from the Control Panel, without downsampling at all:

• File format: ORF, JPEG, ORF+JPEG
• Compression ratio: Superfine, Fine, Normal, Basic (where applicable)

This would be simpler, faster, and safer.

A couple of years ago my buddy, who makes the best audiophile speakers in the world, spent a whole evening shooting for his product catalog. Only the next morning he discovered that all images were in the 1024×768 resolution.

Index

Storage

Without a real reason, I like having two slots: better than carrying a spare. What I do not like is that the second slot is for xD-Picture cards, a stillborn monstrosity, used only by Olympus (Fuji ditched it last year). These are slower, more prone to compatibility problems, and limited in size; just the worst possible choice — see my xD-Picture article.

Still, the upside is that you have some extra storage when running out of Compact Flash storage in the field; you can also copy files between cards if needed. Too bad Olympus did not switch to the SD card type.

To bring some order and precision to speed measurements, I bought a Chinese mechanical stopwatch ($50) and designed a new measurement procedure, very accurate and independent on operator's reaction speed. There is a new article on card-writing speeds, with more detail.

Here are the results for some cards, with accuracy better than 1%:

• SanDisk Extreme IV (8 GB, 2008) — 0.42 s/frame
• Lexar Professional UDMA 300x (8 GB, 2009) — 0.49 s/frame
• SanDisk Extreme IV (2 GB, 2007) — 0.72 s/frame
• SanDisk Extreme III (2 GB, 2006) — 0.85 s/frame
• Transcend 266× (4 GB, 2008) — 0.96 s/frame
• Olympus xD-Picture "H" (1 GB, 2006) — 2.76 s/frame
• Olympus xD-Picture "M+" (2 GB, 2008) — 3.34 s/frame

How does this compare with the E-3 and E-510? For the same card I've clocked the E-510 at 0.61 s per frame, and E-3 — at 0.42 s. It has to be remembered, however, that these cameras generate 10-megapixel images at about 10 MB each, while the average raw file for the E-30 was 11.5 MB. The article mentioned above contains all that data and more.

This is as opposed to the USB 2.0 Full Speed, which is actually the speed of USB 1.1. Do not ask me why this naming is used by the industry committee who set the standard: Full Speed is not really full speed.

The nominal data transfer rate is 480 megabits/second for High Speed, 12 Mb/s for Full Speed, and 1.4 Mb/s for Low Speed; the actual one depends on devices involved.

"Storage-class device" means that the camera is seen as an external disk drive when connected to a computer (or another compatible device).

Do not take this for granted: some manufacturers do not offer this feature; most notably Canon (including their latest models). With those you must install a proprietary software before images can be transferred, or you may resort to using an external card reader. I really do not understand the reasons behind that.

A quick test: transferring 1.66 GB of data in 210 files via USB from the E-30, using a 2 GB Extreme IV CF card, to my Core Duo laptop took 261 seconds, so the effective rate was 6.3 MB/s. Using the same card and computer with the E-3 resulted in 4.8 MB/s, so it looks like Olympus engineers did some strange and wonderful things to their circuitry, improving transfer speeds by 30% — not too shabby!

For the record: all this was done under Windows Vista, with all resource-hungry background processes (like drive indexing and shadowing) disabled.

With a new (8 GB) Extreme IV, the same files were transferred at 6.9 MB/s, so it is clear that the USB connection is not the critical bottleneck here. More, repeating the latter experiment on my desktop computer shaved another 5 seconds off the process, resulting in 7.1 MB/s.

Mb stands for megabit; MB — for megabyte; 1 MB = 8 Mb; there is some, perhaps intentional, confusion due to the fact that while bytes (or megabytes) are commonly used for most purposes, transfer speeds are usually quoted in Mb/s (not MB/s).

Index

Exposure control

This step is set independently from the one used in exposure adjustment: some photographers, including myself, prefer to control exposure parameters with a step of 1/3 EV, and ISO — just 1 EV. Separate step settings accommodate both groups while not adding to complexity.

There are a few preferences which the user may change to affect the way in which the automatic ISO adjustment is being done.

• Exposure modes in which the Auto setting will be active. This allows to include or exclude manual exposure.
• Maximum ISO value used in auto-adjustment.

  Most of us will want to set that to ISO 800 or even 400; going higher is not a decision I would leave to the camera.

• Base ISO value used whenever possible or reasonable.

  This cannot be set lower than ISO 200, so that ISO 100 will be used only in extreme cases: when the right exposure cannot be achieved by other means. This suggests that ISO 200 is actually the "native" sensor response.

When set to Auto, the ISO value will be adjusted by the camera's autoexposure system. While Olympus does not explain how it is being done, it looks like in the shutter or aperture priority exposure modes this is used just as a safety valve: the ISO is moved off the selected base value only if proper exposure could not be achieved otherwise at a given value of the controlled parameter.

In program exposure, the ISO is adjusted upwards as soon as the shutter speed nears the handholdable limit (assumed to be 1/2F, one over the focal length doubled); at the high end of the exposure range it works as described above.

Auto-ISO in the manual exposure mode makes it no longer manual: the camera will try to adjust the ISO so that the user-selected shutter speed and aperture will provide proper exposure. Actually, this is exactly like the Shutter and Aperture Priority mode in the Pentax K-7, praised in some reviews I've seen, except that it does not use a separate slot on the mode dial.

We have to remember, however, that the ISO setting affects image quality (noise, contrast, dynamic range, detail), and the range of really usable ISOs on the E-30 is limited to 2-3 EV (up to ISO 400 or 800, but no higher), so the feature is not really useful. Well, it is disabled by default.

While I remain skeptical about the usefulness of the auto-ISO feature, except in all-auto, idiotensicher cameras, the implementation offered here by Olympus is unobtrusive and reasonable. I just wish it were better documented in the manual.

Exposure accuracy may suffer if the aperture closes not quite exactly to the desired value (the mechanism may wear down with time). To avoid that, some cameras (Minolta XD series comes to mind) used to do a last-instant measurement after the aperture closes down. I do not know if Olympus uses this trick, but the E-30 (like all other Olympus SLRs I've tried) does not suffer from any exposure inconsistencies.

The camera uses a matrix of 49 (7×7) sensors to read the light off the viewing screen, like in other recent Olympus SLRs. This also is a common solution; its downside is that the measurement may be off with legacy lenses (i.e., ones not designed for the Four Thirds standard). Also, changing the viewing screen to a different type may require a correction to be introduced.

The metering in E-30 seems to be accurate and consistent. This, of course, does not free the photographer from judicious use of exposure compensation, depending on the subject and on the desired image tonality.

Name aside, the 49-point system is quite smart, capable of detecting high contrast and/or backlighting in the scene, and adjusting the exposure appropriately. Still, no such system is foolproof, and the first thing a photographer has to learn about a new camera is the exposure compensation for its metering system. Luckily, matrix metering remains largely unchanged in Olympus SLRs since the E-410/E-510, so I was feeling at home with the E-30 right away.

The ESP has an additional flavor, referred to as ESP+AF, in which greater weights are assigned to image areas close to the AF sensor (or sensors) actually used. This is, however, not accessible from the basic camera interface (direct buttons, Control Panel), requiring another search in the menu system. What would be wrong with one more option in one place?

The center-weighted mode does its averaging of the 49 readings with emphasis on the frame center. Many photographers, especially those from the "old school", feel better using this approach, as it does not involve any hidden (and undocumented) algorithms.

Spot metering uses just one of the 49 sensors to measure the light in the central 2% (according to Olympus) of the frame; the approximate metering area is shown as a circle in the viewfinder. If you know what you are doing, this may bring most rewarding results.

Highlight Spot and Shadow Spot are like Spot, but they assume that the spot is aimed at highlights or shadows of the scene, so the system applies an offset up or down, respectively, to the measured exposure.

Unfortunately, Olympus does not consider us worthy of knowing that offset. All it would take is just one line in the manual, like "Hi Spot assumes that the measured area is 3 EV above mid-gray" — but with some experimenting you can get the hang of where to aim the spot in these modes. Actually, I never bothered; instead, I am using just the regular spot with exposure compensation ("set the face at +1 EV"); it is simpler and more controllable.

This time will be cut in half for each doubling of the ISO setting. For example, at ISO 200 the longest measured exposure will be one second (with any lens, again).

The actual performance seems somewhat (one to two F-stops) better than these official numbers. Most probably, Olympus (and others) require a given accuracy at the claimed low-light limit.

Other cameras in this class have similar specs. For example:

• Canon 50D — one second at full lens aperture;
• Nikon D90 — four seconds (matrix, center-weighted), or one (spot).

Auto is the all-use general shooting mode, essentially the same as Program (see below), except that it disables the program shift feature and reverts all settings to their defaults — still allowing you to modify them. Any modifications will last only until you leave the Auto mode, when the camera will revert to whatever you have set before entering it; entering Auto again brings the unmodified defaults back. Therefore Auto may be understood as Program+Reset, or a panic button.

It actually works well in this capacity — in some other cameras All Auto (or its equivalent) disables most of the adjustments, therefore becoming an "idiot mode". One may only ask if Auto is the right name — maybe Pgm Reset would be better? The only difference is that the regular Program has persistent settings...

The program mode adjusts both shutter and aperture to match the light level. How this is done, is shown with the black line in this graph (borrowed from the User Manual). As the scene becomes brighter (EV numbers are shown at diagonal lines), the shutter and aperture settings change as follows:

• The lens stays wide open when the shutter is below the "nominal" handholdable speed, twice focal length in millimeters (for example, 1/30 s at F=14 mm): the horizontal line at the left.
• Above that, both parameters are adjusted at the same EV rate; a 2 EV increase closes the aperture by one F-stop, at the same time doubling the shutter speed (a 45° line segment in the middle).
• When the aperture reaches F/11 (diffraction limit?), any further adjustment is done, again, by increasing the shutter speed alone (the horizontal line segment at the right).
• When the shutter speed reaches 1/8000 s (maximum), the aperture starts closing down again, progressing to the maximum F-number of 22 (the vertical line at the right edge).

The manual describes the graph as referring to an F/3.5 lens. Wrong: the maximum aperture is, clearly, F/2.8 here. Too much cut-and-paste from the E-3 manual?

Program Shift allows for use of faster or slower shutter speeds while keeping the exposure at the same level: moving the central (slanted) segment of the line to the right or to the left, respectively. This is done by turning the control wheel (depending on preferences set), and the lines for a shift of ±1 EV are shown in gray.

Program shift also moves the "limited aperture" region (horizontal line section [3] as described above) up or down; line section [1] is, obviously, moved up only if the shift is towards slower shutter speeds.

In the original posting of this article I suspected an error in the shift diagram, but I've checked it to be OK; it looks like either the shift algorithm has been changed since the original firmware for the E-510, or the similar graph in that camera's manual is wrong.

Program shift is not that useful: for more control over aperture and/or shutter speed I prefer to use aperture or shutter priority. In addition, the shift is only shown by a "Ps" mark in (all three) data displays, with no indication on its magnitude or direction. If you do not remember what shift has been set, the fastest way to reset it to zero is by turning the mode dial back and forth: a clumsy solution.

By default the shift is accessed via either control dial, but this can be re-assigned in a number of ways.

Aperture and shutter priority: No, I won't offend your intelligence describing these two.

Manual exposure is metered: the exposure compensation scale (in all three data displays) shows how much over or under the "right" exposure your current shutter/aperture settings are. This is more useful than it may seem, even in this age of automation and instant gratification: set the exposure for the first frame in a series and have it consistent for others under the same light, without the camera readjusting it depending on the variations in subject tonality.

Yes, you could get the same effect using the AE Lock set up to act as a toggle (memory lock), but I'm not feeling good changing preferences on the fly: too easy to forget to change them back.

Manual timing (bulb) exposure is also accessible from the manual mode as one of the speed settings. It allows for manual shutter timing up to 30 minutes: press the release to open, let go to close (or use a remote control).

The manual does not elaborate how these programs are optimized for each application: if you want to shoot a portrait, turn the dial to the little head icon and press the big, shiny button — don't you bother your pretty little head.

I am a bit surprised to see these in the E-30: this indicates a camera intended for beginners' market. On the other hand, there is no room left on the mode dial for user-defined modes, what a shame.

Scene and Art Modes are not, strictly speaking, exposure modes, as they also involve specific image processing. The only reason I'm mentioning them here is that they are accessed from the mode dial; there is a separate write-up of this subject in the Image Processing section.

A reminder: 1 EV corresponds to a factor of 2× in exposure (amount of light reaching the sensor); 1/2 EV is 1.41× (square root of 2), and 1/3 EV — 1.26× (cubic root of 2). This means that 1/3 EV is as precise as needed for most applications, and that's the value used most often.

A minor quirk of the analog scale in the viewfinder and status panel is that it is always drawn in 1/3 EV steps; this leads to an inaccurate display if the process itself uses steps of 1/2 EV: 1/2 EV is shown as 1/3 EV, the next step as 1 EV, then 1 1/3 EV, 2 EV, etc. This is because these displays are of the segment (as opposed to pixel) type. Caused by limited capabilities of segment displays, this is a feature, not a malfunction.

Exposure compensation is adjusted with one of the control dials while (or shortly after) the dedicated [+/-] button next to the shutter release is pressed. It can be also re-assigned to one of the dials alone, i.e., without the button.

This is quite practical: it is not easy to turn this dial by accident. I had it set this way on the E-3, and now also on the new camera. This, however, may depend on how you hold the body, so you may have a different experience.

In addition to exposure compensation, the E-30 also allows to introduce another, global (and hidden) correction, or offset, to the metered autoexposure. (This was not available in any of the previous Olympus cameras.) This correction may range from -1 to +1 EV in 1/6 EV increments, and is defined independently for pattern, center-weighted, and spot metering.

While at first this may seem redundant, it makes perfect sense, separating a general preference (for brighter or darker images) from individual adjustments which depend on the scene being photographed. The finer step and limited range are also justified. A nice, even if not critically important, feature.

Pressing these two buttons, both at the far left of the body, is a bit cumbersome, whether you try to do it with your left thumb alone, or with both thumbs. Using the drive mode and [+/-] would be better (in addition to being more logical). Still, in the E-520 this had to be done through the menu system; so what we have in the E-30 is an improvement.

The difference between neighboring frames can be set to

• 1/3, 2/3, or 1 EV if the exposure adjustment step is 0.3 EV;
• 1/2 or 1 EV if that step is 0.5 EV.

For shooting sequences to be merged into a single HDR (high dynamic range) image, it would It would be useful to have also an option of 2 EV here.

Exposure adjustment in a bracketed sequence depends on the exposure mode: in shutter priority the aperture is changed between frames; in aperture priority the shutter speed, and in program — both in the same degree.

My major complaint about exposure bracketing remains unchanged since the E-3: it does not automatically switch the camera to the sequential mode; this has to be done separately. If not, you will have to count the frames exposed, or refer to the status display to see if the sequence has been completed. I believe a single shutter press should trigger the whole sequence, period; anything else is clumsy and error-prone. Olympus had that right in the E-10/E-20, years ago; I see no reasons behind this change.

ISO bracketing changes the effective exposure by adjusting the ISO down and up from the value set (shutter speed and aperture remain the same). Three frames are shot, with the ISO difference between them selectable as 1/3, 2/3, or 1 EV (no 1/2 EV option).

A bracketed ISO value from outside of the 100..3200 range will be truncated to that range, of course.

Flash bracketing can be useful if you want to change the flash-to-ambient light ratio. If the flash is the sole light source, the effect will be identical to that of AE bracketing.

Note: only one type of bracketing can be active at a time. Setting another one resets the previous one.

Normally, the autoexposure locks when you half-press the shutter release, and so does autofocus. If you want to separate these two functions, press and hold the [AEL/AFL] to lock just the exposure.

To accommodate various preferences and working habits, Olympus allows to customize the lock functions in a number of ways.

• When a given value is locked. You may set the camera to disable exposure locking with the release button (metering will continue until the mirror goes up), or you may have the lock button freeze the focus, and the release — exposure.

  This is set up separately for single, continuous, and manual focus modes, which makes sense. For example, in MF I like to use the lock button for a single autofocus on demand, and in the continuous AF I prefer not to lock focus at all.

• The camera may use a different metering pattern when the exposure is being locked with the [AEL/AFL]. A very practical way to use spot metering.
• Lock and hold: you may set the lock button so that it holds the exposure even if you release it — all subsequent pictures will use the same exposure until the button is pressed again. A way to assured that a number of frames are identically exposed, regardless of subject variation.

  The lock will be reset when you power the camera off or turn the control dial.

• Button swap: you can swap the functionality of the [AEL/AFL] button with that of the [Fn] one (which by itself is user-assigned to a selected function).

All this may look complicated, but it needs to be done just once; this is not something you will keep changing from one session to another. For details, refer to the proper section of my E-30 customization article.

The same can be done, and better (with a wider degree of adjustments and interactive preview of results they provide), in postprocessing: almost any image editor provides this functionality.

Index

Shutter

This is a different shutter than the one used in the E-510 or E-520; most probably an "economy" version of the assembly used in the E-3. That one was professional grade, rated at 150,000 exposures; this one does not carry any such rating.

With the life span of digital cameras defined rather by obsolescence than mechanical wear, I don't think this makes a practical difference. To reach 100,000 frames you need to shoot 100 pictures every day for three years.

Check also my article describing how a focal plane shutter works.

This whole range is available in all exposure modes but, depending on aperture and/or ISO setting, the lowest speeds may become inaccessible because of limits on the autoexposure range.

When set by hand (shutter priority or manual exposure), the increment is 1/3, 1/2, or 1 EV (same as exposure adjustment step, see Exposure Control); in other exposure modes the camera adjusts the speed continuously.

The 30-minute manual timing (bulb) mode limit is not hardwired; it can be changed in the preferences to a number of values from one minute up, with eight minutes being the default.

The term "bulb" is a reminder of times when you had to open the shutter manually, fire a flash (a single-use bulb containing magnesium filaments), and then close the shutter.

This "official" value is on the safe side: I believe the actual one it to be 1/320 s or a bit faster; see the Flash section.

Index

Drive modes

The self-timer delay can be set to 2 or 10 seconds, and the IR remote delay — to 0 or 2 seconds. There is no audible or visible confirmation that the shutter release was fully pressed and the countdown has started; a red light on the camera front (sharing the orifice with the external WB sensor) starts blinking only two seconds before the exposure. I would prefer a solution used on many cameras: slow blinking to start with, fast (or continuous light) just before.

The countdown can be canceled by pressing the drive mode button again.

If the mirror lock is enabled, each drive mode will have a "locked" flavor, which will double the number of modes to scroll through; see my criticism below.

The "low-speed" frame rate can be pre-set from the Settings menu to 1..4 FPS. The fast rate of 5 FPS is at par with the E-3, a step up from 3 FPS on the E-510 or 3.5 FPS on the E-520.

For comparison, the Canon 50D tops at 6 FPS, and Nikon D90 at 4 FPS, which puts the E-30 approximately in the same league.

According to the specs, the buffer is large enough to hold 12 raw images; this limits the length of a high-speed sequence.

As the ORF files are now compressed, the actual number of frames fitting into the buffer will vary.

My Chinese stopwatch procedure (see Writing Speed in the Storage section) shows that, indeed, for the slowest cards I've tried (xD-Picture, what else?) the sequence slows down after 12 frames. For the fastest card in my collection, the 8 GB Sandisk Extreme IV of 2008 vintage, I've got 16 frames at the full speed before the rate drops down to 2.4 FPS. This is understandable, as the camera unloads the buffer while it is still being filled, and writing to that card is impressively fast.

For JPEGs, this depends on compression set and on the image detail: for full size, 1:2.7 or 1:4 files, expect up to 20 frames at full rate with a fast card, and then a throttled, unlimited flow at about 3 FPS. Looks like at these writing speeds the CPU usage for JPEG compression is already becoming a factor.

In these tests I used manual focus and exposure, just in case.

In the sequential mode with single AF, focus and exposure are set before the first frame only, and then kept unchanged so that they do not slow the camera down. In the continuous AF mode the camera keeps refocusing between frames, which brings the effective frame rate down.

Actually, except for some applications (sports, wildlife, including children), I consider 3 FPS fast enough. Still, autobracketing at 5 FPS is nice, especially when the subject is moving.

The wired remote is designated as RM-UC1, introduced for the E-410/E-510 series; it plugs into the USB socket on the back.

This is different than the RM-CB1, used with the E-1 and E-3, and requiring its own, proprietary socket.

The wired remote solution on the E-30 has three problems:

• The location of the combo socket is wrong: it gets in the way of using the cursor buttons. While the E-510 had it in the same place, somehow I find it more intrusive on the E-30.
• Plugging in the remote cable into the socket can be quite tricky in the field. I found it out when shooting from a tripod in sub-freezing temperatures. (The dedicated socket in the E-3 is not better in this aspect.)
• Having two types of remote sockets within the same camera family is not good. As a lesser of two evils, providing a socket adapter for the older Olympus RM-CB1 would be preferable.

A wireless, infrared remote can also be used. I've used two models by Olympus:

• RM-1 — with six chicklet buttons, has been around at least since 1999 (included with the C-2020Z). The [W] and [T] buttons, originally designed for zoom control in Olympus compacts, are now used to open and close the shutter in the bulb mode.
• RM-2 has just one button, used to release the shutter. It will not control the E-30 in the bulb mode, and it was introduced with the C-5000 and C-5060WZ in 2003.

Of these, the RM-1 is still listed by Olympus as current. One or the other used to be included in the box with older cameras. Not any longer: the RM-1 now a $30 option, seriously overpriced. There are less expensive third party alternatives, but I have no experience with those.

Last but not least, the Olympus Studio software ($100) uses the USB connection to access all settings (except for zoom and focus), trigger the camera, and save images to the computer. I found this useful in studio work.

The camera controller by Pine Tree Computing, offering remote control for Olympus cameras, lists some E-System members among supported models, but only up to the E-500. As the Web site never mentions any later models, I am assuming the program does not support them.

Another option: a radio remote. For some applications, like photographing birds at a feeder, this is the best solution. For the E-30 I bought an unmarked, Chinese model, sold on the eBay as FoToCoLa V2in1 (that's "two-in-one"). It works just fine from a 15-meter distance (including some interior walls); the receiver is mechanically mounted in the hot shoe and plugged, via a short cable, to the Video/USB socket on camera's back; the transmitter is just a small, elongated box with a button (in addition to the on/off switch). As a bonus, you can remove the receiver from the hot shoe and use it as a wired remote. Nicely made and functional at $30 or so.

In Europe, Hähnel offers the HW 433 OL80 working in a similar way, at around €50; I wasn't able to find any dealer carrying it in the States.

For reasons unknown, Olympus refers to mirror lock as "Anti-shock". This is wrong: introducing a proprietary term for a generic feature, with an English name established for the last forty years.

The mirror lock delay can be adjusted via the menu system from 1 to 30 seconds, or totally disabled (the default). Enabling it will create "locked" versions of all drive modes; all of them will now show in the sequence which has to be scrolled through when the drive mode is being changed.

Not too smart. How often will I use the 5 FPS sequential rate in conjunction with a 10-second mirror lock? And, for crying out loud, why? And why do I have to scroll through all these options even if all I ever need is a single-frame mirror lock? An ugly design.

Still, being able to activate mirror lock through a direct button (or Control Panel), without going through the menu system, is better than in the E-510, where only the last option was available. Better, but still not as good as it could be.

Enabling mirror lock for individual drive modes would be a better solution; a simpler (but equally practical) one would be to get rid of the explicit mirror lock at all, and send the mirror up as soon as the release (remote or not) is pressed in the self-timer mode, which has an adjustable delay anyway.

Index

Viewing system

Live View allows to preview the scene on the LCD monitor, very much like in a point-and-shoot camera. While for most uses this is inferior to the "classic", optical viewing, in some situations and under some circumstances it has advantages: macro and infrared are two obvious examples.

The remainder of this section deals only with optical viewing; Live View has its own chapter below.

Weight and size concerns limit the size (and apparent size) of the viewfinder used in compact SLRs; on the other hand, a larger (and brighter) finder is a nice thing to have. This is why the designers have to reconcile these conflicting requirements; in the E-30 they ended up with (I believe) a reasonable compromise, see the apparent finder size comparison at the left. (The E-510, E-410, and E-420 have the same finder as the E-520.)

According to Olympus, this design saves about 40% of the volume, 10 mm of the height, and 50% of the weight of the viewing system, compared to the E-3 (100% coverage, 1.15× magnification).

In the E-1 the apparent finder size was exactly like in the E-30 (a bit more coverage, but a bit less magnification: 100%, 1.0×).

To compare finder sizes across various DSLR lines, refer to a small separate article on that subject.

My simple framing test shows a coverage of 98.2% in the horizontal dimension (with an estimated measurement error up to 0.5%); this agrees with the specs. There are no visible alignment problems.

The focusing screen has eleven AF point marks and a circle showing the spot metering area (see below). A bit busy for my liking, like in the E-3.

While the manual specifies the screen as fixed, Olympus offers an alternative FS-3 version (with grid lines), which can be installed by the factory service.

The information shown is quite comprehensive and sometimes it may become a bit overwhelming; luckily, only part of it is shown at any given time.

The blue items on the list contain the full information (a value or a multi-state indicator); the others are just flags, indicating that a setting is off the default value, or that a feature is active. (Upon request from the Readers who may want to print this article in black-and-white, I'm adding asterisks to those.)

Picture from the E-3 [sic!] manual.

Overall, the display is legible and well-arranged, no complaints here.

One functional difference from the E-3 is that the exposure compensation scale doubles up as a level indicator, showing the left-to-right tilt of the camera. This display is activated when the shutter release is half-pressed (or the [Fn] button, if so assigned, used).

There are two eyecups offering more correction, see below.

The eyecup included with the camera is EP-5, the same as in the E-510/E-520, smaller than the EP-7 (standard with the E-3) or the slightly deeper EP-6. I like the latter two more; this may justify spending an extra $15 or so for a replacement.

The ME-1 1.2× magnifying eyecup will fit the E-30, but it makes seeing the full display difficult without moving your eye around; that's why I wouldn't recommend it (still, try for yourself). It also offers less protection from stray light.

I've never used (or seen) the two smaller eyecups offering +2 and -3 diopter correction, and listed on the Olympus site.

Some other E-System finder accessories are described in a separate story. (I know, it needs an update, but better this than nothing.)

To cut the cost (and size), the E-30 does not have an eyepiece shutter, like the one in the E-3 or E-1. There is a plastic, slide-on eyepiece cover (EPC-1) provided instead — but, at long last, this one can be attached to the camera strap.

Mirror lockup is discussed in the section on drive modes.

Depth-of-field preview has its own button near the bottom of the lens mount. In the E-510 you had to assign the [Fn] button to that; otherwise the feature would remain inaccessible. While I use the DoF preview very rarely, this is a better solution.

Index

Live View

The camera which pioneered the Live View in SLRs, the E-330, had two such modes; in one of them the preview signal was generated by a separate sensor, dedicated solely to this function. While Olympus later abandoned this approach, it has been recently revisited by Sony in their A350.

The single-sensor approach, introduced in the E-510, is conceptually simpler, but puts additional requirements on the imager (which has to be capable of continuous operation); this might have been one of the reasons that Olympus abandoned the proven and well-performing Kodak CCDs in favor of MOS chips.

One way or another, the concept originally dismissed by other manufacturers as a non-essential novelty, soon became a standard feature on SLRs, even the top-tier, full-frame models.

The tilting monitor is of a significant advantage here, see my remarks on that.

The major Live View improvement from the E-3 is that in the new camera both autofocus and autoexposure can be performed by the imager (as opposed to the sensors which do that in the "regular" viewing mode), which should simplify the sequence of operations camera performs in Live View shooting. Here is how things work now in the default setting:

1. When the camera enters the Live View mode, the mirror goes up and the shutter opens, exposing the sensor. The image from the sensor is displayed on the monitor like in any point-and-shoot camera.
2. Pressing the Lock button or the shutter release (half-way) activates the imager autofocus function. With that, there is no longer a need for an additional mirror down/up sequence.
3. When the shutter release is fully depressed, the shutter closes (to flush the sensor) and re-opens (to expose the picture), only to close when the exposure is done.

   Strangely, this shutter closure is accompanied by a downswing of the mirror, and its re-opening — by an upswing. This is redundant if autofocus and light metering are done by the imager; The mirror movements just add to the delay and noise. Perhaps a legacy issue and another growing pain of a young technology.

4. When the shutter fully closes, the image is collected off the sensor, processed and saved. Then the shutter opens again for viewing, so that the camera is like after Step 1.

The Live View imager AF and AE were introduced in the E-520/E-420; as compared to the E-3 and E-510/E-410, there is less thumping and clapping now (although that could be reduced even more, see the remark to [3] above). Actually, there should be no mirror activity at all while the camera is in the Live View mode, as long as only imager AF and AE are used.

To quote myself from the E-3 review:

Another speed-up could be achieved by using the imager for autofocus and exposure metering; this could eliminate another two mirror travels.

Consider it (almost) done. Actually, the E-30 offers two additional ways in which AE and AF are performed in Live View, see the next section.

The progress in sensor development over the last year or two brought us to the point where contrast-detection AF by the imager is good enough for many purposes, even if not as fast and accurate as phase-detection AF using dedicated sensors.

Still, the E-30 provides three AF/AE options in Live View:

• Imager AF: the imager alone is used for AF and AE, as described in the previous section.
• Sensor AF: the imager AE and AF functions are not used at all. This actually requires that extra mirror swing just before the exposure, as described in Point [3] above, to allow for AF and AE with dedicated sensors. Additionally, an additional mirror cycle is required for preview autofocusing.
• Hybrid AF: like Sensor AF, except that preview autofocus is available, like in Imager AF. Still, the final readings are done by the dedicated sensors.

The contrast-detection AF using the imager is possible only with some, most recent, lenses from Olympus. These include the 14-42 mm and 40-150 mm "kit" lenses sold with the E-510/E-410 (or '20), the new 14-54 mm ZD II, and the 25 mm pancake; see my updated Four Thirds lens list.

Obviously, the Sensor AF mode was provided for use with lenses not offering CD AF capability. The fact that the 14-54 mm ZD II was rushed to the market (identical to the previous version, except for CD AF) makes me believe that providing that in a firmware upgrade is not an option.

Users who prefer the accuracy of the dedicated AF circuitry even with the "new" lenses, will, obviously, switch to the Hybrid AF, where CD AF is used just for viewing, not for picture-taking.

I wouldn't make much of an issue of all that: after all, the Live View is just a secondary way of using your SLR. In eighteen months with the E-510, I've used it maybe six times: for infrared and tabletop photography.

In addition, manual focusing becomes quite effective in the Live View mode thanks to the option of magnifying the display (see below).

Pressing the [INFO] button switches the data overlayed on the previewed image between nine (!) display configurations.

Most of us will not want to scroll through all nine configurations, content with three of four. This is why all of them except the basic information (number six in the table below) can be disabled.

Actually, the level gauge display cannot, but the level gauge functionality itself can. The effect is not exactly the same, because then the feature becomes unavailable also outside the Live View.

Instead of describing these displays, let me just show you the pictures:

The luminance histogram, using the imager signal after all, seems to be quite accurate. Still, if the Sensor AF or Hybrid AF is used, then the luminance distribution in the final image may turn out different than shown here, as the actual exposure will be determined by the AE sensor, not by the imager. That's why I would recommend relying on this information only in the Imager AF mode.

Yes, this is not a typo. The choice of Live View AF mode affects not only how autofocusing is being done, but also what sensor is used to determine the exposure. I just re-did an experiment to confirm this, and there is no doubt. Therefore it is possible that under some circumstances your exposure will be determined differently, depending what lens and/or LV AF mode you are using. True, we should know such things from the manufacturer, but then I would feel redundant.

The quality of the magnified view is high enough for almost-critical evaluation of focus, much better than the best you can do in the optical viewfinder. Even at low (living-room) light levels the preview is fast, clear, contrasty, and noise-free. All this, together with the tilt-and-swivel monitor (important!), makes the Live View an ideal tool for table-top and macro applications, even without contrast-detection lenses (they will autofocus for the preview just fine, if often slow, in the Hybrid AF mode).

Mind it: I am still skeptical about the usefulness of Live View in general shooting. After all, that's not why we are buying SLRs. But for some applications, like tripod-based close-ups and macro, or low-angle applications (animals, children) this is hard to beat, and implemented better in the E-30 than in any SLR to date.

The reasonable rule of thumb here is: if you can use the optical viewfinder, do it. If this turns out to be impossible or inconvenient, switch to the Live View. If you prefer Live View for general use, buy a good non-SLR camera.

Live View Boost makes the preview brighter, if necessary, for better viewing. This has to be enabled from the preference settings, there is no quick toggle for it (I think this would be nice).

The image shown in Live View reflects the exposure as predicted by the imager, so it should look, in most cases at least, as the picture which will be taken. Sometimes, however, this may be impossible (for example, with flash), or just too dark for convenient preview. This is why the "boost" option has been provided. On the E-510 or E-3 I've been using it for infrared only.

It is easy to prove that the Live View luminance histogram, which was broken when boost was enabled in the E-3 and E-510, remains broken in the E-30. It should be at least disabled under these circumstances.

The multi-view display (a.k.a. Perfect Shot) is not really useful. I wouldn't rely on choosing between subtle effects of exposure compensation or color balance adjustments, based on a thumbnail about 100 pixels, or 0.7" (17 mm) across.

Last but not least, the Face Detection feature. An appropriate algorithm analyses the image preview, identifying areas which may be human faces; then the autofocus and autoexposure will be adjusted with emphasis on those areas.

This may be a lifesaver for Aunt Minnie, who only knows which button to press to take a picture ("trust us!", says the camera maker), but not for anyone who wants to have a say about what the camera will do and how the picture will look. Worse, this works only in the Live View mode, so that your camera is no longer an SLR when you are using this feature. Then, why did Aunt Minnie bought an SLR, to start with? Additionally, shooting with a camera held in your outstretched hands impacts the handholdability by 2-3 EV (my guess), thus obliterating any gains from image stabilization.

Face Detection has its place in non-SLR cameras, especially those aimed at the beginner. Including it in the E-30 is another indication that Olympus may be confused about the market it is aiming that camera at.

Index

Focusing

Obviously, this section covers only the "regular" AF, as opposed to the contrast-detection AF used in the Live View mode and described elsewhere.

All these sensors are sensitive to both horizontal and vertical detail; in many cameras only the central one is (or just a few are). All eleven are of the "twin" type, each with a double sensing array; this should increase focusing accuracy.

The low end of -2 EV means exposures of up to 16 seconds at ISO 100, full lens aperture, regardless of that aperture. While I haven't tested this on the E-30, with the E-3 I was able to autofocus down to 30 seconds at full aperture, which is 1 EV lower than claimed.

I do not have any means to test the AF speed of a camera, but it looks fast and responsive in the E-30, at par with the E-3, which claimed to be a record-holder in this area.

According to David Rasnake (see Other E-30 resources), the E-30 focuses faster than Canon 50D or Nikon D90 (0.14 s versus 0.17 or 0.19 s, respectively; not that this is a really significant difference), and about twice as fast as competing models from Sony and Pentax.

This is under sufficient light levels; at ISO 100, full-aperture exposures longer than 1/4 s, I've checked the D-300 to be faster than E-3; the same probably holds true for the D90 and 50D.

I'm not enough of an action photographer to tell you how well that works. Maybe one day; for the time being I'm staying in the S-AF camp.

The "+MF" modes allow you to adjust the focus manually after the camera found it. For some newer lenses (the 12-60 mm ZD is the only one I'm sure of) the manual adjustment can be made regardless of the focus mode setting.

In the manual focus mode, the AF system provides a focus confirmation blink in the viewfinder, but only with Four Thirds lenses.

AF "on demand" can be set up by switching to the MF mode, if the [AEL/AFL] button is set appropriately for that mode. I found this feature quite useful; sometimes a life-saver.

For reasons which escape me, Olympus decided not to restore the focus bracketing feature, which was very nicely implemented in the E-500 and then removed from later models. For a discerning user, this is worth more than face detection (but, again, which market is the E-30 aimed at?). I'm even afraid to mention the hyperfocal switch, lest some may accuse me of bickering.

The same setting decides if the shutter will fire before the flash is recharged. (This, obviously, works only with Olympus units, including the built-in one.)

The adjustment can be done globally (to remove any inconsistency between the location of the AF sensor and the imager), or it can be assigned to a particular lens (the camera will remember up to 20 lenses by name and serial number). In either case, individual corrections can be also applied to each of the eleven AF points. The procedure is manual (trial and error, really) and I've never performed it.

Actually, I forgot to mention this feature in the original version of this article, and spotted the omission only when working on the E-620 review, where the implementation is identical. In that review I'm providing a more detailed description, fully applicable to the E-30. Instead of doing a copy-and-paste job, let me refer to it: here is a direct link to that section (just hit the Backspace key when done).

Index

Image stabilization

In this system, a gyroscopic device detects the camera/lens shake and drives a micromotor moving the sensor to compensate for the shaky image.

Makers of lens-based IS systems claim that these can work better, because each implementation can be tweaked to the particular lens. I suspect this may be a sour apples attitude (remember dust shake-off and Live View, which nobody would ever need?), and the real rationale behind is the investment in legacy lenses and technology itself, originally developed for film cameras.

There is certainly an advantage in being able to use image stabilization with any lens, not just with those which have it built-in. Frankly, I am disappointed that Panasonic went the other way in their Four Thirds (and Micro Four Thirds) cameras.

The Panasonic/Leica IS lenses can be used on Olympus cameras, with either the in-lens or in-body stabilization enabled, but not both at the same time.

The E-30 image stabilization can be used even with legacy lenses, i.e., ones providing no information exchange with the camera's body. In such cases, the lens focal length has to be entered into the camera by hand; this information is necessary to adjust the magnitude (possibly other parameters) of the correction.

Mode 2 should be used when the camera is panning horizontally, and Mode 3 — vertically (or, more exactly, along the longer or shorter side of the frame, respectively), following a moving subject. Obviously, what we need then is image stabilization only in one (perpendicular) dimension.

Mode 3 is being introduced as new in the E-30. Now I can stabilize my images when panning horizontally with the camera in a portrait orientation. (Really, I never had a need for that, but some users may.)

When using a tripod, it is recommended to turn IS off. I am not sure why: maybe just in case (one less thing may go wrong), or maybe the camera may try to do something stupid (the nature of handheld shake is different than that of tripod shake, if any).

Obviously, Olympus does not want to bother us with any information how (and with what lenses) these numbers were generated (sadly, I'm getting used to that). Anyway, this looks way too optimistic. Besides, the actual average gain must depend on the focal length of the lens used, its weight and shape, your shooting technique, plus, possibly, other factors — but, a factor of thirty?? I find such claims suspect, especially when not supported with any hard data, and without even a hint on how they were arrived to.

To see what improvement IS brings to the E-510 and E-3 I have developed a procedure, designed to minimize subjectivity and to be as statistically sound as possible. For both cameras it gave quite similar results: about 1 EV (2 ×) gain at the focal length of 12 or 14 mm, about 1.5 EV (3×) at 42 or 60 mm, and somewhat above 2 EV (close to 5×) at 150 mm.

I have no reason to expect that the results will be significantly different for the E-30, but I'm going to test that one day, including the focal length of 300 mm (where the benefits may be more visible). If and when I do that, the results will be posted as a separate article.

Even if these values fall short of Olympus claims, I do not find them disappointing. I am sure that other manufacturers stretch the truth in a similar way; this is the way the industry works.

Index

Flash

In the default setting, the flash will pop out automatically when the camera decides to use it. This is one of the first features I disable on a new camera (luckily, it can be disabled!) — those who do not know whether to use flash or not, should buy just an all-auto camera for better results and worry-free operation. An extra penalty is that after popping up the flash needs a few seconds to charge, so that the moment you wanted to capture may pass. When you pop the flash manually (by pressing the flash button), the unit becomes charging right away, so it will be usually ready when you need it.

The unit is situated a bit lower than in the E-3: obvious, due to the reduction in body height. Larger lenses (like the 12-60 mm ZD) may therefore cast shadow into the image; removing the lens hood may help.

The recharge time is usually less than three seconds. This may vary, depending how did the preceding flash use deplete the capacitor charge (aperture, ISO, subject distance).

The Olympus flash system is described in another article (which needs to be updated regarding the "R" series); the FL-36 has its own page. Refer to these articles for details.

While the FL-20 is too weak for any "serious" use, it is extremely pocketable, and can be handy just to provide a light source removed further up from the optical axis (no lens shadows). The FL-36 ("R" or not), still quite portable, is OK for direct use, but barely adequate for bounced light, even if it provides tilt and swivel; that's the flash I'm using now. The FL-50 is a very good unit: it has adequate power and all control options, and its main disadvantage is the price tag ($430 or so).

Unfortunately, both of the Olympus tilt/swivel flashes are missing a second burner to provide a fill when the main light is bounced. Believe me, this improves the results from a single unit a lot!

Metz from Germany makes at least two flashes working with the E-System cameras: the Mecablitz 48 AF-1 and Mecablitz 58 AF-1. I had very positive reports on the latter, which offers not only full Olympus compatibility (including the "R" thing and fast-time synchronization, or the Super FP mode, see below), but also the second burner. It is slightly less expensive than the FL-50R; regardless of that, this will be the next flash I'm getting when I need one.

If the RC Flash feature is enabled in the Settings, the Control Panel will have another page (accessible with the [Info] button), setting up the remote flash system. Up to three groups of remote flashes can be controlled, and for each group independently you can set a number of parameters, most importantly, the exposure mode: TTL, Auto, on Manual. TTL is the pre-flash based metering, Auto uses the flash's own sensor system to measure the light, and Manual is preset to a fixed output.

I have no idea why would I want one group to use TTL metering, and another one — its own light sensors, but maybe there is a reason. As I said, I've never used the Olympus multiple flash setup.

Slave units can be triggered by the built-in flash, which must be set to manual. This is to avoid the pre-flash triggering the slave, and also because neither flash knows the other unit's output. The intensity of the internal unit can be adjusted to provide the trigger as well as the proper amount of fill light.

Olympus offers a number of cables used to connect these two to off-camera flashes or flash brackets. I haven't used any of them. The flash socket on the camera front will work with most flash units ever made, as long as the voltage is not too high (see below). Its tiny screw-on cap is the first thing you will lose as soon as you take it off.

Some of the older flashes may have up to 300 V on the contact pin, and this would certainly fry the camera's circuitry.

Non-dedicated units (including the older FL-40 by Olympus) can provide exposure automation with use of the unit's own metering circuitry, with the camera's shutter speed and aperture set manually. There is no information exchange between these flashes and the camera; the latter just has to be set to the aperture required by the flash, and then it closes the circuit. The flash itself measures the light scattered off the subject and throttles the output when it has enough. Actually, this is not more complicated than using a "full auto", dedicated unit, at a fraction of the price, and the results are good and predictable.

The rest of this section will deal with Olympus units only (or the internal one).

Manual setting of the flash power via the camera is an option only for the built-in flash; this allows for a variable amount of fill-in and/or triggering slave units. The internal unit can be set to full, 1/4, 1/16, or 1/64 light output. Most of the external flashes have their own controls to allow this.

In both Auto modes the camera decides whether to use the flash. Like the auto pop-up feature, this is an evil thing, as the decision should be left to the photographer.

In the red eye modes the flash emits a preliminary burst of light, intended to have the subject's pupils contract. This may (or may not) reduce the risk of getting the "red eye effect". Moving the flash unit further away from the lens axis works better in this aspect.

The Slow modes are used to provide a mix of ambient and flash light. As I've checked on the E-3, this is implemented in a strange way: the camera sets the exposure for the ambient light, and then adds flash on top of it, without modifying the first component. Until I find some time to check this feature on the E-30, I'm assuming it works the same way, which does not make much sense.

Some camera systems have a very useful option: choosing the flash fill ratio. This is missing in Olympus models. To make things worse, the information on slow synch mode in the manual (one paragraph total) is just useless.

The first-curtain (default) and second-curtain synchronization in slow modes differ in when exactly the flash fires: just after the shutter is fully open, or just before it starts closing again. Depending on that, any motion streaks due to the subject exposure by the ambient light will precede the flash-generated image or follow it, respectively.

Off disables the built-in or external flash (even if it is raised or turned on). The internal unit, if raised, will still be used for focus assist.

In addition, an extra correction can be dialed in on Olympus flashes (FL-36, FL-50). This will be applied on top of any exposure compensation set on the camera.

With non-dedicated, third-party flashes, 1/320 s seems like a safe high synchronization speed, a tad above the official specs. At shorter exposures (up to 1/400 s or so) you can get a full synchronization when the flash is used well below the full power, which depends on many factors, including the particular flash model. This means that the shortest exposure at which the shutter is fully open is 1/320 s or a bit less (shorter).

With a dedicated flash the camera will override any shutter speed setting shorter than 1/250 s so that it will stay at or below that value. (See the exception below.)

The Super FP mode (available with the FL-36 and FL-50, "R" or not) allows for flash synchronization at any shutter speed, at the expense of lower effective flash intensity (guide number) and higher power usage.

In this mode the flash sends a few hundred of small light bursts, jointly covering the whole time it takes the shutter to travel the whole frame height. This assures uniform exposure of the whole frame at shutter speeds all the way to 1/8000 s.

The Super FP is useful when the flash is used as a fill, and the ambient light calls for exposures shorter than 1/250 s. It is not available with the built-in unit, which is just not powerful enough.

Index

Image processing

First to all, you have to remember that the WB setting is applied not during actual picture-taking, but only at the stage of raw-to-RGB conversion (whether in-camera or in postprocessing). This means that there is no white balance applied to the raw (ORF) image, if you use that format.

Raw files store only the information on what WB was set on the camera when the picture was taken, but this is only used at the postprocessing stage — if the WB option there is set to "as shot".

A WB postprocessing correction can be also applied to saved JPEG images. While in most cases this works just fine, the magnitude of that adjustment is more limited. This is the reason why some prefer to use the raw format when faced with tricky color situations.

The Auto WB setting is what most people use most of the time. The camera comes up with what it thinks will be the best white balance for a given scene. This is not so simple, and sometimes just impossible, regardless of technology used, especially if the scene does not contain significant white (or gray) areas. (Is this a white shirt in a yellowish light, or a yellow shirt in white light?) In the E-30 we have an external WB sensor (see below), which may help here.

A more experienced photographer (or even I) would prefer to set the WB to one of the predefined settings, corresponding to various light sources:

• The Sunny preset is intended for daylight, not too close to sunrise or sunset. Actually, I tend to use it even in those situations, as I like my late-afternoon pictures to be warmer.
• Open Shade works best for subjects in the shade, illuminated by the light from a clear sky, but not by direct sunlight. This is the highest color temperature (bluest light) generally encountered, and using the sunny preset here may lead to bluish images.
• The Cloudy position may work right or not: the light depends on how heavy the cloud cover is (and on the time of the day). With just a few clouds (as opposed to a solid cover), I prefer to use the sunny preset.
• The Incandescent (tungsten) setting is not foolproof, as the color temperature of light bulbs significantly varies with wattage. Auto WB also tends to fail under these conditions; the most reliable way is to use the Reference WB here, or set the color temperature by hand.
• There are three Fluorescent presets in the E-30, as there are various types of these lights, differing in the light spectrum. A safe way is to try all three for any fluorescent light source, and take notes. The Auto WB is also finicky here; if in doubt, use the raw format and decide later.
• The Flash WB preset is similar to Sunny, providing a bit warmer results. Some may prefer to use it in daylight, near noon. There may be minor variations between various flashes.

You can also use the Custom WB and set the color temperature directly. Raise that value to get warmer (more reddish) images, lower it to get them colder (more bluish).

The adjustment range in the E-30 is quite wide, especially at the low end, where it goes down to 2000K: low enough for low-wattage bulbs.

Adjusting the color temperature can be done with use of the [+/-] button (plus the dial) during the WB mode selection, a feature easy to miss.

The Reference WB allows the white balance to be set by reading the light of a white (or gray) surface. It works very well; in some situations this may be the only reliable way of WB setting. The E-30 provides slots to store four such readings.

To access Reference WB, it has to be previously assigned to the [Fn] (user-defined) button. Pressing that button and the shutter release will cause a test picture to be taken and analyzed, and the setting stored for a later recall. The process may fail under some circumstances: non-uniform reference surface, or mixed light sources.

Unfortunately, if you assign the Reference WB to the [Fn] button, it can't be used for anything else. There should be a way around it, similar to setting the value in Custom WB, mentioned above.

All WB settings can share a common correction (in ±7 steps each in amber-blue and green-magenta planes), or each can be individually modified. If you complain your camera renders colors too cool, just adjust this.

For some reasons, Olympus no longer refers to the Red-Blue direction, but to Amber-Blue instead. I'm not sure if this is just a change in terminology, or if there are some subtle changes in the adjustment itself. (The new naming is more accurate anyway, as it is cyan, not blue, which is complementary to red.)

While this will not replace a stand-alone incident light meter, it should help.

This sensor can be turned off from one of the setup menus, but it you are using Auto WB, I would recommend keeping it on. For other WB modes it is irrelevant.

This is why I consider this feature rather useless. Instead of waiting for nine JPEGs to be written out to the card, just save one raw file and adjust the WB in postprocessing.

• Noise Reduction (NR) is used to remove the static noise, which (at given ISO and shutter speed) has the same pattern from one frame to another. To do this, the camera captures a separate, "dark" frame (i.e. one without opening the shutter) just after exposing the image, and subtracts it from the latter.

  This method works quite well, especially (if not only) in removing the "hot pixels" showing at long exposures and high ISOs.

  The downside is that it slightly increases the random noise (see below), so it should be used only when it actually helps: at longest exposure times. Noise reduction also adds an extra delay before the image is saved, mainly because of the need for the "dark" exposure of the same length as the "real" one. Because of that, the setting is disabled in the sequential drive mode.

  In the E-30, Noise Reduction can be set or Off, On, or Auto. According to Olympus, in the On setting it will be applied always (regardless of the ISO or shutter speed), in Auto — only when the camera decides that it is worthwhile, i.e., at the longest exposures.

  To check that, I shot one frame at each of these three settings, with the manual exposure of 1 sec at ISO 200. Surprise: the time to write the JPEG image out is the same in Auto as in Off, significantly shorter than in the On setting. This clearly indicates that Auto does not activate the noise reduction at this exposure, contrary to what the manual says.

• Noise Filtering (NF) reduces the random noise, where the response of a given pixel to light varies from one frame to another. This is done by some smart averaging of the neighboring photosite readouts (and/or resulting pixels) during the raw-to-RGB conversion (raw files are not affected).

  To avoid excessive detail loss, the filter tries to distinguish the noise from actual image detail, which is not always simple and may lead to undesirable results, like a smooth image with sharp contours but a significant loss of other detail. Such images may look pleasing at the first glance, but they are not real (early Canon Rebels suffered from this "Saran Wrap" effect).

  For these and other reasons I believe the photographer should be able to decide how much of noise reduction is applied. Luckily, the E-30 provides four settings here: Off, Low, Standard, and High.

  Keep in mind, that some filtering is involved even in the Off setting, as this is an integral part of the demosaicing of the Bayer pattern during the raw-to-RGB conversion. The effect also depends on the noise magnitude itself, therefore different ISOs may require different filter settings for the "best" (whatever this means) result.

  The E-3 used to apply noise filtering less aggressively than the E-510; this should be also the case for the E-30. My first guess would be to use the Low setting for the most pleasing results, but I haven't investigated this in the new camera yet.

Each of these presets can be assigned values for image conversion parameters (see the next section). These values are persistent: the camera remembers them for each Picture Mode even when you switch between those.

The Portrait and Custom Picture Modes, introduced originally in the E-3, have been retained in the E-30. The Portrait mode should provide better rendition of skin tones, and the Custom one is a slot for user-defined preferences. The latter is set up starting from one of the other modes used as a template; it also remembers the Gradation setting (the others do not), see below.

Because Picture Modes are applied only in the raw-to-RGB conversion process, they do not affect raw image files. The settings are, however, stored inside those files, so that they can be used (or not) when such conversion is done in off-camera development, using the "as shot" selection.

Obviously, this note also applies to the Image Adjustment section below.

While Olympus is busy hiding information from the users, a good EXIF reader (like Phil Harvey's ExifTool) will extract the information on absolute settings; for more detail, see the E-3 information on the subject, fully applicable to the E-30.

Now, a brief description of parameters on this list.

• Sharpness alters the amount of sharpening, applied to the image in the conversion. I prefer to keep it always tuned down, because it is easier to choose the proper amount (and kind) of it in postprocessing, even using JPEG output. No amount of sharpening will fix a badly-focused image, but it may introduce some ugly artifacts.
• Contrast makes the midrange part of the tonal curve steeper. Higher values may lead to images looking more "crisp" (often confused with "sharper") at the expense of shadow and highlight detail, narrowing the effective dynamic range. Another parameter to keep down and adjust in postprocessing when and as needed.
• Saturation is also easy to overshoot. Too high a setting may give a cheap-looking effect, at the same time causing loss of detail in highly-saturated areas.
• Gradation effectively changes the gamma of the transition curve: the High Key and Low Key settings move the mid-tones up or down, respectively, from the Normal, default. Once again, this is easily done in postprocessing.

  This option also includes an Auto setting (using the Shadow Adjustment Technology), supposed to provide more detail in highlights and/or shadows. Olympus' description suggests that the tonal curve adjustment is done here differently for various image regions (as opposed to applying the same curve for the whole image).

  It is not difficult to design a small experiment to check that; I should be able to do it, given more time. With the E-3 I haven't really used the Auto gradation.

I believe Gradation should also become a part of Picture Modes, individually adjustable for each (now it is remembered only for the Custom mode). This would offer the user more flexibility, in addition to being more consistent.

In the Monotone [sic!] Picture Mode you cannot adjust saturation (understandably) or gradation (for unclear reasons), but you can apply a color "filter" to the raw-to-mono conversion. For example, an orange or red filter will deepen the sky. You can also add a color tint to the resulting monochrome image.

Last time I took English classes was forty years ago; at that time a word used for a black-and-white (even tinted) picture was monochrome, while monotone meant "repetitive" or " of constant pitch" (about sound). Looks like the English language is really progressing in the last years, especially in Tokyo.

The light fall-off can be handled in- or off-camera (the latter only if Olympus software is used). Interestingly, the correction seems to be applied during analog-to-digital conversion (not at raw-to-RGB stage, as I thought before), so that the raw files are affected.

This is indicated by the fact that the Auto Shading Compensation option in Olympus Studio is disabled if that option in the camera was selected when a raw file was recorded.

The feature works, sort of, nothing to write home about. For the 14-42 mm ZD at the widest setting, it removes a part (perhaps half, maybe less) of the effect. For the 12-60 mm ZD, where the fall-off is less visible, it does practically nothing.

Geometric distortion can be corrected in images saved as JPEG or ORF files, in postprocessing only. This works OK for simple distortion patterns (barrel or pincushion). For the 12-60 mm ZD lens, where at the wide end the distortion has a prominent higher-order component (in plain English: a wavy shape), the correction is significantly less effective.

The raw-to-JPEG conversion uses the same software as in the conversion automatically applied when a picture is taken. The image adjustment parameters (for example: white balance, sharpening, noise filter) are not applied as set when the picture was taken, but as set at the moment of performing the conversion.

Except for image overlay (see below), the other editing functions are applied to RGB images — whether saved to a file or resulting from a just-done conversion, before saving:

• Shadow adjustment has an effect similar to the Auto gradation. If the latter has been already applied (at the raw-to-RGB conversion stage), the effects will be cumulative.
• Red eye fix seems to actually work (compare here), although you may prefer to use the same function in your image editor for more control.
• Crop offers a choice of four formats, preserving or inverting the 4:3 aspect ratio; no adjustments are possible, except for moving the selected fragment around the frame. On the other hand, I'm at a loss why I would ever want to do it in-camera.
• Black and white or Sepia conversion — obvious.
• Saturation adjustment offers a comparative before/after preview, but you cannot see much in a thumbnail.
• Image downsizing resamples an image to one of the three predefined sizes: 1280×960, 640×480 or 320×240 pixels, obviously for emailing. This would make sense if the camera had an email client built-in (Sony will do that, of course).
• Aspect crop is identical to the crop function, except that the predefined formats have various aspect ratios.

There is also a separate function, Image Overlay, applicable only to images saved as raw files. You can select from two to four such images and overlay them into one, adjusting individual input of each into the final effect. Once again, with the LCD monitor being the only way to judge the effect, this does not seem to be very useful.

Generally, I consider all functions in this group (except, maybe, the raw development) rather useless and of no value in a camera aimed at a serious (or semi-serious) photographer. I wish these resources were redirected to something genuinely useful (at least for some users), like time-lapse sequences, hyperfocal distance setting, or manual focus confirmation for legacy lenses.

They are (mostly, at least) applied when the captured image is converted into RGB. Including this feature into the E-30 seems to be a misunderstanding — but, still I gave it a try. The bottom line: pretty useless; a trinket you will try once or twice only to forget about it.

Special effects like these should be applied to appropriate scenes only, and then adjusted as needed; an effect may work nicely with one scene, but not with another. Any image editor has dozens of them, to be tried out for a selected frame, adjusted, and then discarded or accepted. Doing the same in the camera is just a "keep it or trash it" alternative; usually the latter. Besides, evaluating the results on the camera's LCD monitor is usually inadequate for judgement.

This way or another, Olympus gets my vote for the most useless feature introduced in a digital SLR; this will be hard to match.

For the record: while switched to an Art Mode the camera activates program exposure, but most of the other parameters (exposure compensation, ISO, white balance, and some others) can still be adjusted, if via direct buttons only; the Control Panel can be used to display these variables but not to change them. This design is somewhat inconsistent, but it will affect only those using this feature.

The names are self-explanatory, except for DIS: Digital Image Stabilization, which is a fancy name for increasing the ISO to achieve faster shutter speeds, which helps to capture a moving subject (or reduce the effect of camera shake).

Most of camera's parameter adjustments (even exposure compensation) are disabled in these modes; the one exception I could find was AF point selection. Maybe there are others — but this is a tertiary (not even a secondary) issue.

There is nothing wrong with a camera, even an advanced one, being user-friendly. When this becomes a straightjacket, though, it becomes objectionable for even a moderately literate user. While the dedicated programs discussed above can be used as starting points for your own adjustments, the Scene Modes cannot. They also remain largely undocumented in the manual (except for totally trivial information). For the users who choose not to use them, they have just one impact: taking away (together with Art Modes) one valuable slot on the mode dial, which could have been better used for a custom exposure mode and setup.

The panorama mode provides a display aid (in Live View only) to help in overlaying the frames in sequence as needed. For no technical reasons, it can be activated only when an Olympus-branded xD-Picture card is used, which I find unforgivable (as that could be the sole useful feature in this list).

All it does is cropping the image (JPEG only) to a selected aspect ratio. In the Live View mode the preview shows the cropping rectangle; in the optical viewfinder you have to use your imagination: there is no framing aid of any kind (like in some APS film cameras).

The aspect ratio selection was a close second in my most useless feature contest. It lost only because it does not occupy any room on the mode dial.

Index

LCD monitor

Olympus no longer refers to the RGB dots as "pixels". I've been complaining about this misleading practice for years, and Nikon was the first to bag it. A sign of progress.

The monitor size is the same as in the E-520/E-420, or about 8% larger than in the E-510/E-410 or the E-3. Making it larger (3", like in some recent Canons or Nikons) without increasing the overall camera size would be difficult, although not impossible, and would take away some room now used for the external controls.

Because of the unchanged pixel count, the granularity of display (especially control interface) becomes visible. Still, the display is bright, contrasty and clear, and the colors are good. The larger size makes it more readable from increased viewing distance, an advantage for the middle-aged users. In the sunlight it loses much of readability, but so does every camera monitor I've seen yet.

The Nikon D300 and D90, and the Canon 50D have monitors with 920,000 RGB dots (more then 300,000 pixels) which is the VGA screen resolution and makes them extremely sharp, if more expensive and power-hungry. Other models stick to resolutions similar to that in the E-30. For a 2.7" or 3" screen, 500,000 or so would be already a visible improvement.

The E-3 had an ambient light sensor, for automatic adjustment of the monitor brightness. Actually, I disabled it in that camera, as it was sometimes reacting randomly to minor changes in camera orientation, so I am not missing it here.

The monitor is significantly brighter than the one in E-510/520, which makes it more useful in bright daylight. This is a visible improvement, additionally helped by anti-glare coating, which is highly effective and clearly seen when E-30 and E-510 are handled side-by-side.

In some of the previous E-System SLRs there was a toggle between the full version of the Control Panel and a simplified one. This is now gone (one fewer stage to scroll through), fine with me.

The [Info], [Menu], [Delete], and Live View buttons are located, as in the E-3, below the monitor, which I didn't like too much in that camera. The button shape and layout has been, however, slightly changed, with two raised dividers between them added, and I find the new arrangement a bit better.

This option also has an irritating quirk, inherited from the E-3: when used with an infrared remote, it still requires a camera button press to exit the review mode; you cannot do that with the IR remote itself.

The [Play] (blue arrow) button recalls the last image taken, with the arrow keys used to scroll through images; the control dial is then to zoom in or out (from thumbnails to a 14× magnification). You can also toggle between the full frame and the magnified segment, and there is an option to compare images (actually, fragments) side-by-side. All this may take some time to get used to, but some users find these options handy.

The thumbnail display has been slightly modified in this camera: the currently selected picture is shown "in front of" the others, slightly magnified. A cosmetic difference, but it looks nice.

In a single-image, full-frame display, repeatedly pressing the [Info] button switches between the remaining image display modes:

• The image alone, refreshingly void of any distractions;
• File information: format, compression, folder and file name.

  Olympus merged the basic and detailed flavors of this, available in the E-3, into just one; that's better.

• Detailed display with full exposure data, luminance and RGB histograms, file information, and a half-size image thumbnail with clipped highlights and shadows blinking in red and blue, and with the used AF point marked.

  While this may look like lots of information, it is quite manageable, and the RGB histograms are, in right hands, indispensable in preventing some subjects from overloading one of the color channels.

• Clipped highlight and shadows shown blinking; a full-size version of the thumbnail version mentioned above. If the clipped areas are small, they are easier to spot in this display than in the luminance histogram.

  Having both kinds of clipping shown in separate pages (E-3, E-510) was wasteful and irritating; merging both was the right thing to do.

The [Fn] button pressed in the image display mode brings up a full frame with a small box, marking the size of a 10× fragment. Pressing that button again (and again) brings that fragment magnified, in two flavors. In one the arrow buttons move to the next or previous image, with the same fragment shown (handy for comparisons); in the other, they move the magnified piece around. You have scroll back to the initial state until the [Info] button regains its original function as listed above.

The modal nature (context dependency) of this design is confusing, limiting and redundant. Why, when the image is magnified, the [Info] button duplicates the functionality of the [Fn] one, and cannot be used to switch between display modes? This only adds to the confusion, without any benefits, unless I am really missing something.

The image files (both raw and JPEG) in the E-30 contain smaller, highly-compressed "preview" versions, sized 1600×1200 pixels, or about 400 kB (1:14). In the E-30, this version is used for image preview, but only for raw files. For JPEGs, the preview version, shown initially to speed things up, is replaced with the full image as soon as it is decompressed behind the scenes.

This is a smart solution, allowing for critical sharpness evaluation at magnifications higher than 7×, but only for JPEGs, not for raw files (for which the preview image magnified above that does not show any more detail). Interesting and ironic; if you really need a detailed preview when working in the raw mode, switch to RAW+JPEG and use the latter just for detailed, magnified preview.

The cable used (included) uses a combined USB/video socket in the camera's back — like all recent Olympus SLRs except for the E-3, which had a separate video output.

There is no HDMI (high resolution video) output. I'm not missing it much, considering my pictures not worth a presentation until they are selected and postprocessed. This is rather a "fun" feature, than one most photographers would really need.

This is not just a secondary convenience issue; it dramatically changes the way the camera is operated in table-top and macro work, most of tripod applications, and low-angle shooting. The best camera monitor, regardless of size, resolution and color fidelity, is rendered almost useless when it has to be viewed from a sharp angle.

Interestingly, SLRs from Canon, Nikon, and Pentax, do not have adjustable-angle monitors, even the latest models; this is a serious disadvantage (in the Live View area, that is).

The same could be said about the E-510/E-520, but there, at least, size limitations may justify the omission. Besides, Live View is not really an essential feature for most users and uses.

The displayed image will be inverted if the monitor position requires that. The monitor can also face forward (self-portraits!) or towards the camera back, thus protected from damage. In the latter case, the status panel on the camera top can be used as a feedback when basic camera settings are adjusted.

A minor bug in the logic of this operation: when the camera is in the portrait orientation with the monitor facing forwards, the displayed image is upside down. I've never discovered this myself; thanks to those who wrote me about the problem (also present in the E-3); it is easy to recreate.

As with the E-3, sometimes I think I might prefer a monitor with just one degree of freedom: up or down. While this is less flexible, the display would not use an extra room to camera's left. I'm not quite certain, though, about it, so do not take it as criticism. Some people may actually need the extra angles.

Index

Power

While the third-party replacements are available at lower cost, at least some of those are of low quality and some may pose a risk for the camera. I would recommend sticking to the originals, even if at a premium price. After all, These things last a while; I'm still using some bought with my C-5060WZ.

At least one spare is a must for any owner of this (or any other) camera.

The CIPA battery rating for the E-30 is 650 frames: the same as for the E-510 and higher than the 610 frames claimed for the E-3, in spite of larger monitor and higher pixel count (more data to push around). Still, keep in mind that I'm not convinced about the reproducibility of the CIPA standard.

Anecdotal evidence: during my first week with the E-30, playing extensively with its features, shooting test samples, and using the Live View quite a lot, I never had to change the battery twice on the same day, which used to happen with the E3. This is not a measurement, just a casual observation, hinting at some progress in the area of power consumption.

It would be nice, for some people at least, to have a charger accepting either the BLM-1 or the BLS-1 (used in the E-410/E-420 and, most importantly, in the E-620. which debuted half year after the E-30). Those camera bodies could be then used for backup without a need to travel with two different chargers.

The HLD-4 power grip is shared with the E-3. It accepts one or two BLM-1 batteries, or six AA ones (NiMH or alkaline). Autofocusing and some other functions may become faster when the grip is being used.

There are two settings intended to improve the camera's work with AA batteries, but the manual is unclear on what they really do, and since I have no experience with the HLD-4, I better leave this subject alone.

The grip duplicates some of the camera's controls: the shutter release, control dials, [Fn] and [...] (AF pattern selection) buttons; all can be disabled when the camera is used in landscape mode.

Index

Other features

Here are various some miscellaneous features of the E-30 worth your attention, which did not make it into other sections.

The monochrome, segmented LCD display, reflecting the status of the basic camera settings, is placed on the top, to the right of the prism hood. It is very similar to that on the E-3, larger and more informative than on the E-1. Like all displays of this type, it draws very little power; therefore it does not measurably affect the battery life.

The most visible items are the shutter speed and aperture, which is the way things should be. The pseudo-analog exposure compensation scale is also quite prominently displayed.

Other information shown here includes the following:

• Remaining card capacity;
• AF, flash, and drive modes;
• AF spot/pattern selection;
• Metering pattern;
• File storage selection (raw or the JPEG preset);

The last item happens to be the one which I would like to see improved: the ISO information is as essential as aperture or shutter speed, and having is shown numerically would be preferable. The way things are, you have to press the ISO button to see the value set.

When any setting is being adjusted with a dedicated button and control wheel, all others disappear and the display provides the necessary visual feedback.

If the level gauge is activated, then the exposure compensation scale will be replaced with the left/right level display after the shutter release has been half-pressed for a short while. At first I thought I will not like that solution, but, actually, it works just fine.

The status display has a backlight, turned on with a dedicated button next to the prism hood. The display itself will go blank after no camera controls have been used for one minute.

While I've got accustomed to using cameras without a status panel like this (E-300, E-500, E-510), on the E-30 and E-3 I found it quite usable at occasions, and its functionality justifies the room it takes on the top side of the camera. While the display is quite busy, it is still readable, so I'm glad to have it.

The camera has an orientation sensor, detecting its orientation (or attitude, as they say in spacecraft technology) in two dimensions:

• Left-to-right (roll)
• Front-to-back (pitch)

The feature can be enabled from the Settings menu; if that's the case, the camera deviations from the "leveled" (horizontal in both dimensions) will be displayed in three places:

• The Control Panel (when toggled with the [Info] button). This shows horizontal and vertical scales with level offsets in both dimensions, both becoming green when the deviations fall below a certain tolerance. This, obviously, is suitable for tripod work.
• The viewfinder. The level scale (left-to-right only) is shown in the finder data display, replacing the exposure compensation scale. This happens after the shutter release button is held half-pressed for a second or so.
• The top status panel. Here it works exactly like in the viewfinder. This is the least useful way, applicable only if, for some reasons, you cannot use the LCD monitor with a tripod.

Another way to access the level gauge is to assign it to the [Fn] button. That button will then toggle the level display in the finder and status panel. I'm reluctant to sacrifice that button just for this purpose.

The system seems to work well, being useful mostly (but not only) for tripod work; it certainly makes the E-30 different from other cameras on the market.

Update of November, 2009: Actually, after ten months with the camera I may say I find the level gauge most useful, and not just with a tripod. It drastically reduced the fraction of hand-held frames for which I have to do level adjustment in postprocessing. I'm really missing this feature in the E-620.

Index