Tuesday May 5, 2009
Arty E-30
By TAN KIT HOONG
Funky filters and modes give an interesting twist to the Olympus E-30 DSLR.
THERE was a time when DSLRs were meant for professional and serious amateur use, while compact cameras were meant for parties and casual users.
The main difference was that DSLRs generally were a bit more difficult to use and lacked compact digicam features like Live View and video recording.
These days, of course, the lines are definitely blurring, with DSLRs and compact cameras getting ever closer in terms of features and pricing.
Most DSLRs come with Live View (and some with video recording) and prices for entry level models are very close to what you’d pay for a high-end compact digicam.
The Olympus E-30 blurs these lines even further.
In terms of feature set, the DSLR is definitely an advanced camera with all the exposure and controls that a professional photographer or serious amateur could want, but with a few very interesting features normally found in compact digicams.
We’ll get into that as we go along in this review.
HIT THE DIAL: The Art/Scene mode is accessible from the mode dial on the top of the Olympus E-30. Solid build
There are a few companies which never disappoint when it comes to build quality, and Olympus is one of them — both the E-30 and its kit lens feels very solid in the hands, with very good fit and finish.
As far as design goes, it looks like the days of the weirdly-shaped E-300 are over, as the E-30 has a very conventional DSLR shape which is all for the better, IMHO.
While it looks pretty neat on the front, the back is quite busy and features a flip-out swiveling 2.7in LCD screen and a whopping 16 buttons, including the buttons for directional pad and with four more buttons on the top plate.
Although this may be a bit excessive and does take some getting used to, the upside is that almost all the important controls, such as ISO, Live View and autofocus point selection are right at your fingertips when you need them.
Compared to its competitors, I did find looking through the viewfinder on the E-30 a bit like looking down a tunnel at a small door in the distance.
Although having said that, the Viewfinder magnification is a lot better than some of the entry-level DSLRs in the Olympus range.
What I did like were the 11 autofocus points which are spaced far enough to cover a large area of the available viewfinder space, which makes for easier focusing and avoids the situation where you need to focus and then reframe your shots.
White balance, exposure compensation and ISO buttons round off the essential controls and these are located on the top, next to the monochrome LCD.
The E-30’s main storage format is CompactFlash, although it does have a secondary xD Picture Card slot available if you have a few xD cards lying around from, say, an Olympus compact digicam.
Of course, there’s Live View and while this feature is already found on a lot of modern DSLRs, the E-30 has a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
For one thing, contrast-detect autofocus (where the image sensor instead of the autofocus sensor is used for autofocus) in Live View mode is relatively fast compared with last-generation DSLRs.
For another, when using the E-30’s creative effects mode, called Art/Scene, the various effects can actually be seen in real-time when using Live View (more on this later).
When not viewing images, the LCD screen also doubles as an information panel, showing all the relevant information you need, and more.
BEVY OF BUTTONS: The ISO, white balance and exposure compensation buttons. Apart from the Art/Scene modes, there’s an additional five Scene modes on the mode dial, along with the usual Program, Aperture-Priority, Shutter-priority and Manual exposure modes.
Art/Scene mode
One of the more interesting features of the E-30 is the Art/Scene mode, which allows you to create a number of effects in camera which you’d normally only be able to achieve using Photoshop on the PC.
It’s called an Art/Scene mode because this mode is essentially split into two groups.
INTENTIONAL VIGNETTING: The Pin Hole Art filter setting gives a very 'Lomo camera' look to your images. The Art filter mode represents more “arty” image processing settings while the Scene settings are used depending on the scene or lighting conditions at hand.
The Art modes are fun, and allows you to, for example, mimic the look of grainy black-and-white film, or make colours pop by choosing Pop Art, or even a “pin hole” mode which gives you a very “Lomo” camera look.
Other interesting modes include Soft Focus mode and Light tone (which lowers contrast in your images) but the ones I really latched on to were the Grainy Film and Pin Hole camera modes I mentioned before.
The cool thing about using the Art/Scene mode is that if you use it together with Live View mode, you can see the effect in real-time.
This is really quite useful as it allows you to really see the effect each setting has even before you actually take the picture, a luxury you don’t get when doing post-processing in Photoshop.
There is a catch, however as certain Art filter settings will slow down your shot-to-shot times quite significantly, often as much as 10 seconds, there’s quite a bit of processing that goes on after you take the shot.
This is okay if you’re a landscape shooter, but might be an issue if you’re shooting candid shots a lot.
Quality
As far as image quality goes, the E-30 produced some well-exposed shots with generally good sharpness overall.
In fact, the camera’s multi-pattern metering worked noticeably better than some of the older models, and generally produced a higher number of accurately exposed shots, even when there was backlighting of the subject.
High ISO performance is alright although certainly not the best we’ve seen in a modern camera of the same megapixel count.
At ISO100 to 200, the E-30 produced the best results with little or no noise, while at ISO 400, there was a noticeable amount of noise creeping in, although it’s still quite usable at this setting.
ISO 800 hits my threshold of acceptable noise — anything above that and I’d really have to start seriously thinking about balancing the need to get the shot at the expense of noise when I push up the ISO.
For comparison shots of different ISO settings, visit
tinyurl.com/cvztzf.
GO RETRO: The Olympus E-30's Grainy Film Art filter mode mimics the look of old black and white film. Battery life on the E-30 is pretty good — with a mix of Live View use and optical viewfinder use, I managed to get through a heavy morning of shooting and still have battery life left for another day or so.
Conclusion
Overall, the Olympus E-30 is a very nice camera to use — aside from the really busy button array on the back, the camera performs quickly and is capable of producing some pretty good images.
In fact, the only things preventing it from being a standout DSLR amongst the current crop of mid-range DSLRs is the ability to record video and its price.
At a list price of RM5,999 for the version with the 14-54mm kit lens, the E-30 is priced a tad too high to really be able to steal market share from competitors in its class.
That aside, the E-30 is a competent camera with solid build quality and it’s certainly worth a look if you’re upgrading from a previous Olympus DSLR.
Pros: Solid build quality; Art/Scene modes are fun, useful and can be seen in Live View mode.
Cons: No HD video recording capability.
E-30
(Olympus)
DSLR
Sensor: 12.1 megapixels (4032 x 3024 pixels)
Shutter: 60sec – 1/8000sec
ISO range: 100 – 3200
Exposure modes: P,S,A,M plus Art/Scene modes
Viewfinder: Optical, 2.7in external LCD
Battery: 1500mAh lithium-ion
Storage: CompactFlash, xD card
Interface: USB 2.0 and video out
Other features: Built-in image stabilisation
Dimensions: 14.2 x 11.6 x 7.5cm (w x h x d)
Weight: 730g
Price: RM5,999 (with 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 II lens)
Website: www.olympus.com.my
Review unit courtesy of Olympus (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, (03) 6203-3882
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