#1. Cheap Olympus Evolt E-3 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera with Mechanical Image Stabilization with ED 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 Lens and FL-50R Flash by Olympus

Olympus Evolt E-3 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera with Mechanical Image Stabilization with ED 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 Lens and FL-50R Flash Review

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

Before I start the review: I was initially in the market for the E-30, but a special deal on the internet through Dodd Camera allowed me to get the E-3 for only 0, I could NOT pass up that deal!

The Olympus E-3 is a fantastic product. When I was considering purchasing one, I had heard many complaints online in different forums whom had many members who admittedly have never used a 4/3 camera, just heard about them. Before using the E-3, I was (and still am) a user of the Olympus E-520 camera which gave me excellent results, but had some minor limitations that made me want to upgrade. First is the viewfinder. In the E-520, the viewfinder is NOT bad at all, like many would lead you to believe. I found that attaching the Olympus ME-1 eyecup to my E-520 helped, but I can see how this could pose a problem with people who wear glasses. The E-3 addresses this with the best viewfinder the 4/3 system has ever seen. Much larger & brighter, I find myself doing much manual focusing with it, whereas I did have a tendency to rely on the AF performance of the E-520.

The focusing speed of this camera is incredibly fast with SWD lenses, and very fast with my other High Grade lenses. It is important to note that low light situations have caused the camera to hunt at times. The AF assist of my Metz 58 flash helps to quickly bring the image into focus when I shoot at low light venues such as performances or night time portraits. In good lighting conditions, the focusing is almost instant, in lower light, it is fast, just not as fast as some users might think when they hear “World’s Fastest AF”.

Lastly, the noise performance. The camera produces great results up until about iso 800+. Images get noisy in the higher settings, BUT THIS IS NOTHING THAT CAN’T BE CLEANED UP IN POST PRODUCTION! Also, iso 3200 images retain a lot of detail and the DR performance is nice as well. When I want to clean up images, I usually use Nik Software’s Dfine 2.0 and this has worked excellent in reducing noise but not smearing the details & making the image look smeared when viewed close up. This software with this camera are perfect for each other.

Who would I recommend this camera to?: Those who have film or digital slr experience, those who don’t find noise at higher iso settings to be a major issue, those who want to use fantastic lenses, I could go on. There are many good reasons to pick this camera up if you are interested in the 4/3 system. IF you are new to shooting, some of the settings may confuse you. I had no problem adjusting to the camera ergonomics, but I had been studying the button layout months before purchasing. If you are just shooting jpeg, using high iso settings and don’t plan on using any post production software, you may want to look elsewhere as the other manufacturers produce excellent cameras around this price range.

All that said, I believe this is the perfect camera for ME and I will be spending much time with it. I highly recommend you at least give it a try if you already own an E-System camera and are looking to upgrade. I haven’t tested the weather sealing capability yet, but will be eventually when I decide to shoot in challenging conditions.

My images taken with this camera & the E-520 are available to view at www.flickr.com/photos/id510

Thank You

Experience the World’s Fastest Auto Focus* with the Olympus exclusive 11-point biaxial auto focus system coupled with the new (SWD) Supersonic Wave Drive lenses. It provides exacting auto focus precision at exceptional speeds.

Continuous shooting, up to five frames per second, means you can capture fast-moving moments in time and get amazing results. The UDMA CompactFlash compatibility enhances capture speeds for the ultimate in shooting performance.

1/8000-second high-speed, high-precision shutter enables you to freeze even the fastest subjects. Or, set shutter speeds as long as 60 seconds in Manual or Automatic settings.

Effectively reduce blur with Olympus’ exclusive Supersonic Wave Drive (SWD) in-body Image Stabilization System. Get up to a five-step EV stabilization effect with all Zuiko Digital Lenses, and all Four Thirds Format Lenses

A newly developed high-performance 10.1-megapixel Live MOS Sensor provides the high resolution you need to accurately reproduce subject details with rich tones and natural colors as well as lower power consumption. Increased reading speed supports 5 fps continuous shooting

Customer Reviews

Takes some learning if you’re coming from the E-1 - R. Sarma - New York
I love Olympus DSLRs and currently own the E-1, E-500, E-510 & E-520, I had been holding out on the E-3 due to it’s high price, but I eventually caved in and got one as I was finding my E-1 trailing in terms of resolution and missed the IS on the newer bodies.

My first impression as I picked up and used the E-3 was very alien….I just didn’t feel at home, especially after having used an E-1 all this time. The button layout is also very different from what’s on the E-510/520, so I found myself on uncharted territory as this camera needed some “re-learning”. Also, the grip didn’t feel awfully right as the front control wheel didn’t fall naturally on my index finger as it did with the E-1 and I couldn’t help but wonder why Olympus had changed the E-3 so much?? Wouldn’t it have been easier for E-1 users, considering they’ve used it for so long, to move to a camera which looked and behaved similarly?? But all this became moot after one weekend of shooting with the E-3. This is a very easy to use camera and the reason why the re-design was necessary was because this was a whole new camera!

The biggest improvements for me were:

1. Incorporating in-body stabilization.
2. On-board flash, this can be a life-saver when you require fill flash without a bulky FL-50.
3. Bigger and brighter LCD, big step from the E-1!
4. Lastly, twice the resolution offered by the E-1.

Build quality of the camera is excellent, although the battery door and the swivel LCD seemed like the weakest points of this body and I remain sceptical about these two areas of the body to date.

In terms of IQ, this camera goes head to head with any APS-C DSLR out there and can produce stunning images up to about ISO 1250. Once you go beyond this, the IQ degrades substantially and it’s no longer on par with its APS-C rivals. As such I would recommend using this camera below ISO 1250 to get the best possible IQ out of it. In terms of JPEG quality with regards to colours and tones, the E-3 is simply stunning! In case you do wish to use higher ISOs, I would recommend shooting RAW and carefully processing as there is visible banding in the shadows when you go to ISO 1600 and upwards. At lower ISOs sometimes I saw noise in the skies, but this seemed very inconsistent and I’m not sure why it appeared in some images and and wasn’t visible in others.

Overall, this is an excellent pro-level four-thirds camera and balances very well with the SHG Zuiko lenses. If you have the money and are willing to work within its limitations, this camera can offer some stunning images and I would highly recommend it.

Personally, I kept my E-1 and gave my E-3 to my brother as I’m still able to pull the same IQ from the E-1 as I can from the E-3 (apart from resolution).

Seems to be a great camera. - GSD101 - Detroit
I have not had the opportunity to used my new camera very much. Most my time so far has been spent reading the camera manual. Boy, this is a complex machine! I am sure that I will learn to appreciate all the possibilities, however, fair warning expect to do some learnin’.

Beware of caps falling - Sofia -
On my first day of field use the lens cap fell and broke. The second day of field use, the flash hotshoe cover was missing. On the third day, the remote cable cap was missing. The only cap that stayed on so far is the flash remote cap. When I googled online to replace these caps, I found out many users like me have problem about caps falling. Olympus caps is not covered by the warranty, so they referred me to their parts store. Check comments for the links.

Be careful about these caps because the weatherproof feature,the main reason I purchased the camera, is only good when these caps are on. When I unknowingly lost my remote cable cap, my camera malfunctioned when it got splashed on. My camera won’t stop shooting and non of the buttons and screen worked. I have to prematurely end my picture taking for the day. When the camera dried off the next day, it worked normal again. Without E-3’s weatherproof feature, I would settle with half the price DSLRs that can take just as good photos. I think Olympus need to improve their caps from falling off.

Other improvements I would like to suggest is first, auto focus capability for lcd screen use. The worlds fastest auto focus will only work when optical view is used. Without it, I have to look back and forth from my optical view and lcd screen. Or I can use the lcd screen all the way, but do everything manually. I aim through my optical view and see the results on my lcd to make sure there’s no overexposure, underexposure or out of focused pictures. It would really be easier if I can use the lcd screen all the way just like point-and-shoot cameras. Second , the optical view does not work when the lcd screen is being used. I think it would be great if I have the option to use both optical view and lcd screen simultaneously, so I can use the live view facing to my subject while I use the optical view just like a video camera with articulating screen. Third, I think it would also great if the buttons were bigger for users wearing thick gloves. Fourth, many people say it is heavy and bulky but I don’t think it is a major draw back. If olympus can make this camera smaller without compromising its features that would be great. But if not, this disadvantage won’t stop me from puchasing this item.
Last, capability of taking a video like Canon Mark II and Nikon D90 would be a great option.

I gave E-3 four stars because I love the weatherproof feature, articulating screen (you can take photos of the eifel tower with you in it! Place this camera closest to the ground, zoom out, and use the articulating screen to aim), fast auto focus when paired with 12-60mm, and the lens options. If the recommendations are addressed mentioned above or at least have better caps and have an auto focus capability when lcd is used like the point and shoot cameras, I’d give this camera a 5 star.

Share and Enjoy: