| 
 enlarge
| Brand: Olympus
Category: Photography
Buy New: $1,269.00
New (15) Used (1) Refurbished (1)
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 13976
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Display Size: 2.5
Maximum Resolution: 10
Has Red Eye Reduction: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6 x 5.6
MPN: 262010
Model: 262010
UPC: 050332160569
EAN: 0050332160569
ASIN: B000X1T3IQ
Release Date: November 8, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
Buyer's Remorse? Not here! April 25, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
After purchasing the great 8080, the not-so-good E-300, and the amazing E-510, I thought I had finally finished purchasing my last camera for a while. I was completely wrong. After walking into the Calumet store in Oakbrook, Illinois, I simply couldn't help myself. I picked up the camera, attached my venerable 11-22mm wide angle, and completely fell in love. The feel was perfect. The ergonomics and control layout was a step above the 510, and the magnesium body felt solid as a tank. I had honestly thought about stepping up to the Canon 5D, but couldn't bring myself to put this camera down. It now goes with me wherever I go. Plus, I will never have to worry about a dirty sensor. Nuff said.
I got a beautiful Leica/Panasonic 14-50mm lens from a guy on eBay, and that has become my lens of choice for most of my work. Although it is not weather-sealed like the 12-60mm, the price was right and the quality is outstanding. One thing I need to point out. This lens has image stabilization built in. I did a side-by side comparison with this system, and Olympus' own in-body stabilization. No comparison! The Oly system completely blows Leica's away. So much for "lens specific" IS systems being superior. I turn it off and keep it off. Bravo, Olympus! I see the other systems adopting your leadership in this regard.
Thanks for a great system!
A wonderful camera April 19, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I LOVE this camera! The first thing I noticed about this camera was the feel of it in my hand. It was so comfortable, in spite of the weight, that I felt I could easily take pictures all day long in superb comfort. I have tried Canon and Nikon (obviously) and the grip felt compromised compared to the Olympus which was rugged and balanced. It felt like I was never going to drop it either - quite important.
Soon after I bought it though, I noticed that the autofocus was getting less and less reliable until it packed up ALTOGETHER. I was upset as I wanted to take it with me to England but I had to get it fixed for another date soon after I returned from my trip. The people at Olympus were VERY helpful with 'diagnostics' via email and all that stuff. I had to send the camera back to their factory BUT I have to say that I was VERY impressed with the speed and efficiency that it was repaired (from first sending it to receiving it all took less than a week!) and it has performed flawlessly ever since (as you would expect I guess).
I love the 'naturalness' and depth of the colours my E3 produces. The three different displays (veiwfinder, rear and top LEDs) are very clear and once used to, are quite logical and easy to understand. The focus time of the lenses is so fast and so reliable you sometimes have to be careful of using continual focus mode as it zooms in and out at such amazing speed it's quite bewilering. Single mode takes care of it so easily (or of course manual).
I love the auto bracketing adjustments, and that it also does the same with flash too! The built in flash is great but the remote is even better!!
I'm not experienced enough to go into details for the 'techhies' but the quality of photos speak for themselves and if it makes MY picures look great, then this has to be one TERRIFFIC camera! I would totally recommend it.
If there was any criticism it would be the weight with the larger zoom lenses and the flash attached. It is quite heavy to say the least, but then that's why you have a strap to give your arms and wrists a break, right?
Solid build, solid feel and superb results (anything less is MY fault!) give this a 10/10 for me!!
 Underrated, yet outstanding! April 7, 2008
29 out of 31 found this review helpful
I upgraded to the E3 from my e500. Some of the things that enticed me were the additional focus points, and articulated screen. Everything else about the camera was just added niceness.
The camera is pretty great. It's an obvious step up from the e500 in terms of quality, and performance. Images look beautiful, focus is a lot faster and more accurate. The tilting screen and live view are things that I wonder how I ever lived without....a HUGE boost to my shooting and the types of shots I can get.
I think Olympus is underrated in the DSLR business. Because it uses a 4/3 sensor people talk a lot of bad trash about the system. But in real-world shooting, the E3 really stands tall. And I say this as someone who also shoots with a Nikon D300. Another great thing about the Olympus system is the availability of Olympus lenses. And the lens is what it's all about. Olympus lenses are second to none. I actually find that the Olympus lens lineup makes me frustrated about Nikon's comparably dinky lineup--and Nikon has A TON of lenses, but none that can match the quality/speed of Olympus lenses. Good luck finding an f2.8 telephoto lens of the same price or quality as Olympus' 50-200. Olympus beats Nikon in terms of lens quality, easily.
Having said that, the things I don't like about the E3 are its low-light performance (the E3 is better than the e500 or e510 in low-light shooting but it still falls behind the competition) and its tendency to clip highlights. In low-light situations the E3 tends to produce noisy shots at higher ISOs or during long exposures--considerably noisier than many other cameras (but I wouldn't say they're unusable). Highlight clipping speaks for itself....overall the dynamic range of the E3 isn't as good as some cameras, but it's on par with others. Depends on the camera you compare it to. Those are the only two negatives I can think of. In terms of metering, it's very good, in fact I prefer how it meters to how the D300 meters (though the D300 doesn't clip highlights like the E3 does) because the tones are closer to the mood I want to get. More moody, tones whereas the D300 is a little too LOUD in its tones. Some of you may dig loud tones. Your mileage my vary.
All around this camera is as good as my D300, and in many ways its better. In just those two areas (low-light, and highlight reproduction/dynamic range) its a little disappointing. But, for whatever it's worth, I do all of my "serious" or "important" shooting with my E3, not my D300. My E3 lenses are better, the articulated screen of the E3 is a life-saver, I like how it meters better...it's just a really great camera that I love shooting with.
The E3 is an excellent camera, and easily on par with anything that Canon offers--and even better than a lot of what Canon offers. And its on par or better than everything Nikon offers, with the exception of the D300 (in my opinion). Nikons D300 is ever so VERY SLIGHTLY superior in some ways but then you don't get the same lens quality with Nikon, and that's the deal maker or deal breaker for me...lenses. If I could only keep one camera, I'd keep the E3...in a heartbeat. Get this camera!
Great Purchase of a Great Camera March 2, 2008
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Pro:
- Great built, solid piece of hardware
- Excellent image quality and ISO performance
- Good menu layout (intimidating at first due to the astounding number of features)
- Fast and reliable
- Excellent lens line-up. Zuiko lenses are among the sharpest and lightest and most rugged out there. One of my favorites is the Leica 14-50mm
Con:
- a little big for a Four-Third body
- no main dial for shooting modes (but you get used to it after a while and it doesn't impede handling speed)
- When shooting continuously, user must wait for the buffer to be fully emptied to play back pictures.
Birth of a legand February 9, 2008
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
this camera is full of useful features with outstanding image quality. regardless of what you might hear that iso performance is inferior to competitors the iso is top class beside y u want to shoot at iso 1600 if you have in camera image stabilizer ?
if you purchase that camera with zuiko 12-60mm lens u might have erratic auto focus at first specially at low light, do the firmware update and you should be fine.
that camera is not for 1st time SLR user, it doesn't have scene mode, and there is plenty of costume setting. it takes time to fully master that camera its like wild horse once you are at the top of it the camera will serve you well.
as all Olympus cameras the menu is easy to use and the super panel is great idea.
problems:
1-auto white balance is not accurate indoors. outdoors its spot one.
2-the manual is not helpful to say the least, every thing is in p95 !!!
3-battery life is not the best. i advice to get extra battery
nothing serious though
|
|
|
