[redpigeons]

Any of you guys ever used this 4/3 thing?
I totally dismiss them BC of that. then I saw their lens collection and it made me drool. super high quality zooms and excellent primes are just my taste
I wonder if I should buy one just to try.

cameras are small and strong just like the Pentax. only down for me with Olympus is the tiny view finder I dont use live view and small view finders gives me headaches

what do you think? should I get one?

[roentarre]

Mmmmm, this will take a long time to talk about.

The Kodak sensor in Olympus dSLR really has strong rich colour, even more than pentax k20d sensor. However, the colour appears rather too rich, saturated and "sticky" for certain styles of photography.

In terms of the gorgeous lens line-up, the pro series are definitely performers. The autofocus of these lenses on E3 are very good. The recently updated SWD version are even faster autofocus with dead on accuracy.

The Depth of field from these fast f2 zooms are rather mediocre. Despite the image rendering superb quality, the bokeh are often ordinary depending how you pull out the background blurr. At least, the speculiar highlights are often round and neutral.

Doing studio shots, it is really good in deed. Just a little unforgiving with shadow details from some of the good zooms (I have tested out most of the pro series lenses from my olympus group outing in Melbourne)

Well, ISO performance above 400 are not good for me at all. I even avoid using ISO 400...

[redpigeons]

that was very to the point!
if I will get an extra camera I will not get the E-3 or E-30 I was playing with the idea of getting a small e-520. but then I will also have to buy lenses. as 99.9% of my pictures I am taking with a normal prime the leica 25mm 1.4 looks very interesting to me. I will see.
I like small cameras that people on the street don't get shy of as much

[redpigeons]

By the way James I huge fan of your work!!

[SpecialK]

Any of you guys ever used this 4/3 thing?
I totally dismiss them BC of that. then I saw their lens collection and it made me drool. super high quality zooms and excellent primes are just my taste
I wonder if I should buy one just to try.

cameras are small and strong just like the Pentax. only down for me with Olympus is the tiny view finder I dont use live view and small view finders gives me headaches

what do you think? should I get one?

The lenses can be surprisingly expensive, at least the faster ones (moreso than other brands, perhaps).

I would rent to try, not buy to try. Better yet, borrow to try.

[ryan s]

Maybe buy a used one, try it, then resell if it doesn't work out?

Can't wait till all the adapters for the Pana G1 come out. Then 4/3 will be worth a try

[joele]

I used and left Olympus recently... I had an e520 and an e3.. And lenses: 50-200SWD, 12-60SWD, 14-52, 40-150, Sigma 30/1.4.....

For a two lens kit on the e3 the 50-200SWD and 12-60SWD are amazing quality and the AF is FAST as hell and accurate... The 12-60mm is I think the best wide to short tele available bar none for high resolution even across the frame.. But I found the bokeh disapointing on all their lenses, the choice beyond those two lenses (say for longer primes) either non existant or extremely expensive..

In good light though really the e3 and the SWD lenses are really worth using Olympus, but for lower light it is lacking... The E3 is noisy over ISO 640, the e520 is noisy at ISO 400 and has banding in somme situations even at ISO 400 for the e3 it doesn't kick in until 800 or so...

For me it was simply the lack of affordable bright primes, and the terrible high ISO, when the e30 came out and I saw high ISO got worse (when all? other brands improve with new sensors) I gave up on Olympus....


Short version: Fantastic lenses (though bokeh can be lacking) but the sensors leave a bit to be desired at 800 or above (400 or above for e520)..

[roentarre]

I hope you do not rush into buying Olympus cameras too soon.

E520 510 or 500 (Same as E420, 410) use pretty much the same sensor. They all suffer vertical banding problems when the image is underexposed by 1 1/2 stop. The cameras work well when the scenery you are photographying of similar light intensity. Too much highlight and shadows existing in one image is usually a disaster regardless what lenses you use.

E3 performs better in terms of noise issue. It has beter ISO telorance up to 800 or so. Its autofocus is better comparing to the rest of available bodies. Even the latest release E30, the autofocus is not better than E3. E520 autofocus is not as good as E3 by a huge margin. I think you would need to know this.

Speaking of G1, the adaptors are going to be 175 US dollars. I would wait until the camera pricing comes down. After all, I had been waiting for G1 for some time to test out my voigtlander leica mount lenses.

Do not rush into decisions. I test these things out because there is a huge olympus photography group here in Melbourne and I happen to be part of the group.

[vinzer]

James, if by chance you happen to be able to try out the E-30 in one of your group outings there, can you keep us posted in this thread? I have to admit, I'm curious if Panasonic has managed to improve their sensors this go-around.

While a part of the noise stems from the smaller sensor, I also harbor this belief that it's also partly Panasonic's relative lack of know-how in making sensors that hurts the high ISO capability of 4/3 cameras. I figure that Canon would be able to eke out more decent high ISO performance if they made a 4/3 sensor than Panasonic.

Joele, I'll agree with you. Olympus makes some damn good lenses (they shine with zooms), but sadly, the sensor fails them. I returned an E-520 once, I just couldn't take all the banding I got from ISO 800+.