Are you happy with E300

newcreat · 1st January 2005

I wish you can share your opinion here.

I wanted to buy this camera but not so sure yet. and what is your rating for it? Where is the best place to buy and also the latest price. Thanks in advance.

jamestyemk · 1st January 2005

I had been using EOS-1 and Olympus E-10, among other compact digital cameras. Shoot primarily for family and church functions.
E-300 was my first interchangeable lens DSLR. Relatively light even with the full bag load of additional 50mm macro lens and FL-50 flash.
Feature-wise it had been able to met all my needs, and functionally easy to adapt. Only 'slight' grouse is the lack of high speed lens for indoor/available-light photography. The widest is only the 50mm F2.0 macro lens, and pushing beyond ASA/ISO 400 needs quite a bit of post-editing to 'correct' the colour and digital noise.
I supposed you need to see where your needs lie to 'fit' the equipment to them.

ch5800 · 2nd January 2005

james, how much you bought the 50mm F2.0 macro lens? Also for indoor low-light can you shoot without the FL-50 flash just relying on the higher ISO? Any such picture to see?

I am also interested in E-300 particularly in low-light indoor shots

chii · 2nd January 2005

Originally Posted by ch5800

james, how much you bought the 50mm F2.0 macro lens? Also for indoor low-light can you shoot without the FL-50 flash just relying on the higher ISO? Any such picture to see?

I am also interested in E-300 particularly in low-light indoor shots

Hi

The RRP for the marco is f-2.0 marco is $1120, u should be able to get a street price of approx 10% plus below the RRP.

As for indoor shots, the E-300 has a flash rated GN-11, so even without the FL-50, u will be able to shoot indoors.

cheers

hhho · 2nd January 2005

Originally Posted by ch5800

james, how much you bought the 50mm F2.0 macro lens? Also for indoor low-light can you shoot without the FL-50 flash just relying on the higher ISO? Any such picture to see?

I am also interested in E-300 particularly in low-light indoor shots

You can get 50mm F2.0 at S$900.00 or below.
should not be more than that.
ya, can shoot at higher ISO1600 (picture a bit noisy) and can be accepted with build-in flash.
you need to test it out and see it for yourself.

serene · 2nd January 2005

Originally Posted by newcreat

I wish you can share your opinion here. I wanted to buy this camera but not so sure yet. and what is your rating for it? Where is the best place to buy and also the latest price. Thanks in advance.

I hv noticed that no one has answered the above question yet. I heard that CP sells it around $1,699. I advise you to call them to find out. I bought mine in Japan which costed me approx $200 less. (minus the CF card. I hv mine CF so this saved me some money)

I am still trying to learn how to use the camera properly. But preliminary pictures (day and interior shots only) showed good results. The auto focus is fast (if I compare this to my c5050wz), the DSLR definitely wins. The interior shots without flash produces good clear results.

As for the 50mm lens, CP quoted $930 (w/ GST and payment by cash).

Serene

Merciless_Knight · 3rd January 2005

So Far So Good.

kman · 4th January 2005

Originally Posted by newcreat

I wanted to buy this camera but not so sure yet. and what is your rating for it? Where is the best place to buy and also the latest price. Thanks in advance.

I got it a couple of weeks ago and am happy with the usage and result of the camera. I've always been a fan of Olympus digital cameras and my previous 2 are from them as well (C2040Z, C5050Z).

I personally find the E300 rather user friendly...Olympus has improved the ease of menu usage which allows quick interchanges of camera modes and functions. Picture capture is pretty amazing especially in day time and needless to say, at 8MP, the picture quality is superb.

To answer your question, I bought my camera at a promo counter at a shopping mall in KL. Got it at a good deal. At RM3499, I got the camera with standard kit i.e. Zuiko lens 14-45mm, lens flare hood, tripod, camera bag, Olympus jacket and they even throw in a 512MB CF card. If you compare it in SGD, at the current exchange rate of 2.3, the camera would be priced slightly above SGD1500, which is quite a bit of saving from what they're offering in S'pore at the moment.

Worth considering if you're in KL to do some shopping.

Regards,
Kieran

jamestyemk · 4th January 2005

Originally Posted by ch5800

james, how much you bought the 50mm F2.0 macro lens? Also for indoor low-light can you shoot without the FL-50 flash just relying on the higher ISO? Any such picture to see?

I am also interested in E-300 particularly in low-light indoor shots

An e-quote from Cathay Photo some weeks ago as follows (w/o GST, cash):
Zuiko Digital ED2 (50-200 F2.8-3.5) @ S$1,710.00
Zuiko Digital 2 (11-22 F2.8-3.5) @ S$1,030.00
Zuiko Digital ED3 (50 F2) @ S$870.00

Call them to confirm stock availability b4 u make your way.

So far pretty happy with the 50mm lens. Email me at jamestyemk@pacific.net.sg and I'll send u some shots. Else, I'll try to post some indoor low-light shots and macros at Clubsnap Gallery over the next few days when I've time to trim the large files to comply with the webpage restrictions.

jamestyemk · 4th January 2005

Here's, folks, some humble shots using both the 50mm and kit lenses at my church musical From Heaven's Throne:
http://gallery.clubsnap.com/showphot...cat/506/page/1
(Posted at Clubsnap Photo Gallery : Ready, Lights, Action! Technical details available when you double-click on the thumbnails.).

chancy · 4th January 2005

Originally Posted by jamestyemk

Here's, folks, some humble shots using both the 50mm and kit lenses at my church musical From Heaven's Throne:
http://gallery.clubsnap.com/showphot...cat/506/page/1
(Posted at Clubsnap Photo Gallery : Ready, Lights, Action! Technical details available when you double-click on the thumbnails.).

Hello Jamestyemk,

Thanks for providing samples.

For the large group photo, lighting is pretty even (little falloff at the edges) from the FL50.

Happy to note the use of ISO800 for the indoor shots, it shouldn't be that objectionable if lighting is even. Balancing the colour temperature difference between the stage lights & the flash is very trickly though.

How would you rate the performance of the FL50 ?

Cheers,

jamestyemk · 4th January 2005

FL-50's power had been adequate for all my shots, so far. Recycling pretty fast and last quite long with four Sanyo Ni-Mh 2300 rechargeable batteries. Covered an evening dinner without the need to change batteries; almost 100 flash shots.
Bought it coz of its full compatibility with E-300; previous FL-40 can't TTL.

Merciless_Knight · 4th January 2005

Originally Posted by jamestyemk

An e-quote from Cathay Photo some weeks ago as follows (w/o GST, cash):
Zuiko Digital ED2 (50-200 F2.8-3.5) @ S$1,710.00
Zuiko Digital 2 (11-22 F2.8-3.5) @ S$1,030.00
Zuiko Digital ED3 (50 F2) @ S$870.00

Call them to confirm stock availability b4 u make your way.

So far pretty happy with the 50mm lens. Email me at jamestyemk@pacific.net.sg and I'll send u some shots. Else, I'll try to post some indoor low-light shots and macros at Clubsnap Gallery over the next few days when I've time to trim the large files to comply with the webpage restrictions.

Wow... from 930SGD to 870SGD...

tomcat · 4th January 2005

Originally Posted by Merciless_Knight

Wow... from 930SGD to 870SGD...

$930 is current price with GST. $870 is price before GST a few weeks ago. Price has increased at CP apparently.

1st January 2005	#1
newcreat New Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Singapore Posts: 37	Are you happy with E300 I wish you can share your opinion here. I wanted to buy this camera but not so sure yet. and what is your rating for it? Where is the best place to buy and also the latest price. Thanks in advance.

1st January 2005	#2
jamestyemk Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Yew Tee Posts: 283	I had been using EOS-1 and Olympus E-10, among other compact digital cameras. Shoot primarily for family and church functions. E-300 was my first interchangeable lens DSLR. Relatively light even with the full bag load of additional 50mm macro lens and FL-50 flash. Feature-wise it had been able to met all my needs, and functionally easy to adapt. Only 'slight' grouse is the lack of high speed lens for indoor/available-light photography. The widest is only the 50mm F2.0 macro lens, and pushing beyond ASA/ISO 400 needs quite a bit of post-editing to 'correct' the colour and digital noise. I supposed you need to see where your needs lie to 'fit' the equipment to them.

2nd January 2005	#3
ch5800 Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 544	james, how much you bought the 50mm F2.0 macro lens? Also for indoor low-light can you shoot without the FL-50 flash just relying on the higher ISO? Any such picture to see? I am also interested in E-300 particularly in low-light indoor shots

3rd January 2005	#7
Merciless_Knight Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Medieval Period... Posts: 746	So Far So Good.

4th January 2005	#10
jamestyemk Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Yew Tee Posts: 283	Here's, folks, some humble shots using both the 50mm and kit lenses at my church musical From Heaven's Throne: http://gallery.clubsnap.com/showphot...cat/506/page/1 (Posted at Clubsnap Photo Gallery : Ready, Lights, Action! Technical details available when you double-click on the thumbnails.).