E300 review is out!!!
- Thread starter LifeWorld
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Zenten said:Lifeworld, you switch camps already?
Yup!
I am a proud owner of E300.
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I mean proud owner of 'E300 review is out' first post. :bsmilie:
After the C2100UZ disappointed me, I am still waiting for a value for money good Oly Cam! waited few years liao!!! :bigeyes:
I read the review, I was considering this camera but I am disappointed by its noise performance .
Dpreview wrote that E-300 doesn't support any wired remote. How could this be possible? I would have liked to use it for astronomical photography.....and I don't need the battery grip.. :mad2:
I think I'll go for another camera.. :cry: :cry:
.Dpreview wrote that E-300 doesn't support any wired remote. How could this be possible? I would have liked to use it for astronomical photography.....and I don't need the battery grip.. :mad2:
I think I'll go for another camera.. :cry: :cry:
AEva said:I read the review, I was considering this camera but I am disappointed by its noise performance
Dpreview wrote that E-300 doesn't support any wired remote. How could this be possible? I would have liked to use it for astronomical photography.....and I don't need the battery grip.. :mad2:
I think I'll go for another camera.. :cry: :cry:
u can use the wireless remote..
AEva said:I read the review, I was considering this camera but I am disappointed by its noise performance
Dpreview wrote that E-300 doesn't support any wired remote. How could this be possible? I would have liked to use it for astronomical photography.....and I don't need the battery grip.. :mad2:
I think I'll go for another camera.. :cry: :cry:
With the review confirming my earlier posts on E300 birding
I think Olympus SG owes all E300 owners a FREE COPY of Oly studio 1.2
..
NO amount of admitting or frank discussions at any Oly gathering
can heal the amount of money we paid to get this level of
noise and soft photos, even with a lens costing nearly
SG $4000.
Phils review was very FORGIVING. there are many
things he did not say.
If I knew that the CCD was KODAK.. I would NEVER buy
the E300.
Regds
Allan
I read in the reviews somewhere that it was commented that part of the flash light was blocked by the flower hood of the lens kit. Apparently, the flash's height was too low, and caused a crescent shadow to appear on the photo.
I'm going down to CathayPhoto tomorrow to try out whether this is true or not. If it's true, then I'll be very disappointed with the camera, becos I don't intend to buy an external flash to go with the E300. Suppose to get it as a lighter alternative to my Nikon DSLR...
Crossing my fingers.
I'm going down to CathayPhoto tomorrow to try out whether this is true or not. If it's true, then I'll be very disappointed with the camera, becos I don't intend to buy an external flash to go with the E300. Suppose to get it as a lighter alternative to my Nikon DSLR...
Crossing my fingers.
AEva said:I read the review, I was considering this camera but I am disappointed by its noise performance
Dpreview wrote that E-300 doesn't support any wired remote. How could this be possible? I would have liked to use it for astronomical photography.....and I don't need the battery grip.. :mad2:
I think I'll go for another camera.. :cry: :cry:
Hello AEva,
Noise (subjective) is only apparent in the E300 from 800 & above. The manual states a max limit of 8mins when operating in Manual Bulb mode. I've never done astrophotography, but is it the norm to shoot at high ISOs (800 & greater) at greater than 8 minutes exposure. What are the performance specs of other DSLR brands in the same range as the E300 for astrophotography?
The wired RM-CB1 comes with a lock slider that locks the remote shutter release, and as you've mentioned correctly, requires the vertical battery grip. The wireless option (RM-1) that works with the E300 alone as suggested by Chii doesn't seem to have the lock option (I'm unable to verify this from any info on the Net) that I believe is necessary for shooting in Bulb for astrophotography. The RM-1 only activates the shutter but not keep it open, but I'm open to corrections.
I understand the D70 & 300D has provisions for remote electronic releases.
Hope this clarifies somewhat for the benefit of your purchase.
Cheers,
Allan Teo said:
Hello Allan,
Some time before, Serene & myself have referred to nature photos taken by Finnish photogapher Lauri Sippu. He's uses the Kodak CCD-based sensors of the E1 & E300 to take birding photos plus others at his site below.
http://homepage.mac.com/lsippu/Menu3.html
If one were to put brand & sensor make aside, are there objectionable characteristics in his photos ?
Yes, Oly SG is suppose to respond (or at least direct an expert in the field to give an impartial response) to your birding shot findings, and I'm surprise since the last Oly E300 product launch why this hasn't been done.
I would appreciate if you could share other problematic aspects of the E300 & the sensor used here that's not been raised at DPreview formal review for the benefit of forum members.
It's only fair that potential E300 owners purchase the system with open eyes, as with other makes & brands.
Regards,
Allan Teo said:
Yes.. i suppose oly sg should give a FREE COPY of Oly studio 1.2 to all E-300 owners.
With all the hype about the oly E-300.. the only really good feature would be the dust reduction system.
As for the noise issue above iso 400, I would say its terrible given the $$$ we sent on the camera, cos it seems firmware updates may not address the issue. As it is possibly a design issue with the ccd.
Also there is an ongoing question on the OM -adaptors for sg users, as oly europe & US are giving them out FOC.
Hi,
There seems to be much complaint about the noise level in the e-300. Being a newbie, I posed this question to a fellow long time e-1 user (in the US). The reply was that this was due to the processing algorithm in the e-1 (he hasn't try out the e-300 in this aspect but the e-1 is not known to be noise 'efficient'') which could be fixed easily outside the camera. His explanation was that Olympus did less in-camera processing so as not to trade off potential picture quality, as in-camera processing invariably makes irreversible changes.
Thanks to Chancy, I found the article about the e-300 noise and Olympus treatment.
http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/tech/noise.html
Hope this is helpful.
There seems to be much complaint about the noise level in the e-300. Being a newbie, I posed this question to a fellow long time e-1 user (in the US). The reply was that this was due to the processing algorithm in the e-1 (he hasn't try out the e-300 in this aspect but the e-1 is not known to be noise 'efficient'') which could be fixed easily outside the camera. His explanation was that Olympus did less in-camera processing so as not to trade off potential picture quality, as in-camera processing invariably makes irreversible changes.
Thanks to Chancy, I found the article about the e-300 noise and Olympus treatment.
http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/tech/noise.html
Hope this is helpful.
chancy said:
Hello chancy
Thank you for your answer.
I partially agree with you, noise is not subjective because it can be scientifically measured. This is what dpreview tries to do, with its graph at page 17 of the review. I'm not saying their method is perfect, but I haven't seen anything similar on other sites.
Noise effects on a picture are subjective, this is the reason why different people on this forum states "your camera is noisy and mine is not" :sticktong
looking at the same images.Unfortunately in astronomical pictures the effects of noise are more visible, a dark sky MUST be a dark sky (and usually people agree about that)
Page 17 of the review clearly shows that the E-300 is more noisy than the 300D and D70.
Page 18 of the review, chapters "Long Exposure noise reduction / Night shots" (I can't believe there are so many hot pixels with noise reduction off
) and "Noise in shadows" are quite scary for someone (like me) who considers noise levels the most important thing.Furthermore I would have to buy the battery grip to have a wired remote control (yes I need shutter lock...) :cry:
E-300 is a good camera (dust cleaning, 8MP....) but it lacks the features I was looking for, so I'll go for another one...
serene said:Hi,
There seems to be much complaint about the noise level in the e-300. Being a newbie, I posed this question to a fellow long time e-1 user (in the US). The reply was that this was due to the processing algorithm in the e-1 (he hasn't try out the e-300 in this aspect but the e-1 is not known to be noise 'efficient'') which could be fixed easily outside the camera. His explanation was that Olympus did less in-camera processing so as not to trade off potential picture quality, as in-camera processing invariably makes irreversible changes.
Thanks to Chancy, I found the article about the e-300 noise and Olympus treatment.
http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/tech/noise.html
Hope this is helpful.
hmm..
:think: does sound logical, but that will lead to more post processing..
Hi Aeva
I have seen a photo in another forum whereby someone accidentally took a photo of the Big Dipper. It really looks quite bright. I am not sure which aspect of astronomy you intend to take pics off (ie, do you take off the telescope or using the naked eye of the camera )- do you take the stars or do you take the planets or the different phases of the moon.
Most of the noise can be processed away off the camera (all other things being equal). Please refer to the above link. I suggest you take a close look into noise in digital camera before you make a decision - coz for the photography of your nature, you want to be very sure about the original cause of problem and how the different makers attempt to solve it.
Hope this helps,
Serene
I have seen a photo in another forum whereby someone accidentally took a photo of the Big Dipper.
It really looks quite bright. I am not sure which aspect of astronomy you intend to take pics off (ie, do you take off the telescope or using the naked eye of the camera )- do you take the stars or do you take the planets or the different phases of the moon.Most of the noise can be processed away off the camera (all other things being equal). Please refer to the above link. I suggest you take a close look into noise in digital camera before you make a decision - coz for the photography of your nature, you want to be very sure about the original cause of problem and how the different makers attempt to solve it.
Hope this helps,
Serene
I'll save you the trouble. It's not due to the height of the flash but due to the hood itself. If the hood is attached properly, the long petals on the 2 sides have a tendency to cause vignetting at the wide end (14mm) of the zoom. You can see this in the viewfinder without having to fire the flash and take a shot. It would look worse in the image because the coverage of the viewfinder is not 100%.eric69 said:
AEva said:I read the review, I was considering this camera but I am disappointed by its noise performance
Dpreview wrote that E-300 doesn't support any wired remote. How could this be possible? I would have liked to use it for astronomical photography.....and I don't need the battery grip.. :mad2:
u should get the 20D instead
read this http://astrosurf.com/buil/20d/20dvs10d.htm
and u will understand why 20D is the best choice out there
Well, for one, it's cheap. In fact, it's the cheapest of the lot.
The colours of the E-300 seem to be fairly accurate without tweaking. I quite like the white balance response on the camera. Noise seem to be a tad too high though, but for most beginners to the DSLR world, I don't think that's going to be too noticeable. Besides, what I feel is that users should concentrate on other things rather than electronic performance to improve on the quality of the picture. Having less noise, better CCD/CMOS blah blah, isn't going to help you in your photography skills beyond a certain level.
My main disagreement with the E-300, is however the ergonomics. It really seem kind of boxy... ^^"
As far as I know, sales seem to be doing pretty well. Not as well as the Minolta D7D, but better than the S3Pro at least.
The colours of the E-300 seem to be fairly accurate without tweaking. I quite like the white balance response on the camera. Noise seem to be a tad too high though, but for most beginners to the DSLR world, I don't think that's going to be too noticeable. Besides, what I feel is that users should concentrate on other things rather than electronic performance to improve on the quality of the picture. Having less noise, better CCD/CMOS blah blah, isn't going to help you in your photography skills beyond a certain level.
My main disagreement with the E-300, is however the ergonomics. It really seem kind of boxy... ^^"
As far as I know, sales seem to be doing pretty well. Not as well as the Minolta D7D, but better than the S3Pro at least.
The problem with our Digital Universe is that no camera is perfect !
Or more accurately, no camera is perfect for everybody.
Potential buyers should choose those cameras that best suit their needs and ergonomics and not be influenced too much by the opinions of others who have totally different requirements from themselves.
That said, the E-300 is definitely not a perfect camera but it is one that offers good value for money and have quite a few features that are unique to itself. Though Phil Askey had compared it somewhat unfavourably to the 20D in his review, it was more for want of another low-end 8-Mp DSLR that made him do so in the first place. Readers should bear in mind that the 20D costs almost twice as much as the E-300 and is bundled with a kit lens that half as good (my opinion, of course ) as the one that came with the E-300. Only when the competitors come out with their own low-end 8-Mp DSLRs can there be a more equitable comparison.
I have the privilege of owning and comparing both the E-300 and 20D in my day-to-day shoots and I have to say that the E-300 is no sloth in performance when compared to the 20D in so far as my needs are concerned and could produce results that were better than the 20D in some situations that I had encountered. But then I don't shoot birds in flight, stars and planets, or concert perfomances requiring super fast camera/lens responses and/or noise-'less' high ISO performance, so my comments might not be so relevant to those who want a camera that do.
Another thing I would like to add is that no camera performs at it best at the default settings and they always need to be fine-tuned to suit the individual needs of the respective users. And this usually takes time. This means that I am now even more impressed with the E-300's performance than when I first got it.
So I am very happy with the E-300 myself for it suits my needs and what's even better, it compliments the 20D nicely. It is also to-date, the best travel DSLR available, something that I have been longing for since my first DSLR. You just can't imagine how comfortable and light it feels shooting a few hours with a flash and lens on, compared to a similar 20D set up until you have actually tried it. Also, not many DSLRs (if any) can cover the focal length range from 28-400mm (35mm equivalent) with just 2 small and light lenses.
Cheers
Or more accurately, no camera is perfect for everybody.
Potential buyers should choose those cameras that best suit their needs and ergonomics and not be influenced too much by the opinions of others who have totally different requirements from themselves.
That said, the E-300 is definitely not a perfect camera but it is one that offers good value for money and have quite a few features that are unique to itself. Though Phil Askey had compared it somewhat unfavourably to the 20D in his review, it was more for want of another low-end 8-Mp DSLR that made him do so in the first place. Readers should bear in mind that the 20D costs almost twice as much as the E-300 and is bundled with a kit lens that half as good (my opinion, of course
) as the one that came with the E-300. Only when the competitors come out with their own low-end 8-Mp DSLRs can there be a more equitable comparison.I have the privilege of owning and comparing both the E-300 and 20D in my day-to-day shoots and I have to say that the E-300 is no sloth in performance when compared to the 20D in so far as my needs are concerned and could produce results that were better than the 20D in some situations that I had encountered. But then I don't shoot birds in flight, stars and planets, or concert perfomances requiring super fast camera/lens responses and/or noise-'less' high ISO performance, so my comments might not be so relevant to those who want a camera that do.
Another thing I would like to add is that no camera performs at it best at the default settings and they always need to be fine-tuned to suit the individual needs of the respective users. And this usually takes time. This means that I am now even more impressed with the E-300's performance than when I first got it.
So I am very happy with the E-300 myself for it suits my needs and what's even better, it compliments the 20D nicely. It is also to-date, the best travel DSLR available, something that I have been longing for since my first DSLR. You just can't imagine how comfortable and light it feels shooting a few hours with a flash and lens on, compared to a similar 20D set up until you have actually tried it. Also, not many DSLRs (if any) can cover the focal length range from 28-400mm (35mm equivalent) with just 2 small and light lenses.
Cheers
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