Its here... the E3

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0710/07101603olympuse3.asp

 

enjoy

Looks like it's a Day late and a Dollar short (as my old man used to say about his business ventures).

Why is it that whenever a new camera is announced, *someone* on the marque's forums will

grouse about it no matter how good it is...? ]'-)

 

I am confident that it will be quite a good performer and worth its price tag, personally.

 

Please Olympus and/or Panasonic/Leica: make me a nice, compact 20mm f/2.8 lens of

sterling performance to go with it!

 

Godfrey

Sound like a great effort has be put into this and I wish them well.

 

I hope Leica does as well when the R10 is announced.

Amazon is showing a ship date of December 15th... Wish it would've been sooner.

Interesting note - no info about the product on the Japanese homepage. An unusual move

for a Japanese company.

And apparently no info on dpreview.com either; Olympus didn't provide a body for review. Quite a row going on over there...

 

<a href="http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E3/E3A.HTM" >Imaging Resource</a> has a hands-on preview, however. Interesting.

Price not as steep as some expected. For a professional body. And they seem to have responded to E-1 user complaints and wishes. Namely the remote flash, bigger finder image. Now I am awaiting comment on how the live view will behave in practice and how it will impact shooting speed. The improvements in lenses that are already durn good is positive. Just get more of them out, and fulfill the lens roadmap. I can hear the biggest complaint now will be that Olympus should stick to making light and small cameras,not two pounders. Well,who can argue with that point. Not old Medium Format carriers. Best thing, the long wait for the baby is over for those in the market. I will have to wait a while,and look better at the new 50-200 zoom tele.

Some good info on the E-3:<br><br>

<a href="http://fourthirdsphoto.com/special/e3.php" target=new2>http://

fourthirdsphoto.com/special/e3.php</a><br>

<br>

Godfrey

"Price not as steep as some expected."

 

'Some' expected a pro-level DSLR, at a pro-level price. But this instead is an admittedly prosumer piece of kit, and it will stand or fall on handling and image quality compared to the less expensive 40D and A700, and the slightly more expensive D300.

Who declared that this was a "prosumer" camera vs a camera designed to be capable for

professional use? Sounds like bullshit to me.

 

Godfrey

Popphoto has a hands on:<br>

<p>

<a href="http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/4701/hands-on-olympus-e-3-digital-

slr.html">http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/4701/hands-on-olympus-e-3-digital-

slr.html</a>

</p><br>

James

http://www.olympusamerica.com/e3/?EMC=e3

What's a pro-level DSLR? One that costs $4000?

Bigger than a Canon Dslr?? jeez. I guess professional means BIG.

Well, I'm a bit disappointed in the weight. But I could live with the weight in exchange for the other stuff, I guess. But I'm definitely in the camp of smaller is better crowd.

 

I'm not a pro though I've dabbled a bit, so there isn't a major need for me to make a decision soon, or anytime, really. I think I'll wait to buy one till after we have a chance to hear from some of the early adopters. (and how it stacks up IQ wise compared to the E410/510)

Well, it only weighs 140 grams (that's 5 ounces for you yanks) more than the E-1, not

something you would really notice, especially not with at almost another pound of lens

attached to it. In combination with the 14-54, the E-3 weighs not even 13% more than the

same combo based on an E-1.

 

So get over it or buy an E-410! :P

 

Seriously though, barring image quality that has yet to be determined, it looks like a good

upgrade. The E-1 has been a good friend for three and a half years now but has its

drawbacks, as any now 5 year old design would have. With this it looks like I won't need

another camera for the next decade if I upgrade. (which I likely will)

 

Nice one, Oly!

Here are some official samples at Olympus' Korean website:

 

http://www.olympus-esystem.co.kr/products/e3/e3_sample.jsp

 

Looks like the camera that current E-1 users, myself included, have been asking for. There are obviously things that could have been different or better, but I think this one will serve me well for the next 3-5 years.

I have often thought that referring to the E-1 (and now the E-3) as a professional camera was slightly misleading. These cameras strike me as more properly labeled "photojournalism cameras"; I am a professional, and the non-pro E-series bodies serve me well. Since I work primarily as a "fine art" photographer and with a small number of select portrait and commercial clients, bullet proof and lightning fast are not characteristics that top my list.

 

When making the switch, the intersection of price and optical quality is what brought me to Olympus (well, that and the fact that Minolta was the last one out of the gate with a DSLR). As such, I think I'd be more likely to spend my money on the new <a href="http://www.olympusamerica.com/e3/lenses.asp" >14-35mm f/2.0 zoom</a> than an E-3 body.

 

That being said, I think the camera looks great on paper (monitor), and if it is ultimately proven to provide a significant improvement in image quality, I will probably find it hard to resist.

Robert, I think your comment about the 14-35mm (was this the one that was supposed to be out six months ago?) is a good reminder. The lenses are the real key to the E system attraction for me in the long run.

 

If I was going to go the big spender route I would go for that lens AND the E-3. It would probably be up to any task. I have an E-1 and it is still a fine camera that I haven't outgrown. But not my only digital camera. It is not a grab and go item for casual stuff. Learned that on a trip to Vegas. The two lenses and TC I own have not let me down. The E-3 live view with adjustable LCD may be attractive down the road but more camera than I really need of course. That lens is remarkable when you think about it. (I didn't look but I guess it is a big hunk of glass to get that fixed zoom aperture.(Hmm. Will Olympus use internal focus in some lense? I wonder,never checked.) I paid more for the E-1 than the E-3 body as I know Bas recalls. Keeping the price under 2K for this sophisticated item was by itself an Olympus achievement given the state of the USD)

Gerry, I think you mean internal zoom as all of the pro lenses do have internal focussing.

Not sure if any of the cheaper lenses change size/rotate when focussing, though.

 

I think the 14-35 was meant to be out two to three years ago as well! At the time it

silently went away and was only re-announced last year, if I recall correctly. Too bad they

didn't re-design it as a 12-35... It is not on my want list right now, though. Mostly

because of weight and bulk. I have the 50/2 and 25/1.4 and would ideally have a

hypothetical 12/2.8 (or faster) to complete a set of high quality, fast, glass. The 14-54

suits me well for traveling, thought the 12-60 sounds tempting as a replacement.

 

My main interest in the E-3 are: a few more pixels, a bit less noise, faster display of the

histogram and IS. Probably in that order. None of the other much touted improvements

(5fps, 11 focus points, live view, 1/8000, 1/250 sync, etc) don't really catch my attention.

"Who declared that this was a "prosumer" camera vs a camera designed to be capable for professional use?

 

Imaging resource, for one: "Billed as a pure pro camera, the Olympus E-3 is really more comparable to the cameras by Olympus's competitors that we've been categorizing as semi-pro, such as the Pentax K10D, Canon 40D, and Nikon D200."

 

"Sounds like bullshit to me."

 

Well, if anyone had close familiarity with the subject.... ;)

Not a dollar short nor a day late. It looks like it was well worth waiting for. It's only a camera when all said & done plus it looks like it will be a very capable one. The pixel peeping & number comparing down to four decimal points is becoming tiresome.

The E3 comes with one (to me) serious advantage.It uses the excellent 14-54 & 50-200 Oly lenses that have no parallel in other systems ; in quality or price.

Imaging-Resource, like DPReview, is a marketing effort, which is what created the term

"prosume". The whole concept of "prosumer" is enough to give me hives. What does it

mean? For "Professional Consumers"? Who are they? Are they photographers? or people

with money who buy advanced spec cameras and leave them on the Auto setting so they

can show off to the neighbor how nice a camera they have and what nice pictures It takes?

 

The E3 is a very nicely built camera designed for professional use. The fact that its

pigeonholde by some some imbecilic marketing droid as a "prosumer" something has no

relevance to the camera.

 

Godfrey

Woah! Z, have you read the posts? Neither Gregory nor Roland maligned the tests. They only said that the sites were marketing efforts and had coined the loathesome and meaningless term Prosumer.

 

DPreview is clearly biased towards reviewing Canon and Nikon products, that does not mean their tests are bad, just that they are less keen in putting such effort into reviewing less popular cameras.