Olympus E-3 digital camera resource

Last update: Feb. 2nd, 2012 Feb. 2nd: Lenses section updated Apr. 28th: firmware section updated

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Technical data and reference manuals

• The complete reference manual can be downloaded here.
• See here the FAQs of Olympus America.
  
• Olympus E-3 complete specifications
• Software for the E-3 can be downloaded here.
  
  

Reviews and previews

• Imaging resource have a detailed review of the Olympus E-3 with test results and full-size samples.
• dpreview has a detailed review of the Olympus E-3 with several tests and sample images.
  
• Dcresource published their full review of the Olympus E-3. Detailed review with full-size sample images.
• See John Foster's large and detailed review of the Olympus E-3. Many tests and many sample images.
• Luminous Landscape have a long and detailed review of the Olympus E3, however without tests, charts and diagrams.
  
• Steve's digicams has a detailed review of the Olympus E-3.
  
• PhotographyBlog have published a detailed review of the Olympus E-3 with test results and full size samples.
• ephotozine.com published a review of the Olympus E3 on their site. A bit different from the other reviews, contains a number of tests. Interesting read.
• dcviews.com have an interesting review of the Olympus E-3. No scientific tests, no diagrams, but an interesting read with many sample (nou full size images).
  
• Cameralabs published their preview of the Olympus E-3. Not too detailed.
  
• Andrzej Wrotniak has a detailed technical review of the Olympus E-3 on this wrotniak.net site.
• Gary Ayton has a page about the Olympus E-3 full of information and links.
  
• fourthirds-user.com have a comparison of the sound produced by the E3, E1 and E510.
  
• Letsgodigital has a six page review of the Olympus E-3 with no tests.
  
• PhotoReview have a short review of the Olympus E-3 with some Imatest test charts.
• PopPhoto.com have a brief introductory review of the Olympus E3, useful to read as an introduction.
• Here is a video of live view being used.
• As for the IS, this video explains that the E-510 is good for 4 stops but the E-3 is good for up to 5 stops.
• Here is video with an interview with a product manager of Olympus regarding the Olympus E-3.
  

Sample images

• Imaging Resource has full size sample images with different settings and a detailed discussion of the results.
• DCresource has a page with 13 clickable full size sample images of outdoor scenes with different settings.
• photographyblog have 32 full size samples of the Olympus E-3.
• See the samples gallery at dpreview.com
• Letsgodigital have a page with six full size sample images of the Olympus E-3.
• Steve's Digicams has a page with 23 full size sample images of the Olympus E-3. These include 10 outdoor images and 13 images at different ISO settings.
  

RAW file format

• Olympus has released a codec for Windows Vista. The codec is a piece of software running under Windows Vista with which Vista can import and display RAW images of all Olympus DSLRs.
  
• Adobe Photoshop CS3 is capable of converting E-3 RAW files. You will need the Camera RAW 4.3 plugin (earlier versions do not support E-3 RAW files). But you can also buy the cheaper Adobe Elements 5, which also supports the plugin. Adobe Photoshop CS2 and older versions cannot directly convert E-3 RAW files. You will first have to convert E-3 RAW files to DNG.
  
• Another good RAW converter is Olympus Studio.
• dcraw by Dave Coffin is an open source software used by several RAW converters, which can convert E-3 RAW files. It's available as source code, command line executable or within a large number of image editing softwares. See Dave Coffin's page for an exhaustive list.
• Even Irfanview can decode E-3 RAW files, thanks to the dcraw code.
  

 

Questions ? Comments ? Put them in the Olympus E-3 user group

Memory cards

• See the memory card write speed test which shows the write speeds with various memory cards.
  
• The E-3 takes both CF and xD cards.
  
• Generally speaking there is no reason to use xD cards, since CF cards are cheaper and faster.
  
• See here the results of a write speed test with different memory cards. Here are the conclusions:
  
• The Olympus E-3 is currently one of the digital cameras with the highest card write speeds. The camera reaches 10MB/s sustained with a Sandisk Ultra III Extreme card - very few digital camera, just the fastest DLSRs, can match this.
• Surprisingly the camera reaches this write speed only with Sandisk Extreme III cards, and not with the Twinmos, which the manufacturer rates at 16.2 MB/s write speed.
  

Firmware

• Olympus releases firmware 1.4 for the Olympus E-3:
• Improved the AF operation in firmware version 1.3.
  
• Olympus releases firmware 1.3 for the Olympus E-3:
• AF target selection is possible by directly pressing the arrow keys.
• New battery control sequence to improve the battery life when using the HLD-4 battery holder.
• Improved AF accuracy when using fast lenses (f2.0 aperture).
• Improving the C-AF performance.
  
• Olympus releases firmware 1.2 for the Olympus E-3:
• Improved the consistency of the auto white balance.
  
• Olympus releases firmware 1.1 for the Olympus E-3:
• Enabled use of the Image Stabilization function with non-Four Thirds System interchangeable lenses by inputting a specific focal length.
  
• Matched the rotation of the dial on the rear of the Power Battery Holder HLD-4 and the movement direction of the AF target.
  
• Increased the number of storable still pictures by improving the battery check when the Power Battery Holder HLD-4 is attached.
  
• Improved dial operation on the Power Battery Holder HLD-4.
  
• Focusing now stops immediately when the AF start button (AEL/AFL or Fn button) is released.
  
• Corrected the phenomenon where the flash control caused an under exposure while using bounce flash at short distances with the FL-50R or FL-36R Electronic Flash.
  
• Improved selection and prioritization of the central 5 ranging points when shooting in C-AF mode and Dynamic-single Target mode.

Chromatic aberrations / Purple fringing

• To remove chromatic aberrations you can process the RAW image with the Adobe Photohop RAW plugin.
  
• To remove chromatic aberrations with an image editor (desaturation of the magentas):
• It is very simple to remove chromatic aberrations from an image. Simply use a photo editor and set the saturation level of magenta (also green where this makes sense) to the minimum. In some images you might have to set the saturation level of red to the minimum. It might also make sense to limit the processing to the affected area (i.e. select the affected image area and only process that).

Accessories

• Olympus America Accessories Guide for the E-3: lists all accessories and tells you if they are compatible with the E-3.

BLM-1 battery and cheaper 3rd party alternatives

• According to Federico del Vall 3rd party BLM-1 batteries fail in low temperatures:
  
  Been recently to Ushuaia - (Patagonia, Argentina) and found Oly's BLM-1's made sense.
  I have three different compatible batteries and tree Olympus, two for each cam.
  BLM-1's are rated at -10 °C worst case, so I made no worries. But at this temperature, quite common around Ushuaia these days, while a BLM-1 would last one to two of my photoshooting days at 20°C, lasted no more than an hour or so. Compatibles failed after no more than 10 minutes.
  So set to the task of heating the batteries to ~30° for half an hour, and found the BLM-1 could still be used once more for one hour, and the compatibles too, but for other 10 minutes or so. But then none.
  At these temperatures (-10-0 °C) Oly's BLM-1's are worth their price. On the other hand, in Salta, (north Argentina) where temperature is nice troughout the year, both types endured quite the same.
  
  
• Warthog did his own comparison test of  original Olympus BLM-1 batteries and 3rd party ones (page is in Finnish!):
• I tested this week my original Olympus batteries (3 pieces, two of them 2,5 years, one is 9 months old) and two replacement batteries (2 years old). I used 15 Ohm resistor, pictures taken every minute with my E-300 and Canon TC-80N3 timer remote controller. I tried QuickTime to record my measurements, but that timer is more practical.
  
  Original batteries are expensive, but very good. Replacement batteries are cheap and good....
  Test results of replacement batteries
  Test results of Olympus batteries & evaluation of both batteries
  
  
• See this page which contains an overview of currently available BLM-1 battery clones: Olympus BLM-1 (original), PS-BLM1 (7DayShop.com), WT-BLM1 (SterlingTek.com), Energizer OM-1, Hahnel HL-M1, UNiROSS VB104295, WinTop PS-BLM1 and e-Film (Delkin) BLM1. The author rates the batteries according to construction, capacity, (low voltage) protection and cost. It appears that not all 3rd party alternatives are created equal.
  
• Test added which shows which capacity the original Olympus BLM-1 battery and cheap 3rd party alternatives have. With the batteries I had (one original and two 3rd party ones) I measured the following:
• Original Olympus battery:   1299 mAh
  
• 3rd party battery 1:   1077 mAh
  
• 3rd party battery 2:   744 mAh
• This is OK, since the Olympus original BLM-1 battery costs 17 times more than the 3rd party alternatives I bought.
• The complete test results are available here.
  

• The original BLM-1 battery from Olympus is rated at 7.2 Volt and 1500 mAh. The alternatives have voltages of 7.2 or 7.4 Volt and capacities of 1300 or 1500 mAh.
• The voltage difference is no problem:
  
• The 7.2 Volt which Olympus officially quotes varies in reality between 6.7 Volt (discharged battery) and 7.7 Volt (fully charged battery). These are voltages measured under a pretty heavy load of over 1 Ampere (battery loaded with a 6.8 Ohm resistor).
  
• With no load the measured voltages become 7.37 Volt in a discharged state (emtpy battery screen showing) and 8.2 Volt (battery fully charged).
  => In other words, it's highly irrelevant if the battery is rated at 7.2 or 7.4 Volt - the camera can withstand 7.7 Volts without problems.
• The capacity difference is also something not to worry about. There is no big difference between 1500 and 1300 mAh (we are talking of a 10% difference), but the 3rd party battery costs a fraction of the original one.
• Personally I bought two 3rd party BLM-1 batteries in August 2004 from a Hong Kong eBay seller.
  
• Price per battery was US $ 5.49 and the total cost including shipping was US $17.
  
• The batteries arrived in 10 days to my home in Germany.
  
• I tested one of these cheap "counterfeit" batteries. It lasted for over 600 shots (SHQ, all with the LCD on, about 10% with flash) and still had juice left when I got tired and interrupted the test. It just wouldn't die.
  
  
• Vidpro fast battery charger (this has been reported by Rod in the Olympus E-3 users group):
  
  My results are the Oly charger took around 5 hours to get to a full charge and the Vidpro about half that (which is what they advertise). BUT, it could be the second battery I charged on the Vidpro didn't need that much charging - what I did wasn't under very controlled conditions re residual charge before recharging.
  The Vidpro (US $30) charger base is a little larger than the Oly, and also has an AC to DC module (a little smaller than the Oly unit itself) that plugs into the AC wall socket whereas the Oly unit accepts AC directly with the supplied AC cord. Both the Oly & Vidpro accept 100v-240v, but the big difference I like is that the Vidpro has a 12v DC (vehicle, etc.) adapter allowing the batteries to be charged in the field.

Infrared photography with the Olympus E-3

• Here is an interesting article about infrared photography with the Olympus E3. Several test images.
  
• These sites contain useful information about infrared photography with digital cameras:
• Echeng.com: Digital infrared photography - site devoted to digital infrared photography with image galleries, information about filters and equipment and links.
• Wrotniak's Infrared Photography page - excellent information resource devoted to infrared photography with Olympus cameras. Information about infrared filters, exposure settings, focus, post-processing, sample images and links.
• Also see the Infrared photography page of the Apogee magazine: this is an interesting general introduction to infrared photography with digital cameras.

Lenses

• Wide angle and Fisheye

• Standard zooms

• Superzooms

• Telephoto zooms

• Prime lenses (fixed focal length)

• Extension tubes, teleconverters and adapters

• Photozone.de have detailed and accurate reviews of four thirds lenses.

• Firmware updates for Olympus Four Thirds and the Leica D Summilux lenses are available on this page.
  
• How good are the kit lenses? John Foster has done an interesting review comparing the Zuiko 14-42, 14-45 and 14-54 lenses. The review was done with the 10MP Olympus E400 DSLR and shows better results with the pro Zuiko 14-54 lens.
• Here are two tests of the Zuiko Digital 7-14 mm F4 lens, one performed by Andrzej Wrotniak and one by John Foster. The one by Andrzej Wrotniak is a bit more scientific, with physics formulas and resolution charts, while the one of John Foster is more from a user perspective and contains many sample images.

External flash

• The Olympus E-3 has a standard flash hotshoe and can take standard external flashes.
• Try out the Metz flash units - cheap and reliable. Alternatively try the FL-36 or other Olympus flash units.
  
• See here for how to measure the trigger voltage of your flash.

Controlling the Olympus E-3 with a computer

• You can use Olympus Studio 2 to control the Olympus E-3 with a computer.
  
• Try these software packages
• Cam2Com: see this information.-->

Underwater Photography

• Ikelite launches the 6855 underwater housing for the E-3. You will find all details and lots of images on the Ikelite page. The housing sells around USD 1000 - not really cheap.
  
• The site Digideep.com is an online directory for digital underwater photography.
• Interesting forum for underwater photography: DigitalDiver.net

Data recovery

• Jpegdump, by Kurt Stege, is a free tool to recover deleted images from a memory card. Recommended, alough it involves more work an e tool of Convar.
  
• These software tools are not free, so since Convar's software is available for free, there is no real need to use them:
  
• Check this site: Digital image recovery
Christian Grau has some software tools to fix damaged memory cards. The software used to be free, now costs $39.
• Datarescue also has a software tool (Photorescue) for repairing damaged memory cards, although it's not free.
• Photorecovery is another tool. Price is $39.95.

Noise reduction

• In addition to the E-3's inbuilt noise reduction, you can post-process the images with NeatImage. This software package produces surprisingly good results.
• Here there is a comparison of different noise reduction software tools.

Panorama shots

• Some interesting links:
• http://www.skipwilliams.com/panos/panorama_links.htm
• http://www.htu.at/~sascha/ptguide/
• http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/tutorials/360/calibrate/
• http://homepage.ntlworld.com/j.houghton/pttute.htm
• http://www.panoguide.com/software/reviews/panotools_v21.html
• Stitching software: http://www.vrtoolbox.com/vrthome.html
• Tripod specific for panoramas: http://www.kaidan.com/

Astrophotography with the Olympus E-3

• Here is an astrophotography forum for users of the Olympus E-3 Evolt and E1
  
• Astrophotography users's group here
• This may be also a good source.
• And last but not least this site has enough links and information to keep you plugged for several lifetimes.

Links

• MyOlympus.org photo sharing site: similar to Photosig, here Olympus E-3 users can upload images and give/get feedback
• Yahoo Olympus E-3 discussion group: a discussion group dedicated to e Olympus E-3 digital camera