Olympus E-30

	Controls Summary
• Excellent Live View • Fast autofocus • Wide variety of scene modes and Art Filters (either good or bad, depending on your own preference) • Good range of shutter speeds
	Hardware	Page 10 of 19	Design & Handling

Shooting Modes (12.50)

For the shooting modes, the usual suspects are all here.

Shooting Modes
	Manual Manually set both shutter speed and aperture
	Shutter priority Set shutter speed, and the camera automatically sets aperture
	Aperture priority Set aperture, and the camera automatically sets shutter speed
	Program shift Aperture and shutter speed are both automatically set, but can be altered with program shift while retaining proper exposure.
	Auto Lets the camera do the thinking.

Live View (4.00)

The Olympus E-30 has one of the fastest Live View modes we've seen; it keeps up with movement admirably, even in poor light. Its focus system is a step in the right direction, as it's quicker than many others, but still not up to the speed of traditional SLR autofocus.

There are three autofocus modes with Live View. Imager AF focuses within the Live View system, using contrast detection, but takes a long time, AF sensor mode briefly lowers the mirror (briefly blanking out the Live View display), focuses, then raises it again to take the photo. Finally, Hybrid, roughly focuses using the Imager, then fine-focuses with the autofocus sensor. Alternatively, you could always rely on manual focus, with an optional focus assist tool that enlarges the center of the image.

The face detection mode seems to be able to recognize the human head readily, though the inherent slowness of focus does make it a little troublesome for anything but the most well-behaved, slow-moving subjects..

Pressing the INFO button while in Live View shifts the details on the display. Starting with just the image, then a scale, shooting information, histogram, focus assist and finally multi-view. This final one shows four versions of the image with either different exposure compensation or white balance settings, and is a highly useful function. The ability to essentially bracket without taking any photos, gives you an excellent idea of what exposure you need, or what white balance setting is most appropriate.

Scene Modes (6.83)

Unusually for an SLR, the E-30 has a wide array of scene modes, many of which are cribbed from the company's point-and-shoot cameras. The first five of these modes still let you have some degree of control, and are placed on the mode dial, where the others lock down every setting on the camera, and are accessed in Art/Scene Mode.

Scene Modes
	Portrait Portrait picture mode, with auto white balance and ISO, and face detection turned on.
	Landscape Vivid picture mode with saturation and contrast bumped, and sunlight white balance.
	Macro Vivid picture mode, and auto+manual focus.
	Sport Vivid color, high burst rate and continuous autofocus.
	Night portrait Sunlight white balance, vivid picture mode, toned down saturation and contrast.
	Child Suitable for fast moving ankle-biters.
	High Key For very bright situations, like unicorns galloping along a white sand beach.
	Low Key For dark settings, like coal miners running through a forest in the middle of the night.
	Dual Image Stabilization Mode Uses additional image stabilization.
	Nature Macro For close-ups in the great outdoors.
	Candle For warm, low light situations.
	Sunset For sunsets AND sunrises.
	Documents Increased contrast and sharpness for recording documents.
	Panorama Only works with Olympus xD cards, marks multiple files to be joined later.
	Fireworks Manual focus with slow shutter speeds.
	Beach & Snow For either highly reflective situation.

Picture Effects (9.50)

With this camera, Olympus have pulled a number of features from their point-and-shoots, in a move to make new SLR users feel more at home. This has resulted in a number of so called "picture effects", which covers color modes (what Olympus calls Picture Styles), the E-30s Art Filters, and two rather interesting shooting tools. But first, the Picture Styles.

Picture Styles
	Vivid Makes colors more dynamic and brighter
	Natural Tweaks  reds and blues
	Muted The most accurate color mode, but also noticeably undersaturated
	Portrait Emphasizes reds and skin tones
	Black & white Monochrome, with options for filters or color casts.
	Custom Lets you customize contrast, sharpness and saturation.

Art modes are different from Scene modes, in that they act like filters over the image to substantially change your picture. Some Scene modes are on the mode dial, and some are accessible in Art/Scene mode, wjhile all the Art Filters are only reachable in Art/Scene mode. Some of the Art Filters are effects that would be easy to replicate in Photoshop (Pop Art and Pin hole spring to mind), but soft focus and grainy film would be a little harder and can create nice effects.

Art Filters
	Pop art Bright, massively over-saturated candy colors.
	Soft focus The Barbara Walter filter, sans Vaseline.
	Pale and light color Undersaturated and pastel colors.
	Light tone Makes the image look lighter, and pulls details out of shadow.
	Grainy film Simulates the look of film grain.
	Pin hole Artificial vignetting like a pin hole or toy camera.

To give a feel for what all these Art Filters look like, Mr. Jerusalem was kind enough to pose for photographs in each. Click on the image for full size versions, but be warned, these are large.

Art Filters Table
Pop art	Soft focus
Pale and light color	Light tone
Grainy film	Pin hole

Because dealing with Picture Styles, Art Filters and Scene Modes can be overwhelming, here are examples of what each look like under fixed lighting.

Picture Effects Table
Vivid	Natural	Muted
Portrait	Black and white	Pop art
Soft focus	Pale and light color	Light tone
Grainy film	Pin hole	Portrait scene
Landscape	Macro	Sport
Night portrait	Child	High Key
Low Key	Dual Image Stabilization	Nature Macro
Candle	Sunset	Documents
	Beach and snow

While shooting, the camera can inject two types of digital effects. The first is accessed in Panorama mode, located in the Scene Modes menu, and only works with Olympus xD cards. In this mode, you chose a direction to pan, and then snap a series of shots, which can then be stitched together using Olympus software. The problem with this is that there's no image overlay to show you where your previous shot ended, and this functionality can easily be replicated with third party software.

A shot created using multiple exposures

The second is multiple exposures, which overlays two, three or four images over one another to create a composite. You can set the gain to either auto (which turns the brightness to 1/n, where n is the number of frames) or full. This editing can also be done in Playback with previously taken images, as long as they're RAW files.

Focus (8.00)

The Olympus E-30 uses TTL contrast detection for focusing, when not in Live View. It has 11 focal points, shown below. The focal point can be set to any one of these, the entire range, or a cross of five points. If there's one setup you find yourself using frequently, you can set this as the "home" autofocus point, which the camera will default to. In low light situations, the flash functions as an autofocus assist lamp by firing a brief burst of light. This illuminates very well, but is incredibly distracting for any candid shots you may be attempting to make.

The 11 TTL autofocus points

If your lenses are causing you trouble, and not focusing quite right, the E-30 can store autofocus microadjustments for up to twenty registered lenses.

There are five focus modes available, in combination between auto and manual.

Focus Modes
	Autofocus Focuses when shutter is half-pressed, and then locks.
	Continuous autofocus Continuously autofocuses while shutter is half-pressed.
	Manual focus Using your trusty lens's focus ring (which can be set to work in either direction).
	Autofocus with manual Autofocus, but allows for manual adjustment.
	Continuous autofocus with manual Continuous autofocus with room for manual adjustment.

Exposure (4.50)

The E-30 has an exposure compensation scale that runs beyond the normal ±2 or 3 to the larger ±5, and a wider range is always better. To help with exposure in overly bright or dark situations, Olympus uses a gradation option, which amounts to a dynamic range adjustment. In areas that are universally bright, say a polar bear in the snow, you would put this on High Key, which would pull more information from the bright endof  the histogram. At the opposite end of the spectrum is Low Key, which makes sure generally dark images don't lose detail. Alternatively, there's Auto, which divides the image into sections, and handles each separately, or else Normal if you don't want it to tweak the settings at all.

Depth of Field Preview (1.50)

When composing a shot with an SLR, the aperture is usually left wide open to let in the most light, but this doesn't give an accurate indication of depth of field. Depth of field preview briefly stops down the aperture to whatever the current shooting setting is, previewing the actual depth of field that will appear in the final photo, at the cost of brightness in the viewfinder. The E-30 has two different ways of firing up the depth of field preview function. Either press the button next to the lens, or else sacrifice the Fn button's customable functionality by setting it to Depth of Field preview. Frankly, we can't see why you would use the latter while the former is available, but more customization options are better than fewer.

Metering (6.50)

The E-30 has five types of metering, including three types of spot.

Metering Modes
	Digital ESP Not extra sensory perception, but rather Electro Selective Pattern, Olympus' full metering option, which meters the center of the image separately from the outer areas.
	Center weighted Meters the entire image, with more importance given to the center.
	Spot Focuses on the very center 2% of the image.
	Spot High Same as above, but for situations where the entire composition is bright, and you don't want to under-expose.
	Spot Shadow For darker situations, where a higher exposure would lead to turning the image into a murky grey.

Shutter Speed (10.00)

This camera has an excellent range of shutter speeds, including a bewildering maximum timed shot length of 30 minutes in bulb mode.

Self-Timer (3.00)

The Olympus has a standard array of self-timers, but doesn't have the level of customization you see in some Canons, where you can set the length of the timer and number of shots to be taken when the time is up.

Self-Timer Modes
	12 second timer Twelve seconds, then a photograph
	2 second timer If you're too impatient to wait ten seconds
	Remote control Sold separately
	Remote control 2 second timer For a slight delay with a remote

Hardware	Page 10 of 18		Design & Handling
Olympus E-30 Digital Camera Review Navigation
Intro	Product Tour	Color	Noise
Resolution	White Balance	Sample Photos	Playback
Hardware	Controls	Design & Handling	Speed & Timing
Nikon D90 Comparison	Canon 50D Comparison	Canon Rebel XS Comp	Pentax K2000 Comparison
Conclusion	Specs & Ratings