Olympus E-30

	Hardware Summary
• Excellent build quality • Small image sensor • Articulated LCD very useful with Live View, but screen resolution is low • Proprietary USB ports • Additional functionality with overpriced and underpowered xD cards
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Sensor (1.50)

As with all Olympus SLRs, the E-30 uses the Four Thirds sensor format, which has a unique set of advantages and disadvantages due to its small size. First, it has a 35mm crop factor of two, which means that the focal length of a lens is doubled to get its 35mm equivalent, so you can pack a much larger zoom into a smaller space. It also has very wide depth of field, which is great for overall sharpness, but makes isolating specific elements of the composition difficult at times.

Due to the high crop factor, less of the lens's edges are used, which also accounts in part for the excellent sharpness results we found in our testing, along with minimal chromatic aberration and distortion.

However, the negatives are substantial, and for many users will outweigh the positives. Both image noise and dynamic range are unacceptably bad on this camera, and shooting at the highest ISO (3200) outputs photographs that are borderline unusable. In bright light it handles fine, but the poor dynamic range (at least when not shooting RAW) and heavy noise levels are a considerable drawback.

The sensor is vibrated at high speeds every time the camera starts up in order to knock off any dust that may have landed on it. This slows down the startup time slightly, but only to an average of 1.6 seconds. 

Viewfinder (5.50)

The viewfinder isn't going to blow anyone away on this machine. It provides a decent 98% field of view, at approximately 1.02x magnification. The diopter's tucked away on the left side, and alters the focus from -3.0 to +1m^-1.

The eyecup can be removed and replaced with other models, including a magnifier, available for purchase from Olympus. The compatable eyecups are the EP-5, 6 and 7. The EP-5 is the standard, the EP-6 and 7 are both larger and useful for people with glasses, and the magnifier is called the ME-1 (and will set you back around $40).

The viewfinder has a decent field of view and magnification

The E-30 also ships with an eye-piece cover, to prevent light leaks during long exposure work. Some higher end full-frame SLRs have a built-in iris to prevent any leakage, but it's not something you generally find on a camera of this price point.

Looking through the viewfinder, here's what you'll see:

		Autofocus target	Spot metering area

Battery status

Auto ISO

Shots remaining

Aperture

Image stabilization

Super FP flash

Metering

Shooting mode

Shutter speed

Flash exposure comp

WB

Exposure comp

Bracketing

Flash

ISO Value

Focus confirmation

AEL

LCD (6.90)

The big drawback of the E-30 screen is its comparatively low resolution. On a point-and-shoot, 2.7" and 230,000 pixels may be fine, this pales in comparison to the Nikon D90's and Canon 50D's 920,000-dot displays. The one major LCD advantage this camera does offer, though, is the way the screen is articulated, pivoting out from the camera body horizontally and rotating vertically. Coupled with the decent Live View system, this is an especially worthwhile feature. The ability to frame shots at awkward angles, while holding the camera above your head, or without needing to keep your eye squashed against the viewfinder provides lots of shooting freedom, and represents one of the few hardware advantages Olympus holds over its competitors.

The articulated LCD. The speckles on the image on the top right
are due to the texture of the camera's body itself

The LCD is one of Olympus' HyperCrystal II screens, which allow some light to pass through the outer layer, then bounce back, providing greater brightness in sunlight. The brightness of the screen can be set to 15 levels, and the color balance can likewise be tweaked to 15 steps You can control what's shown on the LCD using the info button, as demonstrated below.

When using the quick menu, a huge amount of information is displayed. By using the four-way controller, you can navigate to any icon on the lower half of the screen and alter that setting.

My mode

Flash

Aperture

Battery

Shutter speed

Shooting mode

Exposure compensation

Date

Picture mode

ISO

White balance

Flash

Color space

Face detection

Shots remaining

Card type

Image quality and size

Metering, focus and drive

LCD Panel
The monochrome LCD on the top of the camera is much like that you'd see on any other mid-range SLR. It shows all the salient details of your current mode, or any shooting controls you're currently altering.

The basic but useful monochrome LCD

Remote

Burst mode

White balance

Monotone

Timer

ISO

Metering

Program shift

Exposure comp

Bracketing

AF area

Image stabilization

Image quality

Battery

Focus mode

Multiple exposures

Shutter speed

Flash

Shots remaining

Aperture

Flash (6.25)

The E-30 sports a hot-shoe that offers full functionality with TTL-Auto and Super FP flashes. Other strobes will fire, but their brightness can't be altered. Also, if the flash requires more than 250V, it can damage the camera. The E-30 can also handle Olympus wireless flashs via the infrared receiver on the grip.

The flash, both raised and lowered

The E-30 has a built in flash, deployed by a small button on the front of the lens. Images can be flash bracketed over 3 frames at ±0.3, 0.7 or 1 EV. This flash has a guide number of 18 at ISO 200, or 13 at ISO 100.

Flash Modes
	Auto Puts your trust in the camera to decide when to fire.
	Red-eye reduction Shoots two bursts with the flash to reduce the occurrence of redeye.
	Slow sync Fires the flash just before a longer shot, allowing for better background illumination.
	Slow sync, 2nd curtain Fires the flash at the end of a longer exposure, which creates an effect of light trailing an object.
	Slow sync red-eye reduction Combines the two features.
	Fill-in flash Forces the flash to fire.
	Flash off Prevents the flash from firing.

Lens Mount (5.50)

The E-30 uses the Four Thirds lens mount system, which is supported by Olympus and Kodak primarily, but also Fuji, Leica, Panasonic, Sanyo and Sigma. The Four Thirds sensor has a 35mm crop factor of 2x, which means that you double the stated focal length of a Four Thirds lens to get its 35mm equivalent. This allows for long focal lengths to be achieved in a relatively small package. If problems with vignetting occurs, the camera can be set to try and correct for it using shading compensation, sometimes called peripheral illumination correction in other brands.

The Four Thirds system allows for quite small lenses

Below are examples of the zoom ratio we got out of a 14-54mm lens (28-108mm in 35 mm equivalent).

Zoom Ratio Examples
14mm	26mm	54mm

Battery (7.00)

The Olympus E-30 uses a proprietary lithium ion rechargeable battery. If you purchase the extended battery holder, you can use AAs for power as well. The Li-ion battery is rated for approximately 500 shots, which is a decent amount, though you can expect this to sink if you use Live View extensively.

The battery has a decent life, but it will drop rapidly in Live View

Memory (4.00)

Olympus has its own proprietary memory card format, xD, which you will find in all their cameras, including this one. xD cards are low capacity and high cost, so thankfully Olympus has also included a CF slot, for more standard cards. In a blatant move to push more of their cards into the consumer's hands, one of the shooting modes, Panorama assist, will only work with Olympus brand xD cards, not even xD cards from another manufacturer.

We're glad they included the option for CF

Jacks, Ports & Plugs (1.00)

The E-30 has two ports, one on the left side, and one just beneath the four-way controller. The left is for an external DC power adapter, should you chose to purchase one, and the one on the camera's back is for a proprietary USB/AV cable. We're not huge fans of proprietary connections. The cables have a tendency to be expensive to replace and hard to find. Also, when the USB cable is plugged in, the down arrow on the four-way controller is exceedingly difficult to press unless you have the hands of an elf. 

Proprietary plugs are unnecessary for USB, but Olympus uses one anyway

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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