Model Design / Appearance (6.0)
First, I have to applaud Olympus for trying something new. Like the Stylus Verve, the E-300 strays from conventional design, attempting to bring a new form and aesthetic into a very repetitive market. The EVOLT E-300 is not traditional internally or externally and utilizes its slightly obscure appearance to distinguish itself from the pack.
The design of the E-300 is boxy and thick, retaining a strong rectangular form. The E-300 body is dominated by straight lines and right angles, creating more stringent corners with fewer curves and bumps than is noticeable on other DSLRs. The distinguishable design stems from the lack of a viewfinder hump on the top of the camera body. The body appears to have been formed around the mirror system to help fold the light path to the side. Olympus pioneered the humpless SLR in 1963 with the small, elegant, half-frame 35mm Olympus Pen-F, an SLR that was almost as pretty as the rangefinder Leicas that set the standard at the time. Alas, as Lloyd Bensen might have said, the E-300 is no Pen-F.
The straight rectangular top that characterizes the E-300 differs significantly from Nikon and Canon’s entry level DSLR offerings, which generally stick to a more traditional form, peaking with a viewfinder hump, and easing away a bit slope-shouldered to either side. Canon goes to lengths to avoid edges and corners, smoothing away transitions wherever they might naturally exist. Nikon models have their share of edges, but they avoid perpendicular lines, so the cameras seem made up of triangles and elongated facets.
There are two main materials used on the EVOLT body – the top and half the front is made of a satin-finished aluminum, while much of the rest of the body is plastic, dressed in an old-fashioned texture like spattered paint on 1940s and ’50s lab or military equipment. There are two patches of faux-leather-textured rubber on the camera body; one wraps around the grip on the front, and there's a small one in back, where the user’s right thumb rests. Those segments are necessary to improve the user’s grip, but it leaves the camera without a dominant finish. Many other models spread the rubber all around, even where it’s not immediately needed, to improve grip. It’s not necessary for ergonomics, but it gives the camera body a cohesive look.
The general appearance of the E-300 is robust, sturdy and retro, but not refined, and certainly not fashionable. It reminds me of Soviet-era Eastern European technology, where (and I exaggerate) a telephone might weigh 30 pounds, but you could hammer nails with it without breaking the thing. I’m ambivalent about the camera’s styling – it’s unique, and apparently driven by function. I like that – there’s no need for another timid imitation of the industry leaders. On the other hand, it sure isn’t jewelry.
Size / Portability (7.0)
Somehow, I had expected that the E-300, and Four-Thirds cameras in general, would be smaller than typical SLRs. The E-300 measures 5.8 x 3.3 x 2.5 inches (146.5 x 85 x 64 mm) and weighs about 21 ounces (580 grams) without a battery. To compare, the Canon Rebel XT, another 8 megapixel DSLR, is 4.98 x 3.71 x 2.63 inches and about 17 ounces with its battery, which significantly smaller and lighter than the EVOLT. The Four-Thirds image sensor is much smaller than the one used by Canon and Nikon – so why build such a big camera around it?
The Rebel XT is big enough to hold and operate conveniently – as far as the user’s experience goes, the E-300 does not have to be as big as it is. The camera’s dust removal system, which uses motors to shake dust off a window covering the image sensor, is a large assembly, possibly large enough to account for the E-300’s extra size, but it seems the larger body was consciously crafted for substance and durability. The larger frame does offer users additional stability and resilience that the EOS Rebel XT does not provide. This large, tank-like construct is one of the EVOLT E-300’s strongest attributes.
The camera has wide lugs for a neck strap, which most owners will use. Though it’s too heavy to hold comfortably for hours at a time, it would be relatively comfortable slung over a shoulder for the day. The camera’s weight is actually useful in some circumstances – up to a point, it’s easier to hold a heavy camera steady than a very light one, although the E-300’s design is not optimized for handling comfort. The E-300’s flat top will help with portability, making it easier to pack in a camera bag.
Handling Ability (5.5)
In general, the handling of the E-300 is greatly compromised. More than any other DSLR we have reviewed, the E-300 is just not comfortable to shoot with. The primary flaw in the camera’s design is an odd ridge located on the front of the right-hand grip. The ridge is constructed of a vertically-oriented piece of hard plastic, coated in rubber. The gripping protrusion is awkwardly placed, hitting the user’s curled fingers just below the knuckle and becoming far more of an obstruction than a handling aid. The discomfort grew with time and certainly would not be desirable for an all day shoot. While the ridge is clearly included to improve stabilization, the plastic hump was only an irritant.
Equipped with the kit lens, the E-300 balances right at the lens mount. Even though the contours are relatively flat, I felt confident the camera wouldn’t slip from my hands. With my left hand holding the zoom ring from underneath and my right hand on the grip, the camera naturally promoted a steady grip. The distribution of weight and general contour of the body is optimized for control during shooting and is only compromised by the imposing gripping protrusion that unfortunately cannot be avoided.
Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size (6.0)
The controls on the Olympus EVOLT E-300 are generally a bit undersized, particularly given the size and scale of the camera body; however the vacant real estate does work to the user’s advantage, providing ample spacing for the layout of controls. The small buttons do not protrude much beyond the plane of the camera casing, but fortunately are quite responsive and do not require much depression to provide tactile feedback.
The buttons and controls that click do so positively. None of them wobble or rattle and all seem formed with durability and longevity in mind. The mode dial is also heavily textured, and easy to set precisely. The rugged layout of the E-300 remains consistent with Olympus’ design heritage; however, Olympus film SLRs were designed with oversized controls, which is certainly not the case with the EVOLT. The controls on the E-300 are small and scaled down to a point-and-shoot digital camera dimensions, but this camera fortunately retains the stability photographers have come to expect from Olympus SLRs.
One thing I personally would have liked to see included on the body of the E-300 is an additional jog dial. This design is consistent with the Canon Rebel XT and I feel it's a control flaw that plagues both models. With only one dial, many basic operations take more steps than they should. Very often, the user has to press a button to get the dial into the proper mode. For instance, to set aperture and shutter speed in manual exposure mode, the user turns the dial to set aperture, then presses a button so the dial switches to control over shutter speed; only then can the proper setting can be dialed. Worse yet, the button is not close to the control dial, so the operation is even more cumbersome and awkward than it should be. The additional job dial would increase control and reduce the time needed to render alterations to settings. This slight alteration would make the camera far more practical for long shoots and time-sensitive situations
Menu (5.0)
Pressing the Menu button on the back of the camera brings up a tabbed menu on the LCD display. Five icons along the left edge of the screen indicate two tabs for shooting customization settings, two tabs for image settings, and one tab for editing and printing images. A line of text along the bottom of the screen indicates how to cancel out of the displayed menu, how to make a selection, and how to chose or “OK” the current selection.
The text in the menus is large and clearly visible. When a subsection of the menu is entered, all options are displayed in a vertical column and highlighted in blue. The specific setting that the cursor is controlling is colored green. The visual layout is intuitive enough and easily discernible; however, the interface is a bit tedious.
Moving right within the menu brings up the next subsection, while moving left acts similarly to a “back” button in an Internet browser. Farthest to the left are the most generalized headings, which gradually become more and more refined as the user moves right. Seems simple enough, and it is, although with the extensive list of options, the multi-directional movement needed to scroll through the list limits speed to some extent.
A few features that many users would want to continually access are buried in the menus. Photographers would greatly benefit from having more direct access to the exposure control for the pop-up flash – using it for fill pretty much requires tweaking it from shot to shot. Fine adjustment of white balance is buried down deep as well. All necessary adjustments are included, it just requires more time than it should to access them.
Ease of Use (5.5)
The E-300 offers a wide variety of options and controls. The strongest element of the camera is the direct means of representation Olympus has taken to relay shooting information. In nearly every case, Olympus has opted to offer the user real information rather than marketing words – white balance settings show the Kelvin temperature for instance, and the JPEG settings show a numerical measure of compression. This helps users find settings and controls universally without having to adapt to the manufacturer’s chosen dialect.
On the other hand, the features aimed at snapshooters – scene modes in particular – are slightly obscure. When users set the Mode Dial on top of the camera to “SCENE,” there’s no prompt. If you hit the “INFO” button, it appears as though “Portrait” is selected, but there doesn’t seem to be a way of changing to the other modes. If you blunder onto the “OK” button (it took me a few minutes), the camera begins hand-holding with relish – each scene mode appears on the LCD as an icon, an example photo, and a sentence-long explanation. Thus the camera is far easier to adjust to than a prosumer-grade $2,000 DSLR, but it is not as straightforward as the D70 and Rebel XT. For this subset of DSLR’s the E-300 is more convoluted than it needs to be.
A few design refinements would have helped the E-300 significantly. For instance, an additional jog dial and applied informational LCD would simplify the interface and increase functionality. Additionally, there is no depth of field preview button or dedicated mode so those users less familiar with manual settings will have more difficulty initially attaining certain controlled compositions until they learn how to properly manipulate the camera.
