Olympus EVOLT E-330

Manual Control Options
The EVOLT E-330 follows Olympus’ pattern of enabling full manual control with unusually specific and sometimes vague names for the adjustments. Two examples: The EVOLT E-330's white balance settings all include Kelvin temperatures as well as names, and the JPEG quality settings show the amount of compression imposed on the image.

Focus
Auto Focus
The EVOLT E-330 has three autofocus points, arranged in a row across the center of the frame. We didn't fully test their performance for this first impression review, though the camera focused well in the well lit confines of Olympus’ PMA booth.

Having only three autofocus points is a significant drawback. We found ourselves recomposing even our test shots while handling the EVOLT E-330 in the PMA booth. The limited autofocus area slows down shooting.

Manual Focus
Manually focusing the EVOLT E-330 through the viewfinder is relatively easy – it's equal to other DSLR viewfinders in the sub-$1000 range.

Focusing on the EVOLT E-330's live preview LCD is not as easy. Though the 2.5-inch, 215,250 pixel display is excellent, we couldn't focus as well on it as through the viewfinder. Rough focus was quick and easy, but fine focus was tough – we just couldn't tell the difference made by small adjustments close to the point of focus. This is important because in "B" live preview mode, autofocus is not available. In "B" mode, the reflex mirror flips away, the shutter opens, and the live preview is picked up directly from the NMOS (Negative-type Metal Oxide Semiconductor) imaging chip that the EVOLT E-330 uses to take images. The mode blocks the light path to the autofocus system, so there isn't any autofocus confirmation.

At first blush, we didn't see a difference between this "B" mode and "A" mode, which uses a second imaging chip in the viewfinder to form the live image. Olympus booth staff said that the viewfinder chip is an 8 megapixel device from the Stylus series of cameras, and that the B mode LCD viewfinder has 100 percent framing accuracy, while the optical viewfinder and A mode have 92 to 94 percent accuracy.

Metering
The EVOLT E-330 has a 49-point metering system for matrix, or evaluative, metering. It also offers spot metering and center-weighted averaging, which are useful for manual shooting and typical of DSLRs. It adds two more intriguing settings, Highlight matrix and Shadow matrix. Both are evaluative settings, and they aim to preserve detail in either highlights or shadows. We look forward to a full test of the camera to see how well these modes perform. They sound like a great idea.

Exposure
The EVOLT E-330 offers aperture priority, shutter priority and full manual modes, as well as exposure compensation of up to 5 stops above or below the metered exposure in 1/2- or 1/3- stop increments. A 5-stop compensation range is unusually large, and ought to be useful in extremely contrasty lighting.

White Balance
The EVOLT E-330 has 7 white balance presets: tungsten, three fluorescent types, daylight, cloudy and shadow. The camera lists the Kelvin equivalent for each, and allows white balance fine-tuning with independent controls for red and blue/green. Again, we're curious to test this system in a full review. It looks unique, and it may be unusually helpful.

ISO
The EVOLT E-330 has a normal ISO range from 100 to 400 in 1/3-EV steps, plus an expanded mode with 1/3-EV increments up to 1600. An expanded mode that starts as low as ISO 500 may indicate speed-related image noise problems, but we'll wait for testing in our full review to quantify that.

Shutter Speed
The EVOLT E-330's shutter will handle speeds from 60 seconds to 1/4000 of a second in increments of either 1/2-or 1/3-stops. It syncs flashes up to 1/180, and can handle user-timed exposures of up to 8 minutes when set to B (Bulb). The flash sync speed may be limiting for outdoor fill flash – 1/250 is much more convenient.

Aperture
The EVOLT E-330 can control aperture in 1/2-or 1/3-stop increments. The most common kit lenses have a maximum aperture of f/3.5 to f/5.6, which is pretty dark. Users interested in available light shooting should consider a lens with a wider aperture.