Olympus EVOLT E-300 camera

[Gilligan]

Will the Olympus EVOLT E-300 give the other DSLR's a run for the money?
Olympus is also making a housing for it.

 

[Burner]

you cannot do a live "preview" before you take a picture.

Does this mean you can't see what you are looking at live on the LCD? I think that would make it harder to use underwater.

 

[Gilligan]

All DSLR's show the subject on the monitor after the shot, not before.

 

[ReyeR]

To be honest, I don't really care about how it stacks up against the Cs and the Ns. I think it is unique enough to hold it's own.

What concerns me, as an UWP enthusiast, is the housing. Judging from their disastarous attempt with the C8080 (shape and size), and their inability to learn from their past mistakes (flat port wide angle), I fear they may be above their heads with a DSLR housing. Hopefully they will get it right this time - only time will tell.

The 50mm macro 1:2 lens (100mm 1:1 35 format) is such a nice lens and I can see it being excellent for UW use. I hope they make a port for it.

 

[ssra30]

You will have to use the viewfinder to compose etc but it is not actually a big deal as a viewfinder will give you a much sharper image so you can see the focus much easier.

The biggest task Olympus will have to deal with is not just the camera and housing itself but also options for various lenses that will be available for the camera and ports for underwater housing.
Nikon biggest strength is the choices of lenses and availability of ports/zoom and focus gears for variety of lenses offer by many housing manufacturers. Canon is a little behind but not by much, I don't know what lenses Olympus will support for their UW housing?

 

[Ryan]

You will have to use the viewfinder to compose etc but it is not actually a big deal as a viewfinder will give you a much sharper image so you can see the focus much easier.

The biggest task Olympus will have to deal with is not just the camera and housing itself but also options for various lenses that will be available for the camera and ports for underwater housing.
Nikon biggest strength is the choices of lenses and availability of ports/zoom and focus gears for variety of lenses offer by many housing manufacturers. Canon is a little behind but not by much, I don't know what lenses Olympus will support for their UW housing?

Lens choice right now is limited, but it is nice to see Sigma cranking out some competitive options to Zuiko glass. Right now I would say the biggest weakness is the lack of an affordable wide angle option.

I can't help but be skeptical about the Olympus housing offering, either. Hopefully some other housing manufacturers will look at this platform, and release a copact housing option for it. This camera will be very popular on the Japanese market based upon rumored preorders.

This is a very unique new camera, and is not something that can be plugged in existing housings (without a lot of dead space), requiring a new housing engineered from the ground up. It will be interesting to see what is built.

 

[ssra30]

Just looked at Olympus site for lenses, don't know about Sigma yet (I assume that Olympus most likely would not support Sigma lens with its housing/ports) but Zuiko lens lineup does not look all that impressive for underwater use. 50mm lens 1:2 full frame is not all that impressive considering Nikon and Canon 60mm and 100/105mm will do 1:1 at full frame so in comparison, the macro end of Olympus is still not nearly as good as Nikon and Canon. I think with better lenses support and choices, Olympus has a potential to be excellent UW dSLR but still need quite a bit more work and the wide angle end is still definitely quite a way off, in comparison to Nikon 10.5mm and 12-24mm options.

 

[lukeROB]

Agree with ssra30 wide angle is going to be a problem.
Rember the 4/3 system that Oly is using is creating a FOV crop of 2 (compare to 1.5 Nikon, 1.6 Canon).

This effectively makes the angle of coverage of a 14mm lens on the Oly the same as a 28mm on 35mm. Wide end is definatly going to be a big problem.

 

[ike]

The E300 should operate in some variation of Ikelite dSLR housing like the E-1 shown on following URL: http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/e1olympus.html

 

[ReyeR]

Agree with ssra30 wide angle is going to be a problem.
Rember the 4/3 system that Oly is using is creating a FOV crop of 2 (compare to 1.5 Nikon, 1.6 Canon).

This effectively makes the angle of coverage of a 14mm lens on the Oly the same as a 28mm on 35mm. Wide end is definatly going to be a big problem.

There is no 'crop factor' in the Olympus four-thirds system - each lens is designed from scratch and optimised to match the standardised sensor size. It's not like a Canon 300D or Nikon D70 where you are using lenses that were made for 35mm cameras - this is one of the unique factors of the four-thirds system.
The equivalent FOV or focal length for a 35mm film format is stated to serve as a reference, only because a lot of us are 'used to it'.
The smaller sensor size (compared to 35mm film) willl hopefully mean lighter and smaller lenses too.
They are releasing a 7-14mm (14-28mm 35mm equivalent) next year - Ryan's choice of the word 'affordable' is apt - it is a 'pro' lens and rumoured at US$2000++!