Olympus E-30 Launched

Olympus E-30

Here at PhotographyWired we could probably be justly accused of having a biased Canon/Nikon slant on the world of digital photography. But we realise not everyone sees the world in such black and white terms. Some of you out there do use other brands of camera! I know, amazing huh?

So in the interests of diversity, I thought a quick mention of the latest Olympus release might be in order

The E-30 is Olympus’ semi-pro/enthusiast model – intended to plug the gap between the E-420/520 and the professional E-3 (in Canon terms it’s pitched at the 50D level, in Nikon terms somewhere around the D90 level). It makes use of the now tried and tested four-thirds system used in all of the E-series DSLR cameras, which has won over quite a number of photographers (at all levels of ability).

Some of the features on the E-30 are to be expected – Olympus were at the forefront of providing LiveView on DSLR cameras, and the E-30 features full auto-focus LiveView, and like the E-3 it also has a very useful swivel screen LCD (I have one of these on my digital compact (Canon Powershot A640) and it really does introduce a whole new level of versatility – especially good for composing self-portraits!).

The E-30 does feature some brand new, and highly unexpected ideas though. There’s a multiple-exposure feature (which works in conjunction with LiveView) – so you can build up multi-exposure shots in-camera and see the results as you go. It also has six built-in ‘art filters’: Pop Art, Soft Focus, Pale&Light Colour, Light Tone, Grainy Film & Pin Hole – to further increase the ‘in-camera’ creative potential. Oh, and the pixel count has been upped from the 10 megapixels of the E-3 to 12.3 megapixels.

But it’s not all gimmicks. The camera boasts a high burst-rate of 5fps (12 RAW images buffer), a top shutter speed of 1/8000 second, 11-point autofocus, face detection (for up to 8 faces at once), in-body image stabilisation, Compact Flash and xD card slots, and a maximum ISO of 3200. It features the brand new TruePix III+ processing engine, and also has a slightly bigger LCD than the E-3 (2.7″ as opposed to 2.5″) – despite the camera itself being noticably smaller in size – but unfortunately doesn’t share the E-3′s magnesium-alloy body (which the Canon and Nikon ‘equivalents’ do have, of course).

Whether it’s going to be offering enough to lure anyone away from the Big Two is doubtful. But for existing users of the 400 and 500 series of Olympus DSLRs, it looks like it will provide a nice step-up.

Pre-order prices are being listed at £999 (for body only) ($1299 in the States). But judging by recent releases from Canon and Nikon, I’d expect this price to settle at around £750 within a month or two.

The Olympus E-30 will be available in UK stores from March.

For more information visit the official site: Olympus – E30

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