I bought this camera on my honeymoon, on our first stop over which was in Singapore and at the time - this time last year, it was pretty snazzy, I can tell you.
Well, a year on, and to be honest, although i'm sure you can pick up something that is just that little bit better, I cant really see how you can improve that drastically.
At a whopping 8 mega pixels the quality of the pictures you take are amazing. You can enlarge and enlarge to sizes you just wouldnt need to and the picture remains as sharp as a knife.
The camera is digital and this was my first venture into a 'proper camera' that is digital. and by this I mean SLR.
Having taken A level photography at school, I was pretty much against digitalising everything, and was insisant on stying true to good old film, which I used to enjoy processing myself in my dark room.
Well, having got married and also found myself pregnant, i was forced to admit that those hours of pottering quietly away in a dark room were over for the time being, and perhaps I ought to step into the 21st Century.
Singapore was an ideal place to make this decision and it also meant that we got quite a bargain.
The camera itself has the following features:
Eight megapixel Kodak 4/3 Type CCD sensor
Four Thirds lens mount
Optical Porro Finder.
The optical porro finder is the view finder which uses four mirrors instead of a prism, it has a sideways swinging mirror that lends to the camera's flat-top profile. This means that instead of the image from the lens going up to the viewfinder prism, instead, it is directed rightwards and then up to the viewfinder which is offset from the lens axis.
Now to be perfectly honest
with you, I'm not really 100% on what benefits that actually gives you, but for those of you that do- the information is there!
Ok, for those of you who want specifications etc - scoot down to the bottom where it is all listed. For those of you who just want an idea of the product - read on.
The camera is easy to use and has various settings which you can use to alter the shutter and aperture speeds. It has automatic focus, which can be overidden to manual.You can also alter the settings of the pixels used, so that you use less memory, although, if your going to do that, you may aswell buy a camera that uses less pixels and spend a but less.
Due to the camera using 8 mega pixels, you will require a large memory card. i use a 1 gig memory card, which at the time was the biggest you could buy, no doubt you can get bigger these days though!
I managed to haggle 2 of these into the deal along with a spare battery and charger, which I have found essential.
This camera has altered my opinon of digital cameras, and although not converted, I am happy with it. Being a graphic designer, I am able to manipulate the images nicely, but its not the same as using the old fashioned methods in a dark room.
The automatic focus is excellent, as well as the zoom, so if you want a point and click camera, that does a bit more... this could be for you. If you like to be able to have a bit more control over your photographs then this could be for you too and if you fancy yourself as a press photgrapher than you can use the feature which takes continuous photographs ... a versatile little devil it is.
Another good feature is that the flash only comes on when you tell it to, I hate automatic flashes!
At the time I paid £400 for the camera with the standard lense, a UV filter, 2 batteries, charger and 2 gig memory cards. This was in Singapore though. I see they are selling for about £550 here.
Here's the technical spec:
Sensor
• 4/3 type CCD (Kodak Full Frame Transfer)
• 17.3 x 13.0 mm active area
• 8.9 million total pixels
• 8.0 million effective pixels
• RGB (Primary) color filter array
• Fixed low pass filter (anti-alias filter)
• Supersonic Wave Filter (dust protection)
Image sizes
• 3264 x 2448
• 3200 x 2400
• 2560 x 1920
• 1600 x 1200
• 1280 x 960
• 1024 x 768
• 640 x 480
File formats
• RAW
• RAW + JPEG
• TIFF
• JPEG (EXIF 2.2) - three levels
Lenses
• 4/3 standard lens mount
• Range of ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses available
• 2x FOV crop
Auto focus
• 3-point TTL Phase Difference Detection
• Automatic or manual point selection
• EV 0 to 19 (ISO 100) detection range
Focus area selection
• Automatic
• Manual
Focus modes
• Single shot AF
• Continuous AF
• Manual focus
Manual focus
Focus by wire
AF assist lamp
• Yes, flash strobe (flash must be raised)
Exposure modes
• Program AE (with shift)
• Aperture priority AE
• Shutter priority AE
• Manual
• Scene
Sensitivity
• Auto (ISO 100 - 400)
• ISO 100
• ISO 200
• ISO 400
• Expanded: ISO 800, ISO 1600
Metering modes
• Digital ESP
• Center-Weighted Average
• Spot (2%)
AE Lock
• AEL button
• With shutter release half-press
AE Bracketing
• 3 frames
• 1/3, 1/2, 0.7 or 1.0 EV steps
Exposure steps
1/3, 1/2 or 1.0 EV
Exposure compen.
• -5.0 to +5.0 EV
• 1/3, 1/2 or 1.0 EV steps
Shutter speed
• Program AE mode: 1 - 1/4000 sec
• Aperture, Shutter Priority mode: 30 - 1/4000 sec
• Manual mode: 30 - 1/4000 sec, Bulb
Flash X-sync speed
• 1/180 sec
• 1/4000 sec (Super FP mode)
Aperture values
Depends on lens: 1/3, 1/2 or 1.0 EV steps
White balance
• Auto
• 3000 K (Incandescent)
• 3600 K (Incandescent)
• 4000 K (Fluorescent)
• 4500 K (Fluorescent)
• 5500 K (Sunny)
• 6500 K (Cloudy)
• 6600 K (Fluorescent)
• 7500 K (Shade)
• Kelvin (2000 - 10000 K)
• Custom
* All of the above can be fine tuned +/- 7 levels except manual presets
WB Bracketing
• 3 frames
• 1, 2 or 3 steps
Color space
• sRGB
• Adobe RGB
Image parameters
• Saturation (5 levels)
• Contrast (5 levels)
• Sharpness (5 levels)
• Monochrome (B&W, Sepia)
• Graduation (High Key, Normal, Low Key)
Drive modes
• Single
• Continuous
Continuous
• 2.5 fps
• 4 frames maximum
Self-timer
• 2 sec
• 12 sec
Flash
• Slide pop-up
• TTL auto
• Guide no. 13
External flash
• Hot shoe
• TTL Auto FP / TTL auto for Olympus dedicated flash
• Modes: Auto / Red-eye Reduction / Slow Syncro / 2nd Curtain Slow Syncro / Fill-in for exclusive flash
• Flash power: Up to +/- 2EV in each 1, 1/2, or 1/3 EV step for exclusive flash
Viewfinder
• Eye-level TTL Optical Porro Finder
• Field of view 94%
• Magnification 1.0x with a 50mm lens and -1 dioptre
• Eye point 20 mm at -1 dioptre
• Dioptre adjustment -3 to +1 ditopre
• Focusing screen: Fixed Neo Lumicron Matte
• Mirror: side swing quick return mirror
Viewfinder info
• AF point
• AF frame
• AE lock
• AF confirmation
• Metering mode
• Exposure mode
• Shutter speed
• Aperture value
• White balance
• Exposure compensation value
• Flash
• Battery level indicator
• Record mode
• Number of storable sequential pictures
Control panel display
• Flash mode
• Flash compensation value
• Metering mode
• Focus mode
• Record mode
• Exposure mode
• Battery check
• Aperture value
• Shutter speed
• Number of storable still pictures
• Number of storable sequential pictures
• Image quality adjustment
• ISO
• Colour space
• Mono tone
• Hi/Lo key
• Colour saturation compensation value
• Sharpness compensation value
• White balance
• AE lock
• Exposure level indicator
• Exposure compensation value
• Exposure compensation indicator
• AF frame
• Auto bracket
• Noise reduction mode
• White balance bracket
• Drive mode
• Selected scene mode
• Number of pixels
Orientation sensor
Yes
LCD monitor
• 1.8" TFT LCD monitor ('advanced super view')
• 134,000 pixels
• 100% frame coverage
Playback functions
• Single
• Magnify (2 - 10x)
• Index (4, 9, 16 frames)
• Slide show
• Histogram / Highlight warning
Editing
• RAW development
• JPEG editing (monochrome only)
Connectivity
• USB (1.1)
• Video Out (NTSC / PAL)
• IR Remote control (optional)
• DC-IN
Vertical / portrait grip
Optional HLD-3
Power
• BLM-1 1500 mAh Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery (supplied & charger)
• Optional Power Battery Holder HLD-3 and Lithium-Ion battery
• Optional AC adapter AC-1
Dimensions
147 x 85 x 64 mm (5.8 x 3.4 x 2.5 in)
Weight (no batt)
580 g (1.3 lb)
Weight (inc batt)
624 g (1.4 lb)
Thanks for reading!
by (5%):
by (75%):
by (20%):
16.08.2006 23:20
You may like to know that this camera gets even better if you download the upgraded firmware (v1.4) as opposed to the version 1.0 that it ships with. The new version adds several features and DRAMATICALLY improves the metering performance and colour accuity of the camera. That said I agree it is a superb bit of kit!
16.03.2006 14:37
Sounds a fantastic camera. x
16.03.2006 11:05
Ive just upgraded my original digital camera to an 8.3 million pixel Kodak . It will be nice to be able to crop out detail without losing quality as I do now . J xx