In summary
Notable performance aspects of the E-1 were its focusing speed and accuracy and the spot meter’s accuracy was equally impressive. The white balance control performed well under a variety of lighting conditions. Image quality in bright lighting was very good and the test lens delivered full edge-to-edge sharpness but noise was obvious at high ISO settings. . . [more]
Full review
The first foray into digital SLR cameras by Olympus, this model was also the first camera to feature the new ‘Four Thirds’ format developed by Olympus and Kodak and announced at Photokina 2002. The E-1 sports a tough magnesium-alloy body with weatherproof sealing. Olympus has added a special Supersonic Wave Filter and Dust Reduction System between the shutter and the CCD, which removes dust that enters the camera when changing lenses. There’s a hot shoe but no built-in flash and the grip, which accommodates the separate battery and card chambers, has been designed to suit large hands. The E-1 uses a full-frame transfer CCD, which has a 4:3 aspect ratio and 2x lens multiplier factor. The top of the camera has an LCD control panel plus a mode dial with P, A, S and M settings and all shooting controls are straightforward.
Notable performance aspects of the E-1 were its focusing speed and accuracy and the spot meter’s accuracy was equally impressive. The white balance control performed well under a variety of lighting conditions. Image quality in bright lighting was very good and the test lens delivered full edge-to-edge sharpness but noise was obvious at high ISO settings.
Strengths:
- Designed for digital from the start
- Supersonic Wave Filter removes dust from sensor
- Solid ‘splash proof’ magnesium alloy body
- Excellent picture quality with neutral colour and negligible sharpening artefacts
- Good white balance performance with wide range of presets, all fine-tunable
- Fast start-up, data storage
- Selectable colour space options with embedded profiles
Weaknesses:
- Cannot accept existingOlympus 35mm lenses
- Visible noise and stuck pixels at ISO 400 and above
- Only three AF points
- No built-in flash (but hot shoe provided)
- Slow processing of TIFF and RAW files
- No histogram/exposure display with instant playback [BG05]
Full review in Issue 15 (February/March 2004)
Specifications
Image sensor: 17.3 x 13.0 mm (4/3 type) full frame transfer primary colour CCD with 5,500,000 photosites (5.0 megapixels effective)
Lens mount/LMF: Zuiko Digital Four Thirds mount/2.0x
Image file formats: RAW (12-bit), TIFF (RGB) and JPEG.
Shutter Speed Range: 60-1/4000 sec plus Bulb (limit 8 min.); X-sync at 1/180 sec
Storage Media: Type I/II CompactFlash cards and Microdrives.
Body Dimensions (wxhxd):141 x 104 x 81mm
Weight: 660g (body only)
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