After the update of the mid-range models like the Olympus E-510 people were long waiting the update for the professional level Olympus E-1. For some reason they skipped the E-2 name and went straight to E-3, it was announced a while back in October.

It’s a pretty solid camera toting the fastest AF on the market (only with SWD lenses of course) and vivid Olympus colours. The main problem of course with the Olympus system in general is the limitation of the sensor size..This means in reality it can never compete on a noise/detail level with other 1.5x or 1.6x crop sensors and will be nowhere near full frame offerings from any camp.

Also the much touted AF is only fast in bright light, in dim conditions it hunts worse than Canon or Nikon cameras with AF-S or USM lenses.

The noise in dim conditions is also quite bad and visible as low as ISO200, in bright conditions it stands up well to ISO1600.

Features

• A 10.1 effective Megapixel LiveMOS sensor
• Sensor-shift image stabilization
• Live view on a flip-out, rotating 2.5″ LCD display
• World’s fastest autofocus when paired with the 12 - 60 mm SWD lens pictured above (according to Olympus)
• Shoots at 5 frames/second
• Weather-sealed, very well-built body
• Dust reduction system
• Large optical viewfinder
• Dual memory card slots (xD + CF)

All in all it’s a well specced and well built camera, it might not suite everyone but it certainly does have a following.

All things considered, the Olympus E-3 is a solid midrange digital SLR, in more ways than one. It does almost everything well, with just a few weaknesses, most of which have easy workarounds. If you’re an enthusiast looking for a powerful D-SLR that doesn’t mind if it gets a little bit wet, then I can highly recommend taking a look at the E-3.

Read the full review here:

DCRP Review: Olympus E-3

Since the Detailed Hands on Preview of Nikon D300, we’ve just been waiting…no more reviews other than informal stuff on blogs and by word of mouth.

Plenty of test pictures, but no real in-depth goodies. Until now! DCRP has come up with what we wanted, a real in-depth review of the new Nikon D300 with pictures, test shots, and a good exam of the new stuff.

The main new features of the D300 are:

• New 12.3 effective Megapixel DX-format CMOS sensor
• EXPEED image processing “concept”
• Continuous shooting as fast as 8 frames/second (with the optional battery grip)
• 51-point autofocus with 3D subject tracking
• Huge 3-inch LCD display with 307,000 pixels (920,000 dots) with live view support
• Dust reduction system
• Picture Control settings let you have sets of color control settings (think Picture Styles on Canon SLRs)
• Active D-Lighting lets you brighten shadows while taking photos (instead of after)
• Rugged magnesium alloy body is sealed against dust and moisture
• HDMI video output

And it’s got a scorching review beating it’s competitors in pretty much every area. The only apparent weaknesses seem so be a flimsy CF card door and a slight over-expose (might be fixed in firmware but I doubt it as it lends itself to better high ISO performance when overexposing slightly).

The images appear slightly soft straight from the camera too, but that’s normal for Nikon as they try to retain maximum detail. It looks wonderful after some careful USM (Unsharp Mask) or Smart Sharpen.

All things considered, Nikon has done a really impressive job with the D300. They made a lot of promises, and the D300 has delivered on them. It keeps up perfectly with its closest competition, the EOS-40D, and surpasses it in several areas. Whether you’re upgrading from an older Nikon SLR, or want something “nice” for your first foray into digital SLRs, then the Nikon D300 is a camera that I can highly recommend.

Read the full review here:

DCRP Review: Nikon D300

Ah finally the E-1 replacement comes out! The top of the range Olympus, competing on the ground with the new Sony Alpha A-700, the Canon EOS 40D and the Nikon D300.

In June 2003 Olympus revealed the E-1, which many people touted as the best Olympus camera. It certainly had the fastest focusing. Now we have the long awaited replacement the 10 megapixel E-3.

A friend managed to get a hands on in Japan at the launch, his intial notes were that the AF was extremely fast and there was no colour or exposure shift at higher ISO.

Noise at high ISO is very monochromatic and detail is retained, much like the results from the latest crop of Olympus dSLRs with a few tweaks.

This new high-speed flagship of the Olympus E-System features the world’s fastest autofocus with 11-point-full twin cross sensoring, high-speed sequential shooting at 5 fps, and high-speed shutter up to 1/8000 second. The optional HLD-4 Power Battery Holder can hold up to two Lithium Ion BLM-1 batteries to extend the performance life, and like the E-3 body, the battery holder is splash-proof and dust-proof.

The E-3 body will be available in November for a street price of $1,699 - so that should put it at about RM6k in Malaysia.

You can read the full press release here:

Olympus E-3 at DPReview

The Nikon D3 detailed preview has been released shortly after the Nikon D300 Preview came out as expected.

Still no reviews of either camera, but that’s no surprise.

The Canon EOS 40D came to market extremely fast though, I think Canon is trying to win back some market share before the monster Nikon D300 comes out.

The specs are awesome as from the first release.

• First ever Nikon DSLR with a Full-Frame (36 x 24 mm) sensor (coined FX format)
• 12.1 megapixel full-frame sensor (8.45µm pixel pitch)
• ISO 200 - 6400 (with boost up to ISO 25600)
• Also supports DX lenses, viewfinder automatically masks (5.1 megapixels with DX lens)
• 5:4 ratio crop mode (10 megapixels, up to 9 fps, viewfinder masked)
• 14-bit A/D conversion, 12 channel readout
• Nikon EXPEED image processor (Capture NX processing and NR algorithms, lower power)
• Super fast operation (power-up 12 ms, shutter lag 41 ms, black-out 74 ms)
• New Kevlar / carbon fibre composite shutter with 300,000 exposure durability
• New Multi-CAM3500FX Auto Focus sensor (51-point, 15 cross-type, more vertical coverage)
• Auto-focus tracking by color (using information from 1005-pixel AE sensor)
• Auto-focus calibration (fine-tuning) now available (fixed body or up to 20 separate lens settings)
• Scene Recognition System (uses AE sensor, AF sensor)
• Picture Control image parameter presets (replace Color Modes I, II and III)
• Custom image parameters now support brightness as well as contrast
• Nine frames per second continuous with auto-focus tracking
• Eleven frames per second continuous without auto-focus tracking
• Ten / eleven frames per second continuous in DX-crop mode (AF / no-AF)
• Dual Compact Flash card slots (overflow, back-up, RAW on 1 / JPEG on 2, copy)

The professional Nikon D ’single digit’ series of digital SLR’s started life back in June 1999 with the groundbreaking D1. Groundbreaking because it was the digital SLR which broke Kodak’s stranglehold on the digital SLR market and fundamentally brought prices down to a level which most professionals could afford (around the US$5,500 mark). Since then we have seen a steady progression of this line of cameras, while the core values of a high quality full size body with integrated grip have remained the line split into two halves, one targeted at high resolution photography the other high speed sports type photography (lower resolution but faster continuous shooting); the X and H suffixes. It’s been almost three years since Nikon introduced a completely new digital SLR with a new sensor (the D2X) and there has been much anticipation that Nikon’s next move would be a full-frame chip.

You can find the full Hands-on Preview from DPReview here:

Nikon D3 Hands-on Preview

There are also some new high ISO shots released.

Nikon D3 FX Format Digital SLR High ISO Image Samples

This is the ultimate poison, wow! Great build quality like the tank that is the Nikon D200 and a host of other features…it looks like they have another award winner along with the Nikon D3 which is going to shift the whole paradigm!

This follows very shortly after the Nikon D300 was Announced.

It really looks like an incredible camera!

You can read the full Preview here:

Nikon D300 Hands-on Preview

I can’t wait for the Nikon D3 Preview or Review to come out!