Product Reviews

The Olympus E1 is the first digital camera to feature the four-thirds system, a new common standard, designed by Olympus and Kodak, which has the aim of facilitating the development of dedicated digital camera lens systems, higher lens resolution, lower vignetting and tighter flatness of field, which all improve optical performance.

The four-thirds system has a relatively small CCD, which allows its lenses to be smaller than those in models using full-frame or APS-size sensors. This becomes most significant when you look at longer telephoto lenses. For instance, it's claimed a 600mm lens for the system equates to a 300mm lens used on a full-frame model in terms of its physical size. There are only a handful lenses available now, but more are promised for next year.

The E1's sensor only has five million pixels, which is quite small for what Olympus claims is a professional camera (it promises a higher resolution product in the future). Even so, the E1's output quality is good enough for the images to be to enlarged to A3 prints.

The compact 141mm x 104mm x 81mm E1 has a unique but pleasing design, with handling greatly enhanced by its metal shell and good ergonomics.

The Digital ESP metering is impressive; it's quite simply among the best automatic exposures we've come across. However, with high contrast you still need to meter from the right place then recompose after locking the exposure using centre-weighted or spot-mode alternatives. Most of our test shots were captured at 100 ISO. The range runs up to 800 ISO with a two-stop boost up to 3200 ISO. Noise may be an issue for the more critical photographer at 400 ISO, but for most it won't become apparent until 800 ISO. The E1 also boasts a useful feature called Super Sonic Wave Filter, which uses a sound

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wave to displace dust attracted to the sensor's surface.

Image conscious

Program mode, aperture priority, shutter priority and manual controls are available, with exposure times ranging fromeight minutes to 1/4000 seconds depending on the mode.

Focusing using the lens-driven autofocus is pleasingly quiet. The autofocus has three sensors, and the centre one features a cross design for vertical or horizontal pattern detection. As the camera is small, manual focus under low light conditions isn't great, so you may find this irritating if macro is your thing. The grip sizes on the standard 14-54mm f2.8/3.5 zoom (£422) and 50mm f2 macro (£332) lenses were comfortable and easy to control even with gloves on. Images are reviewed on a 1.8in LCD. This is small for a professional-class model, but it still shows 100% of the captured image.

The E1 can store images onto Compact Flash Type I and II cards or a Microdrive, and there's a choice of FireWire or USB connectivity.

The camera's maximum resolution gives a 2560 x 1920 pixel image, which is saved as a JPEG or RAW file. The lack of a TIFF option is an oversight on a professional camera, but the supplied Olympus Studio 1.0 software allows the RAW file to be processed into an 8- or 16-bit TIFF, and it also lets you save the image as a PICT file. Studio 1.0 certainly is a fine package, with manipulation capabilities befitting the 'pro' claim.

Sharp shooter

There's no integral flash, so we tested the device using Olympus' flagship FL-50 hotshoe unit, and the results were fine under a range of conditions, both inside and out. There are options for in-camera adjustment of contrast, saturation and compensation before any shot. In fact, there's pretty much all you would expect, including an sRGB or Adobe 1998 colour space option.

We had a problem with the camera not coming out of sleep, though, needing to be turned off then on again, which was a bit frustrating. That aside, apart from being a little slow at writing and playback for action shots, there was nothing that set alarm bells ringing.

While the E1 isn't truly a professional camera, it's certainly one of the best compact digital cameras we've seen. With higher-resolution models and exciting lenses in the pipeline, it's worth looking seriously into the four-thirds system. The Olympus E1 is highly recommended.