Olympus' New E3 for High-End Shooters
If you're anything like us, you're hands are a little shaky, thanks to years of manic video game sessions and text-messaging away on tiny keypads. If you're also a serious photographer, though, you're in luck, since Olympus' new top-tier digital SLR camera has some integrated technology that's aimed at those with shaky hands. The new Olympus E3 is the latest "prosumer" entry from Olympus, meaning it's a camera ostensibly good enough for professionals, but easy enough to use and priced at a point where some serious amateur shooters can swing.
Mind you, when we say serious, we mean someone willing to spend $1,699 on a camera without a lens! That's the estimated street price on this thing when it drops in November.
For that price, you'll get just the E3 itself, a 10-megapixel SLR camera body. SLR (single-lens reflex) technically means that the viewport looks directly through the glass of the lens, but in the world of digital cameras it generally means a shooter that has swappable lenses. So, yes, your $1,699 camera won't be any good without some equally expensive glass on the end, but the E3 itself will deliver one feature typically only found in high-end SLR lenses: image stabilization (IS). IS means compensation for your shaky hands to produce a blur-free image, and the E3 has it built right in. This means all of its lenses can compensate for a little unintentional twitch. Most comparable SLRs, like those from Canon and Nikon, require that you buy higher-end IS lenses ... or carry around a tripod or monopod wherever you go.
Interestingly, the E3 also supports both the traditional CompactFlash style memory card, the standard for most SLRs, and the smaller xD-style card Olympus has been pushing. However, given that xD cards currently top out at just two-gigabytes (GB), you'll probably want to stick with the larger capacity CompactFlash cards on which to store the huge 10-megapixel images this camera takes. That is, unless you like swapping memory cards.
The E3 also sports a 2.5'-inch, dual-axis swivel LCD on the back, which you can pivot around at any angle, and auto-focus speeds said to be the fastest in the world when combined with the ED 12-60mm f2.8-4.0 lens from Zuiko Digital -- which will set you back another $1,000.
The $1,699 price without lens will likely scare away many amateurs, but the overall E3 package offers those serious shooters another choice between the other go-to cameras in this price range, the Canon EOS 40D and the Nikon D300. As we all know, gadget competition is a good thing for shoppers, whether they be prosumers or just plain 'ol amatuers.
Gallery: Olympus E3
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