Olympus E-300 digital camera review

Based on the TIPA Award-winning FourThirds Standard, The Olympus E-300 comes in a kit featuring a new 14–45mm ZUIKO DIGITAL zoom. The impressive features of the kit include:

• High performance Kodak 8-Megapixel Progressive Scan CCD imager


• SuperSonic Wave dust filter over the image sensor


• Four-Thirds System lens mount for Zuiko Digital Specific lenses


• Program Auto, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual and Scene exposure modes


• Selectable sRGB or Adobe RGB Color Space


• JPEG, TIFF and RAW file formats


• Simultaneous capture of RAW + JPEG files


• Digital ESP, Center-weighted or Spot exposure metering modes


• Exposure compensation ±5 steps EV in 1, 1/2 or 1/3 steps


• 3-point (selectable) TTL Auto Focus


• Builtin multi-mode intelligent flash


• Hot shoe for E System TTL flash units (FL36, FL50)


• High capacity Li-ion rechargeable battery and charger(BLM-1 battery)


• Capture 2.5fps up to 4 frames in RAW or TIFF


• Auto Exposure and White Balance bracketing


• ISO range 100 to 400 with boost to 800/1600


• White balance settings from 3,000K to 10,000K in 12 steps and 4 custom white balance settings


• Next Generation TruePic Technology with advanced noise reduction


• 5-level Sharpening, Contrast and Saturation controls


• 1.8" HyperCrystal LCD monitor with 160° viewing angle


• USB connectivity and PictBridge direct-print compatible


• CompactFlash Type I and II, Microdrive compatible


• High capacity Li-ion rechargeable battery and charger


• Optional Battery Grip with heavy-duty battery pack

In the box

The Olympus E-300 comes complete with the new Zuiko Digital 14-45mm f3.5-5.6 zoom lens. Apart from this you will find USB and video cables, shoulder strap and body and lens caps. As with all other DSLRs no memory card is included, so our advise would be to go out and buy the largest CompactFlash card you can afford. Keep in mind that a single JPEG image from an 8-megapixel camera at maximum resolution will be something like 5Mb to 8Mb, depending on the level of compression used. Fortunately card capacities are rising as prices are coming down.

The E-300 uses the BLM1 li-ion battery which is the same as the one used in the E-1 and several other Olympus cameras. During our tests we managed to take about 400 images with one single charge. We didn't skimp on using the LCD and it was freezing outside, so results might well be a bit more favourable in warmer circumstances. The BCM2 AC-charger takes about 5 hours to get an empty battery ready for action again. We did not have a camera manual to our disposal at the time of our test, but from our experience we know that Olympus always include a printed manual to explain the basic functions of the camera, whereas advanced options are explained on the accompanying CD.

Image quality

Let's find out if performance of the included kit lens can really match the professional standard of the FourThirds system. The Zuiko Digital 14-45mm f3.5-5.6 zoom lens (28-90mm eq), has a shortest focusing distance of 0.38m/1.3ft which does not make it suitable for true macro work but - to be honest - this is not what most photographers will use it for anyway. Far more important is the general image quality in day to day picture situations. We have to conclude that in this field the lens performs quite well. Sharpness at wide angle is good although at telephoto it appears to be a little softer. Stopping down the lens obviously improves on this. There is some barrel distortion at wide angle but it appears to be less than with 28mm equivalent lenses on other prosumer DSLRs. Pincushion distortion at tele is not an issue, as there isn't any. Vignetting is kept well under control at wide angle although we found some slight shading in extreme corners at tele setting - see one of the sample images above. Chromatic aberration is completely absent.

The standars that choose a good camera is longer working time and a high quality image.All of these are given by Olympus E-300 camera.E-300 have a high capacity olympus BLM-1 battery, 0.1 second with manual focus.So the olympus camera is better choose.