Olympus E-100RS Review

Record mode screen display (on the color LCD or the eyelevel color viewfinder). Across the top (left to right) is the recording mode "P"rogram AE, the aperture (F2.8), shutter speed (1/10) and the exposure compensation value (0.0). The drive mode is sequential-AF. The flash is diabled. The center square shows where the focusing will take precedence. Metering is set to Spot. The "hand" icon tells you that the image stabilization is enabled. The "[SM]" indicates the SmartMedia card slot is selected or "[CF]" if the CompactFlash slot is selected. The "173" indicates space remaining in current HQ resolution is sufficient for approximately 173 more pictures.

This is an animated view of all the possible record mode screen displays.

• "P" is Program AE (camera picks both aperture and shutter)
• "A" is Aperture priority - You set desired aperture (F2.8-8.0 wide, F3.5-8.0 tele) and the camera picks shutter speed
• "S" is Shutter speed priority - You set desired shutter speed (2 to 1/10,000 sec) and the camera picks the aperture
• "M" is full Manual - You select both aperture (F2.8 to F8) and shutter speed (1/10,000 to 16 secs), camera indicates the exposure value.
• S-Prg - the face icon indicates Portrait mode selected (special pre-programmed modes for Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Scene
• Movie - the movie camera icon indicates QuickTime Movie mode

Shooting in high-speed sequential mode the E-100 RS can capture full resolution 1360 X 1024 still images at up to 15 frames per second - that's the same as the capture rate of most other digicams shooting in 320 x 240 movie mode!

The screen above shows the camera in the middle of a 7.5fps sequential capture of ten images. The horizontal bar on the right shows the maximum amount of buffer RAM available and is indicating half-full with 5 images already captured. The green vertical bar on the left shows the status of the images as they are being processed.

The E-100 RS can capture images BEFORE you even press the shutter button all the way down. The Pre-Capture option can be enabled for 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 images, these images will be captured when the shutter is half-pressed. The camera continually captures and processes images while the shutter is held halfway down. Pre-Capture can be used in conjunction with the sequential mode if desired.

Before you ask what the use of the Pre-Capture mode is ... let's say you're ready to capture that "once in a lifetime" event of a building being demolished and you aim the camera, half-press the shutter button and then wait for the explosion. The explosion goes off and you hesitate a half a second too long before pressing the shutter all the way down to start the sequence. Without Pre-Capture you missed the first couple of important shots -- with Pre-Capture enabled, you got them!

The E-100RS has the same type of manual focus as the C-2100 UltraZoom. You get an onscreen display of the camera to subject distance and adjust the focus using the Up and Down buttons. When you are actively focusing in manual mode the display is magnified which makes easier to actually "see" the proper focus point.

You can add a 4-second voice annotation to a still picture if space permits on the memory card. You can re-record over a previous recording if desired.

Animated view of all of the Record mode menu screens.

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SM/CF - Select the SmartMedia or CompactFlash card slot

- Sequential mode framerate 3, 5, 7.5 or 15 fps

PRE-CAPTURE - Off or On, if On then X1, X2, X3, X4 or X5

WB - White balance: Auto, Daylight, Overcast, Incandescent, Flourescent or One-Push manual

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- Flash output power +/- 2 in 0.3 increments

- Flash slow-sync: Off, Slow1 (leading), Slow2 (trailing)

BKT - Autoexposure bracketing: AE comp +/-0.3, +/-0.6, +/-1.0 and WB +/-1, +/-2, +/-3

MULTIMETERING - On or Off

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- Image stabilizer On or Off

AF MODE - Autofocus mode: Normal or Spot

FULL-TIME AF - Fulltime autofocus: On or Off

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SUPER TELE - Off, On (Digital zoom up to 2.7x)

FUNCTION - Off, B&W

CARD SETUP - Format the selected memory card

- Record sound clip after picture, On or Off

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MODE SETUP - (3 pages of submenus):

ALL RESET - Reset all settings to default or Customize individually

- Sharpness: Hard, Normal, Soft

TIFF - Resolution for TIFF mode: 1360x1024, 1280x960, 1024x786, 640x480

SQ - Resolution for SQ mode: 1280x960, 1024x768, 640x480 - High or Normal

- Shutter sound: Off, Low or High, Type 1 or 2

- Beep sound: Off, Low or High

AF ILLUMINATOR - Autofocus assist lamp: On, Off

REC VIEW - Preview after capture: On, Off

SLEEP - Auto-Off timer: Off, 30s, 1m, 2m, 5m

FILE NAME - Auto (sequentially numbers files) or Reset

SHOT CANCEL - Off, On

- Adjust LCD backlight intensity

- Set the time and date

m/ft - Manual focus indicator in feet or meters

ISO - Sensitivity: Auto, 100, 200, 400

S-Prg - Special Program: Portrait, Sports, Landscape, Night Scene

- Image Quality: TIFF, SHQ, HQ, SQ