Features & Controls (cont.)

Olympus has upgraded the display on the E-P3 with an impressive 3.0-inch, 460k dot, OLED monitor. On top of this, this is also a touchscreen unit. The OLED display offers much better color reproduction, and sharpness and contrast over the LCD type displays used on past models.

The control layout on the E-P3 is closer to the E-PL2 than the E-P2. All of these controls fall naturally underneath your right thumb. Starting at the top left you can see the Movie record button with red dot in the middle. While in Playback mode the Movie record button will tag photos. To the right is the main control wheel, which is used to alter various settings, depending on what exposure program is being used. It also helps you navigate the menu system. The small circle of holes in between these two controls is the speaker. Next we see the Magnify button. In record mode pressing this will allow you to select what the AF point is focusing in on, and pressing a second time will enter the zoom-AF preview full screen. This option makes it easy to focus on a certain object in the area to be photographed, with 5, 7, 10, and 14x steps to get as close as you need. In Playback mode this key is used to zoom in on an image for critical inspection. You can zoom in up to 14x in selected increments.

The INFO button will scroll through the different display options available in either record or playback mode. Next is the Index/Fn1 button, and in playback mode this will send you to the index of saved images allowing you to look at multiple files at the same time. If you press again it will bring up a calender type index so you can see when the photo was taken and search through a months worth of photos at a glance. Depending on what mode the camera is in, the Fn1 button acts as a quick access key to the settings for the selected mode.

The Playback button is next and simply takes you to the last image or video taken. The 4-way pad is to the right of the playback button and is used to navigate through most of the camera options. The 4-way pad also has a control ring mounted around it that can also be used for navigating through many options, and used to change various settings depending on the mode being used. The OK button in the center is for accepting selections. The 4-way pad is also used as quick access to features that may be used more frequently than others. Press it "Up" to adjust the EV compensation in the Auto modes, or change the aperture and shutter speed settings in A/S/M, "Right" for flash mode, "Down" for drive mode/self-time, and "Left" to choose the AF mode. The orange Delete key that looks like a garbage can does exactly what it looks like, it deletes selected images. The last button you see at the bottom is the Menu button that takes you all menu screen selections.

Secure Digital Storage

The E-P3 is equipped with a Secure Digital (SD) memory card slot and is compatible with any capacity SD, SDHC, or SDXC memory cards. Shown here with a spacious and speedy Sandisk Extreme (Class 10) 4GB SDHC memory card. The E-P3 is also Eye-Fi compliant.

I/O Interfaces

The I/O ports are located on the right side of the E-P3. The top port is a multi-connector port that handles both A/V OUT (user- selectable NTSC or PAL) for output to a TV monitor as well as USB 2.0 (high-speed) connectivity for transferring files to the host computer. The bottom is the Mini HDMI Type C accessory port for full HD output.

Power Source

The E-P3 ships with the same Olympus BLS-1 7.2V 1100mAh Li-ion rechargeable battery pack that has been used with past models. However, it is compatible with the BLS-5 pack that was introduced with the E-PL2; just be sure you use the specific charger for each type.  Olympus claims the BLS-1 will allow you to take up to aprox. 330 snaps, which may vary depending on conditions and settings to the camera. Also noted is a dead battery will take 3hrs. 30mins. to reach a full charge.

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