The E-10's lens is a large diameter 4x, 9-36mm lens (35-140mm 35mm camera equivalent) zoom made from ED glass, the dual aspherical elements reduce chromatic aberrations. It features a fast F2.0 maximum aperture with a multi-bladed diaphram to give it true depth of field control. The zoom's focal length is manually controlled by turning a ring on the barrel of the lens and it also has a manual focus ring too. The focus range is from 0.6m to infinity in normal mode and from 0.2 to 0.8m in macro mode. This is an internal focusing lens so any conversion lens or filter attached to the 62mm threads will not rotate.

You can easily switch from autofocus to manual by flipping a lever on the side of the camera. The manual focus is stepless and the viewfinder features a real focusing screen. If you're using the LCD as a viewfinder the distance to subject is displayed when in manual focus mode. The infrared-assisted AF can be "fooled" by parallax error when shooting subjects closer than six feet in dim lighting. You can defeat the IR-assist by going into the menu and selecting one of the auxilliary lens options. All focusing will now be done via the TTL method. I found the IR-assisted autofocus to be excellent in even total darkness. Overall the autofocus system is quite robust and accurate

The E-10 has a good, solid feel to it thanks to the all-aluminum body and the large hand grip. I found it every bit as comfortable and secure feeling as the Canon D30. I have not had a chance to use the optional battery grip as it was not yet available. It is by no means a "compact" camera measuring 5.0 x 4.1 x 7.0 inches and weighing 37 ounces without batteries. I'm sure that most users will waste little time attaching the neck strap to it as it is definitely too heavy to hand carry for very long. Anyone that has used a professional camera knows that extra mass also means extra stability and that yields better pictures. The metal body and mirror box is used to dissapate the heat that the imager and internal electronics generate and that produces less noisey images, especially when shooting long exposures. A cooler running camera helps the components last longer too.

Unlike most SLR cameras the E-10 does not use a mirror to send the image up to the viewfinder. It uses a light-splitting prism which is why you can use either the optical or LCD screen as the live viewfinder. It also means that there isn't the usual "mirror slap" noise when you trip the shutter. For those that miss this sound, Olympus has built in a shutter/mirror sound effect that is emitted from a speaker on the bottom of the camera. You can turn it on or off and make it loud or soft. When the image is captured the viewfinder also "blacks out" momentarily to give the photographer even more 35mm-like shutter feedback.

The camera requires about 5 seconds to go from Off to ready to shoot. This time can be quicker or slower depending on the memory device being used as it is checked during the boot up sequence. The user controls are plentiful on the E-10, there's buttons on the top, the left side and all over the back of the camera. Other Olympus cameras like the C-3030 make extensive use of menus on the color LCD to change camera settings. The E-10 lets you change recording modes, flash modes, drive modes, white balance, metering, storage device, focus and exposure compensation by pressing a button, turning a dial and checking the results on the top-mounted data display. In this respect the camera operates more like a conventional 35mm SLR and saves battery power by not using the color LCD.

And speaking of color LCDs ... the E-10 has a rather nifty 1.8-inch TFT display. You can pull it out away from the body and then tilt it upwards about 90 degrees or tilt it downwards about 20 degrees. This makes the LCD a very useable viewfinder device with the camera in a variety of different shooting angles. The amount of information displayed on the LCD can be controlled by pressing the INFO button. The user can toggle between no information, exposure information or distance to subject information overlayed across the bottom. In playback mode the images can be magnified up to 4x with scrolling pan or as small thumbnails. When viewing an image fullscreen you can toggle the overlay information with the INFO button. Full camera and exposure data can be displayed as well as a histogram to indicate the captured dynamic range. One thing I noticed is that anytime the color LCD is active the remote drive mode is disabled. This holds true even if the video signal is being sent to an external monitor.

The eyelevel viewfinder is large and bright with a clearly defined AF target mark and spot metering area in the center. The somewhat narrow viewing angle requires that you have your eye firmly up against the eycup. The accuracy of optical viewfinder varies depending on the focal length of the lens and shows 92-95% of the captured image. This is well within normal tolerance found in 35mm film SLR cameras. Due to the location and height of the viewfinder the color LCD is not prone to nose smears from right- or left-eyed users. Along the bottom of the viewfinder you will find a digital status display line that includes an autofocus "OK" indicator, a flash status icon, macro mode icon, shutter speed and aperture value, metering mode icon, exposure compensation value, AE Lock icon and white balance if other than auto. Even though it doesn't have a split-prism or fresnel focusing area like most 35mm SLRs, the E-10's ground glass screen does let you visually "see" the effects of manual focusing. When using the LCD as the viewfinder or using the Bulb setting, there is a shutter that can be closed to keep light from coming in through the eyepiece.

Sequence mode, fast image processing hardware and a generous 32MB buffer allow the E-10 to capture up to four frames at a rate of three frames per second in full resolution -- even uncompressed TIFFs. In single shot mode you can take pictures one right after another until the memory card is full. Captured images can be stored on the supplied 32MB or any 3.3v SmartMedia card up to 128MB or any CompactFlash Type I or II card. The jury is still out regarding the use of IBM Microdrives. Personally I have tried using the 1GB Microdrive but neither the data LCD or the viewfinder's status line display when the Microdrive is in the camera. Other users have reported no problems when using the 340MB Microdrive but the bottom line is that Olympus has stated that "use of the IBM Microdrive is not recommended." The user can switch between the CF or SM card slot by pressing a button on the top of the camera and rotating the command dial. Both cards are easily removed even by those of us with larger than average size fingers.

The E-10 can be powered by the supplied two Olympus CR-V3 lithium batteries or four AA type batteries, NiMH rechargeable strongly recommended. Olympus will have an optional battery grip (B-HLD10) and high-power lithium polymer battery (B-10LPB) for the E-10 by year's end. Besides offering a lot more battery power the grip also provides a vertical shutter release and a more stable portrait grip. For most average users the camera's internal batteries will be more than adequate if you limit your color LCD useage.

The ergonomics of the E-10 are excellent. As mentioned earlier, it has a large hand grip that gives you a very secure means of holding the camera. The controls are well laid out and easy to get to with a minimum amount of movement. Your right index finger falls naturally on the shutter release and your right thumb when lifted slightly off the contoured back finds the rear command dial. Your left hand cups the underside of the lens to support the heft of the camera and your fingers easily find the zoom ring. The most used controls are located right around the data LCD and Mode Dial on the top and the rest are located on the left side. You only need to operate the E-10 for a short time before you feel right at home with it.

Exposure options are as abundant as those found on any professional SLR. There's a fully automatic Program AE mode for grabbing quick shots without having to do anything other than turn it on, point and shoot. From there it can be as simple or complex as the shooting situation requires. Shutter speed and aperture priority modes will probably get the most use and if you're really an "old school" photographer there is the full manual mode where you set everything. There are no fancy pre-programmed modes (Night, Beach, Portrait, Landscape, etc) but I doubt that most buyers of the E-10 will miss them. If you absolutely have to make sure that you get that "perfect" exposure then switch it into the AE Bracket mode. Everytime you press the shutter button the camera will capture three images and automatically vary the exposure value used by 1/3, 2/3 or 1.0EV. Bracketing is available in every mode but Manual and the flash head must be closed.

Aperture settings range from F2.0/F2.4 to F11 depending on the focal length of the lens. Shutter speeds are from 2 seconds to 1/640 second in Program, Shutter and Aperture Priority modes. In Manual the user can select from 8 seconds to 1/640 second or use the Bulb setting for long exposures up to 30 seconds. The fastest shutter speed of 1/640 second does limit the ability to use a large aperture in bright light so I would recommend that you purchase some neutral density filters to give you full depth of field control in all lighting situations. I had no trouble stopping fast action at 1/640 second but it isn't going to freeze a speeding bullet in mid-air.

Metering options range from Olympus' iESP mode that reads from many different "cells" across the entire frame to center-weighted that reads an 11% area with the calculation determined mostly by what is in the center of the frame. For critical exposures in heavy backlit conditions the 1.6% spot metering allows for pinpoint accuracy. You can select the desired metering in every recording mode but full manual. Using the AE Lock allows you to meter a scene and then re-compose the shot to put your main subject wherever desired in the frame.

The E-10 has a very capable white balance system with settings for Automatic, Quick Reference or Preset. Automatic is just as its name implies, it automatically sets the white point depending on the rest of the frame data. Quick Reference is the best way to insure the proper white point is set to match the existing lighting. Just put a white card in front of the camera and press the Quick Reference white balance button and the camera does the rest. The Preset white balance option may be a little confusing at first because rather than use the familiar terms like Sunny, Incandescent, Flourescent and etc., Olympus chose to use the color temperature measured in degrees Kelvin. You need to read the manual which explains in detail how the everyday light sources we encouter range from 3,000 to 7,500 degrees.

You can also manipulate the image capture process in-camera by using the menu and selecting an image sharpness or contrast value other than the default. Sharpness options are Hard, Soft, or Normal. The Hard setting sharpens the edges but at the cost of also enhancing any noise in the image. Soft does exactly the opposite and can be used to hide or blur borders between objects. It is always advisable to use the softest sharpening level in the camera and do your sharpening via software where you have much more control over the process. The Contrast options are High, Normal, and Low. As you would expect, raising the contrast to High will make the transition from light to dark much more apparent at the cost of lost detail in highlight and shadow areas. Low decreases the contrast level and allows highlight and shadow areas to be more graduated.

The builtin flash is very capable and has specific modes for Automatic, Slow Synchro, Redeye Reduction, Redeye Reduction with Slow Synchro, and Fill-In. The operating range is from 0.6 to 18 feet at ISO 100 and default output power. The flash output is variable from -2 to +2 in 0.3EV steps. The hot shoe on top has the TTL contacts for the more powerful Olympus FL-40 external flash. Besides more flash power the FL-40 gives you the ability for bounce flash and gets the flash "up and away" from the lens which greatly reduces the occurence of red-eye. The FL-40's output intensity is fully controlled by the E-10's exposure system. The PC flash sync connector lets you connect the E-10 to studio lighting or other external strobes.

Alternate exposure control consists of remote control via the included infrared remote which is active when you select the Remote Drive Mode. This small wireless remote control works up to 16 feet away from the camera and also controls the playback functions on the TV set. As I mentioned earlier, the infrared remote is disabled if the color LCD or video output is active. You can also use the optional RM-CB1 wired remote control cable. With this device plugged in the dedicated connector you can trigger the shutter in any mode and the camera does not need to be in the Remote Drive mode. The E-10 can also be used to record images in Time Lapse mode. You can capture an image every 30 seconds or up to once every 24 hours. The camera continues taking pictures until either the memory card is filled or the batteries go dead.

If you need a fully featured, high resolution digital SLR but you're not ready to spend $5,000 or more ... the Olympus E-10 SLR with its 4-megapixel imager, excellent optics and professional camera features should fill the bill nicely. I hope to have the FL-40 flash shortly and will update the review and conclusions after we've had a chance to evaluate them together. From the sample pictures I have seen and the reports that I have read from other users, the combination of the E-10 and the FL-40 flash is nothing short of amazing.

Firmware Update for Bad Pixels

The firmware update with version number 42-0130 introduces a technique called "pixel mapping" by Olympus which detects and "computes out" defective pixels. On cameras provided with the appropriate firmware update, a special menu entry activates the pixel mapping function.

All E-10s shipped from August onwards should – according to Olympus – already be provided with the new firmware version. If in doubt, the firmware can be checked by reading out and displaying the so-called meta data contained in the EXIF header of the individual pictures with a suitable program (e.g. ACDSee 3.1, Thumber, Irfanview).

To further explain the problem and causes of "hot, stuck or bad" pixels please click here for Olympus document on Automatic Pixel Mapping (MS Word doc). Olympus America will retrofit E-10 cameras with the new APM-enabled firmware for $19.95 which is really just the shipping and handling costs. The camera must be sent in and only Olympus U.S. warrantied (FCC approved) cameras will be serviced.

Olympus E-10 Second opinion

First of all every camera is a compromise of size, weight, mobility and last but not least, the price. Every photographer has to decide which compromise he is willing to accept. In my opinion the Olympus E-10 is an excellent compromise inside the limits of its design and price point.

The E-10 is a 4-Megapixel SLR with a high-quality fixed zoom (equivalent to 35-140mm f/2.0-2.4) for under $2000. What is the point to get such a SLR and not be able to change lenses?

• Price
• Size (The E-10 is not very small but smaller than the other digital SLRs)
• Weight (The E-10 is lighter than other digital SLRs)
• No dust on the image sensor (all other pro SLRs have this problem when lenses are changed frequently). You cannot imagine how much work it is to retouch our D1 photos.

For me the E-10 is probably the ideal serious digital travel camera. We also own a Coolpix 950 and the main problem for us was not the image quality and lower resolution, we just needed a SLR viewfinder for better composition. The viewfinder of the E-10 is pretty good except that your eye has to be exactly centered behind viewfinder (an eyecup would be nice to have). The range of 35mm-140mm (35mm equivalent) is what you need most of the time if not shooting racers, sport or wildlife.

The landscape photos we took were good right out of the camera. Whereas we have to post-process the D1 files to equal or outperform the E-10.

As with all digital cameras you have to watch for blown highlights. Best to use the histogram tool and ensure that at the top of the histogram there are no pixels shown. The following histogram is fine as it stretches over the full range and has no lost shadows and highlights (histograms from Photoshop).

The second histogram indicates some spikes in the highlights which can be OK for landscape but not for e.g. white birds. The white feathers lose all structure.

The last histogram is from a hopelessly overexposed and wasted photo (delete it if you care about quality, it might be OK for documenting a unique event or person)

Remember: Watch your histogram every time the contrast of your scene changes. Highlights cannot be recreated once they're lost. Burn techniques might fake them but this is a poor substitute for the real thing.

Using the RAW mode with a camera is usually the way to get optimal quality (no inferior in-camera processing and the higher color bit depth allows for better post processing). The E-10 provides a 10bit/color RAW format which is not very useable. Why is that? The file size is 7.6MB while Kodak gets their 6-megapixel 12bit/color photos stored in just about 5.4 MB. Olympus did not put enough effort into a decent compression to avoid this overhead.  7.6 MB files not only take up a lot of space, they also need a longer time to write to the card. That is the reason we did not use RAW at all with the E-10. The E-10 delivers pretty good results out of the camera so that the low compression JPG format is very useable.

The macro feature comes in very handy and works very well. With the macro adapter you can even get closer.

As we mentioned in the intro, this is not a camera for bird photography (except big birds that are only a few feet away). The 3x tele adapter would get you to 420mm which gets you a lot closer but birds often need 800-1500mm (there are very small and cautious).

Some people complain about the 1/640 shutter speed limit. We don't see this to be a problem for our style of work (we rarely use a shorter shutter speed with our D1). The limitation in ISO is a bit more of a concern but only if you are used to cameras like the D1 or D30 which have useable ISO 400/800 settings. But 20 years ago we were mostly shooting Kodachrome 25 so this is not a real problem except for low light. Fortunately Olympus equipped the camera with a bright lens which makes life easier. The battery solution is not really bad as you can work with inexpensive Ni-MH batteries. You should always have 1 or 2 spare sets available.

Officially Olympus does not support the IBM Microdrive. It worked flawlessly in our camera sample. But be aware that Microdrives have more potential problems than solid state CF cards. If you don't want to loose any photos then don't use a Microdrive and pay the extra $$$ for high-capacity CF cards. We have 4 Microdrives and have had our share of problems, we accept the risk to save money.

The color is very good out of the camera and even with auto WB (white balance). We mostly use shutter or aperture priority and the auto focus worked fine in this mode.

Summary:

Pro:

• Excellent travel camera
• Solid feel
• Right price
• Nice build-in flash
• Good viewfinder
• Good lens and macro mode
• Good resolution
• Good setup using specialized buttons (no need for the menu screens for most important functions)

Con:

• RAW format not optimized
• More image "noise" than D1 and D30
• Software very basic (histogram?)

We would call the E-10 a "fun" camera because it really is fun to use!

You can find our review of the Olympus E-10 at Digital Outback Photo.