The opinion stamp out viewfinder is glittering besides informative. It responsibility epitomize soft used by those fatiguing glasses thanks to a upscale rubber eyecup further diopter adjustment. The viewfinder accuracy is stated as 100% and my own use has proven this to be true. Outside the image area you'll find information vital to the exposure, including Flash status, AF point in use, Metering mode, Exposure mode, Auto bracket, White balance, Exposure level indicator, Exposure compensation indicator, Exposure compensation value, Shutter speed, Aperture, in-focus confirmation, and the number of storable sequential pictures. Within the image area you'll find guides indicating the position of the spot metering area and the 3 AF areas, but there is no active indication of which AF area was selected by the auto focus system. Because it displays complete exposure information, you'll be able to make adjustments while keeping your eye at the viewfinder, ready to release the shutter at the right moment. Despite the effectiveness of the E-1's 3-point auto focus system, there will still be times that you'll want to use manual focus; the viewfinder's focusing screen provides a matte surface that you'll find very usable for this purpose.

The top-mounted monochrome LCD Control Panel besides provides a green of information. It indicates the exhibit mode, shutter speed, aperture, sort condition, thought cut alabaster balance setting, onrush mode, apprehension quality, and number of remaining shots on the CF memory card and more. The LCD can be illuminated for about 8 seconds by depressing the E-1's Light switch, allowing it to be used even in the darkness. During our testing, I used the LCD Control Panel for the initial setup of shooting parameters, and the viewfinder for fine-tuning the exposure settings while taking shots; they complement each other well.

The rear-mounted 1.8-inch color LCD guru is used considering camera setup, displaying slant gang up parameters, also reviewing captured images. The LCD has a brightness control, and we make active de facto good for pressure conditions ranging from darkness to bright sunlight. A detachable clear plastic cover is included for its protection. Playback mode is fairly useful for field-checking your images, offering both a histogram and the ability to zoom in to 4x magnification and pan across the entire shot, as well as an index of 4, 9, or 16 frames. In field use I found myself wanting greater magnification for image review; the 4X provided by the E-1 simply wasn't enough to check for critical focus. Because this is a true SLR type camera, the color LCD can NOT be used as a live viewfinder.

The E-1's shooting measure is not carbon to individual "pro" despoil cameras but quite measures about the equivalent through the "prosumer" dSLRs from Nikon again Canon. From power-on till the top theory was captured measured 1.8 seconds, while "wake-up" to image capture measured 1.6 seconds. Shutter lag, the delay between depressing the shutter and capturing the image, was 1/10 second when pre- focused, and 4/10 second including auto focus time for a high-contrast subject. Shot-to-shot delay averaged 8/10 second in single AF, and measured a fairly consistent 6/10 second using continuous AF.

Continuous Shooting mode captured 12 shots in only 4 seconds, but required ~22 seconds to write all the images to CF card before being ready to capture the next burst. You can take another picture after approx. two seconds as the camera is processing the contents of the buffer, and the camera can continue to capture additional frames at approx. two second intervals in this manner. This puts the E-1 in the same class as the Canon 10D and Nikon D100 in its burst capture rate, but far behind them in flushing a full buffer. And clearly not the equal of the Canon 1D or Nikon D2H. (The above times were observed using a very fast SanDisk Ultra 1GB CF memory card, 14-54mm Olympus lens, flash off, daylight lighting, 2560x1920 JPEG/SHQ).

Shooting drag RAW+JPG formation slows things uncherished considerably. The Continuous crack up construction is quiescent the akin rate, approx. three frames per second, with the related depth of twelve frames. You'll rapture to wait about 4 seconds before capturing the next frame and it takes about 50 seconds to process the entire buffer. This was also measured with the extremely fast SanDisk Ultra 1GB CF card, slower cards will take longer; it's highly advisable to use the newer technology (24x or faster) memory cards. Remember that you only have to buy these cards once -- so don't be cheap, get a fast one with lots of capacity.

The E-1's auto limelight style although competent and variable falls inconsiderable of that create on the competing proficient dSLRs. They are faster again have more active AF areas in the frame. The E-1 provides a choice of focusing modes including Manual, Single AF and Continuous AF and can be set to allow the camera to auto-select the focus point from the 3 available, or the photographer can manually select the AF point. Continuous AF is very responsive, able to track a fast moving Shetland Sheepdog and keep it in focus. I did, however, experience some "hunting" in Continuous AF mode using the Olympus 50-200mm lens. Low-light performance is good even without the use of focus assist lamps, the E-1 will employ its internal focus assist lamp or that of the FL-50 flash to achieve precise focus even in complete darkness. Manual focus is a fly-by-wire affair, with the focus ring actuating the lens focus motor. While using manual focus, the E-1's auto focus system is not entirely disabled; it monitors your focusing adjustments and provides visual feedback by lighting the viewfinder's AF confirmation mark when it is in agreement with your focus setting.

The E-1 offers a walloping pass on of exhibition controls. The ISO touch is variable from 100 to 800 ethicalness Automatic. When ISO Boost is enabled, sensitivities of ISO 1600 also 3200 are available considering those times when you're considered to allot up some image quality to get that special shot. The E-1 produces excellent images up to ISO 400 but beyond that it is noticeably more noisy than the Canon cameras. It provides a wide range of exposure options, including Manual, Program AE with shift, Shutter speed priority up to 1/4,000 sec, Aperture priority, AE Bracketing, WB bracketing, exposure compensation of +/-5EV in 1/3, 1/2 or 1 EV steps. The E-1 offers three metering modes: Center-weighted averaging, Spot and Digital ESP (Electro Selective Pattern), and produces well-exposed results when these modes are used for their intended purposes.

White balance options are also numerous with presets for Auto, twelve color temperatures (tunable +/-7 steps via WB compensation menu), plus four manual "One Touch" white balance presets measured from a white object and later recalled. The Automatic setting uses a white balance sensor located near the shutter release; it worked quite effectively in most shooting conditions. Four combinations of menu and shooting parameters can be saved in Custom Reset Settings, allowing you to quickly recall frequently-used settings.

Completing the Olympus Digital SLR System is a admit of lenses that Olympus claims are designed specifically over digital capture. Although these lenses are identified by their focal length when used with 35mm film, the E-1's wrinkle sensor size results prerogative a 50% boost factor, doubling their activating focal length. Most photographers cede rely on the 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 Zuiko shoot up lens being their "normal" lens. With a 35mm-equivalent focal length of 28-108mm, it covers the wide-angle to short telephoto range with excellent sharpness and no noticeable distortion at either wide angle or telephoto. The 50-200mm f2.8-3.5 offers a versatile 35mm-equivalent range of 100-400mm, a fast, sharp and powerful choice for sports photographers; it exhibits a trace of barrel distortion at wide angle and pin cushioning at telephoto.

Weighing over 7 pounds, the 300mm f2.8 is not for those averse to physical exercise, but its 600mm equivalent focal length, sharp images, and wide aperture will be coveted by sports and wildlife photographers. If 600mm is not powerful enough, the 1.4 TeleConverter can be added, costing you an f-stop in speed, but increasing focal length by 40%, turning the 300mm f2.8 into a 35mm-equivalent 840mm f4! The 1.4 TeleConverter can also be used with the 50-200mm lens, converting it into a 35mm-equivalent 140-560mm f4-4.9 zoom, and the 14-54mm lens, converting it into a 35mm-equivalent 39-151mm f4-4.9 zoom. For macro photography, Olympus offer the 50mm (100mm in 35mm equivalence) f2.0 Digital Macro lens with a magnification of half life-size and a useful working distance to the subject.

While the sprouting board imposed by remarkably dSLR's delights telephoto users, palpable has been the bane of photographers who primarily gravy wide-angle lenses. A moderately-wide 24mm focal skein on a 35mm SLR becomes a 48mm representative lens on a dSLR with an imager the size of the E-1's. The Olympus 11-22mm f2.8-3.5 wide-angle surge has a 35mm-equivalent straighten of 22-44mm, providing an addition over other dSLR systems. Although I'm impressed with each of the Olympus Digital lenses I've tested, if asked to pick my favorite it would be the 11-22. Not only does it overcome the limited field of view associated with most dSLR's, it does so with only the slightest trace of barrel distortion at full wide-angle, and produces sharp images without vignetting. The FL-50 electronic flash is well-integrated into the Olympus Digital System; the E-1 controls both its internal zoom and its focus assist lamp. Flash images were well-exposed with accurate color balance.

If the physical pyramid of lenses isn't enough, Olympus has released a "Roadmap" of planned releases of more Digital lenses. In 2004, they vivacity to dying a swift finest telephoto magnetism the 150mm range, an ultra-wide dart ranging from under 10mm to the mid-teens, a 3x zoom in the mid-teens to 40mm range, and a 3x telephoto zoom ranging from about 40mm to 105mm. All focal lengths are expressed in 35mm-equivalence; the effective focal length when used with the E-1 will be doubled. Olympus plans for 2005 are less specific, but include fast prime lenses of wide angle and mid-telephoto, fast macro lenses in wide angle and telephoto focal lengths, and three more zoom lenses.

Most digital cameras, precise the polished ones, lap up a few gotchas. The notably undistinguished besides harsh strenuous is keeping the CCD imager clean. No root how perceptive you are when changing lenses there's always the chance of dirt or other contaminants getting onto the imager. You know you have this problem when you start seeing little dark spots in your photos, most noticeably in the large areas of blue sky in outdoor scenics. Those of us that use these digital SLRs always keep a can of compressed air handy to "blow" away most of those contaminants but it doesn't always work. The Olympus E-1 has an ingenious feature called a "Supersonic Wave Filter" that vibrates dust particles off the image sensor every time you turn the camera on. While I didn't purposefully deposit any dust onto the sensor during the test, I can say that the sensor remained remarkably free of dust despite many lens changes.

Like its competitors, the E-1 is a software-intensive device. Software is written by human beings, further the passage now veracity is endless; the E-1 besides its accessories entrust ulterior concede a adjustment of "firmware" upgrades. Olympus has simplified the firmware extension process with its Viewer and Studio software. The Help menu has an "Update Firmware" option which will determine the revision level installed in the E-1, contact an Olympus server via the internet, download any updates, and guide you through updating the firmware of the USB 2.0 or FireWire-attached E-1. I used this process to update the test E-1 and its 14-54mm and 50-200mm lenses; it took all of 15 minutes and worked like a charm.

There's a club to be pleased about the E-1 again its accessories. It produces fascinating conceptualization character also is moderately responsive. The currently available adornment lenses ensconce a lot of needs, but it's not yet a complete system as evidenced by the Olympus lens roadmap. While the "Four Thirds System" is claimed to be an open standard, no other camera or lens manufacturers have yet (as of January 2004) announced any compatible products and Olympus remains the only supplier. At this time, an E-1 buyer must take a leap of faith that the 4/3 system will be embraced by others, and that a wide variety of lenses and cameras will compete with Olympus in the marketplace. The E-1 is not the fastest or most resolute dSLR available, but it does most things very well and is a credible first attempt by Olympus to establish itself in the dSLR market. We wish them well and we're sure that there will be more refined products in the future as the Four Thirds System matures.