Hands On: Olympus E-3 Digital SLR

If the Olympus E-1, the company's first high-end DSLR, never caught on among pros, you can blame its painfully slow, insensitive autofocus system. But one look at the new Olympus E-3 ($1,700, estimated street, body only) was enough to convince us that, this time around, Olympus has come up with not just a much better AF system, but a much better camera all around.

Our impression comes from using a preproduction, fully operational camera that wasn't ready for testing in the Pop Photo Lab.

We expect it to do at least as well on the image quality front as the company's consumer-level Evolt E-510, since the E-3 packs a similar 10.1MP Live MOS sensor (manufactured by Panasonic). Because of its smaller size and 4:3 aspect ratio, the E-3 will also have a 2X 35mm lens factor. While 10.1MP isn't on the bleeding edge of resolution in this price category, the E-3's advanced image processing may suppress noise even further than the E-510 at ISOs up to ISO 3200.

The E-3 feels rock-solid, well balanced and easy to hold. The body, comprising a three-piece, molded, magnesium-alloy shell and impressive gasketing and weathersealing, alone puts it in pro territory.

Olympus improved the pentaprism viewfinder -- larger, with better eye relief and none of the E-1 's tunnel-vision effect. The company claims the viewfinder offers nearly 100 percent accuracy and 1.15X magnification.

Another noticeable improvement: Unlike its predecessor, the E-3 has both a pop-up flash and wireless flash control for three flash groups (with four channels each).

Kudos to the 2.5-inch LCD monitor, which can be swung to the side and turned up and down (for overhead or waist-level shooting), as well as turned inward for protection.

Most other new DSLRs in the E-3's price range sport larger LCDs, and the 3-inchers on the Nikon D300 and Sony Alpha 700 have nearly twice the resolution of the E-3's 77,000 pixels (230,000 dots). But the E-3's LCD is bright and provides sufficient detail to navigate menus or inspect images.

As with the Evolt E-510, the monitor can show the calming effects of the built-in, sensor-based stabilization system when live preview mode is turned on. It can also display camera exposure settings before shooting, simulate over- and underexposure settings, and zoom in up to 10X on any part of the image for manual-focus assist.

The autofocus system is highly sensitive and significantly faster, with selectable 11 AF zones. Olympus says that the AF's unique design uses a layered, slightly offset, CMOS sensor array to improve accuracy and low-light sensitivity. As a result, all 11 AF zones should be active cross-sensor types with any aperture lens. This may be the best AF system we've ever seen on an Olympus DSLR.

Olympus also claims it has increased the E-3's burst speed and capacity to 5 frames per second, up to the card's capacity for finest-quality JPEGs or 17 RAW images -- still a little slower than the Canon EOS 40D or Nikon D300.

In all, the E-3 looks like the DSLR that Olympus promised to deliver to pros and advanced shooters.