Olympus Evolt Series

[Pugrpooh]

That's contrary to what I'd read, so I looked it up. Here's what they said about the E30, at least in the E30 review:



I think some of the argument against the E30 when it first came out was that it was in the $1200 range. But now it's come down. I was pretty shocked to find it as low as I did. There were a lot of threads on the Oly forums about the 620 vs the 30. Some people go for the 620 to keep the small size, but most people said if size wasn't a concern, to go for the 30.

It's always a good idea to sleep on it. I was mulling it all over for quite a while. When Joe posted his thread about the m4/3 rumors I really considered all my options, even switching brands. But I love Olympus and couldn't see myself using anything else at this point. The E30 felt right.

Good luck with your decision. I noticed on dpreview today there's a new review of the Pen2.

DPreview reviewed the 620 in July, 4 months after their review of the 30. Here's their take:

The final word

When we reviewed the Olympus E-30, we said it was the best Four Thirds DSLR yet - it didn't hold on to that crown for long. The E-620 crams most of the E-30's feature set into a much smaller, much less expensive package that competes more convincingly with its peers than any Four Thirds camera we've yet seen.

It sounds like they're taking price into consideration and also comparing it to other entry level cameras.

Still haven't made up my mind. I love the 520 but it does seem to clip highlights and there've been times I could have used the tilting screen.

I don't know what's up with Olympus auctions. They used to have a lot on ebay. That's where I got DD8's refurbed p&s last year. They have no cameras or lenses now and Cameta Auctions has them. I'm wondering what they'll have after the 600's are gone - maybe some 30's?

 

[oogieboogieman]

So where are the photos from these new E30's???

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Ask Joe.

 

[JoeDif]

Here is one from a 5K event I was at on Sunday

 

[Pugrpooh]

I did it! I won an E600 on ebay. It should get here tomorrow. I'll either give the 520 to DD23 or sell it.

On another topic, I'm REALLY liking the 12-60. Over spring break we went to Virginia and I took the 12-60, 50mm f/2 and the pancake. The 12-60 is a great walkaround lens. Sometimes using the 14-42 I would wish it would get just a little bit closer.

The only thing with the 12-60 is that it is noticeably heavier. It was in the upper 80's and lower 90's while we were in Williamsburg, and on our last day there, I only took the 50mm and the pancake with me and left the camera bag back at the room too.

Here are a couple of my favorites, both taken with the 12-60. The redbuds were in full bloom in Charlottesville and the crabapples were also blooming well.

DD8 loved Williamsburg and pretending to be in the 18th century. Even in the heat she wore her dress and never complained.

The other day I was in Sam's Club and they had an E-P1. It was the first time I had handled a Pen and I will definitely have one in my bag by the time we go to Disneyland next June. I like the portability of it. Ideally, the new m4/3 14-150 will also be on it.

I want to hear more impressions from the new E30 owners! And see some more pics.

 

[JoeDif]

Congrats on the new E-600!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Here is one from a 5K event I was at on Sunday

Lovely color. What settings do you use in general? Which lens did you use here?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I did it! I won an E600 on ebay. It should get here tomorrow. I'll either give the 520 to DD23 or sell it.

On another topic, I'm REALLY liking the 12-60. Over spring break we went to Virginia and I took the 12-60, 50mm f/2 and the pancake. The 12-60 is a great walkaround lens. Sometimes using the 14-42 I would wish it would get just a little bit closer.

The only thing with the 12-60 is that it is noticeably heavier. It was in the upper 80's and lower 90's while we were in Williamsburg, and on our last day there, I only took the 50mm and the pancake with me and left the camera bag back at the room too.

Here are a couple of my favorites, both taken with the 12-60. The redbuds were in full bloom in Charlottesville and the crabapples were also blooming well.

DD8 loved Williamsburg and pretending to be in the 18th century. Even in the heat she wore her dress and never complained.

The other day I was in Sam's Club and they had an E-P1. It was the first time I had handled a Pen and I will definitely have one in my bag by the time we go to Disneyland next June. I like the portability of it. Ideally, the new m4/3 14-150 will also be on it.

I want to hear more impressions from the new E30 owners! And see some more pics.

Congrats! Can't wait to see your pictures! Your DD is adorable, and love the flower shot. Once again, love those Olympus colors!

I used the 14-54 2/8 quite a bit this w/e. Normally I don't use that focal length much, but it worked where I was. I thought it did very well - not disappointed at all. I do know now that my next lens has to be wide.

I've noticed on the Pens there's quite a price gap between the P-1 and the P-2. Do you know why?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

OK, obm, here are a few I've taken over the last week or so. Still trying to figure out what I'm doing. (Joe, that cheat sheet was something else, wasn't it?? lol)

The first three were shot as JPEGs.

This was shot in RAW but I didn't have to edit it. I'm trying to decide whether I like Vivid setting with this camera as I did with the 510. It could just be the uniforms (or maybe the lens?) but the colors are very bold - Natural may be enough.

 

[JoeDif]

Lovely color. What settings do you use in general? Which lens did you use here?

Thanks!! I normally shoot in A priority and set the picture mode to natural (vivid seems too saturated in most cases). Gradation to normal (auto seems to make the shadows noisy in some cases)

For this shot I used the Sigma 18-50

Shutter priority @ 1/640 f/5 ISO 800

It was a really cloudy drizzly morning and I needed a fast shutter speed and didn't want to lose too much DOF so I bumped the ISO up past where I normally go. There was surprisingly little noise at ISO 800. I'm still not sure if it can handle higher ISO's in low light situations so I'll need to experiment.

 

[JoeDif]

I did it! I won an E600 on ebay. It should get here tomorrow. I'll either give the 520 to DD23 or sell it.

On another topic, I'm REALLY liking the 12-60. Over spring break we went to Virginia and I took the 12-60, 50mm f/2 and the pancake. The 12-60 is a great walkaround lens. Sometimes using the 14-42 I would wish it would get just a little bit closer.

The only thing with the 12-60 is that it is noticeably heavier. It was in the upper 80's and lower 90's while we were in Williamsburg, and on our last day there, I only took the 50mm and the pancake with me and left the camera bag back at the room too.

Here are a couple of my favorites, both taken with the 12-60. The redbuds were in full bloom in Charlottesville and the crabapples were also blooming well.

DD8 loved Williamsburg and pretending to be in the 18th century. Even in the heat she wore her dress and never complained.

The other day I was in Sam's Club and they had an E-P1. It was the first time I had handled a Pen and I will definitely have one in my bag by the time we go to Disneyland next June. I like the portability of it. Ideally, the new m4/3 14-150 will also be on it.

I want to hear more impressions from the new E30 owners! And see some more pics.

Great colors!!! Based on those the 12 - 60 handles itself well.

That is just a fantastic portrait!! Amazing light, was it natural or did you use flash?

 

[JoeDif]

OK, obm, here are a few I've taken over the last week or so. Still trying to figure out what I'm doing. (Joe, that cheat sheet was something else, wasn't it?? lol)

The first three were shot as JPEGs.

This was shot in RAW but I didn't have to edit it. I'm trying to decide whether I like Vivid setting with this camera as I did with the 510. It could just be the uniforms (or maybe the lens?) but the colors are very bold - Natural may be enough.

Good series. Excellent DOF (what lens?)

I agree about using natural, vivid sometimes seems a bit much with some colors like red , magenta.


On a separate note, I've read a few places the the Oly 14 -54 lens was made specifically with the E-30 in mind.....so it has me thinking

 

[oogieboogieman]

On the subject of the Oly 14-54, make sure you get the new version to get the full benefits of the E30. Read up on DPReview on the newer model.

 

[Pugrpooh]

Congrats! Can't wait to see your pictures! Your DD is adorable, and love the flower shot. Once again, love those Olympus colors!

I used the 14-54 2/8 quite a bit this w/e. Normally I don't use that focal length much, but it worked where I was. I thought it did very well - not disappointed at all. I do know now that my next lens has to be wide.

I've noticed on the Pens there's quite a price gap between the P-1 and the P-2. Do you know why?

Thanks! Do you usually use the longer focal lengths because of your son's baseball? The day I only carried the 50mm and the 25mm in Williamsburg, I started with the 50mm but ended up putting the pancake on the camera after a while. The 50 just wasn't wide enough. I guess because we were in and out of the buildings and the rooms were a bit too small for it.

I don't know about the prices of the Pens. Sam's was selling it for $600 with a "compare to" price of $699. I think the P-2 has more features. When they were introduced, I really wasn't very interested in them so I didn't pay much attention. The PL-1 was introduced at around $600 I think.

As far as your pictures go, I like them very much. Maybe I like the higher saturation, but I thought the colors of the uniforms were fine. I have the saturation at +1 on the 520 and I did have to tone down my grandmother's red blouse she wore on Sunday though.

 

[Pugrpooh]

Great colors!!! Based on those the 12 - 60 handles itself well.

That is just a fantastic portrait!! Amazing light, was it natural or did you use flash?

Wow! I just noticed that with this post I reach 1000!

Thanks Joe! We were walking past the farm on the way back to the hotel and I saw the colors in the sky and knew I had to get her in too. She thinks that I should crop out her Keen sandals since they aren't authentic 18th century. I used the FL-36R. When I bought the 520 I didn't think I'd really want an external flash. I read everything about how natural light is better, but I never go anywhere without it now. I can't say I really know how to use it though.

My 600 has arrived in Lexington! That's only an hour and a half away.

 

[soonermel]

Hi all! I am a relatively new owner of a 510. I know it's an older model - I have been pining for a DSLR for a LONG time and happened across a super-cheap clearance deal - my local Office Max basically cleaned out their storage room and found it, so we snatched it up for $150. Yippee!

Love it love it love it, but I'm oh-so-new and having horrible issues with the color of my pictures. I'm shooting only in auto. Some outside shots turn out out with a blue-ish cast. My indoor shots are horrible - dark and muted colors with the same blue-ish cast. My trial-and-error troubleshooting doesn't seem to have helped.

OK, just as soon as I figure this out I'll upload a couple of sample pictures. In the meanwhile, does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Thank you SOOO much for your time/guidance!

 

[JoeDif]

Hi all! I am a relatively new owner of a 510. I know it's an older model - I have been pining for a DSLR for a LONG time and happened across a super-cheap clearance deal - my local Office Max basically cleaned out their storage room and found it, so we snatched it up for $150. Yippee!

Love it love it love it, but I'm oh-so-new and having horrible issues with the color of my pictures. I'm shooting only in auto. Some outside shots turn out out with a blue-ish cast. My indoor shots are horrible - dark and muted colors with the same blue-ish cast. My trial-and-error troubleshooting doesn't seem to have helped.

OK, just as soon as I figure this out I'll upload a couple of sample pictures. In the meanwhile, does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Thank you SOOO much for your time/guidance!

WOW....$150 is an incredible price for that camera!!

As far as the blue-ish cast, check your white balance setting. It may be set to tungsten which looks like a little light bulb. You will need to adjust it depending of your lighting situation. You can probably put it on auto until you get it figured out.

Here is a link to a site that will help set up your E-510. Every Olympus DSLR owner eventually finds there way there. Even though it says E-500 the settings are basically the same.

http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/43/e500-sett.html

 

[Pugrpooh]

Hi all! I am a relatively new owner of a 510. I know it's an older model - I have been pining for a DSLR for a LONG time and happened across a super-cheap clearance deal - my local Office Max basically cleaned out their storage room and found it, so we snatched it up for $150. Yippee!

Love it love it love it, but I'm oh-so-new and having horrible issues with the color of my pictures. I'm shooting only in auto. Some outside shots turn out out with a blue-ish cast. My indoor shots are horrible - dark and muted colors with the same blue-ish cast. My trial-and-error troubleshooting doesn't seem to have helped.

OK, just as soon as I figure this out I'll upload a couple of sample pictures. In the meanwhile, does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Thank you SOOO much for your time/guidance!

Welcome to Olympus! You got a fantastic deal on a great camera. I have the 520 and love it.

It's interesting that you're having this issue with the bluish cast. I just got an E-600 and I've been seeing the same thing. I took it out yesterday and shot our first iris that's blooming which is a light purple. With WB set to auto, the flowers look bluer than they really are. I took other shots around the yard and in the house and usually when I have the WB set to auto, the colors are cooler than they should be.

To get the most accurate color rendition, I had to shoot with the WB set to light shadows on a clear day (the symbol that looks like a house) even in sunlight. If I set the WB to sunlight, the colors were still cooler than they should be.

Today it was cloudy and I tried the irises again with the WB set to cloudy. Still not right. With it set to light shade, the colors still came out more accurate but I haven't put the ones from today on my computer yet. I found that the pictures looked better colorwise on the computer than on the LCD on the camera. Using the flash today with the WB set to auto, the pictures looked fine.

I would suggest to you to try shooting the same subject with different WB settings and see how they differ. Did you try changing the WB at all? If the pictures are bluish under all the white balance settings, you may need to send the camera in.

Enjoy your new camera!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I agree, it sounds like a WB issue. Welcome, soonermel.

Lynn, tell us about the 600!

 

[soonermel]

Hi guys, thanks for the suggestions. I honestly tried so many things I don't know if I fidgeted with the WB. Can't wait to try it - will let you guys know if that takes care of it!
Thanks again.