Delivering on the Promise of the 4/3 System?

When we were taking a look at the new Digital SLR cameras for our recent Digital SLR Buyers Guide the Olympus E-510 proved to be a really impressive entry - except for one serious flaw. This small, fast, reasonably-priced 10 megapixel DSLR came with kit lenses that were also very small and much better quality than we normally see in kit lenses from the bigger players. It also featured Live View, which was pioneered by Olympus, body-integral Image Stabilization that worked with any lens, and automatic sensor cleaning, which was also pioneered by Olympus but which is now finding its way into cameras from all the makers.

We were reminded how far the 4/3 system had developed with the E-510 and made a mental note to take a closer look at the Olympus E-3 to see if Olympus could finally fix their biggest issue. The E-3 is the Pro level DSLR which had been announced as a replacement for the four year old and seriously out-of-date E-1, and no there was never an E-2.

I have toyed with the 4/3 digital SLR system several times since it was introduced in 2003, shrugged my shoulders and gone back to Nikon or Canon (or lately Sony/Minolta or Pentax). Frankly, I had about given up on 4/3, but when Olympus dropped the E-3 on us a few weeks ago it showed us that 4/3 really could be all that was promised when it was introduced.

ANY DSLR system is about lenses in the end, and Olympus 4/3 is blessed with superb optics. To get an idea of how really great the new Olympus glass is you need to use some of the top 4/3 lenses. If you are skeptical a computer site like AT can know anything about photography, then be my guest and read a few of the big photo sites like dpreview, imaging-resource, or dcresource. They all have finally admitted in reviews of the E-410 and E-510 that Olympus has the best kit lenses of any camera maker, and that yes the Olympus claim that lenses designed for digital produce better quality images is proving to be true. www.slrgear.com, which is affiliated with dcresource, even went so far as to test most of the current Olympus lenses after being so impressed with the kit lenses.

Wesley Fink

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