Olympus Digital SLR Cameras and Lenses

a photo.net guide by Philip Greenspun

 

The Olympus system of digital single-lens reflex (SLR) bodies and lenses was a clean sheet of paper design, introduced in 2003. Olympus and Kodak asked the following questions:

  • Does it make sense to make digital camera sensors in the 24x36mm frame size from the 35mm film days?
  • If one is going to use smaller sensors than the old film format, why lug around huge lenses designed to cast an image large enough to cover the old 24x36mm frame?
  • Their answers were "No, no, and here is the Four Thirds system of cameras and lenses designed around a 13x17mm sensor." The result is the world's most compact camera system capable of professional results. The Olympus system should be seriously considered by photographers specializing in travel or those whose shoulders are aching. Note that the aspect ratio is 4:3 rather than the 3:2 of 35mm film and most digital cameras. The 4:3 aspect ratio is closer to old standard paper sizes, such as 8x10, 11x14, and 16x20, and older film formats, such as the 4x5 view camera. It is probably a better aspect ratio for portraits and not as good for landscape.
  • The Four Thirds system included a design for a brand-new lens mount. Functionally this is very similar to the Canon EOS lens mount, introduced in 1987, with an all-electronic interface between camera and lens. The mount diameter, however, was reduced from Canon's 54mm to about 44mm, similar to the Nikon F-mount. A 44mm on a film camera is a bit tight, but the dimension is vast compared to the size of the image circle for a Four Thirds sensor and therefore provides lens designers with a lot of flexibility. When looking at Four Thirds lenses, multiply by 2 to determine the 35mm equivalent in angle of view, e.g., a 14-42mm zoom lens for an E-system body will work the same as a 28-84mm lens on a 35mm film camera.

If you are new to photography, start with the photo.net article "Building a Digital SLR System."

 

Contents

  1. Olympus DSLR Bodies
  2. Nomenclature
  3. History
  4. Normal Lenses
  5. Wide-to-Telephoto Zoom Lenses
  6. Wide-angle Zoom lenses
  7. Telephoto Zoom Lenses
  8. Wide-angle Prime Lenses
  9. Telephoto Prime Lenses
  10. Macro Lenses
  11. Teleconverters
  12. Flashes
  13. Accessories
  14. Underwater
  15. Starter Olympus DSLR Systems
  16. More
  17. Discontinued Cameras and Lenses

 

Olympus DSLR Bodies

At any one time, Olympus seems to make one body similar in capability to midrange Canon and Nikon bodies and a bewildering array of light inexpensive bodies with performance similar to the very cheapest bodies from Canon or Nikon. All Olympus bodies are compatible with Olympus Digital lenses and Four Thirds System lenses from Sigma and Panasonic/Leica. The Olympus MF-1 OM Adapter, $100 allows limited use of old Olympus OM-system film format lenses in mostly manual mode.
Olympus was a pioneer in automated dust removal. All of the E-system bodies include a dust removal system that operates as the camera is switched off.

  • Olympus Evolt E-330, $475 (review), 7.5 megapixels, released February 2006. This was the world's first digital SLR with a "live view" feature, similar to point and shoot digicams, allowing photographers to evaluate a potential image in the rear LCD prior to exposure. The camera has an unusual folded mirror system for the optical viewfinder and an unusual shape. Obsolete in terms of technical performance.
  • Olympus Evolt E-410, $380, 10 megapixels, introduced early 2007. A tremendous step up from point and shoot digicams in terms of handling and practical performance without much of a step up in price or size. Three frames per second motor drive. 2.5" LCD display. Flash sync at 1/180th.
  • Olympus Evolt E-420, 14-42mm kit, 10 megapixels, introduced March 2008, a step up from the E-410 as the name implies, plus in-body image stabilization, and a 2.7" LCD display.
  • Olympus Evolt E-510, $344 (review). Same as the E-410 plus in-body image stabilization, a tremendously useful feature since one of the big advantages of a DSLR over a point and shoot digicam is performance in low light.
  • Olympus Evolt E-500, 14-45mm and 40-150mm kit (review), 8 megapixels, introduced late 2005. It is a mystery as to why this camera is still being sold.
  • Olympus Evolt E-3, $1250, 10 megapixels, 800g with batteries, introduced late 2007. This is the professional Olympus body, with a rugged weather-sealed frame and fast autofocus. It has sensor-based image stabilization, a built-in flash, and wireless control of accessory flashes. The rear LCD is 2.5" (smaller than the competition). Flash sync speed is 1/250th. This is a better camera for sports than the 510 due to the 5 frames per second continuous drive speed. The E-3 accepts the HLD-4 battery pack/vertical grip, which includes an additional shutter release and replicates some other nearby controls for portrait-format images.

In looking at the megapixel numbers, you might be tempted to wonder how the Olympus system is competitive. There are point and shoot cameras with similar claimed resolution while the top-end Canon and Nikon bodies offer higher resolution. The 10-megapixel E-3 produces images that are 3648x2736 pixels in size. As explained in the Digital Cameras chapter of Making Photographs, 200 pixels per inch is sufficient for maximum image quality and prints from the E-3 should enlarge to 13.5x18" before suffering any quality loss due to a lack of resolution.

 

Nomenclature

One of the nice things about Olympus is that they don't attempt to snow consumers with obscure acroyms. Nor does Olympus tack on fancy German brand names to lenses that they design and build. The Olympus America lens page refers to "super high grade", "high grade", and "standard" lenses.
"ED" is extra-low dispersion glass, a more expensive and higher-quality glass that reduces chromatic aberration or color fringing. All but the crummiest Olympus lenses include at least one ED element.
"Super ED" is, presumably, a newer more effective version of "ED", glass that reduces chromatic aberration or color fringing. Olympus does not explain what this means any more than Dean Wormer explained "double secret probation."
"SWD" is Supersonic Wave Drive, a piezoelectric motor that contributes to smooth and silent AF operation, similar to USM (ultrasonic motor) on Canon or AF-S (silent wave motor) on Nikon lenses.
"OM" are old Olympus film system lenses; they don't work on the modern bodies without Olympus MF-1 OM Adapter, $100. Even with the adapter, Olympus recommends for each lens a limited range of apertures, e.g., f/5.6 and f/8 for the old 85/2 lens.
All Olympus lenses incorporate modern multilayer anti-reflective coatings to improve contrast and light transmission. Mercifully Olympus does not have a brand name for their coating.

 

History

In the 1970s, Canon and Nikon were slugging it out with cameras that were progressively more capable, more rugged, and heavier. By the end of the decade, each company made SLRs that could be used to drive nails, capture the fastest sports cars, and weigh down the dead bodies of your enemies, dumped into the local river. Olympus took an alternative tack, introducing the light and compact Olympus OM-1 in 1972. Olympus delivered the fundamentals: bright viewfinder, through-the-lens metering, in-viewfinder displays, high quality lenses, and state-of-the-art electronics. These were delivered at roughly the same price as Canon and Nikon, but with a smaller size and lighter weight.
With a smaller market share and less capital than Canon or Nikon, Olympus came up with a feeble response to the demand for autofocus, gradually ceding market share to Canon EOS and Nikon AF. The OM-4 was the last camera of the line, introduced in 1983 and finally killed off in 2002.
(More: see the photo.net guide to the Olympus OM system.)

By the year 2000, the Olympus OM system was a collectors' item and had very few day-to-day or professional users. This gave Olympus the freedom to chuck the frame size, lens mount, and legacy users. At the time, the Canon and Nikon digital SLRs on the market were small sensor models, wasting much of the image circle cast by the big legacy designed-for-film lenses. The challenge of engineering a consumer-priced 24x36mm sensor seemed insuperable (see"The rationale for a new standard format" for an explanation). To an engineer, this was a ridiculous situation, as silly as a Nikon film photographer walking around with a bag of Hasselblad lenses designed to cover the 6x6cm medium format frame. The Olympus folks got together with a couple of partner companies and standardized a sensor size that would be reasonable to fabricate and a lens mount that would be correctly sized for the sensor size. The result was the Four Thirds system, with its 13x17mm sensor, which results in a 2X multiplier for effective lens perspective, e.g., a 25mm lens gives a normal perspective on an E-system camera, similar to a 50mm lens on a 35mm film camera.
(More: see www.four-thirds.org, quite possibly the world's worst-designed Web site.)

 

 
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