I have the good fortune that my son works for a photo dealer and I
have the opportunity, occasionally, to handle the dealer's demo
cameras. Today it's the E-300. I only had it for an hour or so :-(
Having used an E-10 for a couple of years and OM's for more than 30,
this was going to be an interesting experience.
First impressions? "Made in China" say the labels on body and lens; no
reflection on the build quality but it doesn't have quite the same
ring as "Made in Japan" with a comforting little JCII sticker! Where's
the LCD screen on the top plate? It ain't there! It's noticeably
lighter than the E-10 (with the 14-45 "kit" lens, which feels
plasticky). Outer body obviously plastic (but so is my Bronica!). At
least the lens mount is metal (unlike some cheaper C*n*ns). No
pull-out preview screen, and no provision for a right-angle finder
(not even a locating groove), so low level shots are a problem. Finder
not especially bright but not much different from an E-10 except that
it's smaller; however the maximum aperture of the "kit" lens is F3.5
compared with F2.0 for the E-10. It's certainly not like an OM, but
not many are or ever were! However I did *not* like the viewfinder
info down the right hand side - I couldn't see it without shifting my
eye to the left side of the finder eyepiece; it's quite dim too. (I
wonder if this is a consequence of the sideways swinging mirror?). A
*very* black mark for that, but in fairness I do wear glasses. (E-10
info is at the bottom, bright and always in view even with glasses).
Mechanical noise level is modest (certainly so compared with my
Bronica) but not "sweet" like an OM. There's no detectable vibration
however, a consequence of the tiny mirror perhaps.
The "wake up" time and write speed seem much slicker than the E-10.
One or two minor irrations include having to select AF/MF from the
menu (there's a switch on the E-10) and there are a few other settings
for which the menu has to be used.
So to performance. The images at up to 400ASA were very good, with
barely a trace of noise even at 400ASA. Perhaps to discourage use at
higher speeds, you can't select anything higher than 400ASA by
default; you have to go into the menu and enable "ASA boost" that then
gives you access to 800 and 1600ASA. (This feature is not mentioned in
the "basic manual" that's in the box - it gives available ASA speeds
as 100, 200 and 400ASA with the note that "higher speeds are
available). 800ASA is quite passable - noise there is but subjectively
no worse than the E-10 at 320ASA. 1600ASA reminds me of the result I
got, some 25 years ago, when I pushed Fujicolor 400 to 1600ASA by
extending the development. GRAINY! However it's OK in an emergency
and, to be fair, I don't know what a 35mm colour film would look like
these days anyway.
I only used the camera in aperture priority mode using ESP metering.
It seemed to me to slightly underexpose in all conditions, although
there was no question of blocked shadows - all detail was revealed by
bumping up the brightness in Paintshop Pro.
Obviously in the short time the camera was in my hands I left most
settings at default, so some tweaking of these would undoubtedly have
given me better results "straight out of the card".
Now I'd really like to get my hands on a C*n*n 20D, but apparently
there's a huge delivery backlog and my son says he has some very
frustrated customers!
Regards
John Gruffydd (Mold, Wales, UK)
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