Digital cameras are about as hard to find as Honda Civics these days, but pickings are still slim when it comes to models geared for professional use. With its Camedia E-10, Olympus has joined the ranks of Canon, Nikon, and Fuji by offering a digital SLR aimed squarely at the semi-professional to professional user. The asking price? The E-10 sells for about $1,999, putting it at the low end of digital SLRs meant for professional use.
The E-10 boasts features not seen on any other digital camera. First, there’s the 4-megapixel CCD — a higher-resolution sensor than any other SLR (Fuji’s 6-megapixel FinePix S1 Pro depends on a 3.4-megapixel sensor). Next, there’s the camera’s unique design, which lets you use its LCD as a viewfinder, despite the camera’s SLR approach. Finally, there is the E-10’s fast, 4x lens, which Olympus engineered specifically for the camera’s sensor.
The biggest drawback of this camera for professional users may be another aspect of the E-10’s lens: The lens is fixed to the camera in a sealed design, though Olympus sells extensions that can provide some additional flexibility.
Built to Last
The Camedia E-10 follows the design of a 35mm SLR, but Olympus has eliminated the left side of the camera (where the film roll would normally sit). The ride side of the camera is a typical molded, L-shaped grip with shutter button and mode controls cleverly arrayed around the grip. Just as with a normal SLR, your left hand supports the lens, and the E-10 includes a real mechanical zoom ring as well as a focus-by-wire manual focus ring.
The Camedia E-10 resembles a conventional SLR but uses a fixed, 4x lens. The lens boasts manual zoom and focus rings.
The camera’s all-metal body is solidly constructed and feels very well made and comfortable to hold. Of course the metal body also ups the E-10’s weight, to almost 2.5 pounds.
Most E-10 settings are available without resorting to a menu system, by holding a control button while turning a dial to cycle through the available setting values.
A flip-up flash just behind the lens provides internal flash capability at distances up to 18 feet. The Camedia also provides a hot shoe and PC flash sync connection.
In addition to the camera’s 32MB of internal memory, Olympus provides a 32MB SmartMedia card with the E-10, but the camera’s dual memory slots support both CompactFlash (Type I/II) and SmartMedia cards.
Lens Pros, Cons
The E-10’s fixed lens is a 4x zoom with a 35mm equivalent range of 35 to 140mm. In a touch every serious photographer should love, the E-10’s lens is very fast, offering an f2 aperture at its widest angle and f2.4 at its most telephoto. Its most exciting features, though, are the manual zoom and focus rings, which serve to make the E-10 comfortable and easy to handle. The camera’s zoom ring is a true mechanical zoom with a nice heavy drag for precise zooming. The focus ring is a “focus-by-wire” control, like those found on many autofocus SLR lenses: Turn the ring, and the camera electronically adjusts the lens’ focus.
It may seem strange for a company to make a professional-grade camera with a fixed lens. Olympus cites several reasons for this choice. First, cameras with interchangeable lenses are notorious for their dust problems. Because the typical digital camera image sensor is so small, it takes only a tiny mote of dust to produce a black smear or blotch in an image. And, unfortunately, most manufacturers do not condone the use of compressed air for cleaning CCDs. Dust, therefore, can become a problem if you regularly change lenses.
Olympus also claims that because it engineered this lens specifically for the size of the E-10’s sensor, the lens delivers much better performance than a lens you would attach to a normal digital SLR. Because stock lenses are designed for 35mm film size, they don’t necessarily focus as clear an image as a lens designed for the size of a digital camera’s image sensor.
Olympus sells four high-quality extension lenses for the camera, which screw into the camera’s 62mm threaded lens. One extension provides 1:5 macro capability. The other three extensions give lens lengths (using 35mm equivalence) of 28mm, 200mm, and 420mm.
The E-10’s impressive lens makes artifacts such as geometric distortions and purple fringing almost impossible to find.
(Click here to see the original, full-size image.)
This article was last modified on January 18, 2023
This article was first published on May 23, 2001
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I’ve been using the E-10 for more than half a year now and I’m very satisfied with it. I use it alongside a Mamiya 645 Pro TL and that makes a beautiful analog/digital mix. I don’t understand the complaints about posterisation someone saw in the example pictures, as in my opinion the pictures are almost flawless (when compared in real size, of course).
Yes, Kodak makes SLRs with higher resolution, but the E10 still introduces some new features into the digital SLR market, most notably the ability to use its LCD as a viewfinder.
As for dust on the CCD, this is Olympus’ own concern. Given the number of complaints posted to digital SLR discussion forums, Olympus’ concerns seem to be valid.
We will be posting some additional images to the story to provide a comparison between the E10 and the Canon D30, the E10’s closest competitor.
Seeing as Kodak makes two digital SLR’s (the DCS 760 and DCS 660) that produce 6 megapixel images, and a medium format digital back (the DCS Pro Back) that produces a 16 megapixel image, I’m a bit confused about the author’s claim that, “The E-10 boasts features not seen on any other digital camera.”
As for the non-interchangeable lenses because of dust, I cannot recall a single image I shot with a camera with interchangeable lenses getting white pixels because of dust, even when using such a camera (and changing lenses) in some very dirty environments.
There were two photos: a tight street corner and one of colored chalk. Both were seriously posterized. Is that representative of the “quality” one can expect from this camera or is it the best that can be shown on the site?
I do have one friend who is thrilled with his E10, but I don’t know what his quality needs are.
This article gave me nothing to compare quality ratings. Maybe an image from a pro level camera as a benchmark would be good.