Since it has been a couple weeks since I released any thoughts on the E-30 I wanted to layout some more thoughts about this camera dealing with Multi Exposure, the new 14-54mm II lens, and Creative filters. Multi Exposure and creative filters are only in version 1.0. So in my opinion for a 1.0 product they are good, but still have a lot of room for improvement.

Multi Exposure -

First I think that this could be a very powerful tool, I don't really care about being able to take a picture of a tree, and then insert myself into the picture. I think that doing that is just as easy to do in PhotoShop. This feature to boil it down to this level seems to cheapen the camera to the level of a point and shoot in my opinion as it stands that way. However, I began thinking, what if I could use it as a HDR rendering engine? If it could do that, this gimmick could be made into a powerful photography tool.

(I used multi exposure to combine 2 shots for christmas lights for a deamy effect)

So as Multi Exposure stands now it almost allows you to do that - Basically you can set the camera to bracket mode (but the camera at most goes 1 stop +/- with 3 exposures). So as it stands now as a version 1.0 I would say that it isn't that bad, but I don't see anywhere that they suggest this feature in the literature. So I have added the results below.

The first image shows 1 picture straight out of the camera I metered off the sky. The second is 3 frames bracketed 1 stop, with auto gain turned on in multi exposure (near HDR). The third picture is 3 frames bracketed 1 stop, with auto gain off (not really the desired effect). Click on the photos for a larger image.

So all in all in my opinion I think that if Olympus cleans up the Multi Exposure funtion that this functionality could move in my opinion from gadget to tool.

The 14-54mm II

A lot of people have been asking about the 14-54mm vs 14-54mm II questions. If you are going to use the imager AF with live view the 14-54mm II would be a good choice. But even in this feature all 3 of these work. Of the 3 lenses, I personally prefer the 12-60mm partially because of the extra wide angle abilities, as well as I prefer the SWD lenses, they are much more quieter than the non-SWD lenses. To me as annoying as mirror / shutter slap is loud lenses buzzing around. However, at the price point of the original 14-54mm that is a very hard lens to pass up.

To help show the other advantage of the 14-54mm II over the original lens, I took an out of focus picture of my alarm clock to show how the aperture blades affect the Bokeh. At wide open shows the lenses wide open, and the 2nd the lenses are closed down to f9. Click on the image for a larger screen shot.

Some Tips For Multi Exposure and Creative art filters .

Lastly I had Olympus spokes people over the last couple of months put together some usage tips, and tricks with the E-30. This is what they graciously provided, and really is a very good read. So our thanks to Olympus for taking the time to provide fourthirdsphoto, and its members these documents once again.

E-30 Art Filter FAQ PDF

E-30 Multi Exposure PDF

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