Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

Great features like image stabilization, RC flash and others. Colors are nice and menus easy to navigate. Nicely laid out and very user friendly. Bit heavier then the Evolt 500 but all of the features make you not notice it. Really made my 12-60 come to life.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

That's my second oly. The image quality of the e-30 is not better than e-510. The camera is faster & has more focus points, but it will be better if you buy good lens instead of the body.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

This is a very good upgrade from the Olympus E-520 that I own. The image quality is much better as is the high ISO performance and is not that much larger then the 520. Having used an Olympus camera the controls were quite intuitive, however a quick scan of the manual helps with getting the complete lay of the land. I also recommend going to the utility feature that adjusts the auto focus for each lens. I am still learning how to get the best from this camera and having immense amounts fun doing so

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

I upgraded to the E30 primarily for the AE Bracketing capabilities with 5 photos. I use this feature to quickly and easily capture several different exposures of the same shot so I can fuse them together for incredible pictures. So far this camera has lived up to my expectations and works great for this. I upgraded from an older Olympus digital SLR because I have had a great experience with it. I am expecting to see the same life and usefulness out of this camera too.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

I upgraded to the E-30 from an Evolt E-300. Wow, what an upgrade. I love the bigger viewfinder with the information on the bottom instead of the side. It focuses much better in low light. Lower noise at higher ISO's is great (but I really don't mind noise, it gives the photo a certain quality I can't describe). In body stabilization is the way to go! It makes all my lenses IS. The flip out LCD is great for low shots & macro work. It's also good for over the head shots when you're stuck in the back row behind all the action. Being able to control my FL-36R flash remotely is awesome. I don't have to have my flash on the camera! Being able to adjust focusing issues with specific lenses is neat. I haven't had to use it though. The camera works great with all my lenses (kit 14-42 & 40-150, 70-300, Sigma 18-50 2.8). The best thing, in my opinion, over the E-300 is the dual turn control dials for much easier manual control of aperture & shutter. This is much faster than the one dial on the E-300.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

With 12-60, photos in low light conditions the results amazing.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

My first dSLR was an e-510, and it's given me a chance to get my feet wet. While I've really enjoyed that camera, there were some things about it that I didn't really like. Principally, shooting in AP mode was a struggle because the images never would turn out right, and also because it would hunt for focus. In all other respects, though, it's a gem. Nevertheless, I started thinking about a new camera body, and because I didn't want to have to replace lenses I start thinking about the e-620 and e-30. In the end, and after reading reviews on most of the camera review websites, I decided to get the e-30.

All I can say is "WOW!" The viewfinder is terrific by comparison to the e-510. It's large and bright. The focus, using my prime lense (Sigma 2.8 DC EX Macro), is super fast. There's no hunting. The picture quality is absolutely superb. I had no idea that the change from the 510 to e-30 would be so dramatic, but it is.

I'm absolutely delighted with this camera. The pictures are razor sharp. As a side note, a lot of reviews mention what could be "button clutter." However, I've found that despite all the buttons, it's easy to get the settings you want. If you're considering moving from a e-4xx/5xx upward, you need to take a serious look at the e-30. It's worth every penny in my opinion.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

This is the third Olympus DSLR that I own, and this is the best one so far. The 3 main improvements over my old E500 are : 1)Better Bracketing options - ie 5 exposure vs 3. 2) Faster throughput (Fps) - great for sports 3) IMAGE STABILIZATION - worth the price alone - I am now able to shoot handheld night scenes at 1/8 sec and still have a sharp image. The swivel LCD is also a nice add on

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

A great camera. Easy to use and a variety of quality lens systems.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

I am a amature photographer, specalizing in nature, people, and abstract.

I chose the E-30 because of my past great experiances with the Olympus E series cameras, the great price, and the added features of the swivel LCD, and in body image stabilization.
After my first 250 shots I have grown to love the simplicity of the menus and controls, and the beautiful sharp images it produces. The swivel LCD is great for taking pictures when you cannot fit behind the eye piece, or even the camera. The E-30 along with the Zuiko 14-54mm II is a great combo giving you super sharp high quality images.
I was a little nervous buying another four thirds product, as my previous Olympus was the E-420, which has noticable dissadvantages in low light conditions. Fourtounatly the Image stabilizer very much makes up for it. I was impreassed with the ability even in low light conditions to produce a non blurred picture without the use of a flash.
So far after owning it just over 2 weeks I would say I will use it more than my Nikon D300, the menus and feautres make so much sense, and you can easily change all your settings without spending time scrolling through menus. Though the quality and megapixels are certainly comprable the price on the Olympus 4/3 is far better for the features.
I think anyone who is interested an a professional level camera, should consider the E-30.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

I just used my new E-30 on a studio photo shoot with radio remote sync to Speedotron flash units.

The E-30 performed flawlessly. I especially like the
large swivel LCD. With the camera mounted on a tripod at a shooting high angle it gave me the advantage
to view the subjects ( w/ live view) and not need a step stool.
I really like the auto-focus grid that allowed me to select focus anywhere on the viewing screen. The only thing that I can see as a con is the steep learning curve to learn all options and buttons that cover the camera. Reading the Manual is a must, even if you already are a Olympus SLR owner .
The other negative is the heft of the camera. It is much better then the E- 510,
but still doesn't have the feel of a professional camera in your hands. If you shoot in a studio on a tripod and are gentle with your equipment and are watching your budget, you wont mind the difference.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

After my 3 year old grandson thought my E-3 needed an adjustment with a hammer and screwdriver, I bought the e-30 to hold me over for the up coming E-5? Hey if this camera was weatherproof I would be totally satisfied!

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

Had a number of Olympus lenses and simply wanted to upgrade my trusty old E500.

Wow - what a difference in terms of technology and ease of use.

The build quality is first class and it delivers on a number of varied shots - exposure at low light is second to none.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

The most wonderful things besdies taking photos is that I spend lots of time with my family to go out to take photos. And I am not a couch potato anymore.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

This was a quite an upgrade from my 5 years with an e-300. Before buying, I considered the competition's D50 and D90, but went with Oly because of the glass already in use. The build is substantial and packed with options. I especially like the ability to have a variety of custom settings. The write speed is good, viewfinder is bright and LCD panel shows up well in daylight. [...]

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

This was a great upgrade to my e510.
Even for first time buyers, the e-30 is a compelling camera coupled with a 14-54mm or a 50/f2 lenses.
What makes Olympus great is colors and the great Zuiko lenses.
A camera should take great pictures and the E30 does exactly that, without much effort.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

Local Media, Weddings, Portraits, Personal use.

Great sharp vivid pictures, good selective focus, shadow detail pretty good, easy to use filters, good WB, good exposure even in auto mode, good bang for the buck.

Not many pro grade Non Olympus lens made for it other than brands like Sigma. The Olympus lens are great from Hi Grade on up.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

Adaptable and portable. This camera has still amazed me how it has many usefull features within its super menu (which is easy to use via the LCD). I wish the LCD were a 3" 920,000 dot, instead of 2.5" 230,000 dot. Also I wish all OLY parts were weather sealed, so when you buy the expensive Oly glass, both lenses and body are now splash reisitant- like the Pentax K7 is. Shooting at extrememly low light levels (EV 1 and below) is tough for this body, even using the two lenses I own. But for anything bright, this combination excells. Shake reduction is great, and dust removal is always present when you power on the unit. It's never been an issue. I tend to stay at or under ISO 1600 with this body to keep the noise down. The battery grip gives me added weight for leverage when I use my long lens I have, plus it at least doubles the battery lifespan before I have to recharge them. I can go shooting for at least 4 days without worries I will run out of power with the HLD-4. The extension tube can be used on either of my lenses and the 12-60 shows better spec's for close-up magnification than the 50-200 does. I use it on both though. I plan on buying the EC20 2x tele-converter soon so I can effectively make my 50-200mm a 200-800mm f/ 5.6-7.1 so I can get CLOSE to what I need- birds, the moon, whatever I wish while using a tripod of course. I may attempt a few hand-held shots, just to see how the IS holds up... but that will just be to see what happens.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

I give the camera all around use including travel (China Scandinavia Baltics) sporting events (rodeo though swimming) Family pictures(grand-children). Nature and animal shots.

Because I participate in a weekly camera club I also use it for unusual weekly assignments and projects I bought the E-30 camera body as an upgrade to my Olympus e-510. The e-510 will now go in the shop for minor repairs. I am pleased with the high image quality the e-30 provides.

Pros include In camera stabilization, I can now use even my legacy OM-1 lenses with stabilization. All though though surprisingly these lenses don't provide any quality improvement over the 4/3 kit lenses. I really like the quality and compact nature of the 4/3 lenses The noise level is quite low through ISO 800 and what noise I do get I prefer to deal with in post processing. The feature set is amazing and includes a Live-view articulated LCD, the ability to auto bracket exposure, color, and other key image features, It even has a built in leveling display. The e-30 has all the features I want and more. The only thing it lacks is HD video and if I ever need that I will get a dedicated HD movie camera.

Cons: Uncertainty as to how long Olympus will keep building their 4/3 line. Size of the camera body although the e-30 is quite compact it feels large when compared to the e-510, Not being able to use my OM TTL T-32 flash with any of Olympus 4/3 series. Lack of an automatic viewfinder blocker (needed when using "Live-view")Lack of user frendly documentation.

Comments about Olympus E-30 SLR Digital Camera:

I am using this camera to do personal and professional photographs. As with any camera, the lens is the key - I am using the 12 x 60 lens. a fast focus and clear crystal clear quality.
As with any mid to top of the line DSLR, it is bulky and with the lens, is weighty.