new users first impressions (Olympus E-10)

Member Name: inky

Product:	Olympus E-10
Date:	11/02/01 (214 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: High quality lens and images

Disadvantages: complicated and tricky to use - not cheap

I have just bought the E10 and have spent some time playing with it.
I bought it after seeing a number of good reports about it and speaking to a photographer who has one.
Firstly, it is quite a complicated bit of gear, and takes a lot of getting used to.
The main aspect is that it can take very high quality digital pictures. However, it will take some time to establish the optimum settings. It seems generally well made, but there are numerous buttons and settings to understand.
One of the main aspects is the LENS. It seems very good.
But the auto focus is a bit suspect, and it will take a photo even if not in focus.
Also the shutter release is very sensitive indeed.
The remote release works very well albeit only from the front or side.
Like all Digital cameras it eats batteries.
I have 3 sets of Ni MH and am keeping the supplied batteries for emergencies.
I have not had time to give the camera a good test yet, but it would appear to be ideal for serious photographers on a limited budget. It will alas be out of date within a few months!

Inky
11.2.01

13.2.01 Update.
Thanks to some nice weather today I have been able to play around with the beast and do some tests.
My main need was to find the setting that would give me good results but allowing the most number of photos to be taken on one card.
There are something like 64 variations for picture quality, some being very similar.
It would seem that using the SHQ at 1600x1200/2.7 is very good and even the SHQ 1280x960/2.7 setting is also fine.
It does though depend on the subject and how close up it is.
As I have said, the camera really eats batteries, but the Olympus re-chargable battery set costs almost £600!
I have printed out a few shots and found the results very good. I did one A4 print that was fine.
The main problems are the vast number of buttons and setting, the very sensitve shutter button, the batteries required
and the cost of additional items.
BUT, for the price you do get very good results, and will save on both film and hassle.
I'm getting to like it, particularly as I can now for example take a photo of something I want, say an interesteg cottage, and then just put it onto my computer and thence onto CD. I can probably get some 400 photos onto one CD - WOW!!
Trouble is, will they still be there in 10 years time?
Update 15.2.01
I have just used the camera to take photos of my friends son, who is a possible U16 England player, playing rugby. I used the second highest resolution setting (1600x1200) at 1/8 comp. This gave me 32 shots on a 16MB card and the results are pretty good, but the main things is it has not cost me much money to get the Pics.
I've put them all onto a CD, and will be able to add many more shots to that same CD.
I'm getting a 64Mb card soon (from Jessops) at £82.50 and this will allow me to take more pics at a higher resolution.
It seems daft that there are so many resolution settings on this camera, and quite a few other seetings that are not really of much use, but that the highest shutter speed is only 1/640th.
Update 21.2.01
I bought a 64mb smartmedia card, but then found that my floppy disc adaptor would only work with cards up to 32mb, so I have had to buy a new adaptor!
I used the camera from the air yesterday, but it was not a very good test as the weather was a bit grim. The results were not too bad though.
I took a photo of a friend today and then printed it out within minutes on a 7x5 glossy card. He was most impressed with the result.
I'm finding I get through almost one set of batteries per film! And thats without flash!
Inky

Summary: