SteveM7i

Opinion: For me, the D60 is a nearly perfect compact DSLR.

I began my excursion into the DSLR world with the Olympus 4/3 system, which is a fantastic system, period. What lured me away from Olympus to the Nikon DX DSLR system was the simultaneous introduction earlier this year of the now widely acclaimed 16-85mm VR zoom lens and the D60 DSLR, which has a built-in dust reduction system. IMO, the IQ of the D60, when used in RAW capture mode with the 16-85mm zoom lens, is a notch above that of the Olympus E-410 (equipped with the ZD 14-54mm zoom lens), which I owned for several months (and before that the E-1 and E-330). The D60 wins hands-down in the noise department, even at low ISO settings, and beats the pants off the E-410 at higher ISOs. The same is true for dynamic range. It's not that the E-410 has poor dynamic range, becuase it doesn't. Rather, the D60 has such unbelievable dynamic range that, compared side-by-side, it makes the dynamic range of the E-410 look weak by comparison.

Bottom line: With the exception of a few missing features noted below, the D60 has nearly everything I could ask for in a compact DSLR and is nearly perfect when combined with the spectacular 16-85mm VR zoom lens.

Opinion: Fantastic little DSLR .

Despite its small size, I have found the E-410 to be very ergonomic in design and a joy to use. It's feature rich for an entry level DSLR, providing options that will satisfy most advanced amateur photographers. Noise is very well controlled up to ISO 400 and tolerable at ISO 800 in properly exposed images. Noise is high at ISO 1600, though properly exposed images at this ISO setting should produce acceptable 5x7" prints. As discussed extensively on this site, a very nice feature of the camera is that noise filtering can be turned off (recommended), or set to low, standard, or high. Excellent user reviews and tutorials for the E-410 and its big brother, the E-510, can be found at Andrzej Wrotniak's website (links can't be included here, so just Google it). I should note also that Ricardo Hernández (a.k.a. Raist3d on the Oly SLR Talk Forum of this site) has provided an excellent E-410 review for Wrotniak's E-system web info and tutorial pages.

My own thorough analyses comparing E-410 and E-330 RAW images of contrasty outdoor scenes suggest that the E-410 has about 1/3 stop of reduced dynamic range compared to the E-330. If you have any photography experience, you'll likely see this much-discussed issue as being a non-issue that has been greatly overblown. In terms of resolution, it blows away the E-330. Just use it with noise filtering "Off" and sharpening set to -2. At default settings, it produces images that are a bit contrasty for my tastes, so I set contrast to -2 as well. Better yet, shoot in RAW capture mode and you won't have to worry about these settings plus you'll get the advantage of added dynamic range.

A HIGHLY RECOMMENDED DSLR and at current prices (<$375USD as of 2/18/08), a real bargain as well.

Opinion: Kind of like a C-8080 on steroids:

For those who loved (and perhaps, at times, hated) the C-8080, the E-330, with its Live View A mode and vari-angle LCD screen, is in many respects a lot like a greatly improved version of the C-8080:

• Slow write speed made the C-8080 unusable in RAW mode; not a problem with the E-330.

• EVF combined with a useless distance scale made manual focus control a joke on the C-8080. While the E-330's VF is tiny, it can be used for MF and if you're willing to use a tripod or have steady hands, Live View B provides extremely accurate MF control.

• The AF speed of the C-8080 is very slow and inaccurate in low light. The E-330 is GREATLY improved with respect to low-light AF performance.

Overall image quality assessment of the E-330: In a word, FANTASTIC!!!

Very subjective image quality comparison: E-330 RAW (w/ 14-54 lens) > C-8080 JPEG >/= E-330 JPEG >/= E-1 RAW > E-1 JPEG

"Value for Money" rating is based on the current (as of 4/5/07) fire sale prices (body <$500).

Comment on construction/build quality: While it's no E-1, the E-330 body feels pretty solid overall, except for a few issues noted below. By comparison, the E-500 feels like a toy.

Opinion: Here's the 150th Review for this outstanding DSLR:

Pros:
• Excellent RAW image quality
• Excellent in-camera JPEG engine (except for jaggies)
• Excellent white balance control
• Large file buffer (12 RAW files)
• Accurate AF, albeit a bit slower than the competition
• Outstanding build quality
• Outstanding user interface & ergonomic design
• Weather & dust resistant sealing
• Reasonably priced weather & dust resistant lenses

Opinion: UPDATE (11/1/05): I HIGHLY recommend the WCON-08D wide angle converter lens for the C-8080. It's VERY sharp (no loss of sharpness relative to the C-8080's built-in zoom lens) and exhibits very low distortion (except at close focusing distances) and NO vignetting, even with a slim filter attached to the main lens!

My perspective on the C-8080 is based on 30+ years of photography experience. My first 35mm SLR film camera was an Olympus OM-1 and my last was a Canon EOS A2, which I sold in January of this year. I’ve also dabbled with medium format film using an old Ricohflex TLR that I inherited from my father. I’ve used a variety of B&W and color negative films as well as color slide films over the years. For a while, I owned a Minolta Dimage 7i and I presently own a Canon A80, which is used for family snapshots. I’ve taken over 500 shots since getting my C-8080 two weeks ago. Here are my impressions of this fine digital camera:

Image Quality: In a nutshell, image quality is excellent at ISO 50-100 and very good at ISO 200. With uniformly lit subjects, ISO 400 also produces reasonably good image quality. However, shadow noise is very prominent at ISO 200 and above and unacceptable at ISO 400. In my judgment, the C-8080 produces images that are discernibly more detailed than those produced by the D7i at comparable resolution/scale. Indeed, I find that C-8080 images have significant resolution/clarity even when viewed at 100%, which was not generally the case with images produced by my D7i. Thus, in my opinion, the increased resolution of the C-8080 over that of the D7i goes beyond the 8- versus 5-megapixel difference in sensor size between the respective cameras. My perception is that the C-8080 is sharper at the wide end than at the tele end, at least when used at the widest aperture settings. At the wide end, the lens is very sharp even wide open.

The contrast of C-8080 images is quite high at the default setting (contrast = zero) in sunny outdoor conditions. I haven’t tried lowering the contrast yet, but I would assume that a setting of -1 or -2 would be helpful, unless you really like contrasty images. Overall, I was pleased with the contrast of subjects shot indoors with a flash.

Dynamic Range: On a qualitative basis, my perception is that the dynamic range of the C-8080 is probably similar to a typical ISO 100 color negative film like Kodak Gold or Fujifilm Reala or a highly saturated color slide film like Kodak EVS or Fujifilm Velvia 50, but less than a “normal” saturation color slide film like Provia 100F.

Body Design: The first thing I thought when I opened the box and saw the camera was, “Wow, this is much smaller that I expected it to be”. Frankly, I expected the C-8080 to be larger, based on comments I’ve read in various online forums. That said, I like the size of the camera and would not want it to be any smaller than it is, either in dimensions or in weight.

The C-8080 fits very nicely in my medium-large hands. It’s also very nicely balanced in operation. The grip areas, front and rear, are well designed and have an excellent feel. The camera is very well constructed, except for the memory card door, which seems to be made of cheap plastic. The lens barrel seems to be constructed of polycarbonate. When retracted, it’s housed in a sturdy magnesium alloy protective sheath. Controls are easy to access and logically organized. I really like the fact that buttons are available for several of the key controls.

Displays: The EVF of the C-8080 seems to be a bit of an improvement over the one found in the Dimage 7i, but not greatly so, IMO. I wear eyeglasses and the viewfinder has a more or less adequate eyepoint for using the camera with my glasses on. This was not the case with the D7i. The LCD display is bright and clear, much better than the one in the D7i. As for the display contents, overall, everything is nicely laid out. I can imagine that some users might find the display too cluttered and prefer to use a blank screen or a screen with only the focus point displayed.

Menu System: Once I acquainted myself with the menu system by READING THE USERS MANUAL, I found it to be very easy to navigate. The organization and layout are very logical.

Control Buttons: Overall, a nice assortment of easy to use control buttons. One minor gripe is that the exposure control button (+/-) is also used to activate the histogram display in the user activated histogram display mode. When this option is selected, you have to go through the menu system to perform exposure compensations. I wish that the camera had a dedicated histogram display button (am I missing something?).

Autofocus System: The autofocus system of the C-8080 is reasonably fast and accurate under good lighting conditions. Somewhat surprisingly, I am of the impression that the iESP focus mode is more accurate than the spot focus system, especially in low light conditions. Under normal indoor lighting conditions, iESP autofocus mode is slow, but reasonably accurate.

Manual Focus: There is a REAL PROBLEM in this department. The bottom line is that manual focus is useless for subjects further away than about 6-10 feet. For subjects beyond this range, images appear to be severely out of focus. This is clearly the result of a programming error and the problem should have been fixed with a firmware update. SHAME ON OLYMPUS FOR NOT DOING SO!

As for manual focusing of subjects closer than around 8 feet or so, although I would much prefer that the camera have real manual focus control (like the D7i), the display-based electronic manual focus system is pretty easy to use, albeit much slower than I would like it to be. IMO, the focus setting should adjust much more quickly when the focus control buttons are held down.

Macro Performance: I have not tried Macro mode yet, but I have taken quite a few close focus tele pictures of flowers and our pet gecko using manual focus mode. I was very impressed with the image quality. When using a flash, I think you have to be about 20 cm or so away from the subject in order to avoid casting a shadow from the large C-8080 lens.

White Balance: In sunny outdoor conditions and when used indoors with a flash, the white balance seems to be remarkably accurate. I did not notice any significant difference in color rendering between auto white balance and manual white balance (sunny outdoor mode). I did not test auto white balance accuracy under other lighting conditions. The landscape scene mode seems to be an interesting possibility for landscape/scenic shooting in sunny conditions, as it seems to boost blue and green saturation more than other colors.

Exposure Accuracy: The C-8080’s exposure accuracy is outstanding, both indoors and out and with or without a flash. Importantly, there’s a convenient exposure lock button on the front of the camera that’s very useful in harsh or uneven lighting situations where proper exposure of the main subject is difficult. In addition, the EVF is sensitive and accurate enough to provide a reasonably good sense of the selected exposure.

Built-In Flash: In a nutshell, I’m very impressed so far with the performance of the C-8080’s built-in full and fill flash capability.

Overall Conclusion: The seriously flawed manual focus operation aside, I’m very impressed with the C-8080. My perception is that it has an image resolution that rivals or exceeds that of scanned 35mm film, whereas this was not the case with the Dimage 7i. I got my C-8080 when the price bottomed out at $450 and I feel fortunate to have purchased one at this price.

Note: My 3.0 rating for "Features" reflects the flawed manual focus operation of the camera. Were it not for this fixable defect, I would have given it a "4.5" rating.

One last note--if you buy this camera, READ THE MANUAL!