Review based on a production Olympus E-1, firmware Version 1.0
The Olympus E-1 is the first removable lens digital SLR with a lens mount and imaging system specifically designed for digital. As such it is also the first removable lens digital SLR from Olympus and marks the beginning of a whole new camera system (bodies, lenses, flashes and accessories), the 'E System'. The E-1 has a five megapixel 4/3" type (18 x 13.5 mm) CCD sensor from Kodak, it carries the '4/3' logo on the camera body and lens indicating that it is part of this standard (sensor size and lens mount). The camera system and '4/3 System' has a public history (although in private it is likely to have started much earlier) stretching back to February 2001 when Kodak and Olympus announced they would be joining forces to 'develop digital camera technology'.
It's worth noting that Fujifilm has also expressed an interest in the 4/3 system. This standard defines the size* of sensor (4/3" type, 18 x 13.5 mm) and the lens mount / lens communication protocol. In theory you should be able to use a 4/3 lens from any manufacturer on a 4/3 body.
* There has been some confusion about the exact meaning of '4/3', at one stage it was published elsewhere that this referred to the aspect ratio of the image. I can confirm that although a coincidence the 4/3 name was never meant to refer to the image aspect ratio. For more information on sensor type sizes click here.
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4/3
system, size, lenses and implicationsThe 4/3" type sensor measures 18.0 x 13.5 mm, just slightly smaller than the size of the CMOS sensors Canon have used in their EOS-D30, EOS-D60 and EOS-10D digital SLR's. That may come as a surprise to some as it can be difficult to visualize the size of a sensor. The diagram below shows the relative sizes of various sensors compared to a normal 35 mm film negative. Indeed what's interesting is that the 4/3 sensor is exactly half the width of a 35 mm negative, vertically the measurement is different because of the different aspect ratio.
The use of a smaller sensor means that you don't need such a large imaging circle (as would be produced by a 35 mm lens), this means you can make the lenses smaller and lighter, it also means that you can build lenses tailor made for the purpose, lenses which should perform better at wide angles.
(Diagram shown to scale but
much larger than in real life)
What's probably more startling is the relatively minute size of the 2/3" type sensor used in the two previous digital ZLR cameras, the E-10 and E-20. The other implication of a larger sensor is larger photodiode sizes (larger pixel pitch - a measurement of the distance from the top corner of one pixel to the next). Larger photodiode size makes for lower noise and higher sensitivity, and looking at the table below we can see that the E-1's sensor has a photodiode with four times the area of the E-20 and just smaller than the sensor used on the EOS-10D.
| Camera | Sensor | Total pixels | Pixel pitch | Sensor size |
| Olympus C-4040 Zoom | 1/1.8" CCD | 4.1 million | 3.1 x 3.1 µm | 7.2 x 5.3 mm |
| Olympus C-5050 Zoom | 1/1.8" CCD | 5.2 million | 2.8 x 2.8 µm | 7.2 x 5.3 mm |
| Olympus E-20 | 2/3" CCD | 5.2 million | 3.4 x 3.4 µm | 8.8 x 6.6 mm |
| Olympus E-1 | 4/3" CCD | 5.6 million | 6.8 x 6.8 µm | 18.0 x 13.5 mm |
| Canon EOS-10D | CMOS | 6.5 million | 7.4 x 7.4 µm | 22.7 x 15.1 mm |
| Canon EOS-1Ds | CMOS | 11.4 million | 8.8 x 8.8 µm | 36 x 24 mm |
| Kodak DCS-14n | CMOS | 13.8 million | 7.9 x 7.9 µm | 36 x 24 mm |
Interesting note for the future: if Kodak could produce a 4/3 type sensor with a 2.8 µm pixel pitch it would have 31 million pixels, so there is plenty of scope for expansion at this sensor size.
The other thing that the four thirds standard defines is the lens mount, communication protocol and other details relating to lens, zoom and focus. This is perhaps even more important, it means that in theory a Kodak four thirds camera could use Olympus lenses and that we may see third party manufacturers such as Sigma and Tamron producing their own four thirds lenses. Acceptance and wide ranger use of this open lens mount standard is vital to the survival of the four thirds system.
If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital
Photography Glossary before diving into this article (it may help
you understand some of the terms used).
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Conclusion / Recommendation / Ratings are based on the opinion of the reviewer, you should read the ENTIRE review before coming to your own conclusions. Images which can be viewed at a larger size have a small magnifying glass icon in the bottom right corner of the image, clicking on the image will display a larger (typically VGA) image in a new window. To navigate the review simply use the next / previous page buttons, to jump to a particular section either pick the section from the drop down or select it from the navigation bar at the top. DPReview calibrate their monitors using Color Vision OptiCal at the (fairly well accepted) PC normal gamma 2.2, this means that on our monitors we can make out the difference between all of the (computer generated) grayscale blocks below. We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X,Y and Z and ideally A,B and C. |
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This article is Copyright 2003 Phil Askey and the review in part or in whole may NOT be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author. For information on reproducing any part of this review (or any images) please contact: Phil Askey
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