Olympus E-100 Zoom RS & C-3040 Zoom Digital Cameras

Both by Olympus

E-100 RS list price $1499
C-3040 list price $999

Review by Gary Coyne

At first observation, the major difference between the two cameras is size. While the C-3040 looks like a standard "point-and-shoot" camera, the E-100 stands there as a classic single lens reflex (SLR) camera with a large fixed zoom lens. As shown in the middle row of photos above, the actual size of the E-100's body is just a bit larger than the C-3040. However, when the lens is fully retracted on the C-3040, the camera's smaller size is significant. Both cameras fit very comforatbly in the hand, and the various buttons are in just the right place and responsive.

[In reality, the E-100 isn't a SLR camera either, rather it is an EVF or Electric Viewfinder. What this means is that the image seen in the viewfinder is the image viewed from the CCD (charge-coupled device). Thus, what you see IS what you get.]

Both cameras have the same 1.8 inch LCD that, if you are like me and are left-eye dominant, will be covered with nose smudges. There is no cure for this unless Olympus were to place the eyepiece on the other side. But, since they don't make cameras for left handed people, I don't expect them to make cameras for left-eyed people. Nonetheless, the LCD image is easy to see even in daylight and has a very bright, sharp image.

If you want a camera that you can drop into a bag, you want the C-3040 as it's smaller and more easily transportable. That's not to say the E-100 is large and cumbersome, but its larger fixed-lens design means that it should have a standard camera bag for transportation.

Both cameras enjoy a USB plug-in simplicity. With the camera off, plug the USB cable into your camera and computer. Turn the camera on, and presto: an image of an "untitled" hard drive shows up on the desktop--no drivers required. Inside the hard drive will be several folders one of which will have your photos. Then, by simply dragging your photos to your hard drive and then dragging the photos from the camera's hard drive to your trash can and emptying the trash, you're done! Turn off the camera and the "untitled" hard drive disappears. I understand the camera's USB connectivity works equally well with OS X, but I've not had a chance to verify this.

If you want a megapixel camera, you want the C-3040. With a maximum TIFF pixel size of 2048 x 1536 (or an (if TIFF format 9MB) image that's 28.5 inches by 21.25 inches), this camera will give you the big picture. The E-100's image size is limited to 1360 x 1024 (or a (if TIFF format 4MB) image that's 19 inches by 14.25 inches). Thus, if you need a photograph suitable for a poster, you need the C-3040. (The E-100 comes with Genuine Fractals 2.0 plug-in for Photoshop which does a superb job in upsizing images.)

However, the reason for megapixels is not limited to just printing out poster-sized prints. Rather, suppose you have a group photo and you want to cut out one individual and make a separate picture of that one person. If there is an insufficient amount of data (read pixels), the resultant new picture will be very pixelated.

As stated in the beginning of this article, megapixels aren't the whole story. Another aspect is a camera's zoom capability. If you like to frame and crop your shots as you take them, you want a powerful zoom capability--here, the E-100 shines brilliantly. With a 10 x optical zoom, you have the equivalent of a 38 - 380 mm telephoto lens on a 35 mm camera (vs. the equivalent of a 35 - 105 mm lens for the C-3040).

Additionally, each camera has a certain amount of digital zoom. This is equivalent to upscaling in Photoshop. This can be dangerous because what you are asking the camera to do is to create pixels that it doesn't have as it increases the size of the image. Some level of blurring and pixilation will happen, and the degree depends upon how much information the camera has to work with from the original. Here is where the C-3040 has the edge. Since it has a potentially greater number of pixels to begin within a given picture, the digital zoom will provide better quality. This, by my own testing, is true. Using the greatest jpeg format resolution (1600 x 1200), the digital zoom on the C-3040 produces a very good quality image. Using the greatest resolution (1360 x 1024) on the E-100 and then applying full digital zoom produces an image that is not quite as impressive, but definitely acceptable. As a test I used a lower resolution (1024 x 768) on the E-100 and used full optical and digital zoom. Unfortunately, the resultant image quality was so poor that unless you are using maximum image resolution, digital zoom shouldn't be used. On the other hand, when you consider that the maximum combined optical and digital zoom of the C-3040 (7.5X) is less than (just) the optical zoom of the E-100 (10x), you are still ahead with the E-100 for total zoom capability. If you are using the maximum resolution and the digital zoom, you do end up with a combined zoom of 27X with the E-100. This is cool.

One of the limitations to digital cameras is the time delay that occurs when you press the shutter button and when the photo is actually taken. This is because when you press the shutter, the camera must correct the white balance, calculate the shutter speed, figure out the f-stop, assume which ASA to use, focus the lens, and then take the picture. Thus, it's essentially impossible to take the picture of your son kicking a soccer ball at the moment of impact. That is, unless you have the E-100 RS. If you wanted to know what the "RS" stood for with the E-100 RS, it means "Rapid Shoot." What this means is if you have sequential pictures turned on, when you press the shutter button 1/2 way down, the camera starts recording pictures. Up to five sequential pictures are stored in a 9MB buffer waiting for you to press the shutter. The pictures are taken at a rate from 3, 5, 7.5, 15 frames per second. Once you fully press the shutter, the 1-5 pictures are then sent to your storage card. The negative here is that up to five pictures are now filling your storage card, but the positive is that you have up to five shots of your son kicking that soccer ball and one of them is bound to be super. Thus, one of the main drawbacks to digital cameras over film cameras has been eliminated. When you combine this feature with the E-100's Image Stabilization feature which allows sharp images to be taken despite the photographer zooming and panning, even in lower light conditions, you have an unbeatable combination. The C-3040 also has the sequential photoshooting capability, but it doesn't have the rate of frames per second capabilities that the E-100 has. Also, it takes longer for the C-3040 to store the pictures than it does for the E-100 on the memory card.

Speaking of speed, what if you want to take that picture NOW? By this I mean how long it take to turn on the camera and shoot. The issue is more than one may initially consider because when you turn on the C-3040, the camera must push the lens out and wake up. The E-100 must only wake up as the lens doesn't need to extend. From the time you flip the lever on the E-100, approximately 1.5 seconds are needed before you can take a picture. With the C-3040 it took approximately 3.5 seconds. Likewise, shutting down with the E-100 is essentially instantaneous, but the C-3040 takes about 4.5 seconds before you can replace the lens cap.

Lastly on the subject of speed, there is the issue of how long the camera takes to store a picture. This is most pronounced with TIFF pictures as they require the most storage. Since both cameras can store a TIFF picture that is 1280 x 960, I used that setting, took a picture and timed how long it took before the camera was ready to take the next shot. Both cameras show a thermometer image as the photo is being saved to the media card. The 3040 took approximately 12.5 seconds to record the photo while the 100 took approximately 9.5 seconds to record the same sized 3.5MB image.

Back to the lens cap for a moment: my only gripe with the design of either camera lies exclusively with the 3040. The lens cap on the 3040 attaches not to the lens, but to the body. That means that if you turn on the camera with the lens cap on, the protruding lens bumps into the lens cap and retracts and then shuts down the camera. I have been assured by the people at Olympus that the lens' clutch mechanism is such that no damage to the camera should occur. However, if the lens cap attached to the lens, no problem could possibly occur. On the other hand, since this is a double lens reflex camera, a lens cap on the lens does lend to the possibility of the loss of shots. For what it's worth, my vote is for the lens cap to have gone on the lens.

Behind the lens cap is the lens, and here the C-3040 is the winner. In the wide-angle mode, it has a f-1.8 aperture lens versus a f-2.8 aperture lens on the E-100. The aperture is a reading of how much light can get through the lens. The more light that can pass through the lens, the less time is needed for the camera to record the image and/or have a need for a flash. This is a good thing.

Both cameras let you prioritize either the aperture (A), shutter speed (S), or manual (both). Oddly, the C-3040 has only one external setting (the selection/power nob) for all three; one must go into the burdensome menu system to select which preference you want. Alternatively, on the E-100, you can select which priority you want from the same selection nob. On the other hand, the E-100 also has an extra setting called Scene Program mode (S-Prg). This option provides 4 presets for 4 different shooting conditions. Ironically, there the E-100 user must go into the same (but different) burdensome menu system to select which S-Prg to use.

Despite the fact that setting the S-Prg is not readily available, the S-Prg has some interesting opportunities: the first preset is for portrait photography. Here, the aperture is set large so that items in the foreground will be in focus while distant items in the background are slightly out-of-focus. The reverse of this is the panorama setting where fore- and background objects are all in focus. A sports setting sets the shutter speed very high to make sure that anything moving fast will not be blurred. Finally, there is a night setting with the aperture set wide open and the shutter speed slow to insure good quality night shots.

The ironic issue here is that if you want these various options on each respective camera, you have to dig through a morass of menus to obtain them. While it is probably impossible to not have as many options and features that these cameras provide and not have a plethora of menus to go through, some features should have better access, such as resolution and control priority. Consider how much fun these cameras would be if they left the flash control in the morass of the menu maze. Fortunately, each camera does have a button that exclusively controls the various flash options (standard, no-flash, red-eye reduction, and fill in flash). [Also, note that the E-100 has a pop-up flash that insures the flash will not go off unexpectedly if the flash is closed; it can't go off.]

Both cameras have a 5-pin connection for external flash that is covered by a very small screw-on cap that will be lost the first time they are used and neither camera has a hotfoot for the external flash. Somewhere, I had heard that the placement of the flash on the E-100 is such that the chance for red-eye is significantly less than the arrangement for the flash's arrangement on the C-3040. This appears to be true. Using both the regular flash and red-eye reduction with the C-3040 both provided red-eye on my daughter sitting across the table from me. Using the E-100, there was a minor hint of red-eye when the regular flash was used and no red-eye with red-eye reduction. On the other hand, if you are taking pictures of general things in a standard lit room, you probably will not even need the flash. If there is any movement (such as dancing or making babies fly), the objects may appear blurry. But, unless there is gross movement, you don't need to use the flash with these digital cameras in a standard, well-lit room at night. (You may want to set the white balance for tungsten or neon lights (as appropriate), but I found both cameras' automatic compensation remarkably good.)

Both cameras have an alarming number of selections to wade through in their respective menus. Both have two divisions of their menus with the standard features, and a second called Mode Setup. The concept is good in that you can set up (for example) what the desired TIFF, SHQ, HQ, etc. resolutions should be when selected from the main tree branch. Then, while in the main tree branch, all one has to select is TIFF, SHQ, HQ, etc. and the pre-set resolution is ready to go. However, rather than having the Mode Setup option readily available on the first "page" of menu selection, it is buried at the end. Although the E-100 has more external buttons than the C-3040, it would have been nice to have one more providing easy access to changing resolutions. Olympus really needs to reconsider the menu-trees in their cameras--as it is, they are not efficient.

On the plus side, there is a menu option for Auto Reset which provides for "On" which means when you turn the camera off and back on, everything goes to its default setting, "Off" which means whatever you set it to will remain that way till you change the setting later, and "Custom" which allows you to custom set any of the features to automatically revert to default when turning the camera off and then on.

Both cameras come with Camedia 2.5 software that shows thumbnails of your photos and can do limited Photoshop enhancement. [If you want more features than can be applied via Camedia, but are not interested in Adobe Photoshop's high street price (about $600), you may want to consider Adobe Photoshop Elements with a consumer-happy price of about $100]. One of the neat features with Camedia is that you can print out proof sheets of your photos with your choice of number of photos in each row and/or column. The proof sheets allow you to more easily review your photos for later editing. By the way, if you do not have a USB port, you will need Camedia for downloading your pictures via the serial port. The E-100 also comes with Photoshop LE and Genuine Fractals.

Oddly, the E-100 comes with rechargeable NiMH batteries and a recharger while the C-3040 comes with non-rechargeable lithium battery packs. Fortunately, as opposed to HP cameras that tend to suck batteries at an alarming rate, Olympus cameras are very effective in their battery use. Nonetheless, plan on purchasing NiMH batteries and recharger for your C-3040. In fact, one should have two sets (total of eight double AA size) as standard procedure. As efficiently as the batteries last, there is essentially no warning when they are about to die. Rather than be caught without power, it's just better to have extra batteries available.

Finally Olympus, like Apple Computer, likes to provide the minimal amount of memory possible. In this case, one TIFF document. With the E-100, you can take 1 TIFF photo at the maximum resolution (1360 x 1024) on the provided 8MB SmartMedia card. Likewise, with the C-3040, you can take 1 TIFF photo at the maximum resolution (2048 x 1536) on the provided 16MB SmartMedia card.

In short, it is easy to see which camera I favored in this review. Despite the more than double pixels in the C-3040, and despite the fact that it is a much more convenient size, I found the features and capabilities of the E-100 vastly superior. Also, note that the E-100 has a $500 larger price tag. When I started this review I knew I would like the extra zoom capabilities of the E-100, but I didn't know how well the cameras would compare beyond that. While the extra pixels are an important issue to many people, if you are willing to sacrifice that capability, you get a whole lot more camera with 50% more of the price. Fortunately on its own the C-3040 is a superb camera. Both are excellent, and both provide excellent photography.

On a final note, I should point out that simply holding the E-100 is a pleasure--it just feels right. That's not to say that the C-3040 feels wrong, it feels fine. But after years holding my Minolta 201 with a zoom lens, I find that most "point-and-shoot" cameras too light. This had the size and mass that I felt very comfortable with. (The E-100 is about a half pound heavier than the C-3040.) This should be taken into consideration by those who are used to "point-and-shoot" cameras and may want to stay with the same.