Olympus E-300

Sask2005

Hello camera buyers.

I have been offered a [font=&quot]Olympus E-300 Evolt which comes with a 14-55mm and a 40-150m lens and a power grip.

I presently have a FujiFinepix s7000 but do a lot of sports photography requiring a super fast turn on time and multiple image shooting. The s7000 can do neither. I also do a lot of artist photography, a lot of macro, telephoto and flash.

What are measurements of the lens ([/font][font=&quot]14-55mm and 40-150m) compared to a SLR film - in other words 70-90 etc?

Is the Olympus an advancement on the Fuji s7000?

Will the E300 40-150mm lens provide better light coming into the lens with trying to photograph objects on telephoto indoors. The s7000 won't go past 1/1000sec.

Can people recommend an equal priced better camera for my needs.

AND what do people think about the Canon [/font]PowerShot Pro1 8.0 Megapixel - is this a good sports photography camera????
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Really appreciate every suggestion. Many thanks
B:clap
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gus

Sask2005 wrote:

Hello camera buyers.

I have been offered a [font=&quot]Olympus E-300 Evolt which comes with a 14-55mm and a 40-150m lens and a power grip.

I presently have a FujiFinepix s7000 but do a lot of sports photography requiring a super fast turn on time and multiple image shooting. The s7000 can do neither. I also do a lot of artist photography, a lot of macro, telephoto and flash.

What are measurements of the lens ([/font][font=&quot]14-55mm and 40-150m) compared to a SLR film - in other words 70-90 etc?

Is the Olympus an advancement on the Fuji s7000?

Will the E300 40-150mm lens provide better light coming into the lens with trying to photograph objects on telephoto indoors. The s7000 won't go past 1/1000sec.

Can people recommend an equal priced better camera for my needs.

Really appreciate every suggestion. Many thanks
B
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You have not told us what the price is that it is being offered to you at to see if we can offer an alternative as you have asked.

The Olympus 40-150 is f3.5/4.5 which is medium speed as lenses go. Shutter speed wise the E300 will go to 1/4000 with enough light...plenty fast enough for sports. That lens will do the sports stuff just fine....shortish that it is.

It would certainly be an advancement.

Gus

Sask2005

prices

Humungus wrote:

You have not told us what the price is that it is being offered to you at to see if we can offer an alternative as you have asked.

The Olympus 40-150 is f3.5/4.5 which is medium speed as lenses go. Shutter speed wise the E300 will go to 1/4000 with enough light...plenty fast enough for sports. That lens will do the sports stuff just fine....shortish that it is.

It would certainly be an advancement.

Gus

Hi Gus - sorry forgot that - its NZ$1499 which is US$1046 (but things are more expensive here and the $1499 is cheap for NZ).

So if I was taking pics of a race car or motorbike or mountain biker corning would both lens I mentioned do the job?

B

gus

I 'think' its an 8 meg camera so you will be able to crop the shot a good deal but 150mm isnt really that long for sports (depending on what they are of course) If you are on trackside with the mountain bikes it would be perfect length but if you are at the side motor circuit then it will fall a bit short as the bikes/cars are a good way from spectators.

The Olympus 300 is a 3/4 camera from memory thus i have no idea on its CCD crop factor. By this i mean the similarly priced canons (300D/350D/20D) have a 1.6 crop factor thus a 100mm lens will become a 160mm...i dont know what Olypmus do here...maybe try a google

ok ..i just googled it & i read that it has a 2x crop factor thus the 40-150 will become 80-300 which is getting to be the length you want for most sports. Hope i got that right.

Thats not bad money providing the lens is sharp...maybe take some samples & let people here look at it on full zoom for you.

Im in 0z so i know how much lenses cost down under...I would suggest you look for a nice 2nd hand Nikon D70 but you can probably double that price for a nikon lens thats going to reach 300mm...as nice as it would be.

You get what you pay for as with anything but its the photographer that makes the camera worthy.

Gus

marlof

First of all, I'm a bit biased since I'm using an Olympus system (the bigger brother E-1 with the 14-54 and 50-200). Like Gus said, the 4/3system uses a 2 times crop factor making the 14-45 a 28-90 and the 40-150 a 80-300 lens. Although both lenses aren't really speed devils in their maximum aperature, they are pretty decent and plenty sharp. I think these two kit lenses are among the sharpest in the kit lenses provided with the consumer DSLRs.

One of my favorite galleries to point out what the E-300 with the two kit lenses can do is the China gallery by Bram Bos, who loves this setup for his travels.

One of the downsides of the Olympus E-300 is that it isn't as good at high ISO low light shots as for instance the rebel. People using the E-300 do manage to come by, as the linked China gallery will show you. Earlier problems with Auto White Balance are mostly solved with firmware updates, so make sure you'll have the latest firmware if you'd decide to get the E-300. Also The AF speed of the E-300 is ok (although not as fast as the Canon with a good lens), but the problem is that these two lenses aren't the fastest in auto focus. I haven't tried to shoot car or motor races, so I can't tell you how good they'll be at that.

To be honest: I don't think you should go for another prosumer to upgrade from the S7000. Although the Canon Powershot Pro1 might be a bit better in some areas, I've also seen reports from people who became that frustrated by it (for instance for lack of speed, so I wouldn't think it an ideal sports camera), that they got a DSLR in the end anyhow.