[Raist3d]

Please post your experience so far with the camera. In some other forum I posted that while I love the colors and overall features, I still find the interface a bit confusing but I still want to give more time to make sure this doesn't fall for me in the "it's more complex but eventually you get used to it and it's faster".

Here's that post:

I love the E-3 at everything it does in general, all the features. But the user interface interface is a mixed bag.


I find the menus well organized and all that, but I think Olympus made some decisions that are a step back from the E-1. Namely:
- small closet to each other buttons. If you are using normal gloves, well, good luck
- some of the key buttons on the left side are all the same, close to each other, no tactile difference. This presents in my opinion two problems:
+ you can't easily blindly get a sense of reference for where your fingers are quickly. It's like some keyboards have a plastic "dot" or concave button.. these are all convex. It's easy to blindly push one thinking you are changing modes when you are changing focus type, etc.
I think I understand what Olympus was trying to do- to get rid of the dial and the "lock" button by using one of the normal dials and having you press a button, it serves as the "lock button." But they should have made the middle button of those three bigger and concave, not convex.
+ the fact that each of these buttons does something different depending on the forward dial or back dial. This makes this choice at least initially and even now confusing for me when I have to snap a shot right away and modify settings according to what I want to shoot.
- I find the front dial difficult to access on a whim to turn it. It seems positioned awkward but I guess this depends on the hand size of each individual
- I have found there's still a bit of lag in some of the settings, in particular changing modes. If you go fast in shutter speed setting or aperture there can be a bit also. This should really have been solved at this level of the market. My Panasonic Lumix FZ20 has zero lag, I have been able to tap my way hyper fast and the camera keeps up. I would expect a $1,700 USD camera to do the same.
- The camera modes are all in a sequence, and because they electronically change with no visible menu (like some of the other settings like ISO/focusing where you can see a menu and move a selection), it can be confusing to go back and forth particularly when you have "my modes" set.
I like the E-3 quite a bit but I find this getting on my nerves a bit. Seems to me a step back from the E-1 and quite frankly, I feel more able to set my e-410 quicker than the E-3 for a lot of the things I do. Or perhaps, maybe as fast as but not as confusing as. I am more confident of the settings I set on the e-410 but on the E-3 I find myself missing this or that ocassionally because of the somewhat more confusing interface of the buttons.


Now, the E-3 like the e-410 has the "super LCD menu" and that would work, except because the camera is big and heavy, and the buttons are software, it just doesn't feel the same way the e-410 does. I find this ironic.


If this continues to bug me, I will probably sell my E-3 and wait for the "next e-510" as I want IS, or maybe keep shooting with the e-410 for a while.
------------------------------------



Please post your experience, keep in mind what works for you may not work for others and vice versa. What works for me may not work for you, what doesn't work for me, may work for you.

- Raist