Olympus C-3000 ZoomOlympus develops a slightly slower, but lot cheaper version of the C-3030 Zoom. (Looks like a great bargain!)<<Optics :(Previous) | (Next): Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests>> Page 7:Exposure & FlashReview First Posted: 5/30/2000 |
Exposure
Exposure control is similar to the setup of the C-2020 Zoom, with an LCD menu system that controls most of the camera's settings. Four exposure modes are accessible through the mode dial: Program AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Manual. Shutter speeds in all modes except Manual range from one to 1/800 seconds. The range broadens under the Manual setting to 16 to 1/800 seconds. A useful added feature relative to the previous model is that as you scroll through the various aperture/shutter settings in manual mode, the camera's exposure system remains "live". The camera tells you how it judges the exposure setting you've chosen, showing not only whether it thinks you're high or low, but by how much. It does this by displaying what it believes the over- or under-exposure to be using the digits on the LCD screen that normally indicate exposure compensation in automatic exposure modes. If you're more than plus or minus 3 EV units away from the correct exposure, the digits light up red, showing just +/- 3EV. This is really very helpful as it gives you a good idea of what the exposure will be like before snapping the shutter. (Other manufacturers take note: This is a nice feature, and shouldn't be too hard to add, if a camera already has a manual exposure mode.)
Exposure compensation is adjustable in 1/3 EV increments from -2 to +2, in all exposure modes except for Manual, by pressing the right and left arrow buttons. Additionally, the auto exposure bracketing function ensures you'll get a correct exposure by automatically bracketing up to -/+ 2 EV in steps ranging from 1/3 to 1 EV unit. This feature lets you select either 3 or 5 shots in the series, and steps of 0.3, 0.6, or 1.0 EV units. Thus, the bracketing range could be as small as +/1 0.3EV, or as great as +/- 2EV. Once set, you just hold down the shutter button until all 3 or 5 exposures are captured. Very slick!ISO is also adjustable, with available settings of Auto, 100, 200 and 400. The more sensitive settings do produce noisier images, but they provide welcome exposure flexibility. The default setting in Program exposure mode is Auto, whereas Aperture, Shutter, or Manual exposure modes force you to choose one of the explicit ISO settings. In Auto ISO mode, the camera will normally shoot at ISO 100, but will gradually increment the ISO setting in very dim conditions, trying achieve the best tradeoff between shutter speed and image noise. We're not sure what the thresholds are for increasing the ISO rating in Auto mode, but it does seem to be pretty conservative about it: In some brief experimentation, it arrived at a shutter speed of 1/2 second (pretty slow) in a dimly lit interior scene, yet still only bumped the ISO up to 200. "Automatic" systems like this are always a compromise, but we felt the C-3000 Zoom was doing about what we would have most of the time. It's also interesting to note that the Auto ISO settings aren't restricted to the 100/200/400 available manually - At least one of our experimental shots showed an ISO setting of 180 in the playback picture-info display.
The C-3000 Zoom provides two choices for exposure metering, Spot or the default Digital ESP metering system. Digital ESP is Olympus' name for matrix metering, but we don't know the specifics of it, how many segments it uses, etc. - For those of you unfamiliar with the term "matrix metering", it refers to a sophisticated exposure-metering technique that samples the brightness from multiple points across the image, and then applies some intelligence to set the exposure so as to not blow out highlights, plug shadows, etc.
The C-3000 offers a 12 second self-timer. You can also use the infrared remote to trigger the camera from a distance, which decreases the time delay to only three seconds. (This is one of our few quibbles with the otherwise excellent IR remote unit: Why are we forced to wait three seconds when using the remote? We'd greatly prefer relatively instantaneous triggering of the camera!) White balance can be set to Auto, Clear, Cloudy, Tungsten or Fluorescent to accommodate a variety of lighting situations. White balance is another area where we have a request to make of Olympus: So-called "manual" white balance options are becoming more and more common on high-end digicams, and (properly implemented) they're very useful. Manual white balance options generally let you set the camera's white balance by pointing it at a white card and clicking the shutter (after appropriate menu setup, etc.) This usually provides a more accurate white balance than the automatic or preset options. The C-3000 Zoom is a sufficiently advanced camera that we'd expect to see a feature like this on it. Not a crippling omission by any means, but one that we think would be appreciated by the 3000's targeted audience of enthusiast-photographers.
The C-3000 Zoom incorporates a few entertaining options on the Picture Effect menu, enabling you to capture images in black and white or sepia tone. There are also White and Black Board settings for capturing text on light or dark backgrounds. These could be useful if you needed to grab meeting or lecture notes in a hurry. Oddly though, the resulting images, while purely black and white, are stored as RGB JPEGs, taking about the same amount of memory space as normal full-color images. This is rather odd: Overall, we'd strongly suggest just leaving the camera in color mode, and using a program like Pixid's White Board Photo to clean up the images later. (See our review of White Board Photo for more info on this unique program.)
Flash
The built-in flash on the
C-3000 Zoom offers four main modes: Auto, Red-Eye Reduction, Fill-In and Off.
According to Olympus' specs, the flash is effective out to 18.4 feet (5.6m) in
wide angle and to about 12.5 feet (3.8 m) in telephoto. The internal flash provides
good coverage in all but the widest-angle lens position: It's angle of coverage
appears to correspond to a lens focal length more on the order of 35mm than the
32mm equivalent of the 3000. (Another holdover from the C-2020 Zoom?) You can
adjust the flash intensity setting from -2 to +2 in 1/3 EV increments. Any of
the flash modes can be combined with the Slow Sync setting, which allows the ambient
lighting to make a greater contribution to the final exposure of the image. You
can also produce shots which combine a motion blur on the subject (from the long
ambient light exposure) with a sharp initial or final image (caught by the flash
exposure). The C-3000 supports both "front curtain" and "rear curtain" triggering
in Slow Sync mode, firing the flash at either the beginning of the exposure or
at the end. So-called rear curtain sync is necessary to produce motion blurs on
moving objects that trail the sharp, flash-exposed image, rather than precede
it. A plus with the design of the C-3000 is the inclusion of an external flash
sync socket, giving you even more exposure flexibility. It's important to note
though, that the sync socket on the C-3000 is a proprietary design, set up for
use with Olympus' FL-40 flash unit. Olympus apparently offers an accessory grip/cable
combination that serves as an adapter for third-party flashes, but we don't know
the model number or details on its availability.
To use an external FL-40 flash unit, the camera should be set to Aperture Priority or Manual exposure mode to control the amount of flash illumination reaching the CCD via the lens aperture setting (standard operating procedure for film cameras as well). The camera will attempt to produce a good exposure with its automatic settings, whether involving its own flash or not. Thus, if you've disabled its internal flash, you'll get a rather long exposure time in Aperture Priority mode, rather like the Slow Sync mode, whether you want that or not. Use Manual exposure mode with faster shutter speeds selected to avoid this problem. The C-3000 Zoom is unusual in that when you couple it to the FL-40 external flash, you have the option of using the internal and external flashes together. - This could be a bit of a help when you're really reaching for a distant subject, or for interesting bounce/direct flash lighting. The FL-40 also cooperates with the camera by allowing its power level to be controlled by the camera's flash exposure adjustment, mentioned above.The manual is a bit unclear on using the 3000 with flash units other than the FL-40. To use any external flash (FL-40 or other unit), you do apparently need both the optional flash holder and flash cable. Info in the manual about third-party flashes is confusing and contradictory: In one place, it says the external flash must be used with the internal all the time. In another place, though, it says the external flash will always fire, regardless of whether flash is enabled in the camera or not. We'll seek clarification from Olympus, but here's what we think the case is: 1) The external flash will always fire, as the sync contacts are linked to the shutter, and not affected by the internal flash status. 2) Third-party flashes won't accept flash-metering information from the camera, meaning that you'll have to regulate the light either by running the flash in Auto mode and making whatever adjustments it provides onboard, or by essentially operating the flash in "manual" mode, controlling the exposure via the camera's lens aperture.
A few caveats about external flashes with the C-3000 Zoom, or digicams in general for that matter: 1) Some external strobes have the polarity reversed on their sync connectors, and won't fire. (Cameras these days use SCRs to trigger strobes, rather than mechanical contacts, and SCRs are polarity sensitive.) 2) Some flashes put their full voltage on the sync connector, which is virtually guaranteed to blow the inner circuitry of the camera. (!) Always check the voltage on your sync connector before plugging a non-manufacturer flash into your digicam! - If you find more than a few volts there, save yourself an expensive repair, and buy a flash with a lower trigger voltage. (Studio strobe packs are particularly prone to this: Use extreme caution before attaching one to your digicam!) 3) If you're going to be shooting at wide angle, make sure your flash will cover a field of view equivalent to a 32mm lens on a 35mm camera. (Most will, some won't.) 4) If you get unexpectedly dim shots when operating at full flash power (distant subjects or small apertures), it may be that your flash is producing a light pulse longer than 1/200 of a second (Olympus' spec), so not all the light from the flash may be contributing to the exposure.
We didn't test the FL-40 with the C-3000 Zoom, but did have an opportunity to use one earlier, when we reviewed the Olympus C-2500L SLR camera. You can read our review of the C-2500L for more info on how it worked with the flash: We suspect the story with the C-3000 would be much the same. (To save you clicking the link, the short of it was that we liked the FL-40 very much indeed, and found it worked exceptionally well with the C-2500L's internal flash.)
Sequence Shooting Mode
The C-3000 offers a Sequence mode that mimics a motor drive, letting you capture between six and 12 separate pictures (depending on the complexity of the image, selected image size/quality, and the available SmartMedia space) at approximately 1.4 frames per second. In our own measurements, we indeed measured a frame rate of 1.39 frames per second at all resolutions, in autofocus mode. We discovered though, that the non-autofocus mode increased the frame rate to 3.17 frames per second (!), since the camera didn't have to wait for the lens to focus each time. The manual states that the maximum shutter speed in sequence shooting mode is 1/30 of a second, to avoid blurring. (Seems odd, we suspect it has more to do with managing the timing of the shots, rather than a concern over camera shake.) It also notes that the mode is available with all compression levels except for uncompressed TIFF. One obvious limitation of sequence mode is that the camera's internal flash may not be used with it. (The flash can't cycle at nearly 1.4 frames per second.) However, if you have an external flash capable of cycling at the 1.4 frame per second rate and shoot in aperture priority mode, you can use a flash with this mode.
Movies and Sound
The C-3000 continues the ability to record short movies, now extended to include sound. Movie mode is entered as a separate option on the main command dial. Movies may be recorded in either HQ (320 x 240) or SQ (160 x 120) resolution modes. The C-3000 Zoom's buffer memory is smaller than the C-3030's 32 megabytes, reducing the maximum recording time to 15 seconds in HQ mode and 60 seconds in SQ mode with a 16MB card (Note that the C-3000 ships with an 8MB card). Here's a copy of the recording-time table from the manual:
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(15 frames/sec) |
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(15 frames/sec) |
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(Please Note: This
camera can only record a maximum of 15/60 seconds at a time, due to
buffer memory limitations.)
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The available seconds of recording time appear in the status display panel (and in the LCD monitor if activated), based on the quality mode selected and space remaining on the card. You can use the zoom control while recording movies, but the motion of the zoom is somewhat slower than in still recording, and the zoom is apparently only a digital zoom. (Not an issue though, given the large difference between the CCD resolution and movie recording resolutions - This means that digital zoom in movie mode has the same effect as optical zoom in normal still photography, in that no image degradation should be visible as a result of using the zoom.) Manual focus, exposure compensation, focus lock, the self-timer, ISO setting, white balance and picture effects are also available while in Movie mode.
A first among cameras we've tested (May, 2000), the C-3000 even offers in-camera "editing" of movies in Playback mode. This capability is accessed via the Function->Movie Edit option on the playback menu. In this mode (see screen shot above), you can scroll forward and backward in the movie, and set cut points at the beginning and end of the sequence. Movie content between the two cut points will be preserved, the rest discarded. In a nice touch though, Olympus allows you to choose whether to modify the original movie file, or just save a new copy of it, reflecting the effect of the edit you've made. A very nice feature that we're surprised we haven't seen before. (Kudos to Olympus for thinking of it first.)
You can also record small "sound bites" to accompany images (both in Record and Playback modes). You get approximately eight seconds of record time for each image, assuming of course that there's enough space left on the memory card. This is a handy feature for "labeling" photos.
The only quibble we have with Olympus' implementation of Movie mode on the C-3000 Zoom (and it's a significant one) is that you don't get to hear the movies you've recorded when playing them back on the camera. Adding sound recording is a big feature improvement relative to the C-2020 Zoom, but it sure would be nice to at least be able to hear what you've recorded during playback. (The camera can output both video and sound to a TV or VCR via the included A/V cable, making that an effective playback mode if you have a TV handly. Still, it would be preferable to have some ability to hear a movie's soundtrack without resorting to external equipment.)
Panorama Mode
As with most
Olympus digicams, the C-3000 offers a Panorama exposure mode when operating with
Olympus' own panorama-enabling SmartMedia memory cards. In this mode, the
exposure and white balance for a series of shots are determined by the first one
taken. Images are saved individually and can then be assembled on a computer
after they've been downloaded. While Panorama mode provides a useful function,
it's less of an issue on cameras like the C-3000, which offer full manual
exposure control. True, the panorama mode does lock the white balance in
addition to the exposure, and does provide outline guides on the LCD screen to
help align successive images, but doesn't offer the "ghost" images provided by
some cameras to further assist image alignment. (Cameras with this feature
retain a small portion of the previous image each time, moved to the other side
of the LCD display, to help you line up objects in the scene with those in the
frame you just captured.) The C-3000's Panorama mode also limits you to 10
exposures in the series before resetting the white balance and exposure values.
Ten pictures is plenty for most situations, but almost certainly not enough if
you're interested in stitching full 360 degree panoramas. For those, use Manual
exposure mode, and a fixed white balance preset, such as "daylight." Overall,
Panorama mode on the C-3000 Zoom is handy, but less useful than it could be, and
in our mind largely obviated by the camera's manual mode.
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