Olympus E-20Olympus updates their bargain-priced Pro SLR with a 5 megapixel sensor and improved electronics<<Camera Modes & Menus :(Previous) | (Next): Video, Power, Software>> Page 10:Image Storage & InterfaceReview First Posted: 11/28/2001 |
Image Storage and Interface
The E-20 can store images on either a SmartMedia (3.3V) or CompactFlash Type I or II memory card, with slots for both cards available on the side of the camera. The SM / CF button on top of the camera selects whether the camera accesses the SmartMedia or CompactFlash card slot. The E-20 also features an internal 32-megabyte, SDRAM buffer memory, for capturing burst sequences. A 32-megabyte SmartMedia card comes with the camera. The E-20 is certified for both normal CF cards and the IBM MicroDrive miniature hard disk cards.SmartMedia cards can be write-protected by placing a small sticker in the designated area. Stickers must be clean to be effective and can only be used once. CompactFlash cards cannot be entirely write-protected, but the E-20 allows you to write-protect individual images by pressing the Protect button on the back panel. Write-protecting an image doesn't save it from being erased through card reformatting, however.
The E-20's image resolution/quality selection scheme is a little different than I've encountered on other cameras, but having seen it, I wonder why it isn't the rule, rather than the exception. Rather than a family of preset size/quality settings, the E-20 has four "standard" settings of TIFF (uncompressed), SHQ (super high quality), HQ (high quality), and SQ (standard quality). Historically in Olympus cameras, the SHQ, HQ, and SQ designations have been associated with image quality levels corresponding to the names given them. In the E-20 though, you're free to program them to be whatever you'd like. Each of the three standard settings can be programmed to correspond to any of the five image sizes supported by the E-20, namely 2,560 x 1,920, 1,792 x 1,344, 1,280 x 960, 1,024 x 768, and 640 x 480 pixels. Likewise, you can assign any of the three compression levels supported by the E-20 (1:2.7, 1:4, or 1:8) to any JPEG setting. The beauty of this approach is that you can preprogram the image size/quality combinations into the camera and switch rapidly between them without having to resort to the menu system. You're not tied to what some camera designer thought you ought to have available, but can tailor the camera's image settings to your own needs. Very nice. (Oddly though, the uncompressed TIFF format appears to be restricted to the 2,560 x 1,920 size only.)
The smaller image sizes are an area in which Olympus claims special technology: Their "TruePic" image technology supposedly incorporates a more intelligent subsampling algorithm than commonly used in digicams, meaning that images at resolutions lower than that of the full CCD pixel count should be of higher quality than with other cameras. We didn't do any close study of this, but the smaller image sizes we saw shot with the E-20 were indeed very smooth, with no jaggies or other artifacts evident in them.
There's also a RAW image mode, which records images as 10 bit/channel data files directly from the CCD. RAW files feature the .ORF filename extension. An Olympus RAW File Import Plug-in comes with the camera, so that you can process images later with Adobe Photoshop. The plug-in allows you to perform RGB color adjustments without affecting the white balance or any other color adjustment, or automatically process the image to adjust the white balance, color, sharpness, and contrast.
Following are the approximate number of storable images and compression ratios for a 32-megabyte SmartMedia card. The compression numbers listed in the column headings correspond to the compression values listed on the E-20's setup menu. I found these to be quite a bit more conservative than the actual compression the camera used in practice. - The number of storable images and the resulting file sizes were based on what the camera reported as space available on a freshly-formatted card. The "Actual Compression" numbers are derived from the card capacities reported by the camera in each mode. (Of course, your mileage may vary, as the actual amount of compression achieved for each JPEG quality setting is a strong function of the image content. These numbers should be reasonable guidelines though, in calculating how many shots cards of various sizes should give you.)
|
Resolution/Quality 16MB Memory Card |
(1:1) |
(2.7:1) |
(4:1) |
(8:1) |
|
|
|
Images (Avg size) |
14.7 MB |
5.5 MB |
2.9 MB |
1.6 MB |
| Actual Compression |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Images (Avg size) |
|
1.8 MB |
1.2 MB |
0.62 MB |
| Actual Compression |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Images (Avg size) |
|
0.93 MB |
0.63 MB |
0.33 MB |
| Actual Compression |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Images (Avg size) |
|
0.60 MB |
0.42 MB |
0.21 MB |
| Actual Compression |
|
|
|
|
|
| 640x480 | Images (Avg size) |
|
0.25 MB |
0.17 MB |
0.09 MB |
| Actual Compression |
|
|
|
|
|
Interface software and a USB cable also accompany the camera, for high speed connection to a computer. Like the rest of Olympus' current digicam lineup, the E-20 is a "storage class" device, meaning it will be automatically recognized as a removable disk drive under Mac OS 8.6 or later, and Windows ME, 2000, and XP. Besides the ease of connection this provides, it makes for very efficient data transfer to the host computer. I clocked the E-20 at 546 KBytes/second while copying a large TIFF file down to my G4 Mac, an impressive rate of speed.
One
of the first things any new digicam owner will need is a larger memory card
for their camera: The cards shipped with the units by the manufacturers should
really be considered only "starter" cards, you'll definitely want a higher
capacity card immediately. - Probably at least a 32 megabyte card for a 1.3
or 2 megapixel camera, 64 megabytes or more for a 3, 4, or 5 megapixel one.
(The nice thing about memory cards is you'll be able to use whatever you buy
now with your next camera too, whenever you upgrade.) To help you shop for
a good deal on memory cards that fit the E-20, we've put together a little
memory locater, with links to our price-comparison engine: Just click on the
"Memory Wizard" button above to go to the Olympus memory finder, select your
camera model , and click the shopping cart icon next to the card size you're
interested in. You'll see a list of matching entries from the price-comparison
database. Pick a vendor & order away! (Pretty cool, huh?)
Lost Images? - Download this image-recovery program so you'll have it
when you need it...
Since we're talking about memory and image storage, this would be a good time
to mention the following: I get a ton of email from readers who've lost photos
due to a corrupted memory card. It's tragic when it happens, there are few
things more precious than photo memories. Corrupted memory cards can happen
with any card type and any camera manufacturer, nobody's immune. "Stuff
happens," as they say. A surprising number of "lost" images
can be recovered with an inexpensive, easy to use piece of software though.
Given the amount of email I've gotten on the topic, I now include this paragraph
in all my digicam reviews. The program you need is called PhotoRescue, by
DataRescue SA. Read our review of it if you'd like, but download the program now,
so you'll have it. It doesn't cost a penny until you need it, and even then
it's only $29, with a money back guarantee. So download PhotoRescue for
Windows or PhotoRescue for
Mac while you're thinking of it. (While you're at it, download the
PDF manual and quickstart
guide as well.) Stash the file in a safe place and it'll be there when you
need it. Trust me, needing this is not a matter of if, but when...
PhotoRescue is about the best and easiest tool for recovering digital
photos I've seen. (Disclosure: IR gets a small commission from sales of
the product, but I'd highly recommend the program even if we didn't.)
OK, now back to our regularly scheduled review...
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