Olympus E3 Flash

Coverage and Range
A fairly powerful flash, but poor coverage at the widest angle setting of the 12-60mm lens we tested with. Our indoor shots required an average amount of positive compensation in the normal flash mode.

Coverage. Flash coverage was somewhat uneven at wide angle, with the lens blocking part of the flash and some rather dark corners, though results at telephoto were more uniform. (This may not be a fair test, in that very few on-camera flashes (none?) are set up to cover the field of view of a 24mm equivalent wide-angle lens.) In the Indoor test, the Olympus E-3's flash underexposed our subject at its default setting, requiring an average +0.7 EV positive exposure compensation boost. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode resulted in a more even exposure and a brighter overall image at +0.3 EV, though the longer shutter time resulted in an orange color cast from the ambient studio lighting.

ISO 100 Range. Flash power remains pretty strong to about 15 feet at wide angle, though there is some minor exposure variation along the way. At telephoto, the flash exposures were dim even at 6 feet, but brightness didn't fall-off all the way out to the 16-foot point. Again, there were some minor exposure variations.

Manufacturer Specified Flash Range. The E-3's flash is rated with a GN of 13m at ISO 100. That works out to about 10.8 feet at f/4, the maximum aperture at full telephoto for the 12-60mm SWD lens we were using. Results were dim at this distance and aperture, perhaps indicating that the flash isn't quite as powerful, or that the lens isn't quite as fast as Olympus says it is.

Note: Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.