The Olympus E-1 is the first fruit of the four-thirds (4/3) digital SLR system jointly developed by Kodak and Olympus and latterly joined by Fujifilm. It lays down standard specifications for the sensor size and lens mount.

The E-1's 5megapixel CCD sensor measures 18 x 13.5mm, making it much bigger than the 2/3 sensors used in Olympus' E10 and E20, but slightly smaller than the CMOS sensor in Canon's EOS 10D and 300D. The aspect ratio of the E-1 sensor is 4/3, as opposed to the more conventional 3/2 of 35mm cameras. This results in focal length cropping by a factor of two - so a 50mm lens produces a field of view equivalent to 100mm on a 35mm film SLR.

Olympus is aiming the E-1 squarely at the pro market, though with the body retailing at around £1,400 it will also appeal to serious amateur photographers. The magnesium alloy body feels rugged and sturdy. The extreme right-hand position of the lens mount and the rubberised grip provide for well-balanced, comfortable handling. All of the E-1's body compartments and controls are also fitted with rubber seals making it splash and dust proof.

The main camera controls are situated on the top left panel. The exposure mode dial has none of the auto modes beloved of consumer cameras. There is only one fully automatic program supplemented by aperture and shutter priority and fully manual modes. There's a lock button in the centre of the dial which must be depressed before you can move it, and this belt and braces approach extends to the card and battery compartments which both have locking catches.

The LCD control panel is slightly angled toward the rear, and the anti-reflective coating and push-button backlight makes it easily readable in most situations. Pretty much all the camera setting information you're likely to need is displayed here, including metering and focus mode, image quality, exposure compensation setting, aperture and shutter speed, drive mode, frames remaining, number of shots in the frame buffer and battery status.

The thumb-operated main dial and index-finger-operated sub-dial can be used pretty much interchangeably to alter quality, ISO, white balance, auto bracketing and exposure compensation settings as well as metering, autofocus, drive and flash modes in conjunction with the relevant buttons.

The back panel LCD monitor, which is protected by a clear plastic snap-on shield is used purely for menu functions, and reviewing images. There are four menus - shooting, playback, custom and setup. As well as access to the usual D-SLR functions such as saturation, contrast and sharpness presets, EV bracketing step and colour space (sRGB or Adobe RGB), there are one or two interesting additions.

Anti-shock allows you to set a short interval between the mirror raising and the shutter opening to reduce vibration on long exposures. Pixel mapping checks, adjusts and cleans the CCD by vibrating it at high frequency. This cleaning process also occurs every time the camera is switched on. You can configure the camera to allow manual focusing after the camera has auto focused, and to permit release of the shutter prior to auto focus completion.

Exposure mode, aperture and shutter speed, frame buffer and other mode-sensitive information is displayed in the viewfinder. There are three auto focus frames located centrally. With the aid of the front-mounted AF-illuminator light the autofocus is rapid and accurate even in low light conditions. When the focus is locked an LED illuminates in the viewfinder accompanied by a beep.

Olympus has announced four new E-system lenses; the review model was supplied with the Zuiko digital 14-54mm f2.8/3.5 which gives a field of view roughly equivalent to a 28-105mm lens on a 35mm camera. The lens is light but, unlike Canon's digital EF-S 18-55mm, feels like a 'proper' lens. This is partly down to build quality, as the lens has thick rubber zoom and focusing rings and distances can be read from a calibrated scale. A lens hood is also supplied.

The manual focusing ring isn't directly coupled to the lens, but uses a similar 'focus by wire' system to the E20 - when you turn the focusing ring the lens signals the camera which then operates the focusing servo. It feels more direct than it sounds and has the advantage of being user configurable - clockwise rotation can be set to focus either in or out.

In use the E-1 proved to be swift, reliable and robust. On average, write times using a Microdrive in 2,560 x 1,920 SHQ mode were around three and a half seconds - a figure that could be improved upon with the right Compact Flash media. On a more critical note, the noise filter seems to make little difference and increases write times to a degree (more than 11 seconds to write the same image as above) that makes it virtually unusable.

Contact: Olympus 0800 072 0070
http://www.olympus-pro.com/index.eu.uk.html

Specifications:

Price details:
RRP £1,699.99 (£1,446.80 ex VAT) (Kit with Zuiko Digital 14-54mm f2.8/3.5 zoom lens)