Tough Body & High Performance Imaging | World's Fastest*1 AF | Live View | Versatile Functions
The E-3 boasts a tough camera body featuring splash- and dust-proof construction with all major parts, including the built-in flash and the LCD monitor swivel, sealed to keep out sand, dust, rain and splashes. Nor is that protection compromised when you attach a High Grade or Super High Grade Olympus ZUIKO DIGITAL lens, since our splash- and dust-proof lenses are sealed in the same way as the camera body. The body itself is made of a "thixomold" magnesium alloy, which has a homogeneous composition, making it much stronger than conventional die-cast bodies. As the use of a swivelling LCD monitor makes it unnecessary to provide a recess hole for the LCD monitor on the back panel, the entire back panel is covered with the magnesium alloy, providing the body with even greater rigidity. The camera's interior is also supported by structural members made of durable, high-precision engineering plastics and reinforced by a metallic frame. Even parts such as the strap eyelet are composed of high-strength sintered members, ensuring that you can shoot with confidence even under the most extreme environmental conditions.
Sealing on the body and lens
Magnesium-alloy body
Splash- and dust-proof body
The image sensor is a newly developed High-Speed Live MOS Sensor with 10.1 megapixels. In combination with the high optical performance provided by Four Thirds lenses, this sensor captures high-resolution images that accurately reproduce your composition with exquisite detail, rich gradations and natural colours.
High-Speed Live MOS Sensor
With the newly developed "TruePic III" image processing engine, the full potential of the 10.1-megapixel High-Speed Live MOS Sensor and high-resolution Olympus ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses can be realized. TruePic III makes full use of three advanced image processing technologies to achieve rich gradations, natural and true-to-life colour reproduction.
When the image stabilization system is integrated into the lens, optical performance and portability may be compromised due to the necessity of incorporating a compensation lens. With the E-3, the image stabilization system is integrated into the camera body and compensates for camera shake by shifting the image sensor by the equivalent of up to 5 shutter speed steps*, ensuring that the full imaging performance of Olympus ZUIKO DIGITAL Lenses can be transmitted to the image sensor. This expanded and precise compensation has been made possible by a gyro sensor that detects even small vibrations accurately. In addition, supersonic motors compensate for camera shake instantaneously and accurately with high response and control. As the image stabilization system is integrated into the camera body, it functions with all Four Thirds lenses, including fish-eye and compact macro lenses, that are not available among lens-integrated stabilization systems.
The gyro sensor accurately detects vibrations due to camera shake without being affected by mechanical vibrations inside the camera body. Based on this information, the unit, which integrates the Supersonic Wave Filter (SSWF) and the image sensor, is shifted to counteract the effect of camera shake. To ensure an instant, accurate response, two supersonic motors are used to shift the sensor, one for the X- and one for the Y-axis directions. This makes it capable of effectively compensating for even the excessive shake that can occur when shooting with lenses with long focal lengths.
The quality of digital photography depends on the lens, imaging sensor, and image processing engine. As the quality of imaging sensors and image processing engines increase, the importance of the lens more and more important. Delivering high quality images and lights to all corners of the image sensor is the life line for delicate digital photography. The FourThirds system thoroughly studied and optimized to the characteristics of digital photography. True high quality digital imaging begins here.
