hopefully a launch at Photokina 2006 as everybody is expecting :Grin:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v660/jondextan/e5-leak-front-r.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v660/jondextan/e5-leak-back-r.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v660/jondextan/e3-leak.jpg

ofcourse -- we don't know for sure!

what we do know is:

1. E-3 is the name.

2. sensor will be made by Panasonic and not by Kodak.

3. no built-in flash :D

4. it may come with the new 14-35mm f2.0 ZD lens (confirmed launch at Photokina 06) as kit lins.

what I know is...I won't be able to afford it :(
but I hope the new Pro body is launched as it will be good for the 4/3 system

yeah most probably I can't afford it too :( hehehe! but at least I know it's there.

dex, diba those pictures are not the actual prototype of the e-3, those were just edited in photoshop.

yeps francis! hehehe... photo-types!

from what the guys up there say -- i think E-3 is on schedule this September.

yeah... you are right, i got my confirmation from a very reliable source recently. It might be released here in the Philippines 4th Q of 2006 or 1st Q of 2007.

I've heard also that there are no more E-1's available from Axis as of the moment, except for a few open box units...

Francis, would that mean, a few CHEAP open boxed units? hehehe! go get one na! I heard from other forums that the new E-3 might be using E-1's battery grip the HLD-2, might get one from cameta while it's dirt cheap before prices start skyrocketting again -- once it's confirmed! :D

Man that E-3 better be good or i'm jumpshipping -- again! wekekeke!

what we do know is:

2. sensor will be made by Panasonic and not by Kodak.


finally!!! it was about time that they shifted sensor suppliers. the previous bodies that had the Kodak sensor were kings of noise.

finally!!! it was about time that they shifted sensor suppliers. the previous bodies that had the Kodak sensor were kings of noise.

well according to dpreview's Sony A100 comparison tests (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydslra100/page20.asp), Olympus is dethroned! Hopefully, a much improved and bigger sized Panasonic sensor will fit in the E-3 :D para everybody happy!

i want an e-1 nga sana eh... i already asked how much.

but just wana ask a question,

comparing your e-1 to your fiance's e-500. how is the e-1 handling noise compared to the e-500?

Dexter,
Never read anything about the new Ex sporting a Panasonic sensor. Did somebody confirm it to you? =B)

Actually, we're all in the dark here and Olympus doesn't appear to be leaking anything. If it's going to be announced at Photokina next month, shouldn't there be at least some leaks, much like what happened with the E-500 and E-330?

@Norman -- the Panasonic sensor is *sigh* sad to say, still only speculation. But it's very very probable that it would use a sensor from Panasonic since there have been much complaints against the old Kodak sensor (i doubt if Olympus would get one from them again, if they do that's a step back and it'll push me to JS) and the other 4/3 system manufacturer available is Panasonic... especially with so much hype bout the integration of Live View. Well, whatever sensor it would have, let's hope we won't be disappointed. :)

leaks -- there must be, there should be! unless there won't be. still hoping for the best. hehe.

@Francis -- there's no noticable difference in noise between the two for me. I just notice that my fiancee's E-500 produces more hot pixels at very long shutter speeds compared to my E-1. hehehe!


dex

quick question:

will the E-3 be using the same sensor and engine as the E-330? if yes, what will i have to sell to get my hands on one? =b Lol!

Had a dream pa man din that i bought a 2nd body. not sure of the make and model though (you know how dreams can be vague) though i wish it would a premonition of things to come! Hahahahahaha! =)

prophet Tok! hehehe! :D

it could use the E-330's Panasonic sensor. Well hopefully they won't price it more than the D200 or no pro would venture out to try their system coz of the cost to risk factor.

More speculation (http://www.fourthirdsphoto.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=4868) about the possible new Oly pro body. If true, we Oly boys need to be prepared to buy larger CF cards to accommodate the 12-14MP. But what I find interesting in the thread is the comment on the quality of the E-1's viewfinder. As a former OM-1n shooter, I really appreciate the finder brightness and accuracy of the E-1 although it is much smaller than the OM-1 finder.

hey bert, posted a reply on your question on the other forum! :D hehehe! anyways, been following that thread too and it is interesting that an EVF is considered for the E-3. I would personally hate that. I don't like looking through the S9series' EVF nga eh, it seems like there is an LCD stuck in front of my viewing eye (well, there really is). Like you, I really appreciate the E-1's OVF especially compared to the E-300 and E-500. But if Live View will make the E-3's OVF darker daaahamn! that's just a step back for a professional camera me thinks. and istead of a step forward, probably a sideways skip for me. :D those 5Ds have a nice view through the VF.

Thanks Dex. Every Oly enthusiast seems to be speculating on the new pro body. However, here are the "features" I would really like to have:

1. Better AF particularly in continuous focus mode. I find that my E-1 can focus better in single focus mode that's why that is my default AF mode. Faster lenses (I use a 14-45mm) may help but an updated AF system should be easy to implement given the advances in electronic chips.

2. "Instant On" just like the old OM SLRs. The OM's had no Off switch because Maitani felt that the camera had to be available to shoot anytime the opportunity presented itself. A touch of the shutter button woke the OM-2 from its slumber, the mechanical OM-1 was "always ON". I think the operation of the ultrasound dust-cleaning system is part of the solution here. Why not have it when we switch the camera OFF instead of ON? And before the auto shutdown shifts the camera to sleep mode? Again better electronics should help Olympus make the overall operation faster, the E-1 is a ground-up digital device after all. Maybe this operation can be selectable from the camera menu. Recently I had a portrait shoot with a friend and the second or two that I had to wait before I can fire sort of affected the spontaniety.

3. "Official 1/320 flash synch speed or faster". I like mixing flash with available light and a fast sync speed just gives better flexibility. Now my E-1 already has a sync speed of 1/320 if I use 3rd-party flash including my studio flash setup. But one reason I am holding off getting a dedicated Oly flash is the 1/180 sec sync speed. Now Super FP mode allows shooting at all speeds but to me that's a kludge because you lose effective flash distance.

4. "Slightly bigger LCD with more zoom". A 2" to 2.5" LCD with at least 10x instead of the current 4x zoom will help me judge focus and exposure better. I'm not a fan of larger LCDs--too much power drain and might compromise toughness.

5. "Full color histogram". I would like to see the histogram in RGB just like in iPhoto. I don't mine if I need 2 button presses to get at it. Again new electronics should be able to allow this.

6. Less noise in high ISO. If I can have the current ISO400 performance at ISO1600, that would be good. I would not trade the Oly color balance for less noise though.

7. Greater than 12 bit capture. Everyone is concentrating on pixels but I would rather have better tonality. Photoshop can do 16-bit processing so why can't we have a true 16-bit 4/3 sensor? All the above can be done without much fuss. But this to me is the biggest tech issue and wil not likely happen.

Here are the features I don't need and I hope don't find their way to the new pro body.

1. Flash. No puny flash that may compromise weatherproofing and will be a drain on the battery.
2. Live view, EVF and the like. I like the finder as it is. If Olympus can make it bigger and/or brighter without loss of accuracy then fine.

Bert wrote:
1. Better AF particularly in continuous focus mode. I find that my E-1 can focus better in single focus mode that's why that is my default AF mode. Faster lenses (I use a 14-45mm) may help but an updated AF system should be easy to implement given the advances in electronic chips.

Definitely faster AF-S and AF-C. And don't loose that Integrated Focus Assist Lamp!

2. "Instant On" just like the old OM SLRs. The OM's had no Off switch because Maitani felt that the camera had to be available to shoot anytime the opportunity presented itself. A touch of the shutter button woke the OM-2 from its slumber, the mechanical OM-1 was "always ON". I think the operation of the ultrasound dust-cleaning system is part of the solution here. Why not have it when we switch the camera OFF instead of ON? And before the auto shutdown shifts the camera to sleep mode?

That's what I missed about the D70s, it's almost always ON. I agree, blue light on Shutdown and not on Startup! And ON from sleep mode should be instant.

3. "Official 1/320 flash synch speed or faster". I like mixing flash with available light and a fast sync speed just gives better flexibility. Now my E-1 already has a sync speed of 1/320 if I use 3rd-party flash including my studio flash setup. But one reason I am holding off getting a dedicated Oly flash is the 1/180 sec sync speed. Now Super FP mode allows shooting at all speeds but to me that's a kludge because you lose effective flash distance.

I would also like a capability close to Nikon's Commander mode, even if it means NEW flash strobes.

4. "Slightly bigger LCD with more zoom". A 2" to 2.5" LCD with at least 10x instead of the current 4x zoom will help me judge focus and exposure better. I'm not a fan of larger LCDs--too much power drain and might compromise toughness.

Agree! and don't loose that Plastic LCD Protector, I liked the E-1's mounting better than the D70s.

5. "Full color histogram". I would like to see the histogram in RGB just like in iPhoto. I don't mine if I need 2 button presses to get at it. Again new electronics should be able to allow this.

Even the E-500's histogram would be great! :D a better one would be Fantastic!

6. Less noise in high ISO. If I can have the current ISO400 performance at ISO1600, that would be good. I would not trade the Oly color balance for less noise though.

HELL YEAH! :D

7. Greater than 12 bit capture. Everyone is concentrating on pixels but I would rather have better tonality. Photoshop can do 16-bit processing so why can't we have a true 16-bit 4/3 sensor? All the above can be done without much fuss. But this to me is the biggest tech issue and wil not likely happen.

But won't that leave us having problems with 8bit jpeg?

Here are the features I don't need and I hope don't find their way to the new pro body.

1. Flash. No puny flash that may compromise weatherproofing and will be a drain on the battery.
2. Live view, EVF and the like. I like the finder as it is. If Olympus can make it bigger and/or brighter without loss of accuracy then fine.

Ditto on point 1 and strictly no to EVF.

Somethings I would want added or retained:

1. FIREWIRE -- heck all our macs have em. Retain!!!

2. FOCUS ASSIST LAMP -- red beats strobing flashes of light. Retain!!!

3. 5 FPS ++ -- duh! Add!!!

4. FOCUSING SCREEN options -- Retain!!!

5. VF SHUTTER -- Retain!!!

hehehe! man o man! the E-1 is one fine camera. I hope the E-3 will not this appoint us O-freaks.

7. Greater than 12 bit capture. Everyone is concentrating on pixels but I would rather have better tonality. Photoshop can do 16-bit processing so why can't we have a true 16-bit 4/3 sensor? All the above can be done without much fuss. But this to me is the biggest tech issue and wil not likely happen.

But won't that leave us having problems with 8bit jpeg?
It shouldn't. But those using RAW and TIFF will benefit. Might even be my reason to start shooting more RAW.

I don't think the new Ex will use the same sensor in the E-330. There was talk months before at DPReview about Olympus going back to the drawing board because the sensor it had used in the Ex prototype wasn't up to task. In other words, the delay in the Ex release was likely due to noise problems (which we are all too familiar with in the E-series cameras).

I wouldn't say the E-330 sensor is a far cry from the sensors used in its predecessors as far as noise at high ISOs is concerned. It's not cutting edge and is unlikely to impress the pros, who are the Ex's target audience. It's still not at par with the competition. The Ex sensor might be made by Panasonic, but it's unlikely that it will be the same sensor as the E-330s.

Regards,
Norman

uh-oh :( things don't look too good up ahead for the E-3... at least for Photokina 2006. other forums have sourced Photokina 2006 info that only a mock-up E-3 might be displayed in Photokina this September. Ofcourse this info was taken off a japanese page and was translated. so everybody are still on their toes.including me.

Olympus E-3 and E-5 rumored/leaked specs.
Info taken from an Oly-owned Polish forum. :D Polish.
This, plus a chinese website also announced that Olympus will reveal a new DSLR on the 23/24th of august. And another German Oly executive will fly to asia for a meet re: the to-be-announced DSLR.

E-3 1299$
Body material
Magnesium alloy

Sensor
18.0 x 13.5 mm 4/3 type MOS
8.5 million total pixels
8.0 million effective pixels
Supersonic Wave Filter
Olympus Image Stabilization

Image sizes
3264 x 2448
2560 x 1920
1600 x 1200
1280 x 960
1024 x 768

File formats
RAW
RAW + JPEG
JPEG

Auto focus
5-point TTL

Focus modes
Single shot AF
Continuous AF
Manual focus

Metering
Digital ESP
Center-Weighted Average
Spot (1.3%)

Sensitivity
Auto (ISO 100 - 400)
ISO 50
ISO 100
ISO 125
ISO 160
ISO 200
ISO 250
ISO 320
ISO 400
ISO 500
ISO 640
ISO 800
ISO 1000
ISO 1250
ISO 1600
ISO 3200 with boost

Shutter speed
30 - 1/4000 sec
1/300 sec X-Sync speed

Exposure steps
1/3, 1/2 or 1.0 EV

Exposure compen
-5.0 to +5.0 EV
1/3, 1/2 or 1.0 EV steps

Continuous
5 fps
120 / 50 frames (JPEG / RAW)

Viewfinder
Eye-level type fixed penta-prism finder
Natural bright-matte focusing screen
Magnification approx. x0.98
95% frame coverage
Diotric adjustment (-4.0 to +1.5)
Viewfinder info bar

LCD monitor
2.5" TFT LCD monitor (wide viewing angle)
215,000 pixels
100% frame coverage
Flip-out and up (three locking positions)

Playback functions
Single
Magnify (2 - 40x)
Index (4, 9, 16, 25 frames)
Calendar view
Rotation
Light box view
Slide show
Histogram (Lum / RGB)
Highlight & Shadow point warning

E-5 1999$
Body material
Magnesium alloy

Sensor
18.0 x 13.5 Fujifilm SuperCCD
12.9 million effective pixels
Supersonic Wave Filter
Olympus Image Stabilization

Image sizes
4152 x 3114
3216 x 2412
2144 x 1424
3264 x 2448
2560 x 1920
1600 x 1200

File formats
RAW
RAW + JPEG
TIFF
JPEG

Auto focus
9-point TTL

AF assist
Red visible light

Focus modes
Single shot AF
Continuous AF
Manual focus

Metering
Digital ESP
Center-Weighted Average
Spot (1.8%)

Sensitivity
Auto (ISO 100 - 400)
ISO 100
ISO 125
ISO 160
ISO 200
ISO 250
ISO 320
ISO 400
ISO 500
ISO 640
ISO 800
ISO 1000
ISO 1250
ISO 1600

Shutter speed
30 - 1/8000 sec
1/500 sec X-Sync speed

Exposure steps
1/3, 1/2 or 1.0 EV

Exposure compen
-5.0 to +5.0 EV
1/3, 1/2 or 1.0 EV steps

Continuous
7 fps
80 / 30 frames (JPEG / RAW)

Viewfinder
Eye-level type fixed penta-prism finder
Natural bright-matte focusing screen
Magnification approx. x0.96
100% frame coverage
Diotric adjustment (-4.0 to +1.5)
Viewfinder info bar

LCD monitor
2.5" TFT LCD monitor
230,000 pixels

Playback functions
Single
Magnify (2 - 25x)


We will see... :)