Camera Labs

Hi all
My first post around here!
I brought a Panasonic FZ38 about 4 months ago. Great camera but has a few annoying niggles for me (l'll post in the correct section..)
Anyway ive been playing about with the Olympus E-300 today as an alternative to the FZ38.
A different beast i know and a older model now at 8 years old..
It seems to take good pics from what ive seen so far, i need to take it out on a sunny day and give it a good work out.
So anyone have any words of wisdom or knowledge on this model and what to look out for?
The sensor appears to be ok, not really any problem dust or duff pixels going by the recommended tests i found on the web..
Im no expert though!
Any idea of a S/H price? It has 2 lenses with it, 14-45mm / 40-150mm

Cheers

One of my local camera dealers has a used E300 with 14-45 for £145. Their used prices tend to be slightly on the high side though.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Hi
Thanks for the quick reply.
That sounds pretty cheap, i think its current owner thinks its worth a lot more than that!
I guess at 8 years old that's the going rate, i've not looked at S/H prices yet to get an idea of an average. Its been looked after, its in VGC.

Hi all
Ive been using this camera a bit more and noticed something that dosen't look right.
If i go longer than 5sec's on the shutter speed lots of different coloured pixels all over the sensor start lighting up. Its gets progressively worse the longer the shutter speed. I didn't notice this problem before but i never went over 1 sec shutter speed.
Turning on the noise reduction seems to get rid of the problem.
Don't think this is normal?
It seems to be the same pixels looking through a few shots or at least the same areas.
Here's a crop of a pic if you can see them. Shutter speed was 30s on this one. Photobucket has compressed the image somewhat that doesn't help..

On my E520 I have noise reduction set to AUTO. I think this means that it kicks in if the exposure is over a couple of seconds. Those dots I think are standard for long exposures. Just set the NR and forget it.

There's also a noise filter which is for high ISO noise and is a different thing.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/53061745@N02/

Panasonic G3: 9-18mm, 14mm, 20mm, 45mm

Hi
Thanks for the reply.
Never seen that problem before, is this common on DSLR's?
Switching on the noise reduction seemed to clear it up.
There are big patches all over the frame with pixels lit up in different colours.
l'll have another look at the settings. Its put me off buying the E-300 now..

That's very common to dSLRs, yes. Especially older dSLRs.
Look if Long Exposure Noise Reduction is desabled.

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

Ive been off Googling hot pixels and the like and im more knowledgeable about the subject than i was 30mins ago...
Seems its a very common problem and to be expected with exposures longer than around 5secs.
Makes sense really as the sensor heats up over time.
Im sure you guys know all this anyway.
Interestingly two identical cameras on the same settings can create different results. One might have hundreds all over the frame whilst another hardly any. Guess its luck of draw on how good the sensor happens to be in any camera regardless of cost.
The noise reduction does work on the E-300, ive not noticed this with my FZ38 but i guess its so processed that its all done by default so you get good results.
Maybe its not so bad after all then, just normal for a 5/6 year old camera.
Ive tested it some more and there are 1000's of them, looks like a deep field night sky shot!!