Olympus E-300
Encyclopedia
The Olympus E-300 is an 8 megapixel digital SLR
Digital single-lens reflex camera
Most digital single-lens reflex cameras are digital cameras that use a mechanical mirror system and pentaprism to direct light from the lens to an optical viewfinder on the back of the camera....

 manufactured by Olympus
Olympus Corporation
is a Japan-based manufacturer of optics and reprography products. Olympus was established on 12 October 1919, initially specializing in microscope and thermometer businesses. Its global headquarters are in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, while its USA operations are based in Center Valley, Pennsylvania,...

 of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and based on the Four Thirds System
Four Thirds System
The Four Thirds system is a standard created by Olympus and Kodak for digital single-lens reflex camera design and development.The system provides a standard that, with digital cameras and lenses available from multiple manufacturers, allows for the interchange of lenses and bodies from different...

. Announced at Photokina 2004, it became available at the end of 2004. It was the second camera (after the Olympus E-1
Olympus E-1
The Olympus E-1, introduced in 2003, was the first DSLR system camera designed from the ground up for digital photography. This contrasts with its contemporaries which offered systems based on reused parts from previous 135 film systems, modified to fit with a sensor size of APS-C.-Features:The E-1...

) to use the Four Thirds System, and the first intended for the consumer markethttp://www.shutterbug.com/test_reports/0505olympus/.

Features

The camera's appearance was unique, as it lacked the ubiquitous SLR pentaprism
Pentaprism
A pentaprism is a five-sided reflecting prism used to deviate a beam of light by 90°. The beam reflects inside the prism twice, allowing the transmission of an image through a right angle without inverting it as an ordinary right-angle prism or mirror would.The reflections inside the prism are not...

 "hump". Instead, a Porro prism
Porro prism
In optics, a Porro prism, named for its inventor Ignazio Porro, is a type of reflection prism used in optical instruments to alter the orientation of an image....

 system was used; it fitted sideways within the camera, with a sideways-swinging mirror, and located the viewfinder eyepiece to the left (seen from behind) relative to the lens centerline. The body was largely of ABS
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene is a common thermoplastic. Its melting point is approximately 105 °C ....

 plastic over a metal frame; the lens mount was metal, and there was a metal covered area on the left top of the camera. This area also contained the onboard flash, which popped up and forward at the touch of a button. The onboard flash popup mechanism is manual. In low light scenarios the flash will not pop up automatically but the photographer must press the button and pop it up before taking the photo.

The E-300 uses Olympus' patented Supersonic Wave Filter
Supersonic Wave Filter
The Supersonic Wave Filter is a dust reduction system developed by Olympus to overcome the negative effect of dust particles landing on the image sensor of digital SLRs. DSLRs are particularly vulnerable to this issue, since the interior of the camera is exposed during lens changes unlike other...

 dust reduction system
Dust reduction system
A dust reduction system, or dust removal system, is a technology employed by several manufacturers of digital system cameras to solve the problem of dust particles adhering to the image sensor. Some systems remove or clean the sensor by vibrating at a very high frequency—between 100hertz and...

 to shake dust from the sensor during startup and when requested by the user; this largely eliminates the problem of dust accumulation on the surface of the image sensor.

The E-300 was replaced by the Olympus E-330
Olympus E-330
The Olympus E-330 is a DSLR launched on 30 January 2006, using the Four Thirds System lens mount standard. Its main feature is its live image preview functionality, permitting an image to be previewed on the LCD screen. While live image preview is not new in compact digital cameras, the E-330 is...

, a similar model with live preview
Live preview
Live preview is a feature that allows a digital camera's display screen to be used as a viewfinder. This provides a means of previewing framing and other exposure before taking the photograph. In most such cameras, the preview is generated by means of continuously and directly projecting the image...

, in January 2006.

Official sites


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