Metering Modes

The E-3 has 6 different metering modes. The most used one is Digital ESP metering, or Matrix metering. It basically uses 49 light points to determine the correct exposure. This can be locked into the Auto focus system or not. I personally do not have my camera tied into the AF system. Basically when ESP is not tied into the AF system it seeks to save the highlights from your exposure. When it is tied into the AF points - it becomes similar to center weight metering, adding more preferences for the exposure around the Auto focus point. Overall it makes more sense to me on the E-3 to not tie the metering system to an auto focus point.

The third metering mode is Center Weight. Before the E-3 and its improved Dynamic Range, I usually shot in this mode. It would sacrifice some highlights (like around 3-5%) to make more of the dynamic range fall into the curve on the camera. Overall with limited dynamic range cameras, I would recommend this setting most of the time. Between the above three metering modes my least favorite, perhaps because of my lack of familiarity with it, is the ESP+AF. When the E-3 was released I had many people who were complaining about the metering of the E-3. However, I think that the majority of their issues were from a lack of understanding on how the ESP+AF works. So if you feel that you are having metering issues, try to change your camera settings to just ESP.

The last three metering modes all deal with spot metering. Basically, if you want to get a subject to be metered correctly and there is a very strong back light, then at times you will pick one of these modes. With the E-1 and shooting birds, I would use this mode, however, my recent experiences with the E-3 shows my new preferred mode is ESP.

Spot Highlight metering seeks to make the area in the middle pure white. It basically is metering off a white point. And as Shadow spot metering states, you are metering off your black point. For both the spot highlight and shadow metering they are really for special needs, and will not be used a whole lot. However, it is good to know how they work.

Bracketing Modes

At times no matter how great the dynamic range of the camera, in my opinion bracketing is one of the most important features of a SLR camera. We will always need to have a greater dynamic range than any camera can provide. When shooting landscapes, I nearly always bracket - 5 Exposures at 1 stop. (I would rather have 3 exposures at 2 stops but at this point that is not possible.) It stops me from having to chimp as much. Also, if I ever want to create an HDR image I can quickly paste it together.

Took with the 12-60mm - multi exposures stiched together as the sun rose over the mountain

Overall bracketing allows you to have more information of your subject with less fiddling around in camera. However, the trade off is you will need more storage space and have to do more sorting on the postproduction end.

IS System

Olympus has implemented an in-body Image stabilization system. This has been an area of hot debate within the forum. There are many advantages to both in-lens image stabilization verses in-body. However, the biggest advantages of an in-body IS system is that all lenses built for it have Image stabilization. I can shoot the consumer Olympus 14-42mm, the 70-300mm, the 90-250mm, or even Panasonic's 25mm. All lenses work with image stabilization. The system is by far the most advanced IS system, which works slightly better than others' in-body image stabilization systems on the market. However, IS does not work with legacy film lenses without an adapter such as Dandelion.

This was shot at 6/10th of a second - to get the maximum blur of the umbrella however the other area are still tack sharp.

Over all IS works very well, Olympus claims up to 5 stops. I think that it is a bit over zealous, but I am comfortable hand holding up to 3 stops slower than I would before - or up to 4 stops slower than I should. Basically - if I am shooting at 150mm I need at least 1/300-second-shutter speed. Without Image Stabilization I'd shoot at 1/250. And with image stabilization I have hand held with longer shutter speeds than 1/60 of a second. But once you are shooting at slower shutter speeds, movement of your subject comes into play. So even with image stabilization all of your issues are not fixed.

With the Olympus IS system the key to remember is that IS 1 - uses both vertical and horizontal Image Stabilization. IS 2 - only uses the vertical plan to compensate for movement.

Jr. High Basketball game - click on the photo for a few more shots from the game.
All were taken with the 35-100mm at f2.0, 1/250, ISO 400

Note: Also, on the forum some have stated that IS cannot be used at high shutter speed, I have shot many times with it at very high shutter speeds and do not regularly see issues. So unless the camera is on a tripod, I keep IS on all the time. Also, no matter how good an image-stabilization system is on the E-3, no amount of technology will replace good shooting habits.

For more info about how the focusing system works please see this article.

Support Fourthirdsphoto
become a Subscriber today

And click to order products below:

To comment on this article in any fashion please do so in this thread. I have also been update some thoughts and questions as we go in that article. You will most likely want to to quote and/or post a link back to the OP comment because of the length of this article.
All Material published in this article is copywritten by Fourthirdsphoto — If you wish to quote it elsewhere we ask that you at least link back to the original article. None of the material provided, was approved by any manufacturer or in conjunction with them. It is soley the viewpoint of Fourthirdsphoto.