E-520 vs Canon S3 (1 Viewer)

I'm still trying to make up my mind whether to upgrade my Canon S3 (with 1.7x TC) to an E-520 with 70-300mm lens. I know it will give me vastly better controls, but will it give me better pictures?

After many trips (I think about 7 now) to camera shops to try to get some decent comparison shots, I thought I finally had some this morning, but no, they had left the Olympus in Normal compression mode, despite me asking them to check it. (And they only had an E-620.)

Would anyone like to look at the comparisons, and comment? They're at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/fw6LtCmcyx1VLWAZn8WfxQ

I took shots of a car number plate 100m away at various ISOs, then cropped them and put them all in the one file for easy comparison.

My impression is that at ISO 100, while the Olympus images are less "blotchy", the compact S3 beats the Olympus for readability of the smaller lettering. A disappointing result, but is it due to the extra focal length of the Canon/TC combination, or the crappy compression the Olympus was set to?

Any opinions? Could changing the Olympus from Normal to Superfine make that much difference? I think I'm going to have to go back and do more tests, but I suspect that the two cameras are pretty much equivalent in terms of "identification power". Any volunteers to take their Olympus/70-300mm out and photograph a number plate from 100m in Normal and Superfine compression so I don't have to do yet more tests?

In terms of noise, it looks like the S3's ISO 100 is equivalent to the E-620's ISO 800, or maybe a little worse, so that's a very good thing. I'd lose 1.5 stops due to the slower lens, but gain 3 and a bit.

Hi pshute,

All I have to say is that the 300 mm end of the 70-300 is soft. For this reason I usually use this lens at around 270 mm.

i can't help you with your problem, but here is my personal experience with E 520 as i had it as a trial for 3 weeks, it is not as good to mange as the older E 300 model which i have, in short this made me decide not to have it. i read alot of good reviews about the E620.

the 70-300mm lens is a marvelous one, fantastic performance with the 1.4 tele converter, but don't ever consider the 20 tele, it is a piece of junk, and as Christian said don't take it all the way to the 300, a bit before will give super results even for macro's.

Cristian Mihai said:

All I have to say is that the 300 mm end of the 70-300 is soft. For this reason I usually use this lens at around 270 mm.

Click to expand...

I don't find this to be the case. Here is a downsized and somewhat cropped version of a catbird I took awhile ago, with an E-520 + 70-300 (at 300mm) + EC-14:

http://www.rahsoft.net/catbird_fullsmall.jpg

and here is a "100% crop" of the original image, unmodified, right out of the camera (the exif is there for you to see the specs):

http://www.rahsoft.net/catbird_crop1.jpg

the original, just downsized, is here:
http://www.rahsoft.net/p5114530_orig.jpg

A very good pic RAH.

i agree with Christan, and found what he observed very useful, it shows very clearly on closeups. see this

Cristian Mihai said:

A very good pic RAH.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I don't mean to say that the 70-300 might be somewhat better if you back off a bit on the zoom, but I guess I just think it's very good at full-zoom too, so I never back off. I almost always wish I had more magnification.

Actually, I use the 70-300 so much like a prime 300 that sometimes I forget that I CAN zoom out a little, even when I need to (i.e. the subject is hard to fit in the frame). I guess I need to refine my technique some!

My intention is to take some pics for comparison - long shots with the same subject with two gears:
- E-520 + ZD 70-300 + EC-14 (about 840 mm)
- S3 + Raynox DCR 2020PRO (about 950 mm)
But for this experiment I need a day without rain...Maybe tomorrow...

Cristian Mihai said:

My intention is to take some pics for comparison - long shots with the same subject with two gears:
- E-520 + ZD 70-300 + EC-14 (about 840 mm)
- S3 + Raynox DCR 2020PRO (about 950 mm)
But for this experiment I need a day without rain...Maybe tomorrow...

Click to expand...

I gave in and bought an E-520, and I'm in the same position. I bought a body only, and I'm using it with an old Takumar 300mm lens - this will have to do for now. Some quick test shots of pigeons on next door's roof show the quality compared to the S3 with 1.7x TC to be similar, perhaps a little worse. This about what I expected - it's not a very good lens.

I need to go out and take some proper comparison shots, but it's been too wet.

So far I'm pleased with the operation of it, and a little surprised how well I can manually focus (AF confirmation chip is on order). I've only ever used a fully manual SLR before, so I will probably have plenty of technique questions coming soon.

I'll post my comparison shots when I get them, and I'm interested to see any others. I'm becoming more impressed with the S3's quality each time I look - apart from the small sensor, it's really the controls and viewfinder that let it down.