On 3/13/07, Andrew Fildes <afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> It was something of an unfair comment by me originally because the
> E-330 chip is excellent at higher speed but as a school photographer
> told me a couple of weeks ago, they like the E1 not just for
> robustness but because of the skin tones. That will probably be lost
> now with the replacement.
Thank you for updating your previous comment, Andrew, which I thought
at the time was surprising since it 1) seemed to apply mainly to the
smaller-sensored Panasonics (I own one of these, the FZ20), and 2)
you had reviewed the 330 (which I also own) prior to release IIRC and
so might be expected to know something about its noise
characteristics. Which in my experience is that they are so different
as to be not really comparable. I might add that the FZ20 was
regarded as OK up to ISO 200. On subsequent models Panasonic appears
to have loaded up the pixels on the same sensor at the expense of
noise, so that noise began to be unacceptable even at ISO 200.
Panasonic more or less killed the golden goose in the FZ line to
compete in the MP races -- a temptation, I might add, to which Olympus
has never really succumbed. The E-300 is an 8MP CCD sensor system;
the newer 330 is 7.5 MP MOS sensor. It doesn't appear that Olympus
has a desire to "overclock" its sensors the way Panasonic did with the
FZ model.
Another thing about the FZ sensors is that through the FZ50 they have
all been CCD type. The MOS sensor is a different critter. Panasonic
is a huge electronics company with deep resources and I'm sure they
have read the reviews of their stuff and know which way the wind
blows. There is no reason they can't make a MOS sensor that is
competitive with anyone's sooner or later. The 330 is "earnest money"
is that regard.
Bob, I can vouch for the jpgs in the dpreview review of the 330. If
you find those to be acceptable to you, probably what's coming will be
just as good and more likely better still. Look especially at the ISO
800 shots. I use that speed a great deal of the time and I often have
to check the EXIF data to tell the difference.
Joel W.
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