BACKGROUND:

Based on the E-300 body the new E-330 boasts two imagers; an 8MP (from the Mju 800 digicam) and a LiveMOS 7.5MP CMOS type imager. The 8MP chip resides in the extended Porro mirror system light path and is for live preview. (Of note is when the E-300 was first introduced one of the reasons given for the unusual flat-top design was that it gave engineers some space for further development and the delivery of the LiveView system has been on-going for two years). The reason Olympus chose the CCD from the later Mju series that it is 'low-light' enabled, badged BrightCapture. This attribute, designed to allow the tiny digicam to which it is normally fitted to capture an image in very low light circumstances, is ideal for this job as the available light from the semi-transparent mirror that is sits behind in the E-330 is pretty dim. As I understand it the engineers have been able to combine 9 pixels worth of light gathering into one effective pixel (or combine 9 pixels into 1) in low light mode thus increasing sensitivity. The tiny 1/1/8" has 8.3 million photosites in its normal mode. If we divide 8.3 MP by 9 this might be a better way to express the LiveView CCD's count; i.e. 923Kb? (That's if my math is correct - but please don't rely on this). I've not been able to discover any real info about the new LiveMOS imager but if pre-release rumour is true it was probably designed by Cypress. This is a major departure for the company who previously relied on Kodak for the imagers in the E-1, E300 and E-500. If the new LiveMOS chip can deliver less noisy images at moderate ISO gain this will resolve some major issues for Olympus and provide new technology for the next generation of professional E-series machines.

The nearest description I can muster for the E-330 is a cross between the previous high grade C-series unit (C8080), the E-10/20 and an E-300. This hybrid must surely open up two additional markets from those toying with the idea of going DSLR; first that of the advanced compact user wishing to step up to a camera that offers the live preview they have come to know so well with lens exchangeability, and second a woman's DSLR. The latter has been a target audience since Mr Maitani identified women as potential/probable camera users back in 1961 when he designed the fully automatic Pen EE with female users in mind. (It is well documented that females can be put off photography by its complex nature). It might also explain why Olympus pulled the C8080 & C7070 in 2005 with no good reason and why the present Olympus high level compacts are pretty boring.

IMAGES with brief comments - for now

I'm afraid this article will have to delelop 'ad hoc'. It will be updated as I find out more information and I'll include links to the lesser known sites that sometimes contain a different level of information than the bigger sites like dpreview etc. In the mean time please browse these images and comments. The documentation is also quite revealing.