To sit happily with the company’s flagship and much higher-priced DSLR the Olympus E-30 had to forgo a few bells and whistles — but then it added a few that should delight photographers with high ambitions but little skill.

The Olympus E-30 has 12.3 million pixels on its Live MOS sensor — two megapixels and a bit more than the E-3!

The E-30 is smaller and lighter than many maker’s top end models… that’s how Olympus does things. With relatively few external controls, the LCD menu options will take you pretty well anywhere you want to go.

Using the Four Thirds system you can attach lenses from companies such as Leica, Panasonic and Sigma… oh and Olympus of course!

Olympus E-30 Features

Live View is available on the 6.9 …

Copyright Robert S. Donovan

“Just delete the photos you don’t want,” one friend suggests when you ask what to do when you’ve finished downloading a memory card to your computer.

“No, no. You want to format it in the camera to be safe,” chimes in another

And still a third friend offers, “What’s best is low level formatting, if you camera offers it.”

For a lot of people starting out in digital photography, all these bits of advice can seem both conflicting and confusing.  What is low level and why is it better?  What happens if I just delete?  And will anyone make fun of me if I do the ‘wrong’ thing?

First, let me belay the last question.  We are all here to learn and at some point or another everyone faces this question.  So don’t sweat not knowing because this post will help set the record straight on how each method works.  It’s my hope you will then be able to speak intelligently about the different methods and use that knowledge for the greater good of digital photographers everywhere.

For the techies out there, I suggest you look away from this next part.  I’m going to over simplify things a bit in order to make sure the basics of data storage are understood.  I’m not going to get into bits and bytes and instead try to make this post accessible for all.  And for the sake of argument, we’ll assume all digital cameras function essentially the same when it comes to card formatting, etc… while admitting different models and brands do things ever so slightly differently.  That’s not really in the scope of this post either.

Sitting in the middle of Canon’s seven model range, the Canon EOS T1i (Canon EOS 500D in some parts of the world) should service the ambitions of the eager amateur and budget-conscious semi-pro. It is possibly a little too restrictive for full-flight pros.

I used the review camera with the 18-55mm and 55-250mm stabilised kit lenses. I figure this is nearly an ideal package. The CMOS sensor measures 22.3×14.9, so you multiply the focal length of each optic by 1.6x, to give a 35 SLR lens comparison. The two lenses gives you an effective SLR range of 29 to 400mm. Some may find that the 29mm wide end a little too limiting, so this is where you shell out for a nice wide — and expensive! — EF 14mm lens (SLR equiv: 22mm).

Copyright saebaryo

In a recent poll on DPS we asked What Is Your Favorite Memory Card Brand.  As readers tallied their votes and left comments I noticed a trend appearing.  Some readers would note the size of the cards they used and others would in return ask why they used such large cards.

In this post I’d like to present some thoughts on both approaches to digital photography.  WhenI talk about “One Large Card” below, I don’t mean that’s all any person ever has.  I’m using for a GB per GB comparison between the two approaches.  Many that subscribe to the One Large Card ideal often have a few of these large cards.

IN THIS CORNER: ONE LARGE CARD

Large cards have their allure, I admit it.  Sizes now head North to 32GB and beyond.  That’s a lot of storage and tempting for most.  Let’s take a look at some pros of the single card theory:

• Easy to keep track of.  It’s always in the camera.
• Great for trips.  No toting around tons of cards.
• The larger the card, the less it costs per GB.
• Large cards hold a lot of movies, which take up large amounts of space.
• No need for organization.

Another new compact camera announced by Canon this week is the Canon PowerShot S90 .

The Canon PowerShot S90 features a 10 megapixel image sensor (CCD), 3.8x optical zoom (28-105mm equivalent )lens with image stabilization and a 3 inch LCD. The lens comes with a control ring around it allowing control over some exposure settings.

The PowerShot S90 also features Digic 4 image processing, a dual anti-noise reduction system, full manual control and the ability to shoot in RAW. In many ways this is a Canon PowerShot G11 in a smaller body and without the longer focal range of the G11.

The Canon PowerShot S90 is available at Amazon for pre-ordering at a price of $429.95.