Olympus E3 or Nikon 90?

nightangel73

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I want to update my camera, I have an olympus e-420 and I'm not satisfied because the camera gets stuck so much and therefore I'm "missing the moment" very frequently and that frustates me so much. I want the camera to SHOOT even if I don't have the best settings, you know what I mean? I tried that Nikon D90 from a friend and it was so nice it shooted everytime, never got stuck and I never missed the moments. Now the thing is that I have an olympus telephoto lense and external flash so I wouldn't mind another olympus if it does SHOOT everytime I hit the buttom. When I bought the e-420 I didn't know new anything about good digital slr's.

So what do you guys suggest? Does the E-3 has the same getting stuck problem? Is the E-3 better than the Nikon D90?

I will appreciate advice thank you
 
This is a no brainer - go with the Nikon D90. by the way, when was the last time you saw a professional photographer using an Olympus camera?
 
Can you tell me what you mean by stuck problem?
 
I foresee the Nikon D90 sticking on you as well. When you jack up the shot so much that the camera doesnt know whats going on, it wont fire. If you don't get a focus lock in Auto Focus, it will not just fire.
Knowing your camera is a big step in avoiding those situations. As for quality, the D90 is an amazing camera and would be the better choice.
 
I foresee the Nikon D90 sticking on you as well. When you jack up the shot so much that the camera doesnt know whats going on, it wont fire. If you don't get a focus lock in Auto Focus, it will not just fire.
Knowing your camera is a big step in avoiding those situations. As for quality, the D90 is an amazing camera and would be the better choice.

The d90 only gets "stuck" if you have it set to focus confirmation. Which is the default.
 
So what is your camera doing that it is missing the moment? My girlfriend has an E-420 as well, and the only time it ever misses the mark is if it is very dark, and the pop-up flash focus assist light is trying to aid focus (doesn't happen when shoe flash is on camera).

Maybe it's a camera setting, maybe it's a service issue.

My question to you about your choice of camera though, why compare the E-3 to the D90? They are very different cameras, is it because they are the closest match in price range? You're comparing a weather sealed professional design to a top of the range consumer toy. Image quality wise they'd be very similar, and feature wise they too. With that in mind the E-3 is the type of camera that you can bash around with, and is heavier, a complete magnesium construction, and a feature not related to build quality, it has on sensor image stabilisation.

I won't comment on image quality itself, you can check this yourself at the very indepth reviews at Digital Camera Reviews and News: Digital Photography Review: Forums, Glossary, FAQ, however I will say consider how well you know the E-420. If you're very used to the E-420 then the Nikon button layout may drive you mental.
That said the E-3 defeats the killer feature of the E-420 and that's the sheer size of that tiny little thing :) The E-3 is a beast.

This is a no brainer - go with the Nikon D90. by the way, when was the last time you saw a professional photographer using an Olympus camera?

It's a nobrainer if you don't give it an ounce of thought and just approach the problem with the common "Nikon is teh bestest" bias that is typical when someone asks this kind of question.

Oh and 24th of October. Two of the professional shooters at the (you'll love this) Nikon SuperGP on the Gold Coast (Indy500 in previous years) were shooting with what looked like E-3s. One had a lovely droolworthy Olympus Zukio 300mm f/2.8 on it.
 
It's getting stuck as you put it because you are shooting in one of the Auto modes in manual it will shoot any setting you want. It's all down to user error a new camera will make no difference
 
This is a no brainer - go with the Nikon D90. by the way, when was the last time you saw a professional photographer using an Olympus camera?
Yesterday. Granted, Nikon and Canon have the market share but Olympus makes some very nice cameras and there is some sweet glass available for them too.
 
Okay I am an intermediate photographer and so I'm learning. I don't want to do automodes as I want to learn to take pictures with different apertures and shutter speeds that's the whole point of having dslr camera. So with the e-420 if I don't have the correct setting which remember I'm learning when I push the buttom it won't shoot, so then I have to realize some setting must be wrong and therefore I missed what could have been a great shot. With the Nikon I didn't had that problem. I got to play with the aperture modes and it always shoot, granted the pics were overexposed or underexposed or correct either way the camera always shoot and that is easier for learning. I thought of the e-3 because i have read it is the best of the olympus cameras so I would like to know if the same thing happens with the e-3. I'm pleased with image quality of the e-420 though it gets noise easily at higher ISO settings.

Is there any better Nikon D90 that you guys think would suit for me?
 
Okay I am an intermediate photographer and so I'm learning. I don't want to do automodes as I want to learn to take pictures with different apertures and shutter speeds that's the whole point of having dslr camera. So with the e-420 if I don't have the correct setting which remember I'm learning when I push the buttom it won't shoot, so then I have to realize some setting must be wrong and therefore I missed what could have been a great shot. With the Nikon I didn't had that problem. I got to play with the aperture modes and it always shoot, granted the pics were overexposed or underexposed or correct either way the camera always shoot and that is easier for learning. I thought of the e-3 because i have read it is the best of the olympus cameras so I would like to know if the same thing happens with the e-3. I'm pleased with image quality of the e-420 though it gets noise easily at higher ISO settings.

Is there any better Nikon D90 that you guys think would suit for me?

The camera is not the problem, learn how to use it properly in manual it will always fire learn how to use the light meter, what's the point of taking a photo that overexposed or underexposed
 
Do you remember what lens was on the D90 and what lens was on your E-420?

Autofocus works better with a lens that has a wider aperture, so if aperture of the lens on the E-420 is not wide enough, and the light situation is not that good, your camera may not be able to lock in focus.

So in other words, a D90 with a slow lens may have the same issue.
 
The camera is not the problem, learn how to use it properly in manual it will always fire learn how to use the light meter, what's the point of taking a photo that overexposed or underexposed

I am trying to learn it but it is frustating. I need an easier horse to ride :)

So what is a lense that is fast? Can you give me any recomendation? I have the kit lense and a 70-300 lense
 
Well the E-3 is a great camera, but really I agree with the others here, it does sound a bit like user error.

Can you narrow down the so called "setting"? What is your camera doing right before it fires? As I mentioned my girlfriend has only missed one shot during my graduation which wasn't due to user error, and that was because it was simply too dark in the hall, and her flash just didn't serve as a good focus light. But realistically I highly doubt the D90 would do much better in those conditions, mainly because my own D200 doesn't focus further than about 6m away using a kit lens and the focus assist light.

The other thing here is that lets assume the camera didn't shoot because something isn't right. Well if it did shoot you would have missed the shot anyway because ... well something isn't right. The D90 can be set to take a photo regardless of the state of the focus. To me this is pointless and I have never used it on the D200 either, because if it's not in focus I would miss the shot anyway.

Anyway if you can give a bit more info other than "some setting was wrong" I can have a play with the e-420 tomorrow.
 

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