Features: Page 1

Four Thirds System

Although based loosely on the OM-1, the E-400 is still a Four Thirds system camera, using a Four Thirds lens mount and a Four Thirds format sensor. Measuring 17.3 x 13mm, the E-400’s CCD plays host to 10.8 million pixels, with 10.2 million of these used to form images up to 3648 x 2736 pixels in size. This will give you a print size a shade over 12x9in (30x23cm) at 300ppi. Both RAW and JPEG capture is possible (with simultaneous RAW and JPEG), with images stored on CF or XD picture cards, depending on which of the dual card slots you use.

Crop Factor

Conveniently, the diagonal of the Four Thirds format sensor measures 22mm (half that of the 35mm format), which makes it really easy to work out ‘effective’ focal lengths of lenses – when you fit a lens to the E-400 there’s a 2x focal length magnification. As a result, a 50mm focal length doubles up to give an angle of view similar to a 100mm optic, while a 100mm lens behaves like a 200mm optic, and so on.

To ensure your chosen lens delivers a sharp result, the E-400 uses the same three-point TTL phase-detection AF system as the E-500 and E-330, but Olympus claims to have ‘tweaked’ the algorithms to make it faster in both single-shot and continuous focus.