Phil Askey from DPreview review this new Olympus E-330 camera, the first DSLR camera that comes with a live LCD view feature. Here’s the summary of the conclusion:

“So we come to the E-330’s unique selling point, its live view feature. Olympus are proud that they have been the first manufacturer to implement a continuous live LCD view on a removable lens digital SLR. It’s fair to say for some buyers this will be reason enough to go for the E-330, but for me I found it to be (a) a solution looking for a problem and (b) poorly implemented.

Firstly I don’t honestly see that many digital SLR owners asking for this feature, it’s a neat option, it’s good for upgraders coming from consumer cameras who may be used to seeing the live view on the LCD screen and it may well have one or two useful scenarios (macro shooting, live portraits shown on a TV screen) however for me I simply found myself moving back to the viewfinder more times than not.

Secondly I wasn’t particularly impressed with the implementation, it’s confusing to have two modes, neither of which was perfect. A mode suffers from a noisy /grainy view in medium/low light, doesn’t provide full frame coverage and doesn’t represent white balance or depth of field correctly. B mode utilizing the main sensor means the mirror is up, no auto focus and no metering (during live view), and again no representation of white balance.

Finally there is no doubt that this camera can produce excellent results (at lower sensitivities) and that the live view may be the deal maker for some people. I struggled for a long time rating this camera, and if we had a half-way it would get an ‘Above Average and a Half’ however it’s just good enough to scrape a Recommended (lets hope we see a price drop), but come on Olympus you can (and will have to) do better than this!”

Website : Olympus E-330 (Evolt) Review at DPreview