Well I finally got my hands on an E3. I have been shooting with it now for about two weeks. I really want to get a good handle on things before I write a full review but I thought that I would share some about the camera here.
First thing that I did after charging the battery was to upgrade the firmware to 1.2. The upgrade is suppose to fix a white balance issue.
The E3 is a pretty heavy camera, curb weight of 1.79 pounds. It is a heavy camera and with the 14-54mm, 435grams, mounted on it you are looking at a tank. Almost three pounds.
Second was the controls. Much different than the 510. The dial on the front of the camera was factory default as the aperature dial and the rear dial was for shutter speed. I changed this in programming since I wanted the shutter dial on the front. I could use the 510 in the dark and never miss a beat. But the E3 is much different and it is going to take some getting use to. But it seems to be well layed out and I really haven't had any problems so far.
Next was the focus. I am using the 14-54mm lens and all I can say is "Wow". It smokes the 510 in focus speed. Even in low light and a non SWD lens it is lightning fast. I tried the 40-150mm kit lens as well and there are times in lowlight it struggled to get focused. But with the right lighting it is faster too.
Noise levels are much lower. Here is a shot at 400ISO hand held. I took this with the 40-150mm kit lens.
I would never want to shoot landscapes any higher than 400ISO but for chasing kids around the park 3200ISO looks pretty good.
It is also nice that the LCD screen can be flipped around for protection when not in use. I am not sure how often I will use the live view feature but it is still nice to have just in case. It's pretty hard to bend down to take flower pictures after two back surgeries so it is a feature I am sure I will use from time to time.
The Image Stabilisation also seems smoother. I am not sure if it is the added weight of the camera or a better design but I could feel the IS working in the 510 on some exposures but not with the E3. You still have the rattling noise when you turn the camera off and the IS is on. But the IS seemes to be another feature that was improved.
I also like the larger viewfinder. It is a very nice improvement over the 510.
I will write a full review as soon as I feel I have learned enough, but from what I have seen so far I am very impressed. The image quality is awesome. Better dynamic range and lower noise levels all the way around. If you have any questions feel free to ask.....
1600ISO