Olympus E-3 User Manual page 10

this, it was also the first SLR camera to offer multi-spot metering
with Highlight and Shadow bias which is still used on top-line
professional cameras today – most notably the ubiquitous EOS-1
series from Canon.
The year 1985 saw the introduction of the OM-40 with ESP
(Electro Selective Pattern) metering. This was the forerunner of
the multi-pattern light metering systems in use by every major
camera manufacturer today.
With the change to digital sensors, Olympus continued to
innovate and the company was the first to offer in-camera sensor
cleaning systems when it launched the E-1 in 2003. This
pioneering and vital technology is only now being used on a
wider scale by other manufacturers while it has been standard on
every Olympus four-thirds D-SLR ever since the launch of the
venerable E-1 – giving Olympus a 5 year head-start in this
particular field which is why it is widely proclaimed as the most
effective system of its kind on the market.
The Olympus E-330 introduced the concept of "live view" to the
realm of D-SLR photography in 2005 and this is yet another
feature being provided by more and more manufacturers as the
first decade of the new century heads to a close.
Overall, Olympus cameras have quietly heralded many now
commonplace features and so while the company is not
commonly seen as one of the "big players" in the market, it is in
fact big on ideas and innovation and without Olympus cameras
and the new technologies the company is constantly introducing
to the market, the world of photography would be the poorer.
OLYMPUS CAMERAS DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
Overall the design philosophy of Olympus cameras is to try and
make the camera – and the technology around which the
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