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Our friends at LetsGoDigital posted a review of the Olympus E3 DSLR in the new Nexus housing, a combination we've been eager to hear more about since Olympus announced this partnership during DEMA last October...

 
The Olympus E3 is the new flagship based on the Four Thirds standard E-System. The E3 is an extremely advanced camera that can be used for every assignment and fully complies with the strict requirements of DSLR photography. I was given the opportunity to try out this camera underwater. Underwater the circumstances are different than on land and it demands a lot from the camera. The biggest problem is bleaching by the sun. A wide-angle shot of the coral and the sea usually doesn't turn out nice at the spot where the blue water and the lighter area of the surface meet. Where sunbeams cross the surface of the water, a bleached white spot appears on the picture. You can't use a smaller aperture because it would make the blue at the bottom of the picture (the deeper part of the sea) too dark. To take wide-angle shots I use the 7-14mm lens. The combination of camera & lens works excellently and flawlessly. And what's more important to me, the light areas of the surface are light but not bleached. The E-3 is perfectly capable of dealing with large differences between light and dark areas.

Olympus have put their own underwater housings, made of polycarbonate, on the market for the E-330, E-300 and E410. For the underwater housing of the E-3 Olympus have sought to cooperate with Nexus. Nexus has been producing underwater housings made of aluminum for many years now. Initially for traditional SLR cameras and since a few years also for DSLRs of various brands. Nexus has a lot of experience developing underwater housings. And you can tell by the E3. The underwater housing looks neat and well thought-out. The Olympus E-3 fits nicely in the housing. And the way Nexus has built the housing; it enables the internal flash to be folded up. This enables operating the flash with an optical cable. Still Nexus was able to keep the housing compact. The Nexus housing is suitable for a depth up to 70 meters.

Read the full review by Karin Brusaard on LetsGoDigital...