With the ability to digitally zoom in 10× before taking a picture, it is very well suited for exact manual focussing, for example in macro photography.

The advantage of this implementation is that the camera's autofocus and exposure systems are fully functional and there is no shutter lag.

The E-330 also offers a liveview mode using the main sensor known as Live Preview B or Macro Live Preview; however on initial release, autofocus in this mode was disabled, but firmware update 1.2 released on 22 June 2006 allowed autofocus to take place on pressing the AEL/AFL button, dropping the mirror briefly to allow AF lock to be acquired.

The E-330 also offers a 7.5-megapixel image sensor, and has an articulated LCD monitor which tilts up and down for waist-level and over-the-head photography.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 and the Leica Digilux 3 are both built using the same basic inner mechanism from the Olympus E-330, and thus also share the live preview function.