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| Brand: Olympus
Category: Photography
List Price: $699.99
Buy Used: $449.80
You Save: $250.19 (36%)
New (12) from $569.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  167 reviews
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Optical Zoom: 3
Display Size: 2.5
Maximum Focal Length: 42
Minimum Focal Length: 14
Maximum Resolution: 10
Has Red Eye Reduction: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 3.6 x 2.7
nv:Sensor: 10 Megapixel
Image Resolution: 3648 x 2736 pixels - 640 x 480 pixels
Movie Resolution: 3648 x 2736 pixels
Storage Media: Compatible CF Type I / II / MicroDrive
Compressed Format: JPEG
Compressed Format: RAW + JPEG
Compressed Format: DCF
Compressed Format: DPOF compatible/Exif
Compressed Format: PRINT Image Matching III
Compressed Format: RAW (12-bit)
Optical Viewfinder: Approx.0.92x (-1m-1, 50mm lens, infinity)
LCD Monitor: 2.5-inch
LCD Pixels: 230,000 pixels
LCD Coverage: 95%
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: 262072
Model: 262072
UPC: 050332160484
EAN: 0050332160484
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 I've waited 10+ years for this camera June 21, 2007
77 out of 85 found this review helpful
When I first saw this camera I fell in love with its compact form factor. After reading the full hands-on of the E410 from dpreview I pulled the trigger (since I'm on vacation this week). Just got back from Yosemite, shooting in automatic mode at SHQ (3648x2736) operation was easy even though I'm a DSLR newbie and I was mostly hiking not photogging.
Performance is quite phenomenal compared to my Camedia from 1998. . . I tried doing quick panos by shooting in full auto (~3fps) and just spinning in place (taking around 25 frames in 8 seconds). Two panos this way came out great, the third one I started on a shadowed area so the rest came out overexposed.
I've got the 8GB Extreme IV CF card in it, so the camera has a capacity of ~1000 SHQ shots.
Battery life so far is decent; one charge lasted all day yesterday, at least.
Zoom range on the shorter kit lens was acceptable. Due to the dusty environment I didn't pack the longer one.
 Low light focusing - Olympus, do you hear? August 30, 2007
72 out of 73 found this review helpful
I would give this camera five and a half stars, really, if not for one issue.
And a pretty serious one.
But first the good news: the camera is great.
It works blazing fast, controls are excellent and so is the level of control.
All important SLR options, all those many competitors usually "reserve" for "professional" models - like all metering modes, auto ISO limit, custom WB, mirror anti shock, remote control capability, manual focusing after AF and even shutter release priorities - are there.
Anti-dust system and set of two lens gives you worry free 28-300 (10.7x) range, image stabilization works surprisingly good, widely rumored problem of dynamic range that is half EV below the competition is not visible in 99.95% of the pictures. The rest 0.05% requires microscope and 100% zoom to point out the blown out highlight.
All things considered - an excellent camera and value for money.
Of course, there are many things one may complain about, like slow kit lens (and fast lens are available, but expensive) or aggressive noise filter at high ISO (and it could be turned off) or one second delay at start up (never bothered me much) etc. But all these issues are pretty minor and every camera has list of them.
***
Now the bad news - low light focusing. I just do not understand that.
Here it is: below certain light level camera just struggles to get focus. That level is somewhat below standard living room illumination - so it does not bother many people in standard situations, but try to shoot at the dark bar or at the street in the evening - and change in camera behavior is dramatic. Suddenly it may take several seconds before focus is locked - way too long. Using flash to illuminate target does not help much - flash keeps strobing and strobing and strobing again and finally, when focus is locked it takes additional second to charge it for the shot. I rarely meet people who would stand still for that long... They think I made three pictures of them already, when I accomplished, well, none!
I perfectly understand the technical issue of focusing in low light, but... I am old Olympus E10 owner - and it have never bothered me much with this issue. Cheap Canon A70 have never bothered me with this issue either - well at least nobody expects performance from $200 compact camera.
May be these old cameras are not trying to get perfect focus when they cannot, may be they limiting time to some reasonable interval - I do not know, but Olympus should fix the problem. It is a show stoppers.
For now I turn off AF illumination and switch to shutter release priority in low light situations - but I need to recognize it first. I prefer to have slightly out-of-focus pictures, than no pictures at all. Olympus, do you hear?
An excellent kit to anchor your DSLR system December 10, 2007
56 out of 57 found this review helpful
If you are reading this review, you are probably lost amongst all the DSLR choices, and wondering which way to go. If you are a pro, you will have already made up your mind to either buy this Olympus because you are interested in the Four-Thirds format, or you will be buying a Canon, Nikon or what-have-you because you have 3k invested in lenses. Fortunately, you can't go wrong with any of the major brands. There are variations of excellence, and some choices for features. For instance, the Pentax K10 is recognized as having good dust protection.
The particular features of the E-510 are:
- Four-Thirds format (do a google or wikipedia search on that)
- slightly more compact than other DSLRs
- "Live View" target image viewing on the rear LCD
- decent quality kit lenses
- 10MB sensor (other starter DSLRs are mostly 6-8MB, although still excellent sensors)
- Image stabilization
Technical reviews on photo sites such as popphoto rate this camera as excellent. But then, all the major brands perform to a very high level these days.
The auto-focus is rated as fast, but in low light it is slow, and takes up to 3 seconds while it blinks the flash continuously. Subtle it is not. Its automatic sensor cleaning on startup and shutdown apparently works, which is just as well because dust tightness is very poor while changing lenses.
The top and rear of the body are festooned with buttons for easy access to many common functions. Other features are accessed through the usual menu system on the rear LCD. There is no movie mode. Overall I have found the camera easy to learn and use. My wife is non-technical and has no problem getting good pictures in point-n-shoot mode. If in doubt, go "wide", because you can crop into a 10MB shot forever.
If you have chosen the E-510, you are probably wondering whether to buy the body only, the 1-lens or the 2-lens kit. When you buy an SLR, you are buying extensibility and potential. If you only ever use one lens, and never upgrade the built-in flash, you really might as well buy a compact. I went with the 2-lens kit, because even though both lenses have direct upgrades available (for a price!) the kit was a great value, and I might take kit lenses where there is a chance they might get knocked.
As with any DSLR, then, the kit is just the starting point. You must immediately budget around $50+ for a memory card, $20+ for a gadget bag, $25 or so for a spare battery (Duracell has one), a $35 good quality clear filter for each lens for protection (a MUST!), and a lens brush. This is over $100, all of which you will spring for in the first week. After that, if you never get a flash upgrade ($150-350+), an additional lens ($200++) and a mono- or tripod ($50+), then buy a compact. This may sound like a lot of money, but actually Olympus addons, especially the flash and lenses, are good value.
If you are choosing between the 410 and 510, only the 510 has image stabilization, which is built into the body and so works with all lenses. I.S. is decent but it will not fix sloppy handling in dim rooms. The 410 is even more compact, and is also more dust tight, and $100 cheaper.
Some folks buy DSLRs because they are neat, and a bit of a status symbol compared to your average compact. You can spot these types because they have the camera, one lens, and the built-in flash. You are really buying into a system, and a large and bulky system at that, if you are going to realize many of the benefits.
EDIT 1: New favorite button: exposure compensation, right next to the shutter release. Press it, then twiddle the knob under your thumb to quickly adjust exposure.
EDIT 2: For a few days, buy the flash too. There is an excellent rebate available right now.
Not Disappointed July 5, 2007
51 out of 51 found this review helpful
Have had this kit for a week now and am throughly pleased with my purchase and Amazon's service. I ordered the kit Sunday evening, paid $8 for 3-5 business day shipping, and it arrived Wednesday afternoon, 2 days in my book. I am a noob at digital SLR photography, though I have used older film SLRs, and was able to get some amazing fireworks shots last night using the 40-150mm lens on a tripod (M-mode, 8s, F16, ISO 100, SHQ JPeg).
I am totally amazed at how easy it is to change settings. The buttons are well placed, at least for me, and the menus are very intuitive. I "glanced" through the manual before the camera arrived and began shooting as soon as the battery was charged. I've had nothing but fun, none of the usual frustrations with something new.
It's a lot of money, but I can't believe it won't last me many, many years and the kit lenses are very good, though I'm already drooling for the EC14 (and an EC20 would be even better to double the range).
If there is one negative I can think of it's getting used to shooting with 4x6 prints in mind. Oly uses a 4x3 format and that doesn't translate directly to a 4x6 sheet of paper. Mind you, I don't print often, but it's something to consider, especially if some of your family/friends are computer shy. :)
The other negative might be the Master 2 software. It is painfully slow, but does a good job for free software. I personally use Picasa for most things and Paint Shop Pro when needed.
EDIT: I just found out Amazon has a 30-day price guarantee. This means I will be getting a nice $88 refund on my credit card. Have yet to be disappointed with Amazon.
 Disapointed July 19, 2007
45 out of 77 found this review helpful
I had great expectations for Olympus E-510. After learning on a Canon A620, I wanted something that would give me consistently better pictures. Unfortunately, the E-510 is not that camera. I am plagued with out of focus, under and over exposed junk shots. Out of 500 shots, four were keepers. I have tried shooting in all modes, indoors and out, with bad results. For a time, I might have had trouble getting consistent lens contact, which would explain some of the poor focus problem. Eventually, auto focus could be obtained in still controlled indoor shots, but not outside (for me, the viewfinder is inadequate for manual focus). Also, Image Stability seems to offer little help in cutting down blur. The camera feels great to hold, and has all the bells and whistles, but what's the use if you can't get clear pictures. Final thought: It has been discussed at length, the need to turn off noise reduction on the E-510, in order to get clear pictures ( usually have it off). For some shots this is helpful, but for most it will introduce an abundance of noise into your pictures. In many cases, I can get better results from my point-n-shoot (in manual mode) than I can in any selection with the E-510. I don't have any other cameras to compare with, so similar models of other brands may not be better. I do know that $900 is a lot to pay for a failed photographic experiment.
Follow up after 1 month, about 2000 shots:
Hopefully, this is my final word on the e510. After being accused of naiveté by more learned photographers, I was frustrated about how to warn against the limitations of this camera. After rereading many of the e510 online reviews, at various photo sites, I noticed some of them warn against the limitations of the sensor. They state that it operates at the far limits of what a sensor its size can handle. This is the only thing that makes sense to me, when trying to make a rational evaluation. Perhaps my frustration is that my old P&S (Canon A620) had a very high quality sensor, for that kind of camera, and that I expected the E510 to surpass it, which it hasn't, except in a few limited cases.
I like to visit my local park and shoot geese and ducks, mostly. My old A620 would give me dazzlingly sharp pictures of wing tip feather details. However, I needed a tripod, perfect light, a range within 50ft. The E510, according to the reviews, promised to overcome those limits. The samples provided by some reviews looked very good. So I expected the E510 would easily meet my expectations.
My first disappointment with the E510 was that the IS in Auto mode would not give good pool-party style pictures - even a P&S without IS can do this. My next disappointment was that it would not take controlled indoor still photos well, even on a tripod, even in Manual mode - they were blurry. I suspect that the lens was making poor electrical contact with the body, since Oly warns about this in their FAQ, and because the pictures improved later.
My real disappoint was at the park shooting ducks and geese. I had high hopes that IS would let me take hand held shots, but no. I took 150 hand held shots alternating between kit lenses without a keeper. The next day, I tried again with both noise liters turned off, but the results were about the same (noise being a minor issue in these kinds of shots). So I brought my tripod to the park, but still, in daylight, with sitting ducks, using every settable range available on the camera, only 2 of 170 shots were keepers. This was no better than my A620 P&S!
I don't hate the E510, I'm just disappointed. I paid $700 more than I did for my P&S for pictures of comparable quality. I love the way the E510 feels - it makes you want to go shooting. I love the lenses, especially the 40-150mm. I will definitely keep working to find the sweet spot in this camera. However, the LiveView is useless if you are trying to capture a moment, since it has a one second shutter delay. The viewfinder is too small and dim to accurately use manual focus in most cases. Also, the viewfinder display isn't bright enough in daylight to see easily, unless you give your eye time to adjust. The passive AF (common to DSLRs) on the E510 is easily confused, especially in dim light. When AF uses the flash to set range, it delays the shot by seconds, and ruins a candid shot. Comparing shots with my friend's xti, I end up with large dark patches, that the xti doesn't get. There are adjustments that can correct some of this, but you loose in other areas to do it - the xti does not. This, according to the reviews, may be due to a sharp luminance drop off, compared to the xti, and the D40x.
I bow to those photo masters who, not so graciously, commented on my review. I still have a lot to learn. However, there are limitations to this camera that are being ignored. If this were a $500 or $600 camera, I would say hurray; the picture quality isn't any better than my $200 P&S, but it has lots of bells and whistles, and it feels great to work with. You can't move into DSLR much cheaper, so suffer the disappointment with me (all entry level DSLRs have their draw backs), or put out the really big bucks, I guess. I see the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II is selling for about $7000 (body only).
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