A DSLR for the common man

Two years is a long time in digital photography, with technology moving quickly and yesterday's cameras of choice fast becoming today's also-rans. Thus it is that two years after buying a Fuji S9000, I found myself considering a DSLR to replace it.

Not that the Fuji is deficient in any particular way, just that after years of 35mm SLR photography, I'd promised myself a DSLR when they eventually became affordable. As such, I'd been looking at various makes and models in the last month or two, most at a price point around $1000.

There's no shortage of competition at that level, not the least being the often recommended Nikon D40 and D60 models, Canon XTi and Pentax K10, all available as body only or in body and kit lens bundles. All good cameras with their own strong points, but none entirely comfortable to me, and with a good set of lenses, all rather too expensive. All rather large and heavy too, which was possibly the major drawback of the Fuji when carrying it for a long day in the field. In terms of handling and image quality the Nikon D60 seemed the best all round performer in the price range, though it felt bulky in the hand.

Having been a big fan of the Olympus OM range of 35mm SLRs in the old days, I also took at look at the e510, not expecting to be impressed due to the general comments about the limitations of the 4/3rds format, particularly regarding small and dim viewfinders, high noise levels in images and limited dynamic range causing highlights to blow out.

In a field test with an e410 (the -literally- smaller brother of the 510) I found none of the criticisms to be much justified. The viewfinder was acceptably bright and sufficient in size, and with a small adjustment in settings, noise was not a problem at all. In bright conditions, it was easy to control highlights by simply setting a 1/3 stop under exposure compensation, though even without that, there was barely any greater sign of highlights blowing out than the D60.

While the 4/3 format didn't seem to create any significant drawbacks, it does have a major and very obvious advantage: size. The e510 is compact and very light (the 410/420 models are even smaller), and the kit lens, a 14-42mm zoom (which equates to 28-84mm) is also incredibly light and small. This makes the e510 with kit lens much smaller and easier to carry than almost any other camera in this class, and particularly so when compared with the D60.

Despite the compact design and light weight, the e510 is not just well built, but feels solid. The slight textured finish on the camera body gives it a good surface to grip firmly, and the weight makes it remarkably easy to quickly position and steady. It does suffer a degree of button clutter though, which is a bit of a double-edged sword, because while it makes the camera seem more complex to operate, it also gives quick access to features and settings that on other cameras are normally buried in menus. Overall, it took very little time to gain working familiarity with the camera when I tested one, and then a day in the field with it to get the hang of the best settings and options for capturing pictures.

What swayed me in the end was the value for money. With a budget of $1000 I had initially expected to come away with a fairly basic DSLR and a single working kit lens in the 30-80mm range, and a bit of change to put in the jar to begin saving for additional lenses. However, not only is the e510 anything but basic, it can presently be had in a kit with two lenses, providing a total range of 28-300mm (equivalent), for around $700 from many suppliers, and as little as $610 shopping on the internet from authorized Olympus dealers.

The price is due to the imminent replacement of the 510 by the new (just announced) e520, but the differences are relatively small and certainly more evolutionary than revolutionary. As such, while still available, the e510 seems to be exceptional value, offering 10MP resolution, close to 30 shooting modes including full automatic at one extreme and full manual at the other, so catering for just about every photographic taste, image stabilization in the camera body, meaning it works with any lens used, and an automatic dust reduction system. It also provides 'Live View' whereby the LCD screen can be used as a viewfinder - a feature that was once unheard of in DSLRs, but is now becoming more common - and slots for both Compact Flash and xD memory cards.

Having tried out the camera with standard 14-42 (28-84mm equivalent) lens, and found the lens unexpectedly good, I had high hopes of the additional Zuiko 40-150 (80-300mm equivalent) zoom, and was not disappointed. These have got to be amongst the best quality kit lenses in the low-end DSLR market. Both are light, have excellent feel, handling and image characteristics, and give predictable, crisp and well saturated results.

This is a camera for the picture taking enthusiast and hobbyist who wants something that can be carried comfortably all day, yet is capable of taking pictures of superb quality. It offers almost every mode imaginable, providing the utmost in flexibility and control, yet it is easy to setup and adjust settings, even on the fly. The 3-point auto-focus system is relatively basic by some standards, but it works very well, firing a tiny red dot in the viewfinder to let you know exactly which spot has been picked to focus on, and showing a glowing green dot on the right to indicate focus has been achieved. If desired, manual focus can be selected quickly, allowing the focus ring on the lens barrel to be used instead of letting the camera do the work. To assist, it's also possible to have the camera auto focus, then pass control to the focus ring for manual adjustment. In addition, the camera can be switched to continuous focus mode which is useful for sporting events or other moving subjects.

With image stabilization on, it's also possible to get sharp and steady images in conditions which would otherwise be prone to camera shake, and while the sensor stabilization used in the e510 is not as effective as the optical mechanisms used by Canon and Nikon for example, it has the great advantage of being based in the camera body, meaning it works with any lens which can be used on the camera, and lenses don't have to be larger and more bulky to accommodate the stabilization mechanism. IS is very effective.

Memory buffer is good, allowing rapid shooting of multiple frames before lag cuts in as the images are saved to the card, and sequential shooting mode can be selected with a button on the top panel, with a rate of 3 frames/second. There is of course no 'movie' mode.

In addition to the focus indicators, the viewfinder also displays all the necessary information about shutter speed and aperture, metering and exposure mode, whether image stabilization is on, flash mode, white balance, plus status of remaining frame capacity of the memory card, battery warning indicator and exposure compensation. All this is readily visible. The viewfinder gives a 95% view of the composition.

For 100%, 'Live View' can be used instead, with broadly similar shooting data as the viewfinder, excepting that it also permits the addition of a shooting grid, histogram and 7x/10x magnification to facilitate easy focus checking.

Depth of field preview can be checked in either viewfinder or in Live View by pressing the 'fn' button on the back panel, located just under the control wheel.

When the LCD is not being used for Live View, it instead displays a 'quick glance' status panel which gives the current shooting mode, aperture and shutter speed, image stabilization mode, and status of settings for ISO, white balance, flash mode and much more - all easily modified with simple button presses, including white balance, auto focus, exposure mode and ISO being directly accessed from the 4-way button pad on the camera back.

If there is one real criticism of this camera it is the menu system. Whilst the plethora of buttons makes it easy to access a wide variety of settings which may need to be adjusted during a photo shoot, the menus for less common and default settings are unnecessarily confusing and disorganized. Accessing the menus requires a simple press of the menu button, but after that, the simplicity ends abruptly. Thankfully many of these selections will be needed little or not at all, but such things as Noise Filtering (set 'on' by default, but generally best switched off) are hard to find in this non-intuitive and cluttered system. Quite why Olympus seem content to create such a wonderfully easy to use and intuitive camera but then pack it with settings which are a puzzle to get to is beyond me, but in the field where the attention should be on composition, there's no excuse for having to focus instead on finding something buried somewhere in a menu. Olympus are far from the only company guilty of this of course, but it's the very fact the camera itself is such a joy to use that the menus seem so dire.

There are other possible criticisms possible as well of course. The LCD panel doesn't articulate away from the camera body, so Live View is of dubious value if shooting high or low, or off to the side of the camera, and Live View itself is somewhat imperfect in that it is not entirely fluid, and creates a delay in firing the shutter since the camera has to raise the mirror to enable Live View, then drop it to set exposure and focus when the shutter release is pressed, then raise it again to actually take the shot. Once experienced, it's easy to adjust to the almost 1-second delay, but it renders the feature of little value for action shots. Additionally, the auto-focus has problems in low-light, and can actually fail to focus entirely. The lack of focus confirmation light in the viewfinder leaves you in no doubt, and manual focus works just fine, but low-light performance with the kits lenses is certainly not the e510's strong point.

Battery life is very good however. The supplied Li-Ion BLM-01 battery pack returns a pretty good performance, giving in excess of 500 shots in my tests so far, and rated by others as closer 650. The charger supplied is pretty slow however, taking 5 hours for a full charge. This seems pretty abysmal to me. Olympus offer a more rapid charger, but at some cost.

Like every other Olympus camera, the e510 is supplied with their Camera Master v2 software, which is both Mac and PC compatible (and Intel native on Macs). The software is pretty basic, but works well, allowing images to be organized and viewed, and also providing very basic RAW support. It also provides the only means by which firmware updates for both camera and lenses can be downloaded and installed, and if it were not for that I'd recommend use of something more powerful, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements instead.

All in all, there is a great deal to like about this camera, and very little to really criticise. It's light, very easy to handle, has a range of features which make it highly usable in a wide range of situations, and it takes excellent quality images. Any early confusion caused by the plethora of buttons is quickly overcome by a reading of the quick start guide that it comes with, then the manual. Ultimately of course there's no substitute for taking it out and taking pictures with it, where a little experimentation will gain familiarity with the camera very quickly, and allow for great pictures to be captured with it, even in the most challenging of circumstances.

Possible concerns over construction quality and robustness are readily dispelled by handling the camera, and the kit lenses are remarkably good.

This is a great camera for the amateur, particularly for carrying for long periods. While it probably doesn't appeal to pros, and is certainly not designed with professional photographers in mind, it is not in the price bracket in which pro-level DSLRs are to be found. As such, as a camera for the rest of us, the e510 offers substantial results at a price which is undeniably good value. The new e520 offers a few additional features such as face detection technology and contrast detection auto focus, along with an improved sensor giving better dynamic range and thus less likely to need a little exposure compensation in high contrast situations, but it is set to launch at rather higher prices, and is not a substantial improvement. The e510 by comparison lacks very little that can't be made up for with a modicum of thought and a finger on the shutter release.

Highly recommended, but I suggest setting the Noise Filter to 'off' and Sharpness to -1 for best results..... good luck finding these in the menus!!