Olympus E-410 Review - Part 1 (Introduction)

Part 1 – Introduction

When the Olympus E-410 and E-510 were announced, a lot of the Olympus fan base breathed both a sigh of excitement and of relief. For the past three years or so, Olympus have been putting together a somewhat unusual mix of DSLR’s. In other words, definitely and capable cameras – but despite notching up a few industry firsts along the way (Live View, dust cleaning, most compact DSLR, etc) – they’ve yet to really produce a camera that can challenge Nikon or Canon head on. So when a number of their recent innovations were rolled into the same body finally and given E-410 and E-510 badges, a lot of people thought that this will finally be the year that Olympus “gets serious” about DSLR’s.

As far as my take on the whole situation, well despite being a current Canon user and a previous Nikon user, I’m far beyond the concept of thinking there is only enough room for x number of players. I definitely think that the industry will benefit from a strong number three. An interesting question exists perhaps over who will be the first to really challenge. Sony isn’t really there yet as it only has one DSLR (despite commitments to release more in the future). Pentax have produced some good bodies as of late but don’t quite have a full system of lenses yet.

So if they get it right with these new releases, market their cameras well and price them competitively, they’re the most likely candidate to take up the challenge. With an already award winning line up of lenses (last year they won a prestigious EISA award, with their entire Top Pro range taking the honours in the “European Professional Lens 2006-2007” category), it was a ready made system, waiting for the right camera. 

So, what’s the basic summary E-410 that I’ve been using for the past week? Here’s the quick rundown on the [most significant] specs:

- Super compact body design (no handgrip). Modeled on the OM series of the 70’s. Retro looking

- 10 MP sensor, this time manufactured by Panasonic, called “Live MOS”

- Live view which allows you to use the LCD to view / compose / capture an image

- Supersonic Wave Filter for dust removal

- 2.5” LCD

- XD and CF card capabilities

- 3fps shooting speed. Up to 7 images for the RAW buffer. Capable of shooting RAW + JPG also

- ISO 100 to ISO 1600. Auto ISO also.

- Exposure compensation +- 5.0

- Capable of accepting any Four Thirds lens

This could be summarized as a very compact, entry level DSLR but with the additional features of Live View and Dust cleaning.

As a quick aside, the Olympus E-510 which is yet to be released, shares the above features but with the two major differences of having a hand grip and in built IS. Image Sensor wise however, I’m told by Olympus it’s pretty much the same thing so a review of the E-410’s image quality should represent a reasonable preview of the E-510’s.

So coming back to the subject of this review, what I plan to cover is a number of things which I think will be of interest to enthusiasts. For those of you who are already familiar with reviews I’ve done in the past, I’m not particularly keen on lens charts or studio scenes. DPReview and other sites do a great job of these already and while they are of course important for many people, I do not find them to be particularly representative of real world results in the field. Instead, my focus will be more on the usage of the camera, what can be achieved with it in the right hands (with the right glass) and of course what shortcomings exists. Another important point of note is that in contrast to what is becoming what I believe is a rather tiring trend on some review sites, I do not downgrade cameras for requiring their settings to be modified from their out of the box defaults. If a camera operates “conservatively” out of the box and more “pop” or sharpness can be obtained by turning up the respective values in camera settings, then fine. I think too often reviewers try to judge how beginners will use an entry level DSLR – stating that as they’re unlikely to change custom settings, anything which requires tuning or tweaking is unsuitable. This I couldn’t disagree with more. If a beginner is unable to apply an unsharp mask in post processing, increase saturation through a menu or use a camera properly, it’s very unlikely they’re going to be able to recognize (or even care about) minor differences when viewing at 100%.

Instead, the most useful reviews I’ve read typically tend to simply describe A) what a camera is capable of and B) how easy / hard it is to achieve those results. That’s what I’ll be aiming to do here.

OK, end of rant, let’s take a look at the E-410.