The Olympus EVOLT E-510 is a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera
designed for photographers who are upgrading from
a P&S digicam or an earlier consumer DSLR camera.
It was introduced in March 2007 and is the
successor to the Olympus EVOLT E-500. The most significant
changes are the addition of body-based image stabilization
(via sensor shift), a Live View mode, and a higher
pixel count sensor (10MP vs. 8MP).
The Olympus EVOLT E-510 can be purchased from amazon.com in the
following
combinations:
If you are new to digital photography, start with the
photo.net article on "Building
a Digital SLR System."
Hannah Thiem
The Four Thirds system
All Olympus DSLRs are part of the "Four Thirds" camera system,
which is characterized by their use of a 4/3"
digital sensor which measures approximately
17.3mm wide by 13mm high. The Four Thirds name comes from
the fact that the area of a Four Thirds sensor is approximately
equal to that of the (long obsolete) 4/3"
sized videocon tube, which was used in early
video cameras. Four Thirds sensors are
somewhat smaller than the more commonly used
APS-C digital sensors, which typically measure around 22.2mm x 14.8mm
in Canon cameras such as the Digital Rebel XTi and around 23.7mm x
15.6mm in Nikon cameras such as the D40x.
The rational behind using the smaller 4/3" sensor is sometimes
debated. In theory it could make the cameras and lenses
smaller, lighter and cheaper, though in practice that hasn't
really been the case. Olympus takes the position that
the lenses it makes for the 4/3" system are better optimized
for digital use, and the smaller required image circle
probably does help somewhat in that respect. On the other hand,
for a given pixel count, the smaller the sensor the
smaller the pixels must be and smaller pixels (all else being equal)
lead to higher image noise. In the extreme case of
P&S digicams this is quite obvious, but in the case of 4/3" sensor
cameras the pixel size is similar enough to that
of APS-C sensors that most users might not notice a difference.
In addition to the smaller size, Four Thirds sensors
have a width to height ratio of 4:3, which is also the
format ratio used by most P&S digicams. APS-C format
sensors on the other hand have the same width to
height ratio as 35mm film, 3:2. There's really no
best width to height ratio since it depends on the
size of the print you want to produce. While 4:3 images
have to be cropped more than 3:2 images to make 4" x 6"
or 8" x 12" prints, they need less cropping to make
5" x 7" or 8" x 10" prints.
All Four Thirds cameras have a lens multiplier factor of
about 2x. The lens multiplier is the ratio of the focal
length of a lens and gives a certain field of view to
the focal length of the lens, which would give the same
field of view on a full frame 35mm camera. Since Four Thirds
and 35mm frames have a different aspect ratio the 2x factor
is approximate. What it means is that you get about the
same view with a 50mm lens on a Four Thirds camera that
you do with a 100mm lens on a full frame 35mm camera.
The smaller size of Four Thirds sensors also results in an
increased depth of field relative to larger sensors. On average you
get
about 25% more depth of field with Four Thirds than with APS-C
for the same view. Again this is a mixed blessing/curse. If you want
a landscape with extreme depth of field it's an advantage. If you
want a portrait with the subject in sharp focus but the background
blurred, it's a disadvantage. Since the difference is quite small
though, DOF issues won't really be of great importance to most users.
Operating Speed
The E-510 is a responsive camera, if not relatively fast. Powering
up takes around a second (in part due to the fact that it goes through
a
sensor cleaning cycle when the power is turned on),
which is slower than many DSLRs.
Recovery from sleep mode takes about the same amount of time.
Shutter lag after focusing is very short, with no discernible
delay in normal operating mode. In LiveView
mode there is a substantial shutter lag of about 1 second.
In continuous mode the E-510 can capture just over 3 frames
per second and if photographing in JPEG mode with a
fast CF memory card you can record around 20 images
before the buffer fills and the frame rate drops.
In RAW mode you can record about 8 frames
before the buffer fills and the frame rate slows.
Controls
The E-510 uses a
fairly conventional control layout. There's a rear LCD screen,
which is used to display operating parameters
and the various software menus. Menu navigation is done via a 4-way
control switch (allowing navigation up, down, left and right
through the menus). Shutter speed, aperture, and other parameters
such as exposure compensation are set using a thumbwheel on the right
side
of the camera.
The 4-way controller, when not being used to navigate menus,
doubles as a set of dedicated buttons for setting ISO,
white balance, auto focus, and metering modes.
There is a dedicated button to select between single frame,
continuous, self timer, and wireless remote control
operation and one that directly accesses
the image stabilization setting (off, horizontal and vertical
stabilization, vertical only stabilization). The
Live View mode is also entered by pressing a single button.
I found navigating the menus to be a little confusing, but I
guess it's something you eventually learn if you
own the camera. One thing I did find inconvenient
was switching between manual and auto focus.
It takes 8 button clicks from the initial menu screen
to navigate to the correct entry and select the mode.
I have to say that a switch on the lens is a lot more convenient.
For a complete and detailed description of all the camera
controls and options you can download a
PDF copy of the user manual.
Auto Focus
The Olympus E-510 has only 3 AF zones, aligned horizontally
across the frame. This is less then some of the
competition (e.g., the Canon Digital Rebel XTi has 9),
though in practice I didn't find it to be an issue since
my normal mode of operation is to set AF to the center zone.
If you're the sort of photographer who likes
to let the camera make all the decisions for you, including where
to focus, then you might find 3 zones
to be a limitation.
Normal operation is focus priority, which means that if the
camera hasn't locked focus, the shutter will not release.
However, there is a menu option to change this to shutter
priority, which means that the shutter will fire
whenever the shutter release is fully depressed,
whether the subject is in focus or not.
Bob Atkins
Manual focus can be enabled via a menu function, not a switch as
is common on other cameras or lenses. There is no
mechanical manual focus; the focus ring is used to drive
the focus motor (referred to as "focus by wire").
Focus speed (the amount of focus change for a given rotation
of the focusing ring) in manual mode is slow.
This does allow very fine adjustment of focus, but it can make
finding the focus point using the viewfinder
screen difficult. Normally with manual focus you make slight
movements of the focusing ring to take the image
through the focus point and back to confirm visual focus.
The slow focusing speed in manual mode makes this
quite difficult if not impossible, though of course you
can use the focus confirmation light in the viewfinder
to establish the correct point of focus. While the
menu allows you to select which way you want to
rotate the focusing ring to go from near to far focus,
there's no option to change the focusing speed.
There are 3 focusing modes: single shot, continuous (predictive),
and manual. Single shot mode is normally used
for static subjects while continuous mode is used for
tracking moving subjects. However, you can also
set single shot plus manual, where the camera will AF on a
subject and then allow you to make small manual
changes using the manual focusing ring. There's also a continuous
plus MF mode in which you can manually adjust focus
as long as the shutter is not depressed, but when you
half depress the shutter continuous AF takes over.
Focusing was reasonably responsive under normal outdoor lighting
conditions, but in dim light was a little
slow at times. The AF assist light (strobing flash) often seemed
to have to fire two or three times before
focus was achieved, which wouldn't be good if you
were photographing at a party and wanted to
capture fleeting action.
Metering
The E-510 has three basic metering modes: multisegment,
centerweighted, and spot. The multisegment metering,
which Olympus calls Digital ESP Metering, uses 49 zones and
applies an algorithm to determine the optimum exposure.
The pattern can be linked to
the AF zone selected if desired. Centerweighted
metering places most emphasis on the center of the frame
(the area most strongly weighted is shown by a
circle in the viewfinder). The spot metering
zone takes a reading from a small area in
the center of the frame. The central focus
zone markings shown in the viewfinder also serve to indicate the
approximate area of the metering zone in the spot metering mode.
There are also two other spot metering modes, HI Spot and SH Spot.
In HI Spot (highlight-based spot), metering is biased
towards more exposure in order to render white
subjects white rather mid-grey. Similarly SH Spot (shadow-based spot)
biases metering towards less exposure in
order to make dark objects (shadows) appear dark.
It's likely that most users will use the multisegment metering
most of the time, and it generally does a pretty
good job. However under sunny conditions, it's
quite easy to blow out white highlights. This appears to be due
to two factors. First the E-510 tends to
overexpose a little in such situations and second, the
default contrast setting may be a little high. Lowering the
contrast setting helps a tiny bit in taming
highlights and adding shadow detail, but the highlights
can be brought under control more effectively by applying a
small amount of exposure compensation, perhaps
with -2/3 stop being a good starting point when you
have white objects in bright sunlight.
LCD Monitor
Bob Atkins
The rear (and only) LCD screen is used to display camera
information and menu settings as well as
review images after photographing or provide a live
display of the image when the Live View mode is selected.
The screen is a 2.5" HyperCrystal semi-transmissive TFT color
LCD with 230,000 pixels. It is optimized
for a wide viewing angle and the brightness can
be adjusted via a menu setting.
Viewfinder
The Evolt E-510 has a viewfinder that provides 95% coverage
at a magnification 0.92x with a 50mm lens.
The viewfinder image is quite small, though perfectly usable
in my opinion. You sometimes see complaints about small viewfinders,
but after using a camera for a while I
found that I really didn't notice that the viewfinder image
was smaller than that which I'm used to
in my EOS 40D. I'd estimate the E-510 viewfinder is about 75%
of the size of the EOS 40D viewfinder
Displayed to the right of the viewfinder (rather than below it)
are the essential parameters such as
aperture, shutter speed, exposure mode, focus and flash
confirmation symbols, exposure compensation setting
and low battery warning. There are also
indicators that tell you when you are not
using auto white balance, when you have selected IS
(Image Stabilization)
mode, and when you are using spot
or centerweighted metering.
There is no viewfinder readout of the ISO setting and there
is no frame counter or remaining buffer size indication.
Since the image stabilization is done by
the camera body rather than the lens,
you can't see the stabilization effect
through the viewfinder and there is no
indication of how steadily
you are holding the camera as there is,
for example, in the Sony A100, which also uses
in-body stabilization.
The viewfinder screen is fixed and has markings
for the 3 AF zones and a circle that shows the area
emphasized by the centerweighted metering option.
The center AF zone marking is also used as the spot metering
area indicator.
ISO settings and image noise
Bob Atkins
ISO settings from 100 to 1600 in 1EV steps are available
on the E-510. Like most current DSLRs, noise levels
are low at ISO settings of 100, 200 and 400, but above
400 noise begins to appear, or if not noise then the
effects of noise filtering (loss of detail) start to
show. Complicating the noise picture of the E-510
a little is the fact that the user can select
4 different levels of noise
filtering; Off (none), Low, Standard and High.
With the standard noise filter set, there's a
distinct loss of image fine
detail at ISO 800 and ISO 1600 settings.
If the noise reduction is turned off,
image detail is significantly
better, but the images are noisier.
The only camera I had for comparison was a Canon EOS 40D,
which is also a 10MP camera, but has a larger (APS-C)
sensor than the E-510. With standard settings on both
cameras, the EOS 40D showed lower noise and somewhat
finer detail, though a different lens was used (EF-S 17-85 on the
EOS 40D, Olympus 14-42 on the E-510). Comparing a
series of photographs at ISO 1600 using different noise
filter settings with the E-510 and the standard EOS
40D image, the 40D image was still better
in terms of both noise and sharpness.
I thought the best compromise between noise and sharpness was
with the noise filter set to "Low"
An example of exposures taken with the Olympus using the default noise
settings is shown below. As you can see, the
image degradation at ISO 1600 is as
much due to smearing of detail by
noise reduction as it is to the noise itself.
These are 100% crops taken from a night image
of a window shade.
Overall the noise performance of the E-510
is certainly acceptable,
especially considering the smaller Four Thirds
sensor size. At ISO settings up to 400,
noise is low and sharpness is good. Even at
ISO 1600 I think most users would probably be
happy with small prints (4x6, maybe 5x7),
though I don't think the images
would stand up to larger sizes (e.g., 11x14).
Image Stabilization
Like Pentax and Sony, Olympus has chosen to use in-body image
stabilization which works by physically moving the
sensor to compensate for camera shake. The advantage
of having stabilization
in the body rather than in the lens is that it
provides a stabilized system no matter what
lens is mounted on the camera. Canon and Nikon have
chosen to use image stabilized lenses.
They claim an advantage in stability, but
of course only a subset of their lenses have
image stabilization, and it adds to the cost
of those lenses. Neither Canon nor Nikon offer any fast image
stabilized prime lenses in normal or wide angle focal
lengths for example, while such lenses when
mounted on a camera with in-body stabilization become part
of an image stabilized system - and at no added cost.
Hannah Thiem
It's clear to me that for most users, in-body stabilization
is more useful than in-lens stabilization,
even if it's not quite so effective. I say "even if"
because I have yet to see any really hard evidence
that lens based stabilization is better. In fact, the test results
I've
seen and I've obtained myself suggest that there really isn't
much difference, at least with lenses of moderate focal length.
So does the image stabilization system work well on the E-510?
My testing showed that indeed it does. When handholding
the camera, on average I could get sharp
images using a shutter speed 2 to 3 stops slower with
IS on than with IS off. A few times I got
sharper images at 150mm photographing at 1/15s with IS on
than I got photographing at 1/250s with IS off (a 4 stop gain in
stability)! The general rule of thumb, given the 2x
multiplier of Four Thirds lenses, would be that you'd need a
shutter speed of 1/300s or faster to be reasonably sure
of sharp images. This is a very useful gain in stability,
and I'll say again that since the stabilization is built
into the body not the camera, it applies to any lens.
There are two IS modes. IS mode 1 provides both horizontal
and vertical stabilization and is used in most
situations where the subject isn't in motion.
IS mode 2 stabilizes only in the vertical direction and is
used when panning horizontally to track moving
subjects.
Live View
Like most recent DSLRs, the Olympus E-510 has a Live View
mode, allowing the use of the LCD as a viewfinder. In
order to accomplish this, the E-510 must raise its
reflex mirror. A single button on the rear of the
camera enables Live View. In order to use auto focus, the
mirror must be dropped down (losing the Live View display),
AF achieved and the mirror raised back up. This
process is not fast, taking from just under 1 second in
good light to several seconds in low light where AF
is slower. This means that Live View isn't much use for
action photography. The LCD screen also blacks out for a
second or two during the actual exposure.
Live View would be best used for studio photography or outdoor
captures
of static subjects. Despite the similarity to
the LCD viewfinder capability of P&S digicams, it's really
not a mode that a user should expect to use all the time.
The normal reflex viewfinder enables much faster
auto focus, subject tracking and a much higher frame rate.
In-Camera Editing
A limited amount of in-camera editing is possible. Images can
be converted to B&W or sepia toned. Red-eye can
be fixed, saturation can be adjusted and image size can be
reduced. The edited images are saved as separate
files with the originals left in place.
Flash
The EVOLT E-510 has a built-in flash, which pops up automatically
in the program modes. In Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter
Priority and Intelligent Program modes the flash must
be raised manually by pushing the flash button on the
top deck of the camera. Like all pop-up flash systems
it suffers from a lack of power and tends to produce
red-eye, but it's no worse than most other DSLRs and
sometimes any flash is better than no flash at all.
The flash guide number is 12 (meters at ISO 100) and in manual
mode it can be operated at full, 1/4, 1/16, and 1/64 power.
In auto mode flash bracketing is possible. Three
frames are taken, one at normal flash power,
one with lower power, and one with higher power. The steps can be
set to 1/3, 2/3, or 1 stop of flash output.
Flash exposure compensation from -2 to +2 stops (in 1/3 stop steps)
can be selected via the menu system.
Hannah Thiem
The flash is also used as the AF illuminator under low light
conditions. It operates automatically in the
program modes but must be popped up manually when shooting
in P, A, S or M modes.
Olympus has several hot shoe mount flashes that are compatible
with the E-510.
- Olympus FL-50, $359.
GN50 at 42mm focal length (meters @ ISO 100), zoom, tilt and swivel
head, TTL Auto, Auto, Manual & Super FP Mode
- Olympus FL-36, $195.
GN36 at 42mm focal length (meters @ ISO 100), zoom, tilt and swivel
head, TTL Auto, Auto, Manual & Super FP Mode
- Olympus FL-20, $100.
GN20 (meters @ ISO 100), lightweight, Manual, TTL Auto, and Auto
control modes
The FL-50 has a faster recycle time than
the FL-36, plus it can take an external high voltage power
supply (HV-1), which provides even faster recycling and
greater capacity for professional use.
The FL-50 and FL-36 are also available in versions with
built in wireless TTL operation (FL-50R and FL-36R)
Memory Cards
The E-510 has a card slot for Type I or II Compact Flash
(CF) memory cards and compatible microdrives. There is
a second card slot for xD-Picture Cards.
You can store images on either type of card,
but you cannot write to both cards simultaneously.
Hi speed CF cards allow faster operation then xD-picture
cards and are the preferred storage media. The xD card compatibility
allows users upgrading form an Olympus digital P&S camera
to continue to use their existing memory cards in the E-510.
Batteries
A 7.2v 1500mAh BLM-1 Li-ion battery is supplied with the E-510,
which is good for 500 recharge cycles. A BLM-2 recharger (110-240v)
is also supplied, which will recharge the battery in approximately
5 hours, which certainly isn't going to set any speed records.
There is a faster battery charger available (BLM-1) which will
charge the battery in two hours, but is still not super fast and
costs around $70. If I was photographing with an E-510, I'd want at
least one spare battery. There is also an available LBH-1
battery holder, which can be substituted for the BLM-1 battery
and used to power the E-510 via three (non-rechargable)
CR-123A lithium batteries. I suppose in a real emergency
it might be useful, though CR-123A batteries aren't
available everywhere, and if you're going to carry them with you,
you might just as well carry a spare charged BLM-1.
Though Olympus do not offer any type of battery grip for the E-510,
there are 3rd party grips available, which hold two batteries
for extended shooting and provide extra shutter release buttons
(see
http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/product.php?productid=16832).
Mechanical Design
Bob Atkins
Though the E-510 uses the smaller 4/3" sensor, overall it's
not significantly smaller than similarly priced
APS-C sensor based cameras from other manufacturers. For example,
at 5.3 x 3.6 x 2.7 in, it's actually slightly larger than the
Canon Rebel XTi (5.0 x 3.7 x 2.6 in). This isn't necessarily
a bad thing as cameras that are too small can
be difficult to hold comfortably for those with larger hands.
Unlike some earlier Olympus Evolt models such as the E-330,
the E-510 looks like a conventional SLR, with a
pentaprism viewfinder (actually a pentamirror in the E-510)
and a grip on the right hand side, which houses
the battery and enables the camera to be held and operated
using just one hand. The body is plastic, but the
lens mount is metal and there is an internal metal fame.
Choosing a Lens
The E-510 is available as a kit with either a single 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6
lens or with both a 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6
and a 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 lens. Given the
2x "lens multiplier factor" of the Four Thirds system, the 14-42mm
lens give the same field of view as a 28-84mm lens would on a
full frame 35mm camera and the 40-150mm
gives the same field of view as an 80-300mm lens. For most casual
amateur photographers these lenses would
be perfectly adequate for almost all their needs.
They aren't fast, so low light photography won't be easy, although
the image stabilization system built into the camera body
will greatly improve sharpness if these
lenses need to be handheld at slower shutter speeds.
Both the 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 and the 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 are
low cost lenses with lots of plastic parts,
including the lens mount. Neither has a distance scale and
of course neither has a depth of field scale. They feel
quite well built, zooming is smooth and the
"focus by wire" electronic manual focus ring is nicely damped
although the "gearing" is a little slow, requiring
quite a lot of turning
to change focus distance. Even though the
lenses are inexpensive, nevertheless both use ED glass
to lower chromatic aberrations and the 14-42/3.5-5.6 also uses two
aspheric
elements to optimize image quality. Both
lenses have the same 58mm filter threads and a lens hood is
supplied as standard with both lenses.
Both the 14-42mm and 40-150mm lenses show slight vignetting when used
wide open, but it's not really noticeable with most subjects.
As would be expected, both lenses also show some barrel distortion at
their widest setting which distortion reduces as the lenses
are zoomed out. Chromatic aberration
is very well controlled. Slight color
fringing can be seen in the corners of images
shot with the 14-42mm lens at 14mm, but you have to look quite hard to
see it. Even at 150mm, the chromatic
aberration of the 40-150 is very hard to detect.
Given that the price of the
Olympus Evolt E-510, 14-42mm and 40-150mm kit, $548,
is only about $1
65 more than that of the
Olympus Evolt E-510, $344,
these lenses are great value. As long as you don't need
a really fast lens, they're certainly worth owning.
14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 and 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 Specifications
| Lens |
14-42/3.5-5.6
ED |
40-150/4-5.6
ED |
| Construction |
10 Elements in
8 Groups, |
12 Elements in
9 Groups |
| Minimum Aperture |
f 22 |
f
22 |
| Close Focus |
0.25m |
0.9m |
| Max Magnification |
0.19x
|
0.14x
|
| Aperture Blades |
7 |
7 |
| Diameter x Length |
65.5x61mm |
65.5 x 72
mm |
| Weight |
190g |
220
g |
Olympus has no fast normal prime lenses for their
Four Thirds cameras. There is a 50mm f/2 macro lens, but on the
E-510 it becomes a short telephoto, equivalent to a 100mm lens on a
full frame camera. There is also a 35mm f/3.5 macro
lens, but f/3.5 isn't fast. Sigma makes a number of Four
Thirds mount lenses and their 24mm f/1.8 macro or
Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC for Olympus and Panasonic, $449,
would make a good,
fast, normal lens on the E-510.
You can see the full line of Olympus Four Thirds lenses at
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/lens/dea/products/lens/index.asp
Compatibility with Older Lenses
Hannah Thiem
The Olympus DSLRs are not directly compatible with any of the
older manual Olympus OM mount lenses, though
an adapter is available that allows you to mount almost any
Zuiko OM mount lens on the E-510. However, there is a snag.
Olympus has some fairly serious restrictions on what
apertures are recommended when using the adapter. For
example, with the Zuiko OM 50/2 Olympus
recommends only using apertures between f/4 and f/8,
and with the 85/2 only apertures between f/5.6 and f/8
are recommended,
which makes the use of fast manual focus primes pretty
pointless. Olympus doesn't comment on what happens if
you use these
lenses at maximum aperture, but I'd
assume that image quality must suffer.
Compared to the Olympus E-410
The E-510 is the "big brother" to the
Olympus Evolt E-410, $380,
which like the E 510 is available with lenses as the
Olympus Evolt E-510, 14-42mm kit, $460
and the
Olympus Evolt E-510, 14-42mm and 40-150mm kit, $548.
The E410 lacks the
sensor-shift image stabilization of the E-510 and lacks some of
the control features such as dedicated buttons for white
balance, ISO, AF mode and metering mode.
It's slightly smaller (5.1 x 3.6 x 2.1" vs. 5.3 x 3.6 x 2.7"),
lighter (375g vs. 460g), and
cheaper.
Compared to Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Sony
In the same class as the E-510 would be the new
Pentax K200D, $521, which also
has a 10MP and sensor-shift stabilization built into the body,
and the new Sony Alpha A200, 18-70mm kit, $484 (review),
another camera with image stabilization
built into the body. Both these cameras have
the larger APS-C (1.5x) sensor, which may give them a slight
advantage in terms of noise performance.
The Canon Digital Rebel XTi, $500 (review) (10MP),
and the new Canon Digital Rebel XSi, $600 (review) (12MP), are also similar
in features to the
E-510, though neither has image stabilization in the body.
Both depend on the use of image stabilized
lenses such as the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, $124 (review). Both the Rebel
XTi and XSi use an APS-C (1.6x) sized sensor.
A comparable APS-C (1.5x) camera in the Nikon line would be the
Nikon D40x, $590 (review) (10MP), which like the Canon DSLRs
requires a VR
(Vibration Reduction) lens in order to stabilize the
image.
Key Olympus Evolt E-510 Features
- 10 MP sensor, 3648 x 2736 pixels
- 4/3" format Live MOS sensor (17.3mm x 13mm)
- Automatic sensor cleaning
- Live view option
- 3 zone AF (TTL phase difference detection)
- 49-segment light metering system
- 2.5-inch HyperCrystal semi-transmissive TFT color LCD with 230,000
pixels
- Image stabilization built into the camera body
- Continuous operation at 3 fps
- ISO settings from 100 to 1600 (in 1EV steps) plus auto
- Compact flash (CF) and xD-Picture memory card storage
- RAW and JPEG file format support
- USB 2.0 interface
Conclusion
Hannah Thiem
With the
Olympus Evolt E-510, 14-42mm and 40-150mm kit, $548,
you get a pretty good starter DSLR Kit for a very reasonable
price. The E-510 offers many features,
not the least of which is image stabilization built into the
camera body. This will definitely help to take sharper photographs.
While the E-510 can operate in a P&S
mode where the camera makes most of the decisions
for the photographer, it also has an extensive set of manual
control options, allowing the user to alter
sharpness, contrast and saturation to their
own taste, as well as control the amount of noise reduction
applied to images and full manual control of exposure and
focus. So while perfectly usable by a beginner,
it gives room for the photographer to experiment with
camera settings as they become more experienced.
The 14-42 and 40-150mm kit lenses perform well and cover a range
equivalent to that given by 28-84mm and 80-300mm
lenses on a full frame camera, which is the full range
of focal lengths that the average user will
need. If there is a requirement for shorter, longer or faster
lenses, they are available from Olympus too.
The E-510 has a few areas which could be improved.
Performance at high ISO settings (e.g. ISO 1600) shows
noise and some image detail is lost. The camera
has a tendency to overexpose brightly lit highlights and
under sunny conditions this requires the use of
negative exposure compensation if you want to
prevent highlights from blowing out. This isn't helped by the
fact that the default tone curve is a little
contrasty and the overall dynamic range may be slightly lower
than average for cameras in this class. AF is
sometimes a little slow in dim light, which could mean missing
indoor action photographs.
Where to Buy
Amazon.com offers the following Olympus EVOLT E-510 combinations:
Since no memory cards are included you might also want to consider
getting a SanDisk
8GB, a
4GB, or a
2GB CF card.
More
Example Photographs
Bob Atkins
|
Olympus 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 ED, set to 150mm
(=300mm 35mm equivalent), aperture-priority at f8, ISO 200,
Multi-segment metering. Sunny day, JPEG capture with default settings,
no post-processing. Note that the white
feathers on the chest of the geese are just blown out. The E-510
seems prone to this effect so it's worth
taking a close look at the image histogram under conditions
where you suspect this might happen and apply
negative exposure compensation and/or reduced contrast when
needed.
|
Bob Atkins
|
Taken with the Olympus 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 ED
at a focal length of 83mm (166mm 35mm equivalent) using an aperture of
f/8 and an ISO setting of 100. Multi-segment metering. I used
-2/3 stop exposure compensation here to prevent the white of
the building from being overexposed. On a second photograph with no
exposure compensation set, parts of the
white building were indeed overexposed and so lost all texture.
|
Bob Atkins
|
This scene has no areas of white in direct sunlight and so is
well exposed with no exposure
compensation set. The Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED
was used, set
to a focal length of 40mm and an aperture of f/8.
The ISO was set to 100. Multi-segment metering.
|
Bob Atkins
|
Olympus 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 ED, 63mm at f/7,
ISO 100, no exposure compensation. Multi-segment metering. Another
photograph
taken in bright sunlight with a white object. Though the flag and sky
are
well exposed, the white flagpole is overexposed. This is another case
in which setting a small amount of negative exposure compensation
would be required.
|
Bob Atkins
|
Olympus 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 ED, 50mm at f/5.6,
1/200s at ISO 100, no exposure compensation.
Multi-segment metering. Aperture priority exposure.
|
Bob Atkins
|
Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED, a night capture at
ISO 1600. An exposure compensation of -1
2/3 stops was used for this image in order to properly
expose the lighting in the store against the dark background.
The inset at the top left is a 100% crop from the center of the
original image and shows the noise level to be expected when
shooting at ISO 1600. Noise
reduction parameters were at their default value.
|
Hannah Thiem
|
Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED, set to 14mm, f/3.5
shutter-priority at 1/2s, ISO 800,
minimal lighting conditions, JPEG capture, although not the
ideal setup for low light
photography, I experimented with a slow shutter speed to
allow more color capturing of the lighting display and
the multi-colored psyhoop. Although there is motion
blur of the subject, this experimental type of photography
could lend itself well to a variety of situations.
|
Add a comment
