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June 19, 2008
[REVIEW—OLYMPUS E-420 dslr]
Price: $1100 with 14-42 and 40-150mm lenses
Impressive
The low-down: This 10 megapixel digital SLR is built around the four-thirds sensor used by Olympus and Panasonic/Leica. It is the smallest and probably the lightest DSLR on the market, but it is not flimsy. It has one of the best implementations of so-called live view, in which the LCD is used as a viewfinder. Auto focus works reasonably well in live view, which is unusual. The 6.7cm LCD screen has excellent resolution, It also serves as the camera function display and proved fast and intuitive in accessing settings. The viewfinder is cramped and not that bright. The in-built flash has good power and diffusion. And there is face recognition, a dubious first for an SLR. Burst mode is up to 3.5 frames per second.
Like: The picture quality is very good and the full feature list is truly impressive. Other makers tend to leave functions out in order to distance the entry level cameras from their posher units – Olympus doesn’t do that. The live view arrangement is almost refined. At least the auto focus works reasonably quickly, but it is not something we would use often.
Dislike: The aspect ratio of a Four Thirds sensor is 4:3. The aspect ratio of a standard or A4 photo print is 3:2. So composing in the viewfinder will be a hit and miss affair and pixels are thrown away.
Verdict: This camera has been created to make the transition from compact to DSLR as easy as possible. If you really like holding a camera at arm’s length (a ridiculous posture) to take photos rather than sensibly bracing it against your face then the E-420 lets you do it. Response in live view is not instantaneous and there are two clunks when the shutter is released, rather than one. Compact users in transition get face detection to make them feel at home. However, the fact is that we enjoyed using this camera. It doesn’t feel like an entry level unit. It does everything a $2000 camera does and it comes with excellent kit lenses. Very impressive.
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Posted by terry at June 19, 2008 12:40 AM
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Comments
Fair Go, Terry. I think you might mention that there are probably more digital cameras sold that are 4:3 than 3:2. And have a look at the plethora of ratios in our life. Is my table right?
Posted by: anandasim
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at June 19, 2008 10:07 AM
Well, it's like this. All digital SLRs, both APS-C and full frame, have sensors with the aspect ratio of 3:2. Postcard paper is 3:2. A4 is 3:2. A3 is 3:4, which presumably explains the existence of A3+ which is 3:2. It's no big deal, but I stand by my point that in-camera composition, using the entire frame, is not as intuitive with a 4:3 sensor. And when it comes to printing you throw away some precious pixels. Any camera company that departs from convention needs to justify itself. Standards are, on the whole, good for consumers.
Posted by: Terry at June 20, 2008 12:33 AM
I'm pretty sure it doesn't have image stabilisation.
Still a cool piece of kit though.
Posted by: matt at June 20, 2008 01:28 AM
Matt: You are absolutely right. I had stupidly assumed that because it had dust removal by sensor shake that it therefore had in-body image stabilisation. Sorry about that. I have corrected it in the copy. TL
Posted by: Terry at June 20, 2008 02:26 AM
Hi Terry,
I think the blog feedback mechanism swallowed my link to the table I made up. Here it is again for your perusal.
http://anandasim.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!ED4D5DC800CD99CF!470.entry
I like Standards, I used to be a Quality Manager and upheld standards
However, photography and composition has mutiple standards. Remember 120 film? The Hasselblad and the Mamiya 645? Those are not 3:2. Weren't those "standards" for pros?
4R and 12R are 3:2 But I am having some problem with my ruler. I thought A4 borderless is 297/210 - that is 1.414. A3 borderless is 420/297 - that is also 1.414. Something wrong with my calculator? Then there are the 8x10 or the 10x12....
What I can't understand is, Joe Bloggs (and Ms Bloggs) in the street is shooting a 4:3 Point and Shoot cameras but the 4R postcard stays adamantly at 3:2.
"The World, is a Puzzlement"
Posted by: anandasim
at June 20, 2008 03:15 PM