Olympus EVOLT E-510
10 MP Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera

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The E-510 is one of several entry-level digital SLRs on the market, clocking in at under $1000 with the typical inexpensive short zoom. Olympus film SLRs have always been quirky, and their DSLRs seem to follow suit. A good analogy is driving a Subaru after years of driving other Japanese cars—the controls are oddly marked and not positioned in the standard locations.

There are several things I like about the Olympus E-510:

• The autofocus Olympus kit lens (14 – 42 mm, f3.5 – 5.6) that comes with the camera has no “manual/auto” focus switch. It just auto focuses when the camera tells it to, or you can grab the barrel ring any time and focus it by hand. Nice design.
• The camera is of moderate size, comparable to a Canon Rebel, though a bit heavier. The E-510 also looks more like other DSLRs on the market, as opposed to being a bit odd-shaped and boxy like its predecessors.
• In-body Image Stabilizer seems to work well (at least at the IS 1 setting; the IS 2 setting didn’t appear to do much)
• The camera does Black and White! Olympus calls it “monotone,” but it’s BW. (I’d never buy a Nikon consumer grade DSLR simply because they don’t allow me to shoot in BW!)
• Twin memory card slots. Until you use digital cameras over a period of time, you might not appreciate this feature. For me, it’s a great advantage to not have to swap cards when one fills up! Swapping cards can be rather annoying—ever drop an xD card in high grass?

While not a bad camera, the Olympus E-510 is a bit too quirky for my tastes.

A beginner may have more difficulty using this DSLR camera than any of the others on the market. On the surface, it would seem to attract the novice digital photographer, as it has a live video display, just like digital point-and-shoot cameras. You can turn this off and use it like any DSLR, which means you look through the viewfinder to compose your image—you don’t watch it on a video display. On the surface, this sounds cool. But oh, the devil’s in the details!

Live View may be good for viewing, but terrible for actual image capture.

When you put the camera into Live View mode, it acts like a digital point-and-shoot (DPS) camera. It’s a novelty, sure, but you know that time lag you get with a DPS between when you push the shutter release and the image is captured? Well, triple that time lag for the E-510! In Live View, the reflex mirror flips up to allow your subject’s image to hit the image sensor. If you want to actually make an exposure, this is what happens: You hit the shutter release, the screen freezes, the reflex mirror flips down, the E-510 focuses, the mirror flips back up, image is captured, and the live view reactivates. All of this takes time that, believe me, you don’t want wasted–you can very easily miss the moment and miss your shot.

One of the E-510’s major selling points is also its major drawback.

Live View is a cool idea for a DSLR, but until someone finds a better way to do it, Olympus’ version makes a $1000 camera act like a cheap inferior point-and-shoot. But before we go on, let’s look at some of the camera’s other good points:

The Good

• 10 MP should give you all the resolution your little heart desires!
• Dust Reduction System to keep the image sensor free of dust, and therefore, your images free of spots. I imagine this is good, though I can’t attest to how well it might work.
• Dual memory card slots, one for Compact Flash, the other for xD.
• ISO 100 – 1600, so theoretically it’s got great light sensitivity.

The Bad

• “Live Mode,” as mentioned above, is considerably problematic. That said, the E-510 can’t take movies either.
• Confusing menus cause you to hunt for settings through drilldowns which make little intuitive sense.
• Does not use infrared to auto focus in dim light. Rather, the E-510 strobes a few short flash bursts at the subject in order to illuminate the subject. It then focuses and allows you to capture the image. Time consuming and annoying yes, but it would eliminate red-eye.