27.01.09
Olympus E-520 Review
Words by Will Cheung
In a market where to stand still is to go backwards, Olympus has recently announced its latest Four Thirds system DSLR, the E-520. Amazingly, it’s Olympus’ tenth E-series camera in five years, a dynasty that began with the E-1, which was an innovation-packed pro-level DSLR. Sadly, it was behind the game in terms of resolution and pricey so it enjoyed only limited success.
The scenario could be very different with the E-520. Its effective resolution might only be a modest 10-megapixels, but it’s feature rich and aggressively priced at £490 body only or £530 with a 14-42mm standard zoom.
The Four Thirds system uses an 17.3x13mm sized sensor, which is smaller than the APS-C sized sensors (approximately 22.2x14.8mm) used in cameras like the Canon EOS 450D and the Nikon D60.
The smaller sensor has its pros and cons. A big plus point for users of telephoto lenses is the focal length magnification factor of 2x, compared with the 1.6x or 1.5x of the 450D and the D60 respectively. Thus, a 300mm focal length on a Four Thirds standard camera gives the 35mm format equivalent of 600mm, and that ‘s a major benefit to both wildlife and sports photographers.
Another major selling point is the Olympus E-system and in particular the many lenses, with over 20 optics now available including some very exotic options. And that doesn’t include those Four Thirds optics available in the Panasonic Lumix and Sigma ranges. There’s plenty of choice.
Olympus supplied two lenses for this review, the 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 standard zoom and the 40-150mm f/4-5.6 telezoom. That gives the equivalent focal length range of 28mm to 300mm in 35mm format terms.
The first thing to strike me was how small this two lens outfit is. It’s amazingly portable, weighing the same as my usual DSLR and just one lens. As someone who likes to carry an SLR all the time, the E-520 is a brilliant solution.
Smallness is not much good if it compromises handling. I’m pleased to say, though, that the E-520 behaves very well, the controls being well placed and positive in use.
My advice, as always, with a new camera is to sit down with the instruction manual and go through the menus to set the camera up suitably before venturing out on a shoot. There are a great many options to explore and try. The menu system is okay without being exceptional and once you get used to it, it’s perfectly serviceable.
More than once, though, out in the field, with the manual back home, I did set features that a little while later I wanted to cancel and had to spend time searching for the appropriate menu item. To be fair, the most frequently used features are set by that cluster of four controls positioned for the right thumb, which is just as well.
Once set up, it was time to get pictures. Turn it on and the SSWF blue LED blinks briefly to let you know that the Supersonic Wave Filter is doing its thing to ensure your shots are dust free, and then you’re ready to shoot.
Autofocus is fast and there’s a low-key whirr as focus is achieved with the help of the three-sensor system. Give it a well-lit, contrasty subject and AF is respectable swift; give it a low contrast situation, especially with the 40-150mm lens on board, and the system was a little less assured. In the end, in the AF mode menu, I choose SAF+MF, which meant I had single-shot AF with manual override constantly available should a little tweak be needed.
The autoexposure system was more confident and this worked fine when I expected it to and tripped up when I expected it to. Out of the 248 shots I took at the Chelsea Flower Show, about 10 had some degree of exposure compensation. A couple of dark subjects needed less exposure because they looked too grey and one mildly backlit shot needed a smidge of overexposure to render some shadow detail.
I left the camera’s white-balance mode set to auto for most of the time and that too did well in most daylit situations producing neutral, lifelike results. It was also sound when faced by a mix of daylight and artificial light sources. However, the camera was less reliable when artificial light dominated the scene.
Live View is a feature that is turning many heads and the E-520 has it. The LCD monitor is fixed so although it is possible to use the camera in strange positions, it’s not quite as convenient as with an adjustable screen.
Live View has three autofocusing modes: Imager AF, AF Sensor and Hybrid AF. I found all three settings less sure-footed than normal operation. Imager AF is the most effective, probably because it uses 11 focus points.
While AF in Live View is rather twitchy, there is the manual focusing option and it’s worth considering. Press the Info button and you scroll through various Live View modes including the option of comparing the effect of different white-balance or exposure compensation settings in four images. There’s also the option of seeing an enlarged section (7x or 10x) of the image which means you can accurately gauge manual focus. That said, it’s not ideal to work in this way with a handheld camera, and you’ll need to stick it on a tripod.
Shooting speed is claimed to be 3.5 frames-per-second (fps), which is fast enough for most purposes. With a Lexar 300x CompactFlash card in Fine Large JPEG mode, you can keep your finger on the shutter button and the camera will snap away until the card is full. In Raw mode, you’ll get 10 shots at 3.5fps and then the camera slows down to one shot every second and it’ll let you shoot for some while at that speed. For a camera of this price level, shooting speed is excellent.
Of course, picture quality is how a camera should be judged and here the E-520 fares well, especially with the kit lens. I got sharp, contrasty images. Kit lenses are usually relatively poor performers but that didn’t seem to apply in this instance. The 40-150mm telephoto was less impressive and shots taken at the 150mm end seemed marginally on the soft side. That said, given that this lens sells for under £200, its optical performance was rather better than I’d expected.
The E-520’s IS (Image Stabilisation) feature I was keen to test in greater detail. On initial impressions, as reported in last month’s PM, I didn’t get the feeling that it offered any great benefit and certainly nowhere near the four stops Olympus claims. But after many more shots at shutter speeds down to 1/4sec, I have to admit that the IS system actually does do a great job. Even with the telephoto used at its longest setting, I got sharp pictures at shutter speeds as low as 1/8sec, and it wasn’t the odd luck shot either. I was consistently getting acceptably sharp images at shutter speeds where I’d expect camera shake to be an issue.
I shot Raw and Large Fine JPEGs, processing the former in Olympus’ free software. At the time of the review, there was no compatible Adobe Camera Raw plug-in.
The processed 8-bit files measured 28.8MB and were big enough for a 12x9in print at 300ppi without any interpolation. The prints I made from these files looked crisp and at ISO 100/200 they were digital noise free too. I also dropped the resolution of the files to 240ppi and made A3-size prints and quality again looked absolutely fine.
Noise started to appear at ISO 400, but it wasn’t obtrusive. Naturally, it got worse at ISO 800 and it was clearly visible in even-toned shadow regions. At ISO?1600, noise was coarse and there was clear evidence of banding.
Olympus has made progress in this area, but it still has a way to go. But perhaps the smaller size of the Four Thirds sensor is a fundamental performance limiting factor.
CHANGE YOUR COLOURS
The Olympus E-520 has six Picture Modes to choose from: Vivid, Natural, Muted, Portrait, Monotone and Custom.
The first five are self-explanatory and allow you to tailor JPEGs to suit your taste. These settings can be applied to Raw files too, which means that you save time later at the processing stage.
However, in Raw it’s possible to change the setting you used to any of the others in the supplied free Master 2 software. The camera also comes with a 30-day trial version of Olympus Studio 2. You get much more controllability with this.
SPECIFICATION
Price: E-520 body only £490, with 14-42mm lens £530
Distributor: olympus.co.uk
Resolution: 10-megapixels effective
Lens mount: Four Thirds
Magnification: 2x
Sensor: 17.3x13mm, 11.8-megapixels total
Autofocus: 3-point TTL Phase detection, 11-point TTL Contrast detection in Live View
Exposure: 49-zone multi-pattern system
Exposure modes: Auto, program AE with modes shift, aperture-priority AE, shutter-priority AE, manual, scene modes
ISO range: 100-1600 (in full-stop steps)
Shutter speeds: 60-1/4000sec, flash sync 1/180sec (1/4000sec in Super FP mode) plus B
White-balance: 11 settings
Settings: including custom and selectable
Monitor: 2.7in, 230,000 pixels, 100% coverage
Integral flash: GN 12, seven modes
File formats: Raw, Raw+JPEG, JPEG (four levels)
Drive modes: Single, continuous up to 3.5 fps, 2sec and 12sec self-timer
Storage media: CF I/II, xD
Interface: USB 2.0
Battery: BLM-1 Lithium-ion
Dimensions: 136x92x68mm (WXHXD)
Weight: 805g including 14-42mm lens and battery
PROS AND CONS
Image quality at medium ISOs, smallness, slick handling, effective sensor cleaning
Live View focusing twitchy and noisy, digital noise at high ISO settings
THE VERDICT
In sum, this Olympus is a fine, attractively priced camera that deserves a closer look if you’ve a budget of £500 to spend. I think it’s a little cracker.
Hand on heart, I really enjoyed using the Olympus E-520. Part of that is due to the ability to tote around a versatile two lens outfit without really noticing the weight.
Praise is also due to the camera for its performance. It delivered sharp, well-exposed images with little help from me. I got few duff exposures out of 1000 plus images, so the hit rate was impressively high. Also, despite my initial reservations concerning the effectiveness of the IS system, I’m happy to admit I was wrong and that it works well – at least as well as that of rival systems.
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