Olympus E410 or E510

[brbeall3]

Hello all --

Has anyone experience or thoughts on the Olympus DSLR E410 or E510? I'm strongly thinking about buying because of the LiveView technology.

Also, would the Nikon Lenses be interchangeable with the Olympus and other cameras? Or, are the Nikon Lenses propietary still?

Thank you for your thoughts.

Brian

[jdepould]

Every mount is proprietary, they always will be.

One of my shooters at the newspaper has the 510 and he's selling it to buy a D300 because there isn't enough in the way of lens selections.

[glyphon]

I just picked up the E-510. While it might not have as many lens available, has most of what you'd need available. the only area that seems to be lacking is the ultra-wide angle. i think the last time i checked, there was only 1 options available in the ultra-wide. IIRC, it was a 6mm (12mm in 35mm equiv). If you get one of the 2 kits, it comes with a 14-42 (28-84mm equiv), and there doesn't seem to be anything (yet) inbetween the two lengths.

that said, the 4/3 mount system is newer than the mounting systems used by the other cameras, but even still, there are some legacy lenses that work with it. you can use any OM mount with an adaptor that's available for the camera. you just don't get any of the auto features the lens might have...it will be a fully manual lens, but that's the way it is with adaptors for any camera.

now, the lenses that come with the kit are reviewed to be among the best kit lenses. they aren't the best, and they aren't the fastest, but they are very good.

and since Live View was specifically mentioned, i've found it to be particuallarly useful, especially in astro photography. it is very nice being able to use the 10x magnification to verify the focus, which can be a little hard to tell through the optical view finder. for the moon, the auto focus works well, but for stars, there just isn't enough light coming through for the auto focus to figure out what's going on, and its then when the live view view becomes especially useful.

anyways, that's my mini review on the camera. i'll leave you with a picture.


Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 150 mm
ISO Speed: 100

[luxaeternam]

I think you'll find the lens choice more than ample, unless you have very spe******t needs. The kit glass is nice and lightweight, and reputedly the best of any brand.

As far as ultra-wide angles go there are 3 possibilities (soon to be 4). There is the top-pro grade 7-14mm, out of most people's price range (at 1700€), but reckoned by cameralabs.com to be the best wide angle they have ever tested. In the pro grade there is a 11-22mm which also produces fine results, and an 8mm fisheye. Olympus has announced a forthcoming standard grade wide angle, which from their roadmap seems to be roughly 8-16mm. Standard grade lenses tend to be less than 500€ each, pro lenses up to 1000€ and top-pro, well, the sky's the limit !

My husband owns an E-410 and I have an E-510. We have six lenses between us: the two kit lenses, two standard grade and two pro grade lenses, and not one of them gives disappointing results.

The E-410 is lighter and smaller, but I prefer the E-510 with IS, and the superb dustbusting system (on both) were among the reasons we chose Olympus as DSLR beginners.

[DianeM]

Awesome moon shot! Thanks for your review. I am new to DSLRs and just bought an E-510. I have been trying for some moon shots without much success so I will try some different settings.

[glyphon]

thanks. the E-510 is my first dSLR as well. if you got the kit with the 150mm zoom lens, then you can easily reproduce this. Turn on IS1 (might not be necessary, especially with a full moon), set the focal length to 150mm, and then set the other settings for the proper exposure. can't give you exact settings as it will vary with the phase of the moon, but you can see the settings i used for a roughly 1/2 moon. good luck!

[Pawaniki]

Thanks so much for this post. I am without a doubt upgrading. The 510 has been what I am looking at. I have seen some reviews that dim light is a problem. What experience do you have with this? I have heard good things about the lens kit and do not have any lens currently. I entered the digital world with a bridge camera -- Fuji 5000. For a cheep little camera it has held its weight. I do have a wedding to shoot in March and must upgrade before then. Would love to keep reading this thread.

[glyphon]

i'm happy with the 510's low light performance.

I just took a series of photos, going through the iso range, and adjusting the shutter speed to keep the exposure constant. not exactly scientific, but should illustrate. i'm not going to post them all. just the iso100 and iso1600. the others are in the flickr set for those interested, though.

no post processing on any of these pictures


Exposure: 1 sec (1)
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 14 mm
ISO Speed: 1600


Exposure: 8 sec (8)
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 14 mm
ISO Speed: 100

and here's a real world shot

Exposure: 60 sec (60)
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: 150 mm
ISO Speed: 800

[mattdm]

Originally Posted by jdepould

Every mount is proprietary, they always will be.

Well, except for the Four Thirds System, which is a relatively open standard — not published or available to individuals (or even to research/educational institutions, apparently, now that I look into it) but open to any camera manufacturer.

And, you can in fact get adapters to use Nikon F-mount lenses on 4/3rds system cameras. (Although it looks like currently none available work with autofocus or even auto aperture, so this is pretty limiting.)

[Pawaniki]

I have a really good deal on a E510 body only. I have no lenses and am not sure if I should stick with the 2 lens kit first or purchase the body and buy 1 lense to start with. If I bought 1 lens which one would be my best and most useful lens.