Better, lighter, cheaper (to make) should be the Olympus motto!
Written: Apr 27 '02 (Updated May 04 '02)
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Pros: Great images, pocketable, fast and easy to use.
Cons: No information LCD on the top, instruction manual on a CD, No rechargeable batteries/charger included.
The Bottom Line: Just the right blend of features for a large-image camera with a compact camera point and shoot simplicity.
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| roostrfsh's Full Review: Olympus Camedia D-510 Zoom Digital Camera |
The Olympus D-510 is a sleek, no nonsense, fine looking digital camera that replaces the popular D-490. In a new design Olympus has moved away from the rounded silver/gold trim of the 490 and given the 510 a facelift and the addition of a USB connection. The camera is more subdued, less flashy, looking and has a more angular look that is a nice pewter in color. It has a more conservative look to it but it still retains the Olympus quality.
The 510 is a smaller, cleaner design than the D-490. It is 13% smaller in size compared to the 490. The 510 is 4.6w x 2.6h x 1.9d” versus the 490s size of 5w x 2.6h x 2d”. It fits the pocket well and is just large enough to get a good grip on it for picture taking. The 2.1-megapixel image is just the right size to easily make very sharp 4 x 6” prints and has enough reserve pixel size to make nice 5 x 7” or possibly 8 x 10” prints. The lens is not quite the sharpest I have seen in a digital camera but this lens is sharp enough to make me proud of my prints.
The camera is a well thought out compromise design. It is a powerful 2.1-megapixel camera that fits in the compact camera category of simple point and shoot. The D-510 is a very compact point and shoot camera digital camera with a lot of photo shooting power inside the case. It has pro features but it still has a looks and feel of a compact camera.
Other people might think of the camera as a wimpy point and shoot but this camera is powerful! The D-510 has a 2.1-megapixel imager with a 3 to 1 zoom (9 to 1 digital zoom). The 5.4 to 16.2mm (35 to 105 equivalent in 35mm) F/2.8 is a fine lens with good sharpness and excellent contrast. It is nice to have a 3 to 1 zoom, 2.1-megapixel camera that fits in my pocket. Remember how big a 35mm camera with a zoom is? What a big pocket I must have had years ago.
The camera is capable of shooting QuickTime movies but without sound (I think the some of the design staff at Olympus are hard of hearing because they have not put sound on the camera yet). The camera has standard and spot metering modes. Its sensitivity goes from AUTO, 100, 200 and 400. It has a USB interface for fast downloads to the computer. That’s a lot to put on a point and shoot and all these options work very well.
Is the D-510 a refaced 490? Yes and no. The lens is the same, it operates the same but Olympus added a little more and took a major one away. The 510 now will accept a 128MB SmartMedia card. The digital zoom has been increased from 2.5 x to 3.0 x. Olympus was smart and left well enough alone. They know they have a fine design of a camera and just added features to make the camera more useful. Anyone that has used other Olympus cameras will feel very comfortable using the D-510.
What’s missing? The top of the camera is missing the information LCD display. Now if you want to find out a status you have to use the viewing LCD. I suppose that without the top LCD the camera is smaller, lighter and cheaper to make but it sure was convenient to get the status of the camera by glancing on the top. Oh well, this must be the future of digital cameras, smaller and cheaper to make.
People might cry over the missing information LCD. They might worry that the camera will drain the batteries faster using the viewing LCD. I don’t agree. The D-510 is easy on the batteries and will last the entire day taking pictures. You can always carry a second set of batteries. Or if you are worried about draining power you can go to the nearest store to get a set of conveniently available AA batteries. Olympus is smart to be able to use easy to get AA batteries not to use special photo shop batteries. Because of the efficiency of the camera and the ease of getting batteries I don’t worry about running out of power.
The 510, like the older 400 series digital cameras, still use the nice sliding clamshell design. There is no lens cap to lose because the slider is the lens and viewfinder protector. A nice improvement is the flash automatically pops up when you open the clam shell unlike the D-490s “I forgot to pop up the flash and got a useless/lost picture” flash.
On the D-510 you do have to remember to slide the clamshell to the second click to start the camera. It makes sense when you think of it. Reversing the start up sequence to close the camera you slide the clamshell until it clicks. Then the lens retracts and finally you close the clamshell completely. So when you open the camera to the first click that is actually the close stop. You give the shell a little more pull to the second stop and the lens moves quickly into picture taking position. Easy, huh? It really is.
The clamshell design is a great idea. It protects the lens and the viewfinder at the same time. The Fuji 2400 digital camera tried to copy the design unsuccessfully. The Fuji does have a clamshell lens cap but leaves its viewfinder exposed to the possibility of scratches. Also on the Fuji you must manually switch on the camera from a top switch to move the lens into picture taking position. The Fuji is clumsy but it works. But Olympus had the better design. One easy slide of the clamshell starts the D-510s picture-taking mode, advances the lens and opens the viewfinder. The camera starts up fast and the lens is in position in seconds ready to quickly take a picture. The top mounted zoom toggle switch located next to the shutter button has a good feel to it. The zoom moves quickly. Shutter lag is minimal. This is a very nice working camera.
The menu system to the D-510 is easy to use. The playback images come up on the screen very fast. The firmware that runs the camera is intuitive enough for a beginner to use. It is a simple camera that anyone can use.
Olympus did miss on designing the tripod socket. The socket is mounted on the extreme side of the camera. That design puts a lot of strain on the socket because of the off center weight. And the off-center design makes it hard to get a seamless panoramic picture. A better design for the tripod mount would be under the lens or at least at the center of the camera. But since this is mostly a point and shoot camera the tripod problem is minor.
The camera does have a macro mode. Olympus says the macro mode is eight inches. Give me a break! Eight inches is not even close to macro. Come on Olympus. Other compact cameras can go down to less than one or two inches so it can be done. Olympus, let’s get some real macro on your compact cameras! Technically a macro is when the camera lens can make an image that is larger than the original object on the CCD chip.
It would have been a nice if Olympus would have given a larger than 8MB memory card. A case to protect the camera would have been nice. And I would have been a friend of Olympus for life if they included a set of NiMH rechargeable batteries and a charger like my older Olympus C-2020 has. Sadly Olympus has been getting cheaper in the accessories department. Older digital cameras used to supply NiMH batteries and a charger. Later model Olympus cameras with a set of shorter lasting and waste-filling, Lithium batteries. The D-510 is down to even lower because Olympus only supplies powerless alkaline cells. I suppose that in the future the camera box will be listed as “batteries NOT included."
The reference manual is on a CD. It doesn’t take much to make a real manual instead of trying to print out 100 pages on a computer printer. Olympus gives you a quick manual but I really would like to find out what your camera is really capable of so a reference manual would be great.
It is hard to fault the D-510’s design. Cheers to Olympus for make such a fine 2.1-megapixel camera. This point and shoot camera is always in my pocket for just the right picture moment and is ready to use “in a flash”!
I hear the D-510 has been replaced by an Olympus D-520. The D-520 will only have two AA batteries rather than the 510s four AA batteries. The 520 is suppose to be even smaller than the 510. I’ll keep the 510 because the 520 would run out of power sooner and be too small to hold.
The price is right, the pictures are good and the camera is simple and fast to use.
Better, lighter, cheaper (to make) should be the Olympus motto!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
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Epinions.com ID:
roostrfsh
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Location: Stockton, CA, USA
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
STILL living in and loving California.
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