Good for its day, but now overshadowed
Written: Nov 07 '04
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Pros: Lens is good glass, good level of manual control
Cons: 4x isn't enough zoom, system adapters cost big $$, max shutter is 650
The Bottom Line: Good but not great. I'm guessing even true professionals would dislike many of the same things I do. Beginners should avoid.
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| zanderson1977's Full Review: Olympus Camedia E-20N Digital Camera |
I have used this model in a professional capacity for over a year now, mainly for shooting high school sports (both indoor and outdoor). It is almost on par with a film SLR in terms of control. The main things this camera lacks are a longer reach (zoom is only 4x) and a fast(er) processor. As a stand alone camera, the conventional battery life stinks, and the built-in flash is overly powerful at close range; it washes out skin tones even though it does keep the red-eye down, but the range makes it useless outside of ten feet. The capacity for dual media cards is handy, and as far as I can tell, the lens itself is low-distortion/dispersion, as advertised. As a system (with several hundred $$ worth of extras) it is not bad per se for my purposes, but could be a lot better (there are now several SLR-style digicams out there at a similar price point--or even cheaper--that beat the performance of this camera).
The first problem--zoom--can be corrected somewhat by the purchase of a screw-on telephoto adapter lens (TCON 14B), but the genuine Olympus one is expensive and only gets you an extra 1.45x of zoom. It can also reduce the effective aperture. I realize this is true of most varieties of telephoto optics, but this camera already has issues with low-light shooting, especially in auto-focus mode. Shooting sports at night, even under the football lights, is near impossible, despite manually setting the aperture or shutter. You either get blurry or plain dark shots. I think what is really needed is the ability to change out lenses, which is something other manufacturers have now addressed (i.e. Canon), but I know next to nothing about how AF systems actually work, so maybe I'm wrong. I can say that the fixed lens is of a high quality, it's "good glass" as they say, and I have no complaints about the quality of the pictures under portrait/non-action situations; the colors are true to life, and it even does pretty well under the cheap fluorescent lighting at school (much better than a smaller camera). Until recently the manual/mechanical zoom-ring has functioned flawlessly, but lately feels like it is slipping a little at the low end.
The processor speed is permanent, but with the demands of sport shooting, the camera does have a sequential shot capability which allows you to take three or four (depending on quality settings) pics rapid-fire to capture action. The max shutter speed is 650, but I have not often had to exceed 500 with the rapid fire. It's a nice handicapper to have for those slow on the trigger. The auto-focus often is the slowest aspect of this process, but with practice you can get it to lock ahead of time using the dual-stage shutter button. Strangely, the AF seems to be more easily confused in high contrast situations indoors than in low contrast outdoor settings. There may be a fix for this in some magic combination of settings, but I have to be honest and say this has not been a particularly forgiving camera to re-learn the technical aspects of photography on. I took a photo class back in high school, I've been using it nearly every day for a year, and I have actually read large parts of the manual, but it may be too "professional" for me. The learning curve has been long and slow.
The battery life can be corrected with the purchase of the Olympus-only Lithium-Ion battery and adapter pack, which resembles an autowinder on the bottom of a film camera. This set-up nearly doubles the weight of the camera (to nearly 6 pounds), but it quadruples the battery life, even using the flash fairly regularly. You can use AA-sized rechargeable NiMhs (1200 miliamp or better) in a pinch, they work fine in good light, but the flash eats them like candy. Also, the camera has a power-save feature that puts itself to "sleep" whenever you haven't pressed any buttons for a minute or so--and I'd swear this time is even shorter when the battery is low. This can be QUITE frustrating at times, especially at sporting events--the camera is asleep when something exciting is happening right in front of you. I don't think there is any way to turn this feature off.
The viewfinder is very accurate, and has little read outs for the F-stops and a flash warning. The monitor (LCD screen) has these too, but it is slow to react to motion and tough to see in sunlight. Leaving the monitor on drains even the big Li-Ion battery like it's nothing, and it pops up at only one angle (up), which makes it useless for doing paparazzi stunts like shooting over the crowd. I suppose this might be useful for sitting portrait photos. I only ever use it to view the shots I've just taken or change menu settings--otherwise it stays off. In fact, most of the settings have buttons on the camera body, as long as you can keep track of what they all mean (I still can't remember all of them). The little info screen on top helps once you learn the pictograms/symbols.
Having 5 megapixels provides a great level of detail for all your photos, regardless of situation, and since you can carry both high-cap SmartMedia and Compact Flash at the same time, you can shoot several hundred photos at high (not max) quality before the battery gives out. The native resolution of the JPEGs is 144 dpi, which is more than enough for most applications. I have never personally printed them, but I would guess they'd be fine up to (maybe past) 8x10. You can also save your shots in TIFF format if you don't want them compressed, but I haven't had any trouble with the JPEGS, and you can only fit like 5 TIFFS on a 32MB SM disk (which is all mine came with).
All in all, this is probably a great camera for portraits or still subjects, but in terms of what I need, its main function has been to show me that I need a different camera--not necessarily even a more expensive one.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1200
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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Epinions.com ID:
zanderson1977
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Location: Watertown, NY, USA
Reviews written: 46
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
High school teacher, and educated consumer from Northern NY
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