Pros: Light, high quality camera and image quality with loads of features and ease of use.
Cons: Too much noise at high ISO settings. Slow auto focus is low light.
The Bottom Line: Hard not to recommend for its excellent value and quality along with ease of use and great handling. Not for serious use in low light however.
za9ra22's Full Review: Olympus E-520 Digital Camera with 14-42mm lens
The E520 is Olympus’s replacement for the year-old E510, and as such it shares much of the character and personality of the earlier model. It is almost the same size and weight, has the same look and feel, and handles almost exactly the same. In many quarters it is being described as a small evolutionary step from the previous model rather than an innovative jump. That does, however, imply the E520 is not much different, and in many ways that would not be an accurate conclusion to draw.
Sitting in the increasingly competitive entry-level DSLR market, the E520 competes against the likes of Nikon D60, Canon XSi and Sony A200. These are all very credible performers, with their own strengths and weaknesses dependent on the particular type of photography being considered.
As with the 510 before it, the E520 is generally smaller and lighter than the competition, so while it may be possible to get better image quality from some others, the Olympus is far more comfortable to carry for extended periods.
Having owned an E510 for a little while (review at http://www.epinions.com/content_429874908804) I was attracted to the E520 as a result of wanting a second camera body. The 510 has performed very credibly, and the size and weight have made it possible to take it places that my previous camera, and the offerings from the likes of Nikon and Canon, would have been too bulky and heavy to go. As such an E520 seemed a good choice, and it has not been a disappointment. Nor has it proven to be the minor step from the earlier model that it had first seemed to be.
Externally, the E520 is a quite compact DSLR of fairly conventional appearance. There’s a well-sized handgrip around the right end of the camera (when approached from the back), a conventional viewfinder ‘hump’ left of center on the top, and shooting mode and power switches on the top panel. On the rear the LCD panel is a generous 2.7” and the overall impression is of quite serious button clutter, with a row of controls down left and right edges of the LCD, more on the left and right of the ‘hump’ on the top panel, and to the right of the LCD on the back panel, the almost ubiquitous 4-way controller with center OK, along with other buttons. It all looks quite daunting at first sight, though even a brief period of use shows that Olympus has put a great deal of thought into the control interface, and done a very credible job of making what you need readily available.
It’s just as well, because the 520 continues the dubious tendency of camera manufacturers to engineer ever more complex and obscure menu control systems which hinder use and can create considerable frustration. The 520’s menus are even worse than the 510’s, which was itself pretty bad. If it were necessary to navigate these to get to settings needed in the field, the 520 would be a difficult beast to use effectively. Luckily, with controls Olympus has designed, menus are rarely needed at all and almost every setting that might need to be adjusted can be accessed directly by pressing buttons on the camera, or via what Olympus call the ‘Super Control Panel’ which takes up most of the LCD while shooting. This turns the nightmare of complexity of a modern DSLR into a simple and easy creative tool. Daunting as it might seem at first, this is actually incredibly well thought out and implemented.
The E520 also has an almost bewildering array of shooting modes, from fully automatic to fully manual, all selected from the control dial on the top. There are ‘easy’ shooting modes such as auto, portrait, landscape, macro and sport, along with 20 scene modes for such things as night shots, fireworks, beach and snow, sunset, etc., all with preset exposure settings to give quick and reliable results. In addition there is a Program mode, aperture and shutter priority modes and manual control. Olympus seem to be trying to capture the entire market, aiming at everyone from beginners, through those stepping up from point and shoot type cameras, to the hobbyist and serious amateur.
There are a couple of other features which seem primarily intended for those users upgrading from point and shoot type cameras too. Face detection makes an appearance in the E520 when it was not present in the prior model. It only works in Live View, though is very effective. There is also a feature referred to as ‘Shadow Adjustment Technology’, which is clearly the Olympus answer to criticisms of the earlier model’s tendency to clip highlights, since it allows the camera to better protect bright areas of the image while slightly boosting the dark ones. While not likely to be of huge interest to the serious amateur, who will generally make such adjustments in post processing once the photograph is downloaded to a computer, it’s a useful feature to help avoid a common problem with many cameras.
An increasingly common feature of modern DSLRs is the ability to use the LCD screen as a viewfinder. As odd as it might seem for point and shoot users to think of this as an innovation since it’s been present on lower-end digital cameras almost from the very beginning, it has not been a common feature of digital SLRs. Like their film ancestors, DSLRs have relied almost entirely on optical viewfinders. Live View on the E520 is well implemented, and a significant improvement over the previous model. In part this is due to the slightly larger LCD and the fact is has rather better viewing characteristics but it’s also more responsive, exhibiting far less of the blurry and slow updating that typically plagues LCD use for this purpose. Added to that, it is possible with this model to focus directly in Live View, a feature that is rare in this type of camera.
Otherwise, features are broadly similar to the E510, thus in-body image stabilization is provided, though the E520 has a slightly more flexible implementation. The advantage of an in-body stabilizer is that it works with all lenses, so lenses are smaller, lighter and cheaper than stabilized equivalents would be. There is also a very effective dust removal system, which works each time the camera is switched on and reduces the risk of dust inside the camera body compromising picture quality.
As with the earlier model, CF and xD memory cards are supported, with CF providing better speed. Continuous shooting mode allows for up to 3.5 frames per second, and unlike the prior model the E520 offers wireless flash control. Image quality can be set from RAW only (uncompressed for best quality) through RAW and JPEG, superfine JPEG, to small low resolution. At the finest quality JPEG setting, 500+ images are possible on a 4Gb CF card.
The E520 uses the same battery as the E510, and it gives a very credible 600 or so shots on a full charge, using the optical viewfinder. As would be expected, battery life is much reduced by Live View use, though even then is still pretty respectable. The supplied charger is somewhat lethargic though, taking 4 hours for a full recharge.
In use, the E520 is generally excellent. The camera handles well, is well balanced and the physical design and surface texture of the body make it easy to handle safely, comfortably and steadily. Buttons fall to the hand and as said, provide direct access to a multitude of settings. The only drawback being that it becomes possible to adjust a setting unintentionally at first, leading to unexpected results. It’s easy to avoid, and thanks to the ability to set custom reset parameters, easy to recover from, but can be annoying at first.
As with all other Olympus DSLRs, the E520 is a ‘Four-Thirds’ camera, which refers to the sensor inside. In a practical sense it makes little difference except that lenses have double the indicated focal lengths, so the kit 14-42mm lens is the equivalent of a 28-84mm lens on a 35mm SLR. That means that not only is the camera body compact and light, but the lenses are too, making the camera much easier to hold and keep steady, and to carry around all day long.
Like other four-thirds cameras, the viewfinder is a little small and darker than normal, though not to any great detriment once it is familiar. Olympus have chosen to provide all the viewfinder data for shutter speed, aperture, focus lock, operating mode, exposure mode etc, on the right-hand side however, rather than along the bottom, and because of that it can be a little harder to read for those wearing glasses. It takes little getting used to, and it is done that way I assume to retain the viewfinder’s overall aspect ratio, but is one of the primary complaints about the viewfinder. Personally I like the layout because it keeps the information from cluttering the scene during composition.
The viewfinder offers a 95% view, and includes tiny lights for the three-point auto focus. Three points is relatively old technology and can be limiting, but AF works quickly and reliably, and you can select which AF point(s) the camera will use, with the camera signaling with a flash of the appropriate AF light and a beep, along with a green LED on the right of the viewfinder to confirm focus lock.
In Live View mode, the LCD displays 100% of the scene, and can superimpose a wider range of shooting data, including all the relevant camera settings, a histogram and even give depth of field and image stabilization previews.
Unlike many kit lenses supplied with other cameras, the Zuiko 14-42 lens is a real gem. It’s short, light and feels a little plasticky, but it is actually quite rugged and like the camera, it handles very nicely. Zoom control is very smooth, as is manual focus via the focus ring if needed. It balances the camera body well, and gives a good range of lengths from wide angle to near-zoom so it’s versatile and unobtrusive. It is also optically excellent. It doesn’t live up to the quality of Olympus professional lenses by any means, but the results it gets are clean and clear, with excellent color saturation and minimal distortion. This is not a lens to throw away or tuck in the bottom of the bag – it’s usable and very capable.
All other four-thirds lenses are usable directly on the E520, including the inexpensive 40-150 (80-300mm equivalent) which is very similar in size and weight to the kit 14-42. That means a kit of E520 and lenses covering wide angle to good zoom takes up little space and is light enough to take almost anywhere. With simple adaptors, a wide range of legacy lenses from other manufacturers can be used too, including those from Olympus film SLRs. Image stabilization will work with all these, but of course auto focus won’t and while manual focus is possible, the camera won’t give the focus lock indicators it provides with four-thirds lenses.
As with the E510, manual focus with this camera can be a little problematic due to the smaller viewfinder, though I have not found it to be an issue, and Live View using the LCD offers magnification options to check for accurate focus if needed. There’s also a focus mode, easily set with a couple of button presses, for having the camera auto focus with the usual half press of the shutter, then turn control over to the user for any manual adjustment needed. I found that very effective.
Image quality is generally very good indeed. Using default settings, images have a slightly soft feel to them, with an almost film-like quality which I rather like, however, the camera can be set to add sharpness, and the results are then very similar to the E510. Colors are accurate and well saturated, and images are crisp and detailed. Unlike the E510 however, the E520 is more competent at handling highlights, so there is less evidence of clipping. It’s in the image quality that the camera shows advances over the previous model, with greater tolerance of highlights, better detail in shadow without suffering banding or noise, and images with are more amenable to adjustment.
The Olympus is not a camera for low-light enthusiasts however. In very poor light, the camera does not auto focus well, often hunting and eventually giving up. Focus assistance can be provided by the flash, but the way this is designed, the flash strobes for several seconds, which is startling and little short of idiotically implemented. Manual focus can be used instead of course, and it’s generally very straightforward, but without adequate light the camera will need a higher ISO settings, and with that comes added noise.
Noise isn’t a problem in most situations until the E520 is at, or particularly above, ISO 800. In common with the image quality as a whole, noise is a little softer in appearance with the 520 than other cameras tend to be, so it is not quite as distracting as it could be, but it’s an unwelcome surprise to the unwary, and it’s not hard to suffer it if the camera is left to auto set the ISO and is not limited to an upper ceiling of 200 or 400 via the menus or Super Control Panel. Overall, while noise can be used effectively in a composition, as evidenced by the use of faster films in black and white photography, the noise performance of the E520 at high ISO is frankly a disappointment.
That said, the inclusion of image stabilization will generally allow the camera to get shots in lower light using slower shutter speeds, and thus avoid much of the high ISO noise issue, but it’s still a weak point in the E520’s performance, and with the generally excellent quality of results from this camera, this aspect stands out as unreasonably poor.
As with the E510, the 3-ppoint auto focus system is far from state-of-art, thought it works well in practice and can be supplemented by more complex Live View focusing or by a ‘semi auto’ focus mode, and depth of field preview can be set for one of two buttons on the back – a feature which I use a lot and is therefore much appreciated.
The Super Control Panel on the LCD during shooting has grown several extra settings since the E510, and that’s a welcome thing since it reduces the need to visit the dire menu system, and turns operating the camera into a matter of utter simplicity where the menus are a nightmare of badly thought confusion. Navigating complex changes in camera setup can be accomplished in seconds, with often little more than a couple of button clicks and the thumbwheel, and it turns what could be a very complex operation that would require a lot of familiarization into something almost anyone could do with ease.
It’s sad that the LCD is fixed to the back panel rather than hinged to allow it to be better used for shots above or below normal levels, and that Live View itself is still somewhat sluggish in comparison to point and shoot cameras, but that is an inherent part of SLR design which is not easy to circumvent without additional expense. As such it’s a good compromise. However, this implementation of Live View is better, and much faster to use, than that on the E510 before it, so it finally becomes rather more usable with rather less shutter lag.
Battery life is excellent with the supplied BLM-01 Li-Ion battery pack giving well over 550 shots on each charge, and as much as 670 in my use so far. Like the 510, the criticism in this respect is actually the charger, because at 5 hours for a full charge, it is abysmally slow. There is a more rapid charger at some extra cost, which in my view should be provided as standard at this sort of price.
As with the E510, Olympus supply their Master 2 software with the E520. While mostly unremarkable, this is a competent, if rather basic, image manager and editor. It is Windows and MacOS compatible, and for Intel-based Mac users is also in Universal format. By preference I use Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements rather than this software, but it does have an important use even for those who have other image editing software – it provides the means by which firmware updates can be downloaded and installed on both the camera body and Olympus lenses. It also provides the means by which RAW files can be retrieved and worked on, though there are other applications with rather greater flexibility or power that would serve the serious user somewhat better for this.
The manual is both up, and down, to the usual Olympus standard. It’s comprehensive and covers just about everything you could ever want to know, but is about as readable as the IRS tax code. It’s well worth the effort though, because it contains lots of useful information and explains camera features in detail. The complexity of the camera and the sheer number of settings and controls make understanding the camera an important part of effectively using it.
As with the E510 before it, the E520 is a camera that is very easy to like. It has a plethora of features, which provide a high degree of flexibility and control, making it a useable tool in a huge variety of situations and well suited to many types of photography. Image quality is hard to fault in a camera that is both easy to use and light enough to be carried almost anywhere, and even the kit lens(es) give excellent results. The somewhat confusing and daunting controls turn out to be remarkably easy to master and use, and things fall very neatly in the right place, so the camera rarely distracts from the task of using it.
As such there’s a lot to like and not much to criticize. Improvements over the E510 have made this a better all round camera, with enhanced interface and more accessible control of settings via the larger LCD making it easier and more intuitive to use, additional features adding greater flexibility in difficult light and when photographing people, and subtle yet distinct image quality improvements making photographs more compelling, but even without knowing the E510 that came before it, the E520 is a well thought, well built, robust photographic tool that is well suited to those who need a kit they can carry all day without feeling weighed down. It‘s a great camera for the serious amateur, and returns excellent and predictable results. It offers many ease-of-use features such as face detection and ‘Shadow Adjustment Technology’ for protecting detail in shadows while still capturing bright highlights, and as such is amongst the most ideal of the DSLRs for those moving up from point and shoot and ‘bridge’ cameras. Yet it also offers controls and features for the seasoned photographer too.
This is a highly recommendable digital SLR, and with a comprehensive feature set, light weight and excellent image quality even from the kit lens, it is hard to beat for anything like the money. It embodies a number of small evolutionary steps from the model preceding it, yet manages to turn in rather better results. This is the camera those who found the E510 disappointing would have wanted Olympus to produce. It’s that good.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 590 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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