The E-510 includes dust control, a live view LCD and built-in image stabilization

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Product Description

The Olympus EVOLT E- 510 digital SLR is a great camera to help you evolve as a photographer. Only Olympus digital SLRs are engineered to be 100-percent digital. Simply put, this means your pictures will have stunning edge-to-edge sharpness that can't be beat. Olympus' Live View LCD technology is a unique feature that enhances your picture-taking experience. Whatever life brings, whatever you're photographing, you'll capture colorful memories with the E-510's proven Dust Reduction System and powerful, 10-megapixel imager.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #569 in Camera & Photo
• Brand: Olympus
• Model: 262072
• Dimensions: 2.70" h x 3.60" w x 5.40" l, 1.00 pounds
• Display size: 2.5

Features

• 10-megapixel CMOS sensor captures enough detail for photo-quality 18 x 24-inch prints
• 2.5-inch Live View HyperCrystal LCD display
• Mechanical Image Stabilization with Supersonic Wave Drive technology
• Lightweight ergonomic design; kit includes 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 and 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 Zuiko lenses
• Powered by one lithium-ion battery; stores images on CF, Micro Drive, or xD Picture Cards

Manufacturer Description
The Olympus EVOLT E-510 digital SLR is a great camera to help you evolve as a photographer. Only Olympus digital SLRs are engineered to be 100-percent digital. Simply put, this means your pictures will have stunning edge-to-edge sharpness that can’t be beat. Olympus’ Live View LCD technology is a unique feature that enhances your picture-taking experience. Whatever life brings, whatever you’re photographing, you’ll capture colorful memories with the E-510’s proven Dust Reduction System and powerful, 10-megapixel imager.

EVOLT E-510 Highlights

Innovative 2.5-inch Live View HyperCrystal LCD The E-510 features a Live View LCD to provide users with the freedom to choose how they compose their shots, using either the LCD or the optical viewfinder on the back of the camera. The Olympus Live View LCD empowers users to easily compose their subjects live on the LCD before the shot has been taken, offering a level of versatility that can not be achieved by other digital SLR cameras that only offer an optical viewfinder. By holding the E-510 away from the face and using the Live View LCD to compose, it’s possible to shoot upward from a low angle for dramatic composition, in close for detailed macro photos of a butterfly’s wings or photographing a parade over a crowd of people.

The E-510’s big and bright 2.5-inch LCD display with approximately 230,000 pixels includes HyperCrystal technology, which offers many times the contrast of conventional LCD monitors, and enables images to be beautifully displayed in vivid color -- both in preview and playback. The HyperCrystal LCD also provides a wide viewing angle, which ensures images can be composed from even the most obscure angles. The larger LCD makes viewing icons and text on the camera’s menu a squint-free process.

Detailed, bright, and colorful photos with 10-megapixel Live MOS image sensor The E-510 is loaded with an impressive 10 million pixels for high-resolution photos. The 10-megapixel sensor gives photographers the flexibility to blow up their prints to the large sizes supported by many of today’s printers, or crop the image to print only a part of the image that is important to them. The high-performance Live MOS image sensor in the E-510 delivers excellent dynamic range for accurate color fidelity, and a new state-of-the-art amplifier circuit to eradicate noise and capture fine image details in the highlight and shadow areas.

Mechanical Image Stabilization for sharp images Unlike other digital SLR cameras in its class, the E-510 employs Mechanical Image Stabilization, which compensates for camera movement. This new technology complements Digital Image Stabilization, which compensates for a moving subject. Combined, Mechanical Image Stabilization and Digital Image Stabilization provide a powerful solution, ensuring blur-free photos even in active shooting situations where photographers may encounter camera shake or a moving subject. This powerful combination resides within the camera’s body, translating to blur-free images taken with any of the more than 30 digital-specific lenses.

Dust Reduction System for spot-free images Olympus’ Dust Reduction System produces spot-free photos with the exclusive Supersonic Wave Filter. The patented ultrasonic technology vibrates to remove dust and other particles from the front of the image sensor, and captures the debris on a special adhesive membrane every time you turn on the camera. These spot-free photos liberate users from hours spent retouching photographs at the computer or sending their cameras back to the manufacturer to remove dust trapped inside.

TruePic III for image clarity Olympus’ enhanced TruePic III Image Processor produces crystal clear photos using all the pixel information for each image to provide the best digital images possible for every photo with accurate color, true-to-life flesh tones, brilliant blue skies and precise tonal representation in between. TruePic III also lowers image noise by one step to reduce noise in images shot at higher ISO settings, enabling great results in low-light situations.

Lens compatibility All E-Series cameras support the Four Thirds Standard whereby Olympus and various other manufacturers produce high-quality Four Thirds-compliant lenses and accessories that are specifically designed for digital SLR image capture. Because the E-510 is part of the Olympus E-System, it is compatible with a large and growing range of Olympus E-System accessories to further enhance personal shooting styles and applications. This includes the full line-up of Zuiko Digital Specific lenses and flashes.

Easy-to-use, easy-to-handle light and ergonomic design The EVOLT E-510 is extremely portable, measuring 5.35 inches (136mm) by 3.61 inches (91.7mm) and 2.2 inches (56mm), excluding protrusions, and weighing 16.2 ounces (460 grams) body only. The new camera has a classic penta-mirror design that is light and compact enough to comfortably shoot with all day. Beyond its portable size, the E-510 delivers unparalleled ease of use -- from menus that make sense and buttons on the body that are easy to understand and operate, to automatic settings for every imaginable situation.

While the E-510 includes a full range of manual control options to customize your creativity, it also has 28 shooting modes designed to provide the ideal settings for a variety of shooting situations automatically. These include Digital Image Stabilization, Night Scene, Fireworks, Beach and Snow, and Candle Light to name a few, as well as an xD Panorama mode (for use with Olympus xD-Picture Cards). Users also benefit from special color modes and the possibility to apply a variety of Black & White filters.

Accepting both CompactFlash Type I & II, Microdrives, and xD-Picture Cards, the camera provides a choice of data storage options for enhanced flexibility, and it is possible to transfer image files from one card to the other right inside the camera.

Included 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 and 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 Zuiko lenses The versatility of the Olympus E-System comes from delivering the largest selection of "Designed-for-Digital" lenses -- more than any other manufacturer to date. Olympus’ Zuiko Digital Specific Lenses come in a wide range of focal lengths to achieve the best image result in any given situation, and impress with their spectacular clarity and edge-to-edge sharpness.

The E-410 one-lens outfit includes a compact, Zuiko Digital ED 14-42 mm f3.5-f5.6 Lens (equivalent to 28mm-84mm in 35mm photography) that perfectly matches the imager so light strikes the sensor directly to ensure rich, accurate colors and edge-to-edge sharpness. Its 3x ED Glass zoom lens covers the range most frequently used in everyday photography and weighs just 7.5 ounces, offering users an extremely dynamic, portable everyday-use zoom. Close-ups as near as 9.84 inches (0.25 m) are also possible throughout the zoom range.

The E-410 two-lens outfit adds the Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 (80-300mm equivalent) Lens, which provides users with greater telephoto power for far-away shots in a compact size. This telephoto lens is smaller than many standard zoom lenses at 2.6 inch diameter x 2.8 inch length and a weight of 8.8 ounces -- a real benefit for anyone who wants to pack a powerful zoom lens without taking up much space. It also has great close focusing abilities, and is able to capture a subject up-close from a distance of 31.5 inches (.8m).

Both lenses are exceptionally compact, allowing unimpeded mobility. They are sized for comfortable handling and designed for maximum image quality at an excellent price. Most important, these new lenses have the world-renowned ED lenses that deliver stunning high-quality images.

All E-Series cameras support the Four-Thirds Standard whereby Olympus and various other manufacturers produce high-quality Four-Thirds-compliant lenses and accessories that are specifically designed for digital SLR image capture. Because the E-410 is part of the Olympus E-System, it is compatible with a large and growing range of Olympus E-System accessories to further enhance personal shooting styles and applications. This includes the full line-up of Zuiko Digital Specific lenses and flashes.

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Customer Reviews

Great on most counts
I love taking photos with this camera! It's just what I needed to take my photography skills to the next level. The kit lenses are surprisingly good and light which are traits that don't often go together in lenses. It's quick compared to even the nicest P&S cameras (I had a Canon S3 IS before this). IS in the body is a nice feature so I don't have to buy more expensive lenses to get that feature. The jpeg white balance seems a little off (too much white by default) so I just shoot in RAW which gets around that problem. You can also adjust the white balance but I just decided I'd rather do it in post. Picasa does a good job with the RAW files so I don't have to use the Olympus software which seems kind of klunky to me. I may get Lightroom at some point when my finances have recovered to get a little more in-depth with post processing.
The live view feature sounded good on paper but really isn't that useful in practice. I might as well just take a photo and see how that looks instead of previewing with live view. If it's no good I can just delete it.
The only really annoying thing about this camera is Olympus' proprietary USB connector. Why do they have to do that?!?! It takes what might have been a five star product down to four. There is no good reason to take a standard like a mini USB connection and change it to make your customers have to buy your special cables. But even with this gripe it was worth it.
Auto focus in low light is not that great (slow) and it uses the flash to get a focus lock which can be distracting to your subjects and kind of kills the mood you often create in a low light situation. In sunlight the focus is quick and accurate.
I also got an Olympus Macro Extension Tube which is nice if you like to take some macro shots but don't want to spend the money on a whole separate lens. The tube with the 40-150 lens takes some nice macro shots (manual focus only) without breaking the bank.
Other recommended accessories would be a Zing neoprene pouch (Standard SLR size will fit with either lens) and some UV Protective filters to keep the optics clean and safe.
Overall it's highly recommended if you're looking to break into the world of DSLR photography without having to take out a second mortgage.

The best choice for the price
I switched from film SLR to digital and E-510 was my choice. I'm using it for 6 months and so far I don't regret it. The 14-42 kit lens had front focusing issues but Olympus repair service fixed it. The other kit lens (40-150) performs excellent.
I'd like to see better dynamic range, but this is more film vs. digital issue than E-510 itself. I noticed increased noise at ISO400 and more. This is problem with most 4/3 cameras caused by smaller sensor size.
I use it mostly in full manual mode, as this is the way I used my old film SLR camera.
I upgraded to Zuiko 14-54 and 70-300, and with this combination I couldn't ask for more.
In conclusion, E-510 is not perfect at all, but probably the best choice for the price.

DSLR after film and digital point & shoot.
This is my first camera review and is based upon six weeks of heavy use of my new Olympus E-510, 10MP, DSLR with two very good kit lenses (14-42mm and 40-150mm). I bought the camera to upgrade my ability to capture indoor architectural details in historic buildings. My background includes the use of 35mm film SLRs and digital point & shoot cameras. I have been slow on getting a DSLR because I don't like big, heavy cameras in outsized bags. The E-510 is amazingly light but easy to get a good grip on. I've added a Lowepro 160 AW bag for the camera, two lenses, a spare Olympus Li-ion battery and a spare 4GB compactFlash card. There's still room for more and it is almost feather light over your shoulder.

I have taken several hundred practice images in my own home using the built-in flash and an external Olympus FL-36 electronic flash with tripod. As expected, the built-in flash is fine for quick photos of the family but more serious work demands an external flash unit. I've added a diffuser to my FL-36 and found it helpful. I've used automatic settings and tried the full range of manual settings. So far I've only used the lower resolution SQ JPEG settings. For minute detail I plan to use higher resolution HQ, SHQ and RAW settings in the future. These settings are all easy to find and quick to set using the camera's easy to read paper instruction manual and intuitive Menu viewable through the LCD window on the back of the camera.

Outdoors I've made very good use of both lenses and the image stabilization feature. When you can walk backwards in a busy zoo and can capture a two year old without blurring, you've got a great stabilization system on the camera! I've taken several hundred images of waterfalls in a dark forrest with brilliant, high-noon sun streaming through the trees and close range to distant landscape shots around a large manmade lake from a fast moving boat. All the results have been excellent. I have taken a number of these images, opened them up in Adobe Photoshop CS2 and been very pleased with the results.

I have tried the "live view" capability and it works fine but I find myself using the viewfinder 95% of the time. So, this feature is pretty cool but up to you on how you prefer to use it. Battery life is outstanding. In other words battery life has been a complete non-issue to me, inside, outside, with or without the flash.

Concerning low-light focus problems mentioned in some other reviews. I have experienced the problem, but with all the settings this camera has, you can easily work around the issue. But it is important to know this limitation and experiment with it before you encounter it in a photo shoot situation.

If you'd like some outstanding recommendations on how to customize and save your E-510 camera settings check out this website. http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/43/e510-sett.html

One thing I have not tried yet is the panoramic shooting mode. To use this mode you must have a Panoramic xD card (I bought two CompactFlash cards, 2GB & 4GB when I bought the camera). The xD card will be my next purchase. Unless you want to spend the money, you might buy the 4GB CompactFlash card and a 1GB or 2GB xD card for starters. No, the camera does not come with a memory card upon initial purchase unless you buy a complete kit.

So, read the reviews, to include the 4 and 3 star reviews. If you make your decision to buy a E-510 and save a few bucks or buy the newest E-520 you won't be disappointed. Olympus Evolt E510 10MP Digital SLR Camera with CCD Shift Image Stabilization and 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 and 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 Zuiko Lenses