Digital Trends

Olympus Evolt E-510

August 27th, 2007 | by David Elrich

Features and Design

First things first—the difference between the E-410/510 is a lot more than a hundred bucks. The E-510 is larger and heftier than the E-410 making it easier to hold. The E-510 is still pretty lightweight and won’t wreak your shoulder—it tips the scales at 16.6 ounces for the body only compared to 13.2 for the E-410--which is the lightest D-SLR available. Besides the heft, the E-510 has built-in sensor shift image stabilization so no matter which lens you attach you get the benefits of IS. While it’s no panacea it does help you shoot in low light with less chance of blur and helps eliminate most jitter when you’re in extreme telephoto settings. I’m a big fan of any type of stabilization other than electronic and always suggest you spend a bit more to get it—even if it’s in a point-and-shoot digicam, a camcorder such as the Sony HDR-CX7 or anything else that offers it—including binoculars. Canon and Nikon do not have IS in their D-SLRs so you have to buy expensive lenses with the circuitry built in. This definitely adds up. Sony and Pentax also have D-SLRs with IS built into the body as well so there are lots of options out there.

The Evolt looks like almost every other D-SLR but it does have a textured black finish. The camera is nothing to write home about but it’s not ugly by any stretch. The front is dominated by the lens opening which accepts glass for the Four Thirds Standard. Also on the face of the E-510 is a lens release button, a remote control sensor on the hand grip and a few decals highlighting 10 megapixels, IS and so on.

The top has buttons on the far left to pop open the flash and to adjust the shooting mode (single shot or burst of up 3 frames per second, the standard for sub-$1,000 USD D-SLRs). Behind the flash—which also acts as an AF Illuminator--is a hot shoe. On the right is the main mode dial with power on/off switch, access to exposure compensation and dial to help you scroll through menus. The mode dial gives quick access to your shooting options starting with Auto, program, aperture- and shutter-priority, manual as well as five common scene modes (portrait, landscape and so on). There’s also a Scene setting that gives you access to 17 choices—all are nicely described and a sample shot is shown on the LCD. This is very nicely done and Olympus gets an extra point for it.

The rear is dominated by a 2.5-inch monitor rated a solid 230K pixels; it works well under most light conditions. Although the E-510 has Live View most of the time you’ll be using the viewfinder which has a nice rubber surround. Naturally it has a diopter control to adjust to your eyesight. The usual controls are located around the LCD screen. On the far left are buttons for Playback, Delete, Menu and Info (a screen that shows all your current settings). On the right are button for AEL/AFL (auto exposure and auto focus lock) and an IS key to change the type of image stabilization. With IS1 image stabilization is constantly on while IS2 lets you achieve a blurred background when panning horizontally (only the vertical stabilizer is activated). There’s a dedicated button to move into the Live View mode. Next to it is the four-way control with center OK key. The four points of the compass give you access to white balance, auto focus (five choices), ISO (100-1600) and metering (five options). The USB out port is located just below the controller. Near the top right are buttons for Fn (Function) and AF area (three options).

On the right side is the compartment for either a Compact Flash or xD Picture Card which is another good thing since you can get CF cards for a lot less money than xD. On the bottom is the battery compartment and tripod mount.

The Evolt E-510 comes with a nice package. As noted, I received the box with two lenses (14-42mm, 40-150mm) and it really has everything you need. You get the strap, battery, charger, body cap, USB/Video cables, a 140-page Owner’s Manual, Quick Start Guide and Olympus Master CD-ROM. After charging the battery and loading a 2GB CF card, it was time to start clicking.

Image Courtesy of Olympus