Customer Reviews

Olympus Evolt E420 10MP Digital SLR Camera with 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Lens

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have used nearly every OLYMPUS dSLR (exception being the E-300 & E-400). I use the Olympus E-3 for my paid work and find it a superb camera. But like many of you, I want a camera with SLR quality to carry around minus the weight of my workhorse E-3. Enter the E-420, an absolute jewel of a camera whose IQ is top notch especially when compared to its market segment (Canon Rebels, Nikon D40/D60/D80, Pentax K200D, etc.). The gradation is fantastic, rivaling even my E-3. And coupling this, the world's smallest dSLR body with the new Pancake lens (25mm f/2.8, equivalant to 50mm in Full Frame) and you have a near 'pocketable' (depends on the size of the pocket) dSLR capable of taking phenomenal photos. Now, is it a world beater? No. But it isn't meant to be. It is meant for folks who want SMALL, but for whom Image Quality MATTERS. And here, it scores a perfect 10 (or 5 STARS in this case). As to the negative comment about focus points (you want 51 focus points, go spend 5K on the Nikon D3... truly a great camera, but marketed to a different segment of shutterbugs). And I have no idea what the reviewer was talking about poor performance in low light (this is much more of a lens issue on any camera), all I can say is NONSENSE. It does fine. No better and certainly no worse than any of the other 20+ dSLRs I've shot with. In fact, I used it as a 2nd camera during a 50th wedding anniversary party I was hired to shoot. Used it Indoors. It did great. I got great photos and the client doesn't know what came out of the E-3 or the E-420. The images are that good. So if you want 'pocketable', but you do want to compromise on Image Quality, then go ahead and pick this baby up. The likelihood of Buyer's Remorse is far smaller than this camera. After that, You just do one thing more. ...Enjoy.

I have had this E-420 with Zuiko 25mm Pancake for a month now and it is simply superb.

I sold my Canon XTi and SD700IS because I wanted a smaller/lighter system without sacrificing DSLR image quality. I got portability with my Canon P&S but not the image quality; I got DSLR image quality with the Canon DSLR but not the portability. The question was: What should I do? Well, the timing of the release of this camera/lens was perfect. And the choice to get this camera was the best choice I have made with regards to photography. Now I have the smallest, lightest DSLR camera in the world with great image quality to match any 10MP entry-level DSLR. Having owned this camera for over a month now, I have realised that I am taking 2-3 times more photographs than ever before simply because it is such a joy to take out-and-about (perfect for street photography) and the results I am getting are excellent. Want to see images from this combination? Have a look at my photostream: [...])

From using this camera, I am looking forward to exploring more of Olympus's infamous Zuiko lenses which are some of the best digital lenses in the industry. I tried the 12-60mm lens with the E-420 the other day and boy was the auto-focus speed fast! The continuous shooting is fast too: 3-4 shots (raw+super-fine jpegs) per second -- very impressive.

Because of this purchase my passion for photography has been ignited which is priceless in itself. Photography should be about taking photos without feeling restricted by what you hold in your hands. This camera gives me that freedom and confidence that I can take great photos wherever I am. Photography should be FUN! And it is certainly FUN to use this camera.

To conclude, do your research on the net on this camera and look at many photos. I am sure you will discover many other happy new owners of this camera. I have heard even some are using it not as a back-up to their pro gear but as a replacement because it is so portable! A great recommendation if ever you need one.

Happy camera hunting!

I purchased this camera in hopes of replacing my point and shoot. In the past, I have just missed too many shots because my point and shoot was too slow, or because it focused on the wrong object, or just had the wrong exposure. So I was looking for small DSLR, and when this camera came out with the pancake lens, I wanted to give it a try. My personal experience has been with a few different kinds of cameras, Canon A2, Yashica T4, Canon S100, Canon Digital Rebel, and a Minolta G500. I rated this camera as a single unit consisting of the body and the 25mm f/2.8 pancake lens. My tests have taken about 3 weeks and include two family vacations.

Quality of the images (not including user error): 5/5
Ease of Use: 4/5
Feel: 5/5
Live View mode: 2/5
Advanced modes, Manual Mode, and manual focus: 3/5
Fun: 5/5
Ease of use for handing to others: 5/5
Speed of use (not including Live View): 5/5
Overall: 4/5

Strengths:
First off, the camera feels great. Even though it is small, it feels solid, it has a nice smooth shutter with a pleasing sound. The camera feels good in my hands. It feels better than my Digital Rebel. I have had two instances in which someone else dropped the camera from a height of 3 feet, and it has been fine. I have carried it in all kinds of bags with other gear and it appears to be very sturdy.
The quality of the images I get is very good. In day light or normal indoor light, I get great images. The only limit on the quality is the skill of the photographer. I took a number of shots in low light (campfires and candle light), and those pictures look OK but not great. In those conditions I got pictures better than my point and shoot cameras, but not as good as I get with my Digital Rebel with an f/1.4 lens. I am not a professional photographer, so my standards may not be all that high, but I love the pictures I get.
The biggest pleasant surprise of this camera was the Info display. There is an "Info" button that bring us a display showing all of the important settings. And the special part is that you can easily navigate to any setting and change it directly from that mode. I really love this. It makes it very easy to change the metering mode, and to check if I left the camera in any strange mode (IS0 1600, or manual focus mode).
I have also given the camera to my wife and daughters to use. They were able to use it without any problems.
I thought the Auto ISO selection works quite well. It only boosts the ISO when required.
Finally, I find this camera to be lots of fun. I usually find any new camera to be fun, but this one has really captured my imagination. I felt the same way about the Digital Rebel when I first purchased it. I find myself taking it many places and getting lots of good pictures.

Weaknesses and issues:
My main complaint is that the camera is not small enough to replace my point and shoot. This is not a defect, just a realization on my part that the worlds smallest DSLR is not small enough. My next issue is that some pictures do not have the subject in proper focus. This camera makes fewer autofocus mistakes than a point and shoot, but my Digital Rebel does better. I suspect this is a function of the 3 focus points, but I don't know for sure.
I tried to focus the camera manually, but I was not able to reliably get the subject in focus. I am not great at focusing manually, but this camera did not make it easy.
The E420 does have a live view mode, that allows you to compose the picture using the LCD. I was eager to try this, and I found it very disappointing. After pressing the shutter, the camera moves the lens through a wide range of focus points before taking the picture. So the time it takes to the capture the picture is way too long. Sadly, this really defeats my interest in live view. I was able to improve the shot time by changing the auto focus mode, but it's still not fast.
Finally, I have some smaller gripes. None of these is a terrible problem, but they did annoy me. First, Olympus includes an eye piece cover, and they sized it such that it fits into the hot shoe. Sadly, it fails out too easily, and I have almost lost it several times.
Face detection seems like a good idea, but it is slow enough that I do not use it.
After using the camera to take pictures of the stars at night, I mistakenly left the focus mode in manual, and the ISO set to 1600. Sadly, neither of those settings are visible in the view finder so I took quit a few shots that had out of focus subjects and a grainy appearance.
The lens cap must be screwed off. I would prefer one that was removed by a pinch.
Finally, there is one really odd item. The focus ring on the camera is not physically attached to the lens elements. This means that moving the ring does nothing if you are in the fully automatic modes, and it means that you do not get any physical feedback when you have reached the end of the focus range. While this is not a terrible problem, it really seemed weird to me.

I buy two or three cameras a year. I hesitated on this camera because it has no image stabilization. But I recently took it to Europe and got great pictures in churches and museums. I set the ISO to 800 and had very sharp handheld pictures. The size is fantastic...very light and small. The live view works great...although the focus is slow. Focus if very fast in non-live view. To learn all the options, you'd have to spend quite a bit of time. But for most uses, you can learn to use the camera in about 5 minutes. Menus are very deep, so some options are difficult to keep track of. But in most competitors at this price level, those deep menued options don't even exist. Highly recommended.

I have the e-410. The pictures are great. The camera handles well. I like the fact that I can carry it on a shoulder strap all day and not be tried of it. I have large hands, but don't find the camera to be too small for me to handle.

The other reviewer was correct in criticizing the focus assist strobe because it is slow. Turn that feature off and the camera will focus quickly with natural light.

I have fallen in love with the Olympus E-420 and the two prime lenses, the 25mm pancake and the 50mm f2.0. After many years of photography, going all the way back to the sixties, my nostalgia for certain elements of the old ways has been satisfied by this camera. The compact size, the light weight, the prime lenses, the high quality and the ability to shoot with the feeling that the camera and I are one -- all are quite wonderful.
The pancake lens is so comfortable and convenient, I am quite willing to overcome its lack of perfection -- it's more than good enough. And the 50mm is for me the sharpest lens, with some of the most beautiful images that I have had in many yearsOlympus Evolt E420 10MP Digital SLR Camera with 25mm f/2.8 Pancake Zuiko Lens.
And, peculiarly, I am thrilled that this camera focuses so dependably. I've used lots of Nikons and Canons. In recent years, I've suffered a lot from erratic focusing, mostly with the Canon DSLRs. The confidence I feel with the e-420 makes shooting a real pleasure.

I've had this camera for a couple of months now and I am nothing short of satisfied with this camera's look, feel, size and quality. For starters, this camera is really small! I always knew that it was touted as the world's smallest, but it really is that tiny! If used along with the pancake lens, this camera can be carried around all day in your jacket/coat pocket and will make an excellent tool for street photography. I also own an E-510 and other than the missing IS, I would say this camera has improved a lot over the E-x10 series.

For starters, the JPEG engine and the new sensor are a noticeable improvement and this shows in the image quality. The camera also has a much better dynamic range and doesn't clip highlights like the E-510, which makes it very easy to use. The auto WB isn't as accurate as the E-510 though and it does have a tendency to make colors a little warmer, but this still looks really nice and isn't really a problem.

Noise is also very well controlled and even at ISO 1600, the noise is very fine grained and not intrusive as such.

In response to the other poster, the AF speed on this camera is plenty fast and extremely accurate and doesn't lack anywhere. The live view with face detection is an excellent feature when clicking group pictures or handing the camera to someone else to take pictures. Contrast-detect AF is slightly slow, but works as intended and is also quite accurate (not as accurate as TTL phase detect AF).

Overall, for the price, this is an excellent package and great value for money. This camera is also the ideal camera if you want something you can carry around everywhere without compromising on image quality. I highly recommend this camera.

I bought this refurbished camera with the kit lens for $320 from Amazon/Adorama. It arrived in five days.

First, the bad news...

--Saying the E-420 is the world's smallest dSLR is like winning the prize for "the world's lightest 200 pound supermodel". This is not a small camera. Play with one before you buy it because there is no way this camera is fitting into any pocket.
--Image quality is slightly soft (but can be turned sharp by turning off the noise filter).
--Very cramped viewfinder at about 50% magnification (apparent size of things is halved). In addition, critical info is places to the right of the viewfinder.
--Poor ergonomics between shutter, aperture, ISO via a single multifunctional dial. Please, Olympus, give us two dials.
--Somewhat slow autofocus in poor light (but very fast if you know what you're doing and read the helpful instructional manual).
--Poor resolution LCD but if you're like me you just use the LCD to check highlights then you won't care.
--No mechanical image stabilization. IS is most useful in the critical 1/4 to 1/125 shutter speed. I find myself there a lot so it would be nice to have.
--Compactflash only.
--Poor battery life at ~150 shots (but can be doubled with $10 aftermarket rechargeable).

Now for the good news...
--Its a real dSLR! You're just not going to find any dSLR at this price range and its build quality absolutely doesn't feel cheap.
--Smaller than any other dSLR. Other dSLR's feel enormous.
--100% viewfinder coverage? You take the picture and there's no cropping. You get what you see.
--Really good kit lens.
--Very fast operation...if you read the manual and practice. Otherwise, like most cameras of this sort, if you don't have a fundamental understand of the compromises between shutters speed, aperture, and ISO then the camera just pukes on you if you ask it to do something unreasonable.
--Smart flash with a great number of options. I'd still recommend a more powerful external flash (I use a tl20) for daylight photography.
--Super-fast and easy adjustable exposure compensation.
--Fast white-balance adjustment (but might take two button clicks and eyes off the prize to set it).

If you're getting into SLR photography and you don't want to spend a lot of money then this is the camera to get. This is not an easy camera to use but if you read the manual and practice with it then the camera is very fast. You can work really fast with the buttons...there's no delay at all.

I recently brought this camera and was amazed by all the features.It's so small and easy to use.I'm no pro or anything but I wanted to take on a more creative role in my photography so I shopped around looking for a digital slr that was on my level.The manual comes jam pack with information on how to operate the camera.So if you haven't had a digital slr in the past don't be alarmed it's a great camera to upgrade to after using a point and shoot.

I chose the E-420 over similar offerings from Canon and Nikon because this camera just felt better in my hands. Small, light weight, no big old grip on the right side of the camera. All these reasons are really personal preferences as you really have to get technical to see the differences in image quality; which there are. But if you are like me, shoot a lot of images, print a few 4 X 6s and fewer 8 X 10s, store your pictures on your computer and email pictures to family and friends now and then, the E-420 will serve you well. Do I need to tell you that you should purchase from amazon.com? I didn't think so.

Sept 1, 2009 update
Shot a lady's tennis tournament today and the E-420 with 40 to 150 mm lens performed very well. Out of over 300 shots, only 4 were out of focus. The 4 bad shots were the first images in continuous shot sequences. Once I figured this out and pre focused prior to shooting, the problem went away. Just used the sport mode and let the camera figure out the settings.