Olympus E-510 User reviews

By Philip Ryan on 14/09/2007

More Olympus reviews , RRP: AU$1499.00

The good:

  • Sensor-shift image stabilisation
  • Live View mode (LCD preview) operation

The bad:

  • Sluggish autofocus
  • Subpar exposure and white-balance performance
  • Some poor choices for default settings

The bottomline:

The Olympus E-510 has quirky exposure and white-balance issues, but its Live View and Image Stabilization modes may make some photographers give this SLR a chance.

Buying choices:

Editors' rating:

7.1/10

Users' rating:

8.7/10

Tags:

digital camera | dslr | e-510 | image stabilisation | olympus

Mike
02/08/2008, 07:53 PM

rating
7/10

E-510 is one of the most reliable camera in olympus digital cameras series. It is in the list of top web cameras which are use for internet chat. When i bought this camera i also found photo albums & frames with it.

Pros: Anti-shake capabilities.
Doubles as portable media player.
Zippy performance.

Cons: Nothing special.

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P2_photography
08/02/2008, 09:20 PM

rating
10/10

Sluggish autofocus? Subpar exposure and white-balance performance?
Some poor choices for default settings? dear cnet reviewers, perhaps you had a faulty pre-release model or maybe your model had been beaten up a little bit on its way to your front door.
I have had an E-510 now for over 4 months, and have no problems what so ever. One of my colleagues also owns an E-510 (bought on my recommendation) and it has none of these problems you guys had either.

Pros: *Great size & weight- easy to take everywhere yet is still perfectly solid.
*Great battery life (lasts a couple of weeks on a single charge with fairly constant shooting).
*Dust reduction-have had no dust on the sensor yet and im changing lenses very often
*image stabilization is highly effective when using telephoto lenses
*very fast autofocus and shooting speeds
*menu navigation is speedy
*very very quick start up time
*lenses are lighter, smaller, and cheaper than other brands (without any loss of quality)

Cons: *Menus are a tad boring (and are basically the same style as my olympus 770sw's
*LCD isnt bright enough, so images on it look darker than they actually are.

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Jord
11/11/2007, 11:20 PM

rating
10/10

A very competent camera. Very customizable and good use of user interface. I have had no trouble with Noise despite the press. Good to see a company besides the Big Two (Canon and Nikon) continue to have a real go and create solid, competent and easy to use dSLRs. Users will be very happy, especially when the use it at full potential.

Pros: -Good Build Quality.
-Fast RAW Shooting.
-Image Stabilization.
-Great Kit Lenses.

Cons: -default settings need changing.

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kenndoug
16/10/2007, 05:24 PM

rating
6/10

Ineffective plastic clip and cheap plastic battery compartment door fail to prevent rather heavy battery from dropping out when you least expect it.

Pros: Brilliant electronics

Cons: Compromised by cheap plastic fittings

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kkpnsp
20/09/2007, 06:23 PM

rating
10/10

It's a great camera! Wonderful pictures and
a high level of technic.

Pros: Stabilization: great
Live view is very usefull
long battery life

Cons: Flash is AF-lamp

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menotbug
18/09/2007, 12:34 PM

rating
9/10

This is a great camera. A lot of the stuff mentioned in this review in comparison to other cameras would not even been an issue if CNET had posted their review sooner. Most features were not even available on other cameras when this one first came out! (eg. live view, ISO 3200, etc. ridiculous.)

Pros: - image stabilization works great
- kit lenses are great, very lightweight
- body is well built
- excellent value
- best dust reduction system
- live view
- very good noise control at higher ISOs

Cons: - bad default settings

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