E520 Review...

[blurboiboi]

sharing...

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Olympus-E-520

[diCam]

Originally Posted by blurboiboi sharing... http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Olympus-E-520

Originally Posted by Olympus E-520 Digital SLR Review by ephotozine.com on 25 May 2008 Olympus E-520: Minus points No front exposure dial AF slow in Live View Menu not as intuitive as some

I don't quite agree on the last 2 points...

[drewdam]

Originally Posted by diCam I don't quite agree on the last 2 points...

:-):

[bousozoku]

Originally Posted by diCam I don't quite agree on the last 2 points...

After seeing the Sony menus, I can't imagine anyone complaining about the Olympus menus but isn't the Live View auto focusing slow compared to the A350? I would think so.

[blurboiboi]

another review of the new cam...

http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/d...w=olympus+e520

wonder when would it be out in singapore...

[Mikefellh]

Originally Posted by diCam I don't quite agree on the last 2 points...

Especially "Menu not as intuitive as some"...Oly's menus have been reviewed as the easiest ones to use, so unless the other big names have really made improvements Oly should still be at the top.

Every time I pick up a Canon or Nikon camera I'm staring at the thing for five minutes trying to figure it out (not to mention how to control the menu scrolling). When I first picked up an Olympus camera I didn't have to think, it was just intuitive.

I would like to see what these reviewers think of as intuitive, maybe it's designed the same way as their own camera is now, in other words every camera of the same brand...anything else is not intuitive.

[bernards]

I think the Olympus menu is a nightmare. After six months it's a whole lot better. I still can't remember where some of the functions are. Is it 1, 2, 3, or 4? Hmm. Is it in side 4, submenu, submenu? Hmmm. This is what happens when you let engineers design user interfaces.

[DiGdUb]

having used nikon, oly and now sony, i feel sony's is the most intuitive. oly's probably has too many sub-menus, and can't cycle from the last item to the first.

[diCam]

Originally Posted by Mikefellh Especially "Menu not as intuitive as some"...Oly's menus have been reviewed as the easiest ones to use, so unless the other big names have really made improvements Oly should still be at the top. Every time I pick up a Canon or Nikon camera I'm staring at the thing for five minutes trying to figure it out (not to mention how to control the menu scrolling). When I first picked up an Olympus camera I didn't have to think, it was just intuitive. I would like to see what these reviewers think of as intuitive, maybe it's designed the same way as their own camera is now, in other words every camera of the same brand...anything else is not intuitive.

Exactly!

[diCam]

Originally Posted by blurboiboi another review of the new cam... http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/d...w=olympus+e520 wonder when would it be out in singapore...

akang datang...

[diCam]

Originally Posted by bernards I think the Olympus menu is a nightmare. After six months it's a whole lot better. I still can't remember where some of the functions are. Is it 1, 2, 3, or 4? Hmm. Is it in side 4, submenu, submenu? Hmmm. This is what happens when you let engineers design user interfaces.

Are you sure Olympus camera has so many sub-menus??!

[Hitman]

I've only used Olympus' DSLR, so I won't comment on whether it's menu system is better or worse than the competition, but I do feel 'at a lost' when I handle Nikon or Canon DSLRs (compared to when I handle an Olympus DSLR the first time). I guess the following extract (I frequently get the line highlighted in bold) from Wrotniak's review of the E-510 sums it all...

"The menu system in the E-510 is not worse than in most other digital cameras I've seen, but also not better. It is, to be frank, fairly messy. Its main advantage is that you will not have to access it often.

There are five menus here: Camera 1, Camera 2, Play, Settings 1, and Settings 2, providing access to about 70 functions or sub-menus. With this number and not the most logical arrangement, it is often difficult to say in which menu to look for the option you need at the moment.

With almost two years of experience with the E-500 (which uses the same system with very few differences), I find myself going through 25 (yes, that's twenty-five) options of the Setting 2 menu, only to discover that what I need is item number 21 in Settings 1.

A well-designed user interface should never offer more than ten or twelve choices from a single menu, especially when only five of them are visible without scrolling. If you need to squeeze more options in, you have to do some branching or re-balancing, helped by removing options which are more easily accessible from elsewhere (here: the Control Panel)."

[Mikefellh]

Originally Posted by bernards I think the Olympus menu is a nightmare. After six months it's a whole lot better. I still can't remember where some of the functions are. Is it 1, 2, 3, or 4?

Here's how to think about it...the menus with the camera are shooting menus, and the menus with the wrench are setup menus.

The functions in shooting menu 1 are mostly duplicates of the buttons, you should never have to go in here (unless you're an E-4xx user where there are less button shortcuts). Another reason to go into this menu is to see all your settings at once, rather than having to go through every button on the camera.

Shooting menu 2 is the one you'll use most often for formatting the card, and setting various shooting options that affect the final picture like saturation, contrast, etc.

The playback menu is obvious, stuff for setting up the play feature.

Setup menu 1 is for setting up features of the camera itself, how it will meter, what fractions to use for EV, turn on ISO boost, set custom white balances, etc. This menu you will probably go into once, when you first set up the camera.

Setup menu 2 is for setting up the "computer" and the way firmware interacts with the camera, things like setting the clock, which way focus-by-wire rotates, how long before going to sleep, and screen brightness. The only reason for going into this menu once using the camera for a while is to adjust one of those settings, or to do maintenance like pixel mapping or manually cleaning the sensor with a swab.

In three years use (once having set up the camera) I've only gone into shooting menu 2, and setup menu 2...the others I haven't touched.

[dlens]

The menu system is complex because the camera has a lot of features but there's not much reason to go into the menus other than to customize the Anti Shock, JPG Superfine, Noise filter settings once and to format cards

Every other setting is directly accessible via the buttons on the back of the camera (WB/AF/ISO/Meter/OK/IS,LV, single/multi shot/timer/remote with and without mirror flip up).

I've owned and used Fuji S2, D70, A100 dslrs and the Oly E-520 has the best feature set and menu/button controls of them all.

[egnaro]

Originally Posted by dlens I've owned and used Fuji S2, D70, A100 dslrs and the Oly E-520 has the best feature set and menu/button controls of them all.

Maybe becuz E520 is new, that y it has the best feature at this moment.

[cimman]

would like to understand the advantages of having LiveView in DSLRs. I think for Point and Shoot it's ok since the viewfinders there are really too small for any practical purposes, now a lot of P&P don't even have view finders.

For DSLR, view finders are large enough (compared to P&P) anyway. Sure Olympus has one of the smallest viewfinders amongst the DSLR, but still good enough for me.

With LiveView, the image is jerky when you're just panning th camera around. The image is washed out in bright sunlight, the focusing is slow and holding the camera at arm's length to view the LCD while composing shots, is just so unnatural and very tiring especially for long telephoto lenses. When the light levels goes down, it is completely dark vs the viewfinder where I can still see something.

So with all the above negatives, why are manufacturer's going with LiveView in droves (Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony etc..) ? If I want a entry level camera without Liveview, it is difficult to find one nowadays (new models anyways). I have to pay for something I don't really need and is inferior to the Viewfinder.
Sure you can preview exposure first before you capture with Liveview, but with digital SLRs, just take a test shot first would not be too much of a problem.

[spidey89]

Originally Posted by cimman would like to understand the advantages of having LiveView in DSLRs. I think for Point and Shoot it's ok since the viewfinders there are really too small for any practical purposes, now a lot of P&P don't even have view finders. For DSLR, view finders are large enough (compared to P&P) anyway. Sure Olympus has one of the smallest viewfinders amongst the DSLR, but still good enough for me. With LiveView, the image is jerky when you're just panning th camera around. The image is washed out in bright sunlight, the focusing is slow and holding the camera at arm's length to view the LCD while composing shots, is just so unnatural and very tiring especially for long telephoto lenses. When the light levels goes down, it is completely dark vs the viewfinder where I can still see something. So with all the above negatives, why are manufacturer's going with LiveView in droves (Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony etc..) ? If I want a entry level camera without Liveview, it is difficult to find one nowadays (new models anyways). I have to pay for something I don't really need and is inferior to the Viewfinder. Sure you can preview exposure first before you capture with Liveview, but with digital SLRs, just take a test shot first would not be too much of a problem.

True,what i feel is that,in macro still life,it is a real asset,also,technology is improving rapidly,i'm sure sooner or later it is going to be a lot faster.I once saw this guy recently,who was taking photos at suntec,he mounted his camera on a really really tall tripod,i think about 2meters plus,he had to climb a ladder to shoot,that's the advantage of live view with swerval screen

[egnaro]

Originally Posted by cimman would like to understand the advantages of having LiveView in DSLRs. I think for Point and Shoot it's ok since the viewfinders there are really too small for any practical purposes, now a lot of P&P don't even have view finders. For DSLR, view finders are large enough (compared to P&P) anyway. Sure Olympus has one of the smallest viewfinders amongst the DSLR, but still good enough for me. With LiveView, the image is jerky when you're just panning th camera around. The image is washed out in bright sunlight, the focusing is slow and holding the camera at arm's length to view the LCD while composing shots, is just so unnatural and very tiring especially for long telephoto lenses. When the light levels goes down, it is completely dark vs the viewfinder where I can still see something. So with all the above negatives, why are manufacturer's going with LiveView in droves (Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony etc..) ? If I want a entry level camera without Liveview, it is difficult to find one nowadays (new models anyways). I have to pay for something I don't really need and is inferior to the Viewfinder. Sure you can preview exposure first before you capture with Liveview, but with digital SLRs, just take a test shot first would not be too much of a problem.

there is few other benefit of using liveview... like adjusting WB.. at least it is useful for me. full view of the picture (from my knowing viewfinder only provide about 95%) which is important. other than above 2, it help to have 10X zoom... at least u can see what u cant see with your eye...

[bousozoku]

Originally Posted by cimman ... So with all the above negatives, why are manufacturer's going with LiveView in droves (Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony etc..) ? ...

It's simple. People are stepping up from their point-and-shoot cameras and a lot were going back to them after a short while because they hated the viewfinder. Live View gives them a bridge until they're comfortable enough to try the viewfinder.

In the professional world, with an articulated LCD, it's easy to imagine that people can get those difficult shots without being in precarious positions.

[egnaro]

Just wondering, is the shutter sound on E520 same as E510? E3 very silent. 510 quite loud...