Digital Home Thoughts: TrustedReviews Reviews Olympus E-510 Digital SLR

"When I first tried this new Olympus E-510 DSLR last week, I was initially puzzled by some of the noises it was making, which is unusual for me. I’ve been reviewing digital cameras for about ten years, and in that time I’ve handled and used hundreds of different cameras, from the earliest sub-megapixel snapshot models to the latest professional digital SLRs. I’m not bragging here (OK, maybe just a little), I’m just trying to explain that I’m pretty familiar with digital cameras, and that it takes a lot to surprise me. Normally when you switch on a DSLR, nothing much happens. The monitor may activate displaying shooting data, or maybe the self-cleaning CCD mechanism will buzz briefly, but that’s usually about all. However from the E-510 I heard the distinctive sound of the reflex mirror flipping up immediately after I switched it on, normally something you only hear when taking a photo. I fiddled with it, switched it on and off a few times, and tried taking a picture. There didn’t seem to be any problems with that, but again there was the sound of the mirror flipping up, then down, then up again."



Not only do you get a CF and xD card holder, a dust catching solution near the CCD, a great battery, superb handling and speed, but you get all this for well under $1K, more like $800. Of course, the main selling point is the live monitor view which gives you a quick preview of the image you are going to take. My thought on that is that while it may seem useful in theory, I'd bet the constant clicking of the mirror would start bothering me. I also wonder how useful this will be when trying to take night time pictures with long shutter delay shots. Plus, in practice, it looks like the light and color gain on the LCD when doing live monitoring is not very high (Olympus appears to be adjusting this in software).