My wife and I have had the E-410 for about 10 weeks now, have put about 1,500 shots through it. She's the primary user of it, which was the main purpose of my buying it. I've had a Canon 350D (XT) for not quite 2 years now.
Pros:
- Size and weight are excellent. My wife thought my Canon XT was great but it was a bit too heavy and large for her liking. The E-410 fits the bill exactly.
- Image quality, even with the kit lenses is very, very good, both JPEG and RAW. Obviously it would improve with Oly's HG or Super HG lenses, but the 14-42 gives much better results than did the 18-55 kit lens on my XT, which is why I bought better lenses for the Canon. We print a high percentage of our shots and this cam does splendidly on that front, tight crops and all.
- Build quality is impressive - yeah, it's not a Mag alloy bodied wunder-kind, but it doesn't cost like one either and it definitely feels better built than my XT. No squeaks or weird noises, nothing looser than it should be, the controls have a great feel, just the right dampening
- Feature set is very, very good - we're not big users of the Live View, but it is nice to have that option for the occasional "stealth" shot. Once you get used to the timing, you can even use it for mild action - used it successfully for pics of a wedding processional, but I was a guest, not the official photog. The amount of flexibility and adjustability on this cam stands head and shoulders above the XT.
- Ease of use - very, very good - it would be "nicer" if certain functions had dedicated buttons, but menu access is very fast (you have two ways to get to the settings - good setup Oly!) and that way, my wife says she doesn't worry that she'd change something by accident.
- Value - OH Yes - it's definitely a GREAT value in my book - even though I was an "early adopter" and bought it for the "list" of $899 as soon as it became available in my area
I'm a died-in-the-wool Canon fan, having had Canon SLRs almost exclusively since 1969 - TL, AE-1, A-1, EOS650, XT (along with a Nikon F, Oly OM-1 and a Pentax MX) but the E-410........see below............
Cons:
uh........ahem,..well, you see, the only real negative I've found about this camera is...........well, you noticed how I kept comparing the E-410 to my XT ?
Yeah, that's basically it - I was considering upgrading to a 400D (XTi) or 30D, BUT NOW !..........this little cam has definitely made me rethink that issue and direction, and I'm now waiting for the availability of the E-510 body only before making the final decision.
Date:
2008-06-20 - 06:30:35
Author:
felmik
Rating:
I've had this camera for about four months. It feels good and solid in the hand and well built, no flimsy parts to break. Excellent camera and value with the twin lens. I've had some excellent results from portrait, macro and landscape shots. The low light shooting does need a little increase in the exposure but that is easy to adjust manuallyor with the supplied software. I would recommend this camera to any budding enthusiast ready for a DSLR. I wanted to use the camera for a while before making any judgements.
Date:
2008-06-29 - 12:31:46
Author:
Clark45
Rating:
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED DSLR
Fantastic little DSLR .
Despite its small size, I have found the E-410 to be very ergonomic in design and a joy to use. It's feature rich for an entry level DSLR, providing options that will satisfy most advanced amateur photographers. Noise is very well controlled up to ISO 400 and tolerable at ISO 800 in properly exposed images. Noise is high at ISO 1600, though properly exposed images at this ISO setting should produce acceptable 5x7" prints. As discussed extensively on this site, a very nice feature of the camera is that noise filtering can be turned off (recommended), or set to low, standard, or high. Excellent user reviews and tutorials for the E-410 and its big brother, the E-510, can be found at Andrzej Wrotniak's website (links can't be included here, so just Google it). I should note also that Ricardo Hernández (a.k.a. Raist3d on the Oly SLR Talk Forum of this site) has provided an excellent E-410 review for Wrotniak's E-system web info and tutorial pages.
My own thorough analyses comparing E-410 and E-330 RAW images of contrasty outdoor scenes suggest that the E-410 has about 1/3 stop of reduced dynamic range compared to the E-330. If you have any photography experience, you'll likely see this much-discussed issue as being a non-issue that has been greatly overblown. In terms of resolution, it blows away the E-330. Just use it with noise filtering "Off" and sharpening set to -2. At default settings, it produces images that are a bit contrasty for my tastes, so I set contrast to -2 as well. Better yet, shoot in RAW capture mode and you won't have to worry about these settings plus you'll get the advantage of added dynamic range.
A HIGHLY RECOMMENDED DSLR and at current prices (<$375USD as of 2/18/08), a real bargain as well.
Date:
2008-07-04 - 11:37:27
Author:
TomB
Rating:
Sample pictures with E410
Barbara's younger sister (Mariane) own an E410+kit lenses. I asked if I could take the kit out for a quick test-shoot. Luckily she agreed. But with day-time temperatures here in Portugal hovering around 35 degrees centigrade, I was only out for about an hour, ducking under a shade whenever possible. Its never like this in England - there I am always ducking under shade to get away from rain showers!! ;-)
What I liked abouut the E410:
Extremely compact (with the ED 14-42mm), light, responsive and fast. Reliable focus. I didn't use the Live view (too bright/sunny outside). 14-42mm suffers a bit from distorsion at wide angle (compared to my own 14-54mm). I didn't get along too well with 40-150mm. Probably needed more time to get used to it.
All pics shot with Auto WB, SHQ, Natural mode. Some cropping/straightening. No other PP.
Pedal power. With the price of petrol these days, I think we'd all be better off 'powerng' our cars like in the Flintstones.
Olympus Evolt E-410
1/500s f/5.6 at 42.0mm iso100
Old fashioned pedal power:
Olympus Evolt E-410
1/640s f/5.6 at 42.0mm iso100
The main entrance and walkways at Oriente train station:
Olympus Evolt E-410
1/250s f/10.0 at 19.0mm iso100
