For less than $1,000, substantially less if you shop online, it’s possible to get a two-lens digital single lens reflex (SLR) camera outfit that delivers stunning photos at a resolution of 10 megapixels.
Such an assertion would have seemed ludicrous a couple of years ago, but that’s how quickly the camera market is changing. Last week, for example, Nikon announced a $3,000 professional-level digital SLR camera. Its sensor, the computer chip that records images, is said to be the same size as a 35 mm film negative. The camera is said to compete with a similar model from Canon.
Most of us aren’t in need of such high-powered gear, and for us, a camera such as the Olympus E-510, introduced earlier this year, is highly worthwhile. I last looked at an Olympus two years ago, and found the 8-megapixel E-300 an outstanding value. Along with the 25 percent increase in megapixels (the more of those, the bigger an enlargement you can make) the E-510 is lighter, has a larger liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, and packs an armload of features into the camera.
Did I say this was a bargain? The list price is just under $1,355, but you can find it online at Amazon.com for $891.13, and one of the smarter ideas Olympus has had here, one echoed by at least one other digital SLR maker, is to offer a package with more than one lens, and to do so at a reasonable price. The E-510 unit I evaluated came with two Zuiko lenses: 14-42 mm at f/3.5-5.6 and 40-150 mm at f/4-5.6. The two ranges can take you from rather wide to rather close, and while there’s always room for other lenses in a camera bag, these should cover most situations a committed amateur would find.
The camera received its “break-in” during a drive along Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park, one of my favorite photo spots.
Unlike an earlier trip, I didn’t run across a black bear in the woods, but snapped some great panoramas, some neat cloud scenes and several nice trees. It was nice having the two lenses, and nicer still having a 2.5-inch LCD display on the back of the camera, making it easy to view photos.
In operation, the camera performed marvelously, snapping pictures rapidly and providing good battery life off a single charge. The camera uses Compact Flash, or CF, as well as xD-Picture Card format cards to save images; at the default settings, my 512-megabyte CF card could store 262 such snaps, or more than seven 36-exposure rolls of 35 mm film.
The camera’s capacity for instant playback of images, a digital SLR staple, is enhanced by a thumb wheel with which you can zoom into the image, and arrow buttons that let you move around. Photos shot in “portrait,” or vertical, mode are “righted” in the LCD.
The camera could play a tad nicer with Mac OS X Tiger, since it takes an extra step to import photos from the E-510 to Apple’s IPhoto ’08.
The choice of a digital SLR can, it seems, largely come down to personal tastes: There are Nikon fanatics and Canon aficionados. But Olympus does a very good job with its cameras, the E-510 is light, seems rugged, and offers an exceptional value for the money, beating a similar Nikon offering by about $160 in price and several ounces, which can count when hiking around. Check out the E-510. I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed.
Read Mark Kellner’s Tech blog at www.washingtontimes.com/blogs.
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