Olympus E-410 EVOLT Reviewed

DPReview has reviewed the Olympus E-410 EVOLT digital SLR. The Olympus E-410 EVOLT features a 10 Megapixel 4/3 type Live MOS sensor, TruePic III image processor, ISO rating up to 1600. The E-410 supports the Live View which allows you to preview the image with the 2.5-inch LCD display.

The Olympus E-410 EVOLT supports both CompactFlash(Type I/II) and xD cards.

Conclusion from DPReview:

After using the E-410 for a couple of months I really grew to like it. The body itself is very light, and - when combined with the plastic-shelled (but otherwise pretty good) 28 - 84 mm equiv. kit lens - makes for a great carry-around digital SLR. We’ve become accustomed to large hand grips, but the E-410’s design works just as well; you just hold it slightly differently (ring and little finger tucked under the body). This slim design looks great but has one trade-off, the size of the battery; the PS-BLS1 may have more specified capacity than those used in the D40X and EOS 400D, but for some reason it just didn’t seem to last as long. This is perhaps down to the combination of occasional use of Live View and the control panel display, but whatever it is I had to get into the habit of putting the battery on charge every evening. …

So lets talk about negatives. Firstly we’re still having to deal with relatively small viewfinders; the E-410’s does seem brighter than previous offerings, but it’s still tunnel-like. Secondly we were kind of disappointed with the dynamic range performance - dropping three quarters of a stop of highlight range can be the difference between a beautiful blue sky and one which is white and washed-out, although in practice it didn’t cause us too many problems. Also disappointing were the high levels of noise reduction, which impacted image sharpness and detail at lower sensitivities. We got much better results turning the Noise Filter off without seeing too much impact on visible noise (we applaud clean images, but not at the expense of detail). Other negatives were really ‘niggles’ which may or may not impact your use of the camera.