Olympus Evolt E520 10MP Digital SLR Camera Review
The E-520 is my very first DSLR and I have had it now since April ‘09 (the Easter Bunny brought it 
and I can’t say enough good things about this camera or this combo.
The camera body is lightweight enough to carry all day without getting tired but sturdy enough to not feel “cheap”.The two kit lenses cover most of the distances the average user will want or need, and again neither one is a back-breaker.I use the 40-150mm when I am going to spend a day at the zoo to bring the animals closer to me (since they won’t let me get closer to them .
One really nifty feature that the camera offers is the ability to use Live View Boost to focus and frame pictures with an infrared filter in place on the front of the lens and to actually see what the camera will record.Pretty cool.
The controls are easy to use and I think the only challenge I have encountered where they are concerned is not in using them but in remembering what to use when and to remember what menu it is under. Fortunately, most of the things you will need most often (wb, AF, Flash, ISO, etc.) also have dedicated buttons easy to find right there on the camera body.You can also set your own custom profile combos to allow you to quickly switch from one set up to another without having to remember what you did the last time that you liked.
The 20 scene modes make life very easy especially when you are just starting out or if you don’t want to think and just want to shoot.And the ability (with the optional waterproof housing and light) to shoot underwater would be a really cool thing to do.
Color is great, clarity is great, the ability to remotely control the FL-36R or FL-50R flash units without having to have them attached to the camera by wires of any kind is great too.
A word about the proprietary XD card (the camera supports three different recording formats, CF, XD and Microdrive (But who uses those really?)) you can have the card in the camera in addition to the CF card and I would recommend having one just for the panoramic assist option which is only available if you use the XD card.The panoramic assist supports horizontal and vertical pans and the stitching software is built into the Olympus Master software that comes standard with the camera.
The only down side to having this camera is that you may find it difficult to find all the different lenses available at your local camera store (but there is always Amazon) as Nikon and Cannon have much better marketing.Oh, and one more word about lenses, you can get adapters which will allow you to use not only Olympus OM mount lenses from your SLR but also Pentax, Minolta, Nikon, Cannon, Miyama, and all the rest.Olympus only makes the OM mount adapter but you can find all the others aftermarket.You will need to be able to manually focus and set the f-stop on the lens itself as those features won’t be supported through the adapters but it sure opens up options.
Product Description
Your life is full of priceless, fleeting moments that you want to keep just the way you see and feel them. Preserve each moment with the E-520. With the E-520’s Live View, you can shoot your subject while viewing it on the LCD monitor, so it’s just like shooting with a compact camera. In addition to phase-difference detection AF, the E-520 incorporates a high speed Imager AF that offers easy 11-point multi-area autofocusing with Live View simply by half-pressing the shutter button. Face Detection AF automatically detects up to 8 faces at a time and adjusts focus appropriately. Accurate composition is assured by the monitor’s 100% field of view. The E-520 is equipped with a 2.7″ HyperCrystal II LCD monitor with high-definition 230,000-dot resolution, improved contrast ratio, and enhanced color reproduction capability. While shooting with Live View, framing-assist patterns or a histogram can be displayed on the LCD monitor to improve your picture composition and check exposure condition. The E-520 incorporates a Live MOS sensor with 10-Megapixels, Olympus’ original TruePic III image processing engine delivers improved imaging, gradation expression and color reproduction capabilities as well as minimized noise at high ISO setting. Olympus’ highly acclaimed dust reduction system employs a Supersonic Wave Filter in front of the image sensor, which vibrates at such high speed and with such great power that it removes even the most stubborn dust; dust that cannot be removed by just shaking the image sensor or by discharging the static electricity.Weight -475 grams (body only)
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