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DCRP Review: Olympus EVOLT E-410
by Jeff
Keller, DCRP Founder/Editor
Originally posted: March 4, 2007
Last Updated:
February 13, 2008
This is our final review of the Olympus EVOLT E-410. The camera described is a full production model, and product photos have been re-shot if necessary. All sample photos are from the production-level cameras. Thank you very much for your patience.
When Olympus announced that their compact E-400 digital SLR would not be sold in the US, the collective groan could've been heard in space. After all, we Americans want small D-SLRs too! Thankfully someone at Olympus was listening, and they brought the E-400's replacement -- the E-410 -- to the rest of us. This compact SLR, priced from $699, has quite a few tricks up its sleeve. They include:
The E-410 has a big brother as well (the E-510), which sells for $100 more. The two cameras share the same basic components, with the E-510 adding CCD-shift image stabilization, a larger right hand grip, and a more powerful battery. I'll have some side-by-side shots of the two cameras later in this article.
The entry-level D-SLR space is pretty crowded these days. How does the E-410 fare against the competition? Find out now in our review!
What's in the Box?
The E-410 will come in three kits: body only ($699), with a 14 - 42 mm lens ($799), or with that lens plus an additional 40 - 150 mm lens ($899). Here's what you'll find in the box for each:
If you get either of the lens kits then you'll be one of the first to use the new 14-42 and 50-140 mm lenses. These aren't quite as fancy as some of Olympus' other lenses (they're not weather sealed) but they're more than adequate for most people. You can, of course, use any of the other FourThirds lenses on the market, most of which are made by Olympus. The camera has a 2X crop factor, so whatever lens you attach will have the field-of-view twice that of the focal range of the lens.
Digital SLRs never come with memory cards, so if you don't have an xD or CompactFlash card laying around, you'll have to buy one. Yes, that's right, the camera supports two totally different memory card formats. I'd recommend a 1GB or 2GB card as a good starter size, and it's definitely worth paying more for a "high speed" card (called "Type H" on xD media).
The E-410 uses the new BLS-1 lithium-ion rechargeable battery. This compact packs a pretty powerful punch, with 8.3 Wh of energy. Here's how that translates into battery life:
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When shooting with the viewfinder the E-410 gets "average" battery life in the entry-level D-SLR group. Olympus doesn't publish battery life numbers if you're using live view, but it's probably close to half of the viewfinder only number. Stepping up to the E-510 gets you considerably better battery life, as it uses the more powerful BLM-1 battery.
I should remind you that proprietary batteries like the BLS-1 cost more than AA rechargeable batteries -- they're about $50 a pop. Also, if your rechargeable battery dies there's no off-the-shelf option available. The only camera that lets you use AA batteries out of the box is the Pentax K100D. A few other cameras can use them with an optional battery grip.
Speaking of which, the E-410 does not support a battery grip, which is too bad, as it would make the camera easier to hold for those of us with big hands.
When it's battery charging time, just drop the BLS-1 into the included charger. You can expect to wait about 210 minutes for the battery to be fully charged. This isn't one of those handy chargers that plugs directly into the wall -- you must use a power cable.
Being a digital SLR, you shouldn't be surprised to hear that the E-410 supports a ton of accessories. Here's a quick summary of what's available:
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Now that's one expensive underwater case -- and that only protects the body! You'll need to buy extra accessories for your lenses and flash, so it can really add up if you're into taking your E-410 under the sea.
One big accessory missing from this list: an AC adapter. This allows you to power the camera without draining your battery. I believe that the E-410 and E-510 are the only D-SLRs that don't offer one.
Olympus Master 2 in Mac OS X
Olympus includes version 2 of their Olympus Master software with the EVOLT. The software is, for the most part, a nice upgrade over the previous version. It's pretty snappy (except when loading an RAW image), the interface is simple, and it can do just about everything you could ever want.
After you've transferred photos over from the camera (either into albums or folders on your hard drive) you'll arrive at the usual thumbnail screen that is standard in all photo viewing software these days. The thumbnail sizes are adjustable, and you can see shooting data and a histogram on the right side of the thumbnails. There's even a built-in RSS reader for subscribing to Olympus-related newsfeeds, though it wasn't yet working when I tried it.
Here you can organize photos, e-mail or print them, or display them in a slideshow. If you have a bunch of photos that you want to stitch into a panorama, you can do that with a few clicks of your mouse.
Olympus Master also lets you update the firmware on your camera and lenses from within the software.
Like a lot of photo viewers, Olympus Master lets you view you images in a calendar format. There's even a "diary" for each day for you to record notes in.
Above you can see the edit window, which you access by either double-clicking on a thumbnail or by clicking the Edit button in the toolbar. Functions here include resizing, cropping, brightness/contrast/sharpness adjustments, redeye reduction, distortion correction, and much more. When you're performing one of these edits, the software does a side-by-side before and after comparison, so you can see exactly what changes you've made.
Olympus Master also features a basic RAW editor. It lets you adjust exposure, white balance, picture mode (color, b&w, sepia), contrast, sharpness, saturation, noise filter, and color space. When you adjust any of the settings, Olympus Master shows you the results after a few seconds of grinding away. Do note that you don't get the before and after view like you do when you're editing JPEGs.
The RAW conversion engine used by both Olympus Master and Olympus Studio (which I'll describe below) is pretty lousy. It turns RAW images into JPEGs that are quite soft, and not really representative of what the camera is capable of. It all has to do with the "Noise Filter" setting, which is found both in the software and on the camera itself. Later on I'm going to tell you why to turn the noise filter off in the camera, but first here's why you don't want to use it in the software either.
 Camera noise filter on, software noise filter on |
 Camera noise filter on, software noise filter off |
 Camera noise filter off, software noise filter "as shot" |
 Camera and software noise filters off |
This is kind of confusing, so bear with me. If you're shooting with the camera's noise filter turned on, images will be pretty soft. If you've already taken the shot, you can go into Olympus Master, flip over to the "Basic 2" tab, and turn the noise filter off. As you can see by comparing the first two crops, there is a slight improvement in sharpness.
Now, let's suppose, you took a picture with the camera's noise filter turned off (which is a good idea) and bring it into Olympus Master. The image is just as soft as it was with the camera's noise filter on, as you can see in photo 3. To truly turn off the noise filter, you'll need to flip the noise filter switch in OM to off as well. Then you finally get a photo with the most detail, although it's pretty noisy (see photo 4).
This isn't the place to talk about noise -- I'll save that for later. Rather, I wanted to point out this apparent bug in the software so you are aware of it.
Olympus Studio for Mac OS X
If you want more advanced RAW editing tools then you might want to consider Olympus Studio 2 ($100). This adds tone curve adjustment, false color suppression, aberration and shading compensation, distortion correction, and batch processing. Unfortunately, it seems to use the same conversion engine as Olympus Master, so you'll have the same problem that I just described.
Olympus Studio - Camera Control Feature
Olympus Studio also lets you control the camera over a USB connection. You can adjust all the settings on the camera, and the images are saved right to your Mac or PC. You don't get a live preview on the computer, though -- you'll still have to compose with the viewfinder, or use the preview function in the software.
If you don't want to use Olympus' software for RAW conversion, then you'll be pleased to hear that the latest Camera Raw plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS3 supports the E-410.
Oh, and if you have no idea what the heck RAW is, I'll tell you. Basically, it's a file containing unprocessed image data direct from the camera's sensor. You'll need to process it on your computer (or on the camera -- more on this later), but this allows you to adjust things like white balance, exposure, and noise reduction (well, in theory at least) without reducing the quality of the original image. It's almost like taking the photo again. Be warned that RAW images are considerably larger than JPEGs, which means that they take up more space on your memory card, and decrease camera performance.
Olympus includes a fold-out quick start guide as well as full, printed manual in the box with the E-410. The manual isn't very user-friendly, with lots of fine print and "notes" on each page, but you'll more than likely find what you're looking for inside its pages.
Look and Feel
The E-410 is currently the smallest digital SLR on the market. Yes, even smaller than the D40x and Rebel XTi. Like the Rebel, the E-410 doesn't have much of a grip for your right hand, so be sure to try this camera before you buy it. I personally prefer the more substantial feel of the E-510.
The camera is made of high grade plastic, but it doesn't have the "cheap" feeling of some other entry-level cameras. The camera has more than its share of buttons, some of which aren't placed in the best location.
Here's how the E-410 and its big brother (the E-510) look side-by-side:
As you can see, the E-510 is slightly larger than the E-410, with the main difference being its much beefier grip. You can also see that neither camera has an LCD info display -- they use the main LCD for that (more on this later). Inside the cameras, the main difference is the CCD-shift image stabilization found on the E-510, which will certainly be the big selling point for that model.
Now let's see how the E-410 compares to other D-SLRs in terms of size and weight:
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See, I told you that the E-410 was the smallest and lightest D-SLR out there! Now, it's not going to fit in your jeans pocket, but it is small enough to fit in a purse, or be carried comfortably on your shoulder.
Okay, enough about all that, let's start our tour of the camera now, beginning with the front.
Here's the front of the E-410 with the lens removed. The camera has the same FourThirds lens mount as the other E-System cameras, and there are plenty of lenses to choose from. As I mentioned earlier, there is a 2X focal length conversion ratio on the E-410, so a 35 mm lens has the field-of-view of a 70 mm lens. If you remember the E-330 (the first Olympus live view camera) you may recall that it had a side-swinging mirror and a porro viewfinder. As you can probably tell from the photo above, the E-410 has a more traditional upward-swinging mirror and viewfinder.
Behind the mirror is the E-410's unique LiveMOS image sensor. Its unique design allows for full-time live view on the camera's LCD display, so those of you used to previewing your shots on your compact camera's LCD will feel right at home. The old E-330 actually had two sensors: the main LiveMOS sensor and a second, smaller sensor in the viewfinder chamber. The camera offered two live view modes (A and B), with one allowing for autofocus and the other for manual focus. The problem with that concept was that the small sensor really darkened the optical viewfinder, and it's been done away with on the E-410. So, you get a brighter viewfinder and get to keep your live view, since the LiveMOS now does all the work. There are some performance issues that come with having live view, and I'll discuss those a bit later.
But wait, there's more. Like all of Olympus' E-Series cameras, the E-410 has the SuperSonic Wave Filter dust removal system. This system literally "shakes off" dust with ultrasonic waves when you turn the camera on, greatly reducing the amount of dust that can litter your photos. As someone who deals with a lot of dust on my own digital SLR, this is a very nice feature to have.
To the right of the lens mount is the lens release button. The silver thing above that (which has a duplicate on the other side of the photo) is for attaching the shoulder strap. Over on the left side of the photo, you'll find the self-timer lamp and receiver for an optional remote control.
At the top of the photo is the E-410's pop-up flash, which is released electronically. The guide number of the flash is 12 meters at ISO 100. The E-410's two main competitors, the Canon Rebel XTi and Nikon D40x, have guide numbers of 13 and 12, respectively. If you want more flash power than you might want to consider adding an external flash to the hot shoe that you'll see in a bit.
If the flash is popped up, the camera may use it as an AF-assist lamp. These flash-based systems work a lot better than the more traditional AF-assist lamps, with much faster focus speeds. You aren't forced to take a flash photo -- just disable the flash in the menu.
The first thing to see on the back of the camera is the E-410's large 2.5" HyperCrystal LCD display. This screen has very common resolution of 230,000 pixels, so everything on it is nice and sharp. The screen isn't very easy to see in bright outdoor light, though.
As I mentioned, the E-410 lets you compose photos in real time on the LCD -- just like on a fixed-lens camera. You see 100% of the frame, unlike on the optical viewfinder, which shows 95%. Two things to note, though. For one, autofocus doesn't work in the traditional way: you can't halfway press the shutter release to lock focus. Instead, you can press the AE/AF lock button, or just fully press the shutter release and the camera will focus and then take the picture. Second, taking a picture with live view adds about a second of shutter lag, as the mirror has to flip down (for metering and focus) and then back out of the way.
| Olympus EVOLT E-410 | Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 | |
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Low light w/live view boost |
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So how do things look? Well, pretty good, though not as good as on a fixed-lens camera (see above). The frame rate isn't as smooth, nor is the image as sharp. Still, it's quite usable, and much better than on the E-330. Low light visibility isn't so hot. You can turn on a live view boost option, which brightens things up, but everything is in black & white (and much less grainy than on the first generation live view SLRs).
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When you're using manual focus in live view mode you can enlarge a part of the frame to verify proper focus. Just press the Info button, move the green square to the area you want enlarged, and press the OK button. The image can be enlarged by seven or ten times. Try that on a regular D-SLR!
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| Info display on LCD when using viewfinder | Changing settings on the LCD |
All of the data normally located on an LCD info display (which the E-410 lacks) can be found on the main LCD instead (when you're not using it for live view, of course). There are two versions of the info display -- the one you see above, plus another with even more info (not pictured). When you're on this screen you can press the OK button and then use the four-way controller to navigate to and adjust any of the settings shown.
Above the LCD is the optical viewfinder. One of the big complaints on the E-330 was its dark viewfinder, which was a result of having that extra live view sensor in the viewfinder chamber. That's gone here, so the viewfinder is considerably brighter. As I mentioned, the viewfinder shows 95% of the frame, and it has a magnification of 0.92X. On the right side of the field-of-view the camera displays shooting information like aperture, shutter speed, shots remaining, and focus lock. You can use the diopter correction knob on the right side of the viewfinder to focus what you're looking at. Do note that the viewfinder closes automatically when you activate the live view feature.
To the right of the viewfinder is the AE/AF lock button, which doubles as the image protection toggle in playback mode. When you're in live view mode you can press this button to activate the autofocus system (otherwise it's manual focus only). The next button that we find is the Display button, which turns the live view feature on and off.
Moving south we find the four-way controller, used for menu navigation and quickly selecting settings from the info display I showed above. Under that is the USB + A/V port, which has a rubber cover on top of it. The E-410 supports the USB 2.0 High Speed standard, and it's about time too -- previous Olympus D-SLRs did not.
Jumping now to the left side of the LCD, we find these four buttons:
Amazingly enough, that's it for the back of the E-410!
There's a lot more to see on top of the E-410, including a bunch of buttons that aren't exactly where I'd ideally like them. I'll work my way from left to right.
There's just one sequential shooting mode on the E-410 -- no low or high speed stuff here. In this mode the camera took over twenty-five JPEG shots in a row at 3.2 frames/second before it slowed down to let the buffer memory clear out. When shooting in the RAW format, the buffer fills up after ten shots and the burst rate drops. The live view is not available during continuous shooting, so you'll need to use the optical viewfinder in order to track a moving subject. A high speed card is recommended for best performance in this shooting mode.
The item in the center of the frame is none other than the E-410's hot shoe. Here you can attach an Olympus (FL-36 or FL-50 models only) or third party external flash to get better exposures and a smaller chance of redeye. If you use the Olympus flashes then you can take advantage of automatic TTL operation -- for everyone else you'll have to set the exposure settings on both the camera and flash manually. The camera can sync as fast as 1/180 sec with an external flash.
Moving to the right, we find the E-410's mode dial, which has quite a few options. They include:
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As you'd expect on a D-SLR, there's a full set of manual controls on the E-410. Being an entry-level D-SLR, it also has plenty of scene modes as well. The most interesting of the scene modes is the digital image stabilization mode, which boosts the ISO as high as needed (up to 1600) in order to ensure a sharp photo. I'll show you later how the camera performs at those higher ISO settings. If you want optical image stabilization then you'll want to spring for the E-510 that I described back at the start of the review.
Other scene modes of note include high key and low key, which are for enhancing bright and dark areas of a photo, respectively. The panorama mode helps you line up photos side-by-side for later stitching, though this required an Olympus-branded xD card (they really need to drop this requirement). Lastly, there are two underwater modes, which you can use with that optional underwater case.
Sitting underneath the mode dial is the power switch, which feels "backwards" to me (the on and off positions seem reversed). To the right of that is the command dial, used for adjusting manual settings.
Between the mode and command dials is a light for the SuperSonic Wave Filter that I told you about earlier, with the shutter release and exposure compensation buttons above that. The exposure compensation range on the E-410 is -5EV to +5EV in 1/3EV increments.
Nothin' to see here.
On the other side of the camera you'll find its dual memory card slots, which are protected by a plastic door of decent quality. The slot on the left (with the card in it) is for xD Picture Cards, while the empty slot on the right is for CompactFlash cards. The CF slot supports the thicker Type II cards, which includes things like the Microdrive.
On the bottom of the E-410 you'll find a metal tripod mount (in line with the lens, of course) and the battery compartment. The door covering the battery compartment is a bit flimsy in my opinion (and it snaps off easily, but that's easy to fix).
The BLS-1 lithium-ion battery can be scene at right.
Using the Olympus EVOLT E-410
Record Mode
Despite having the dust cleaning system run at startup, the E-410 is still able to fire off its first shot in just over one second. Yes, some of the competition is faster, but most of them don't have dust removal.
A histogram is available in live view mode
Autofocus speeds will vary depending on what lens you have attached to the camera. With the 14 - 42 mm kit lens, the camera typically focused in 0.1 - 0.3 seconds, which is quite snappy. Switching to the 40 - 150 mm kit lens resulted in longer focus times, but they weren't too bad. On some occasions, when the camera was having difficulty focusing, I noticed that it would become unresponsive for several seconds, until it started trying to focus again. Low light focusing is on the slow side without the flash raised, but you'll see better results when the flash is used for AF-assist.
Shutter lag isn't an issue if you're shooting with the viewfinder. However, if you're using live view mode you can expect to wait about a second between the time you fully press the shutter release and when the photo is actually taken.
Shot-to-shot delays were minimal, even in RAW mode. That is, at least until the buffer memory fills up (which takes some work). Flash recharge times were minimal.
There's no way to delete a photo immediately after taking it. You must enter playback mode first.
Now, let's take a look at the numerous image size and quality choices on the E-410:
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Olympus seems to believe that you can never have too many choices when it comes to image quality. As you can see, the camera supports the RAW image format (and I explained why that's a good thing earlier), and you can take a RAW image alone, or along with a JPEG of any size.
Olympus uses a rather unusual file naming convention on their cameras. Files are named PMDD####.JPG where M = month, D = day, and #### = 0001 - 9999. As you'd expect, the numbering is maintained until you choose to reset it.
The E-410 has a pretty standard menu system. There are five "tabs", covering record, playback, and custom options. Here is the full list:
Shooting Menu 1
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Shooting menu 2
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Playback Menu
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Custom Menu
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Setup Menu
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Plenty to talk about before we can move on. First I want to mention those Picture Modes. The first three (vivid, natural, and muted) are fairly self-explanatory. For each of those you can manually adjust the contrast, sharpness, and saturation. For the monotone (black & white) option you can adjust those items plus use virtual filters (neutral, yellow, orange, red, and green) and tones (neutral, sepia, blue, purple, green).
There are numerous white balance options available on the E-410. You've got your usual presets, a one-touch option for using a white or gray card as a reference, plus the ability to set the color temperature (2000K - 14000K). In order to use the one-touch WB feature you must assign the left button on the four-way controller to one-touch, a silly oversight on Olympus' part. The camera also lets you fine-tune all of those settings in the red or green direction, each with a range of ±7. By pressing the AE/AF lock button, you can get a preview of the current white balance.
I normally don't talk about metering modes, but they deserve a mention since they're somewhat unique. For multi-pattern ESP metering, you can have the camera meter on the center of the frame, or it can use the focus point as the center (I hope that makes sense). There are three spot metering options, with highlight control allowing for overexposure and shadow control doing just the opposite.
Finally, we have the focus modes. Single AF locks focus when you halfway press the shutter release button. Continuous AF continues to focus while the button is pressed, which is needed when your subject is moving. There's also manual focus, where you'll use the electronic zoom ring around the lens to set the focus distance. If you want to override autofocus, you can do so using the Single AF + MF and Continuous AF + MF modes -- they autofocus but then let you tweak the setting manually.
Alright, it's time to move onto photo tests now. In order to show you how the noise filter affects photo quality, the following tests are displayed differently than in other reviews on this site. You can click on the links above and below the images to switch what noise filter or ISO setting is being shown (depending on the test). It'll make more sense once you see what I'm talking about. And with that...
| Std Noise Filter | Low Noise Filter | Noise Filter Off |
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| Std Noise Filter | Low Noise Filter | Noise Filter Off |
I took our macro test shot with the 14 - 42 mm kit lens. The figurine turned on nicely, with accurate, saturated colors (thanks to the camera's custom white balance feature). With the noise filter at its default ("standard") setting, the image is a bit on the soft side. Setting it to "low" produces a much sharper and more pleasing photo, in my opinion. Shutting the filter off entirely leaves an awful lot of noise considering the ISO setting (100), so it may not be the best option in situations like this.
The minimum focus distance will depend on what lens you have attached to your camera. The 14 - 42 mm kit lens has a minimum distance of 25 cm. If you want to get closer, you may want to consider a dedicated macro lens, and Olympus offers two to choose from. Their 35 mm macro lens lets you be as close as 15 cm.
Now onto the night shot, which was taken with the "other" kit lens (40 - 150 mm). Unfortunately, the US Bank building in this scene has a new, way-too-bright sign, which is blown out on every camera I've tried thus far. So it's not the E-410's fault. With that, I can say that the E-410 took in plenty of light here, thanks to its full manual exposure controls. Like the macro shot, this shot is soft with the noise filter set to standard, but you'll see what you can do about that below. Noise is -- as you'd expect -- minimal, and so is purple fringing.
Okay, now it's time for our low light ISO test. You can see the crop for each noise filter setting, and you can click on the crop to see the full size image. To change ISOs, just click on the sensitivity you want using the links above or below the images. And with that, here we go:
| ISO 100 | ISO 200 | ISO 400 | ISO 800 | ISO 1600 | |
| Std NF |
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| Low NF |
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| NF Off |
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| ISO 100 | ISO 200 | ISO 400 | ISO 800 | ISO 1600 | |
I'm going to go through each of the noise filter settings separately. At the default "standard" setting, there's really no noise to speak of until ISO 800. There's a bit more at ISO 1600, but what's really more important here is the amount of noise reduction artifacting. Images start off soft, and pretty much stay that way. Details start to get smudged at ISO 800 and more so at ISO 1600.
As you'd expect, the scene gets sharper with the noise filter turned to "low". There's no real noise at ISO 100, but it becomes apparent as soon as you hit ISO 200. Noise levels are about the same at ISO 400, and at ISO 800 we start to see noise reduction artifacting pop up. At ISO 1600 we have both noise and detail loss from noise reduction.
When the noise filter is set to "off", the camera is performing no noise reduction at all. Thus, images start noisy and only get worse. However, they retain a lot more detail than at the other two NF settings. The highest ISO settings are fairly normal, but really aren't that bad considering that there's no noise reduction active. Still, these settings are only for small prints or post-processing.
More on this subject later.
There's mild-to-moderate barrel distortion at the wide-angle end of the 14 - 42 mm kit lens. I did not find vignetting (dark corners) to be a problem, and the lens was sharp throughout the entire frame.
There's very slight redeye here, but it's barely noticeable. If you get more severe redeye (which is unlikely), you can use the redeye removal tool in playback mode to get rid of it.
Now it's time for our "normal light" ISO test, which is taken here in our studio. This means that you can compare it to other cameras I've reviewed in the last few years. Like the night ISO test, the studio test is presented differently than you normally see around here. You can see the crops for each noise filter setting, and to change the ISO, just click on the appropriate link above or below the photos.
| ISO 100 | ISO 200 | ISO 400 | ISO 800 | ISO 1600 | |
| Std NF |
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| Low NF |
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| NF Off |
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| ISO 100 | ISO 200 | ISO 400 | ISO 800 | ISO 1600 | |
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that images are pretty soft throughout the ISO range with the noise filter at standard. You don't really see any noise until ISO 800, though some NR artifacts start appearing at ISO 400.
At the low setting, everything is very clean until ISO 400, where we start to pick up some visible noise. ISO 800 is just a bit worse, with ISO 1600 being the only setting that makes me say "hey, that's noisy!".
If you don't want any noise reduction applied to your images, you can shut the whole thing off, though you'll have visible grain in your photos starting at the base ISO 100. Some folks have suggested turning the sharpness down a notch or two, but if it were me, I'd just leave the noise filter set to "low" and forget about it.
In conclusion, the E-410 is capable of taking excellent photos, given the proper settings. At the default noise filter setting, photos are very soft, and if you're moving up from a point-and-shoot you'll be sure to notice. So turn the noise filter down a notch, maybe shoot in RAW mode if you're really hardcore, and you'll like what you see. Colors are a little flat in my opinion, and if you agree you may want to visit the record menu to increase the saturation. Purple fringing was not a problem (at least with the lenses I used), and noise really isn't much of a problem until the very highest ISO settings (again, depending on your noise filter setting).
The camera's weak spot is definitely exposure. The camera tends to underexpose by 1/3 - 2/3 EV, and sometimes more. My studio shots required a full stop of additional exposure compensation compared with other cameras I've tested. If you know to watch out for this, it's not a big deal -- try exposure bracketing, or just setting the exposure compensation at +1/3EV -- but you will certainly encounter underexposure with this camera.
Now, I invite you to have a look at our photo gallery. Be sure to view the full size images, and maybe print a few of them if you can. Then decide if the E-410's photo quality meets your expectations. If you want to see some photos taken with the noise filter set to "low", check out the E-510 gallery.
Movie Mode
Digital SLR cameras do not have movie modes.
Playback Mode
The E-410 has a fairly nice playback mode by D-SLR standards. Basic features such as slideshows, DPOF print marking, image rotation, image protection, and zoom & scroll are all here. This last feature lets you enlarge your photo by as much as 14X, and then scroll around to make sure that everyone's smiling.
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The camera offers two edit modes -- one for JPEGs, another for RAW images. The JPEG editing feature lets you change an image to black and white or sepia, remove redeye, adjust saturation, or reduce its resolution. The RAW data edit feature is handy, but not as easy to use as it could be. Instead of just adjusting the RAW properties right there in playback mode, you first need to set the desired settings in the record menu, and then return to playback mode to use the RAW edit function. The resulting image is saved as a JPEG.
Since the E-410 has two memory card slots, it's not surprising that it lets you copy photos back and forth between an xD and CompactFlash card.
By default, the camera doesn't show you much information about your photos, but press the info button a few times and you'll get a lot more.
The E-410 moves from photo to photo instantly in playback mode.
How Does it Compare?
The Olympus EVOLT E-410 is the smallest digital SLR on the market. Designed as a "step up" for point-and-shoot camera users, the E-410 features a live view LCD, plenty of scene modes, and a relatively easy-to-use interface. The camera has some hits and some misses, and it's at its best when you tweak the settings a bit. Once you've done that you'll find a camera that holds up well against the entry-level competition. If you get along with the compact size (I don't), then the E-410 is well worth a look.
The EVOLT E-410 is a very compact digital SLR, smaller even that some fixed-lens ultra zoom cameras. Whether this is a good thing sort of depends on you. The camera lacks a right hand grip, so it never really felt secure in my large hands. The body has a metal sub-frame with a plastic shell, and it feels very solid. The only weak spot is the somewhat flimsy battery compartment cover. The E-410 can use all FourThirds lenses with a 2X focal length conversion ratio, and you can get two good quality lenses as part of the kit. The camera's optical viewfinder is a bit small, but a nice improvement over the one on the E-330. The E-410 is somewhat unusual in that it has two memory card slots: one for CompactFlash, and the other for xD. Like all D-SLRs, the E-410 is expandable, with support for external flashes, remote controls, and more. Two accessories that aren't available include a battery grip (not surprising) and an AC adapter (very surprising).
Probably the biggest selling point for the E-410 is its live view feature. While an improvement over the E-330, the technology still has a long way to go. Those of you moving up from a point-and-shoot camera should not expect the same live view quality as you have on your old camera. It's not as crisp, bright, or fluid, and it can be difficult to see what's on the screen both outdoors and in low light. Live view isn't really for action shots either, as the autofocus is disabled when the feature is active. You can manually focus the lens (the AF can be activated for a little help), or you can just fully press the shutter release button and wait an additional second for the autofocusing process to take place. Therefore, I rarely found myself using live view when out and about. However, I did find live view useful when I was taking photos on a tripod. I could compose my photos the way I wanted, preview the white balance, and even digitally zoom in to make sure everything's in focus (when in manual focus mode).
As I mentioned, OIympus is positioning the E-410 as a "next step" for owners of point-and-shoot cameras. That means that the automatic and scene modes that you're familiar with are still present on the E-410. One feature you won't find is a movie mode -- in fact, no D-SLR has one. The camera has a fairly easy-to-navigate menu system, though a lot of items are duplicated, either through buttons on the camera, or via the "quick menu" that you can access on the LCD. When you're ready for more serious picture-taking, you'll find full manual controls waiting for you. They include the usuals: exposure, focus, and white balance. The camera lets you adjust white balance by color temperature or with a white/gray card, and you can fine-tune WB to your heart's content. One annoyance about white balance is that Olympus makes it extra hard to set the custom white balance -- you can't do this via the menu system, and I didn't find out how until I read the manual. Naturally, the camera supports the RAW image format, though the included RAW editing software adds an extra layer of softness, unless you disable the noise filter during processing.
Camera performance was generally very good. The E-410 doesn't start up as fast as, say, the D40x, but that's because it's removing dust from the sensor -- and I'm more than happy to wait for that. Focus times were good in adequate lighting, though a bit slow when light levels dropped. Using the flash-based AF-assist lamp helps speed things up in those situations. The E-410's three point autofocus system is getting a bit long in the tooth, especially compared to the nine and eleven point systems offered by Canon and Pentax, respectively. Shutter lag isn't a problem if you're using the viewfinder, but if you're using live view, there's roughly a one second delay before the photo is actually taken. Shot-to-shot delays are minimal, regardless of what image quality setting you've chosen. The E-410's continuous shooting mode is nice, taking 10 RAW or 25+ JPEGs at 3.2 frames/second before slowing down. Battery life was average when using the viewfinder, and well below average if you're using live view all the time.
Photo quality is somewhat disappointing at default settings, though it can be improved upon easily. Straight out of the box, the camera produces images that are pretty soft, and often underexposed. Fixing the first one is easy: go to the menu and turn the noise filter option to either low (my choice) or off. Yes, your images will be noisier (especially if you turn the thing off), but they'll be sharper and more detailed. If you skipped the body of the review to read the conclusion, scroll up for lots of examples. The exposure issue can be resolved by either using auto bracketing, or just turning up the exposure compensation 1/3 stop or so (though sometimes it will take a lot more than that). Colors seemed a little flat to me -- though that's purely subjective -- and if you agree you can adjust the saturation setting. Noise wasn't really a problem unless you turned the noise filter off, and even then it wasn't too bad until ISO 1600. Purple fringing was not a problem on any of the lenses I tested. Our flash test had slight amounts of redeye, but not enough to concern me. If you do encounter any redeye, you can remove it via a tool in playback mode.
In some ways, the Olympus EVOLT E-410 reminds me of the Pentax K10D. Both cameras are capable of taking great photos, but you'll need to adjust some settings first. It would've been nice had Olympus not applied so much noise reduction at the default settings, but at least there's a way around that. Once you've done that -- and maybe adjusted the color saturation -- you'll find the E-410 to a be a good entry-level digital SLR with a handy (but imperfect) live view feature, dust reduction, and snappy performance. I personally would spend the extra $100 for the EVOLT E-510, which is larger and easier to hold, and it has built-in image stabilization as well. Whichever one you choose, both of these new EVOLTs are worth a look.
What I liked:
What I didn't care for:
Some other entry-level D-SLRs to consider include the Canon Digital Rebel XTi, Nikon D40x, Olympus E-510, Pentax K100D Super, and the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100. If you can drop a little more cash, the Nikon D80 and Pentax K10D are also worth a look.
As always, I recommend a trip down to your local reseller to try out the EVOLT E-410 (especially due to its small size!) and its competitors before you buy!
Photo Gallery
Have a look at our photo gallery and judge the E-410's image quality with your own eyes!
Feedback & Discussion
To discuss this review with other DCRP readers, please visit our forums.
If you have a question about this review, please send them to Jeff. Due to my limited resources, please do not e-mail me asking for a personal recommendation or technical support.
Want another opinion?
You'll find more reviews of the E-410 at Digital Photography Review, CNET, and Megapixel.net.
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