Very good to average speed for a consumer-oriented digital SLR.

The E-510's performance is quite good here, though start-up and shut-down times are a little slow for an SLR, at just over a second. Full autofocus shutter lag using the optical viewfinder is about average at 0.36 second, but "prefocus" times (half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure) are quite fast compared to other SLRs at 0.091 second. These times increase dramatically to 0.84 and 0.67 seconds respectively when Live View mode is used. Manual focus is usually faster than full AF on an SLR, but it's about the same with the E-510.

The unique aspect of the Olympus is its much-touted "Live View" mode, which opens the shutter and mirror, and uses the main sensor to produce a live viewfinder display. This is very unusual in an SLR, where you normally have to rely on the optical viewfinder to tell you what the camera is seeing. Unfortunately though, Live View mode brings with it much longer shutter lag times, more equivalent to those of a slow digicam than an SLR. This is because Live View mode requires the camera to close the shutter, drop the mirror, raise the mirror and fire the shutter when you're ready to take the picture. Because of this, even "prefocusing" in Live View mode still results in a relatively long shutter lag of 0.67 second.

Shot-to-shot cycle times are on the slow side of average for an SLR, at about 0.71 second for large/fine JPEGs and 0.59 second for RAW files, and the camera seems to capture about 15 frames at this rate. In Continuous-mode, speed is slightly above average at just over three frames/second, again with no apparent buffer limit, except when shooting RAW, when burst length was limited to eight shots in succession. Flash recycling time is fast at 3.7 seconds after a full-power shot. Connected to a computer, download speeds are very fast, avoiding the need for a separate card reader. Bottom line, the E-510 is quite responsive, ready for fast action shots at sporting events and children's birthday parties, if there is sufficient light for the autofocus to work well.

Battery
Excellent battery life without live view, unknown with live view mode.

The Olympus E-510 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and a battery and charger are included with the camera. Even though runtime is very good without live preview, we recommend picking up a spare battery and keeping it freshly charged and on-hand for extended outings, or if live preview will be used often.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

Storage
The Olympus E-510 stores its photos on Compact Flash and/or xD memory cards, and no card is included with the camera.

The Olympus E-410's images are pretty large. We strongly recommend buying a large capacity Compact Flash or xD-Picture card, at least a 1GB one, preferably a 2GB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings. (Check the shopping link above, cards are really cheap these days, so no reason to skimp.)