Olympus E-410 Review

Overview

Olympus E-410
Overview

by Shawn Barnett
Hands-On Preview: 3/05/07
Full Review: 7/31/07
UPDATED 8/14/07: Kit lens comparison

As the smallest digital SLR on the market, the Olympus E-410 brings to mind the revolution started with the company's first full-frame 35mm SLR back in 1972: the M-1, later renamed the OM-1. As of this writing, there are other small SLRs already on the market, that are very close in size -- and smaller in some dimensions -- so the E-410 is not quite the revolution that the M-1 was. But it's just the right size when you want to pack light, as it's also the lightest camera on the market.

Born simultaneously with the larger E-510, the Olympus E-410 shares most of its internal features with its fraternal twin. It has a 10-megapixel Live MOS sensor, a new TruePIC III processor, a 2.5 inch LCD, and uses both CF and xD memory cards. The Live MOS sensor, made by Panasonic, enables a true Live View mode, allowing image composition on the LCD, much like the common digicam most have grown used to (note that I don't say "just like the common digicam").

Since it's a Four-Thirds camera, the E-410 is compatible with all 28 Four-Thirds lenses made by Olympus, Sigma, and Panasonic. Two new Olympus lenses were introduced with the line, and the E-410 can be purchased with one or both lenses in a kit. The lens that appears in both bundles is the 3x, 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6, a very small optic that is equivalent to a 28-84mm lens on a 35mm camera. The 40-150mm f/4-5.6 is not much larger or heavier, and is equivalent to 80-300mm on a 35mm camera. Together the two lenses span 10.7x. It's quite an impressive range that fits in the smallest of camera cases, and that's the real story to the Olympus E-410.

Olympus E-410
User Report

by Shawn Barnett

History. Unlike most camera manufacturers, Olympus has only ever produced two lines of SLR cameras with interchangeable lenses. The original OM-series spanned three decades, culminating in the OM-4T, an innovative, albeit manual-focus camera that was finally discontinued in 2002. In 1990, the company introduced a three-point AF system in their IS-1, a camera design that they dubbed ZLR, for Zoom Lens Reflex. It was essentially a film SLR without interchangeable lenses.

Olympus never produced an autofocus SLR system with interchangeable lenses, which is why it was easy for them to let go of the manual-focus OM-series and build an entirely new system designed around a smaller sensor. Unlike other manufacturers, all with an existing base of AF lenses to support with their new digital SLR designs, Olympus could afford to start fresh.

Smaller, lighter. The main design goal of the Olympus E-system was to keep everything small. I can't be sure whether they chose the Four-Thirds sensor size for this reason, or if it was a size that was more affordable, but the company claims the goal was to enable smaller lenses and smaller cameras.

Smaller lenses. This is a very small photographic combo, yet it offers 10.7x magnification.

Until these two latest lenses, it didn't seem like they were realizing their goal. The bundled lenses were as big as most equivalent competing designs, and sometimes bigger. But these two lenses finally deliver on the promise of smaller optics. The 3x lens is only smaller by a nose, but the 40-150 takes you to 300mm equivalence in a remarkably small space.

The other major goal of the Four-Thirds system was to be "designed for digital." At first, manufacturers like Nikon, Canon, and Pentax were using lenses that were designed for 35mm film cameras, while using sensors that were roughly APS-C sized. This was a smart way for these companies to keep their loyal lens owners by giving them a safe upgrade path. But Olympus argued that digital sensors themselves required a different approach to avoid light falloff in the corners, among other problems.

According to our tests, the approach may be helping. Though other manufacturers have come out with their own digital-specific lenses, it seems these two new lenses outperform the two most popular manufacturers' kit lenses. More on that later.

Look and Feel. I should note that the E-410 body style is not new to most of the world, as it's essentially identical to the E-400 introduced in Europe last year. But it's new to the US, so I'll go on about it as if it's new.

Old and new. Approaching the small size of the revolutionary OM-1, the E-410 is one small digital SLR.

The Olympus E-410 is so small that it begs comparison to many cameras. The Pentax K100D, the Rebel XTi, the Nikon D40, and the Olympus OM-1 come to mind. I happen to have all of these here, including the OM-1, and the comparison is interesting. It's amazing to think that the OM-1 is all gears and springs, and the E-410 is mostly transistors.

Homage. Olympus says they hid a little tribute to the OM-1 under the E-410 and E-510's pop-up flash.

I won't actually compare the two, except to say that the OM-1 is wider and thinner, with a shorter prime lens. Olympus took an extra step, however, to invoke the memory of their OM-series cameras. If you pop up the E-410's flash, you can see the same shape found on the OM-1's pentaprism housing. It's a subtle, but interesting homage. Because of the natural shape of a pentaprism or Penta-mirror, you'll find a similar shape under the Rebel XTi's flash; but I'll take Olympus's word that they did this on purpose.

Subtle. It's more of a contour than a grip, but easy to get used to, with a nice textured surface.

Grip. Unlike all the other small SLRs I've mentioned, the Olympus E-410 doesn't have much of a grip. It's more of subtle arrangement of contours that help enhance your hold. There's a soft well on the back for your thumb, and a raised ridge on the front. Both are enhanced by a soft, textured, rubbery surface to improve traction. The sensation really does bring back the old days of slim, gripless camera bodies. It reduces the bulk of the camera overall, and makes it look slimmer. Holding the E-410 for long periods of time is not as easy as holding an E-510 or even the Rebel XTi, whose grip is very small, and it gets even harder if you attach a long zoom or heavy prime lens to the E-410, but when I'm just headed out for some casual shooting, the E-410's small profile and small lenses are just right.

Controls. I was pretty partial to the E-500's power switch on the top deck just behind the shutter button, so I'm a little less excited about the power switch jutting out from the back of the E-410. When off, the switch is a little close to the Control dial, so you have to press your thumb into it to get a good grip. Though less than ideal for speed, it's probably better, since it makes accidental activation less likely.

Simple controls. From placement to function, the controls work very well.

The Mode dial sits atop the power switch, and has just the right stiffness to maintain its position while riding around in a bag. The Control dial to the right of this is excellent. It has just the right feel as you turn it through its detents, with a tactile feedback and sound that's very similar to the OM-1's dials.

The Shutter button is out on the front of the top deck. I prefer grip-mounted shutter buttons, but once my hand has found a comfortable grip on the E-410, my index finger quite naturally rests on the shutter button, so no harm there. Just right of the shutter button is the EV/Av adjustment button. If you shoot in Manual mode, you press this button to adjust the Aperture, since there's no dedicated dial. Most consumer SLRs have this requirement. Flash and Drive mode buttons are on the left of the top deck, and a very common set of buttons is on the back.

Card door. The card cover conceals not one, but two types of memory card slot.

Storage and Power. The E-410, like the E-510, uses both CF cards (CompactFlash) and xD cards. This is great for those already invested in either kind of card. Most pro SLRs use CF, so E-1 owners will already have storage for these new cameras; but consumers who own a digicam that uses xD can also step into the E-410 with less initial cost.

There are two benefits to using CF, however: speed and capacity. According to our tests, the Olympus E-410 captured 15 Large/Fine JPEG images before the buffer filled, then it took only five seconds to save all images to the card. Using a regular speed xD card, we managed only 9 frames, and it took 26 seconds to save the data off. Currently, the largest xD card you can get is 2GB, while the largest CF available is 16GB.

Given that the E-410's Large/Fine JPEGs can be as large as 8MB each, you'll want one or two large CF cards for vacation. If you're shooting RAW or RAW+JPEG, each image can be 17.3MB and 25.6MB each, respectively.

With Live View mode off, the E-410 can capture around 500 shots with its slim 7.2V, 1150mAh lithium-ion battery (Model: PS-BLS1). I have trouble getting the pack to come out of the unit we have. It seems like the spring on the retention latch is a little strong, and the pack doesn't come out far enough to grasp. Initially I had to use my Leatherman to grab the battery, but it's loosening up a bit after a few weeks of use.

Viewfinder. An optical viewfinder is where you get the best speed with any SLR, and that's true with the Olympus E-410. The viewfinder is cramped, unfortunately, and Olympus puts the status display off to the right of the viewfinder window, rather than across the bottom, which means I can't see it without pressing my glasses into the rubber eyecup and peering to the right of the viewfinder. There is good news, though. If I take off my glasses and press my nose in against the left of the camera, I can get right in there, and the diopter can compensate for my vision. No other brand makes a camera that compensates for my nearsightedness out of the box. I think most users would appreciate greater magnification from the viewfinder, as well as a higher eyepoint. It happens that the OM-1's viewfinder is unusually large; optically, the E-410's viewfinder appears to be about 1/4 the size of the OM-1's.

Live View. Though it increases shutter lag, Live View offers some intriguing possibilities. As these roll by above, you'll see the different modes available by pressing the INFO button. The green box can be moved around the Live View screen; then you press the OK button to zoom in 10x and verify focus. Handy for fine tripod work. If you press the OK button when out of the zoom mode, a modified translucent Status display comes up allowing you to change major settings on the fly.

Live View. From a technology perspective, the company that gave us smaller SLRs, Focal Plane flash sync, and automatic dust removal is once again taking the lead, deploying the second generation of full-time live preview SLRs for consumers. Unfortunately, their implementation doesn't jibe with consumer expectations. It's not just expectations, but the problem of the marketing department promising something that the engineering department hasn't quite built.

I'm reminded of something close to my heart, the Apple Newton fiasco. They were incredible handheld computers, and people who see them today -- even those who own the most advanced modern handheld computers -- marvel at the design and interface. But because the Newton's handwriting recognition wasn't perfect, the public and media panned them. Handwriting recognition was only one aspect of the Newton, but because that was its most potentially impressive feature, when it didn't work perfectly for all types of handwriting, people saw it as flawed. After all, it had no physical keyboard, so bad handwriting recognition made it worthless, right? Not quite. Onscreen keyboards were also part of the Newton, and data entry was easy with this method; and the Newton would gradually learn your handwriting.

Today, digicam users seldom look through their optical viewfinders. They've grown accustomed to holding their cameras out in front of them and composing on the LCD. Never mind that this method introduces more shake than holding the camera to your eye; it's more comfortable, usually more accurate, and easier to envision your print on a larger, backlit screen.

Surely a digital SLR with a Live View mode will attract millions of digicam users looking for the same functionality they love in their digicam. Absolutely. And that's what buyers will think and retailers will emphasise when discussing the Olympus E-410 and E-510.

But there's a problem. One thing digicam owners quickly grow to dislike more than small, cramped optical viewfinders is extreme shutter lag. That's the time between when you press the shutter button and when the camera actually captures an image. Well, Live View introduces significant and widely varying shutter lag, ranging from a half second to three or more seconds depending on whether the camera can focus on the subject. There's your handwriting recognition on the wall.

It's not that Olympus is entirely marketing these two cameras exclusively as Live View SLRs, but because they're the first with Live View, people will expect the E-410 to work just like their digicam; and further, because it's an SLR they will also expect it to have lower shutter lag than their digicam. But both notions are incorrect.

Compared to XTi. One is taller and the other wider, but the E-410 is just a little smaller overall than the XTi. Both have dust reduction, but only the E-410 has Live View.

Though Live View does give you a live image onscreen, that image won't be in focus until you press the AEL/AFL button. When you do, the image freezes and the mirror and shutter flip closed until focus is achieved. Then your live image returns and the selected AF point illuminates onscreen. Depending on how contrasty your subject is, you can focus in around a half second, or it might take a few. It also might never focus. You can move the camera to a more contrasty subject, but you won't be able to see just where you've moved it until the camera focuses and your live view returns. Sound frustrating? It is.

You can also just trust that the Olympus E-410 will focus properly, press the shutter all the way, and it will usually focus right before it fires. Shutter lag in this mode is 0.88 second, provided it has a good target and sufficient light to focus. If you prefocus by pressing the AEL/AFL button, this time goes down to 0.59 second. For comparison, if you shoot with the optical viewfinder, the shutter lag does full autofocus in 0.37 second, and if you prefocus it's a blazing 0.092 second. That's what you buy an SLR for: fast AF and fast capture. But in Live View mode, the E-410 is slower than most digicams, let alone most SLRs.

Add flash to Live View, and the full AF shutter lag actually gets slower than the Panasonic L1. The preflash is a lot faster, but somehow the E-410 manages to be slower overall. Having a faster preflash is surprisingly helpful, however, because I found that with all the shutter and mirror flipping as the L1 focused, adding a preflash 1/2 second before the actual exposure added the last bit of confusion to the mix, leading my subjects to think I'd taken several shots.

Live View can be confounding to the subject and the photographer if you're not patient.

And that's the true pitfall of Live View: those who choose it as their main shooting mode will think the E-410 is the slowest camera they've ever used. It's the perception, not the truth that stands to hurt Olympus's reputation. But that need not be the case, which is why I've bothered to explain all that.

As I suggested in my preview of the Olympus E-410, you'll want to use the optical viewfinder for most shots, because you want to eliminate as much shutter lag as possible. But as I've spent time with both cameras, I have been surprised by just how often I use Live View mode.

Taking a picture of my son sleeping on the floor, I realized the shot would be a little better if I could get directly above him, but without my feet in the shot. If only I could hold the camera out over him and still see through the viewfinder, I thought to myself. Then I remembered Live View. Just press the button on the back, compose on the LCD, and press the shutter button. So long as there's sufficient contrast under one of the three AF points, and I hold the camera still, the mirror will flip down, the camera will focus, and the mirror will flip back up to capture the image. In this situation, I don't care that it's slow. He's sleeping, after all. The noise of the multiple shutter sounds might wake him up, but not in this case.

The point is that Live View is a feature of the Olympus E-410 that you won't get many other places, but it's not the main mode you should use. Most of the chief benefits of an SLR are found in the optical viewfinder: You're seeing exactly what the lens sees, and what the sensor will see once you press the shutter. Compared to an LCD display, you're getting your information at the speed of light, not filtered and delayed through oodles of electronic circuits before it gets to the LCD. Live View is great -- a worthwhile feature -- but it's nowhere near as great as an actual live view at 186,282 miles per second (299,792 km per second).

Keep it in perspective, and the E-410 is a little more versatile than most digital SLRs because it offers both.

I was also surprised to see the Live View image change to black and white in very low light. This presumably allows the Olympus E-410 to gain up without significant color speckles dancing on the screen. It also gives clearer detail. Impressive.

Dust. You can't see it in the first shot, but open the Auto Levels version and the dust becomes visible (click on the images to see larger versions). In our testing, the E-410 apparently gathered no dust from start to finish, but it didn't manage to shake any loose, either. These are just stubborn pieces of dust that will have to be cleaned from the SuperSonic Wave Filter.

Dust suppression. Olympus was also the first to take on this challenge. Dust was always a problem with film, but now it's worse. Film caused scratches on the emulsion while moving through the camera, and stuck to negatives and slides in storage. Seldom did it affect a single frame during capture; and if it did, that would change when the film advanced to the next frame.

With digital, there is no advance to the next frame. The sensor is the same shot to shot, so any dust that sticks to the glass just sits there, affecting each frame the same as the last. Now that Olympus has enabled Live View, the problem is magnified because the sensor can be exposed to dust for minutes instead of fractions of a second.

So far, it looks like Olympus's dust solution is still the most effective. What dust it doesn't shake off is substantially blurred in the final exposure. I'll have to take brief issue again with the marketing strategy, because once again they're overselling a good thing. The main E-410 brochure I received is full of wonderfully worded overstatement: "Dust. It's everywhere. It's annoying. It's relentless. It must be stopped. We've declared war on dust. And driven it out of our cameras." Then it goes on to describe a scene where the protagonist in the story has the confidence to change lenses while quads race past, "with dust swirling everywhere."

I'm an Olympus fan from way back, but I'm concerned about these claims. Any experienced camera owner can tell you not to change lenses in areas where dust -- especially sand -- is "swirling." Even if the Supersonic Wave Filter can shake most of the airborne sand from the sensor, this fine abrasive will work its way into vital parts in the lens, shutter, buttons, dials, and wear on the mount.

My understanding is that while some of Olympus's high-end lenses are sealed to resist dust and moisture, these two new lenses are not. You'll never get all of it out, and your camera will never be the same. The E-410 might indeed be a good camera for use in dusty environments, but please wait for the dust to settle before you change lenses.

Had Olympus not made these claims, I'd have been able to say that their Super Sonic Wave Filter works well to remove many types of dust, and the body is sealed to keep most dust out. Be aware, however, that even if the body were perfectly sealed and you never removed the lens, dust still enters through zooming and focusing the lens, and dust can even come from the camera's internal components, especially the fast-moving shutter and mirror mechanism. The good news is that Olympus's system works well; but the truth is that you'll still periodically need to clean the sensor, as you will with all other brands.

Interface. As I mentioned, the buttons and dials are great on the E-410, but the digital interface is important too. Their implementation of the Status display makes adjusting most settings very easy. Unless you're in Live View mode, the Status display is present for about ten seconds after you release the shutter button. In this time, if you press the OK button, one of the blocks on the status display turns yellow. You can use the four arrows to move around to the item you want to change and press OK again. The selection menu for that item then appears, and you can use either the arrows or the Control dial to make your selection. Press OK again, and you're back to the Status display. There are two displays, a simple and a more intricate one, selected with the Info button.

Fireworks mode. I had a terrible location, with a telephone pole and street light right in front of me, and most of the fireworks were bursting right behind that pole. But with zoom I managed to get a few good shots that I later cropped. This was taken with the 40-150mm kit lens.

The menus are fairly straightforward, but oddly organized, and it's often unclear which button you should press to move onto the next screen. If you decide you want to change the Picture Mode item, you press the right arrow to bring up the next screen. If you press OK instead, you leave the menu entirely. If you own the camera, it won't be a problem; if you use dozens like I do, it's annoying.

Features. Nearly all the advanced features you expect from a mid-range SLR are included in the E-410. Flash exposure compensation; multiple color modes, including black and white tones and filters; High and Low key settings; Preset and Kelvin White balance capability; mirror lockup; and even AE bracketing. The E-510 has a little more than the E-410, though, starting with White balance bracketing and Flash bracketing. You can also set a high ISO limit with the E-510, define a color space, turn on shading compensation, and an array of other custom functions that are left out of the E-410 to keep it simple.

Of course the Olympus E-410 is replete with Scene modes, 20 in all. I managed to make good use of the Fireworks mode this past Fourth of July. This one earned a place on my wall, but there's another in the Gallery. I was pleasantly surprised by how little I had to do to get great results. A tripod was required, of course.

Olympus Studio. With Studio 2.0, you can remote control the camera and instantly upload pictures from the camera to the computer. You do not get a live image onscreen, however.

Remote control. What wasn't left out of the E-410 is the ability to work with Olympus Studio 2.0 software, which is a more advanced version of the Olympus Master software bundled with the camera. It's available for $200, but a demo version can be installed from the included disk.

One of the more interesting features of the software is the ability to remote control the E-410 via USB connection. Just click a button onscreen and your image is captured and downloaded to the computer. If you can't imagine why you'd need that, it's probably not worth buying the software. You'll get most of what you need to handle RAW images with the included software. The good news for studios, whether pro photographers or ebay stores, is that this software is there if you need it. (The Canon Rebel XTi comes with the software for this trick.)

Optics and Accessories. Buying an E-410 avails you of the entire suite of 20 Zuiko Digital lenses, as well as flashes, cables, finders, and there's even a lens adapter for using old OM lenses. Something else that you won't find for the E-510 is the PT-E03 Underwater Housing, available for around $1,100 (It also requires a "lens port" for the size of lens you'll be using; the PPO-E01 will work with the kit lens and costs approximately $365). Waterproof down to 131 feet (40 meters), the E-410 is a great choice for diving, not only because its small size allows for a smaller housing, but because the Live View mode makes composing images underwater much better than having to squint through a viewfinder or use an awkward frame. Other accessories include a flash housing for the FL-20 and FL-36 flashes. You can even get a zoom ring to allow zooming of the camera while it's in the housing.

As for settings, the E-410 has special underwater Scene modes that make adjusting your camera for underwater photography as simple as selecting one of the modes. See the video above right for more.

Center vs. Corner. The charts above plot "blur factor" from our DxO test charts against aperture (lower blur factor numbers are better). We start at 5.6, because this is the first aperture that all three lenses share in common at all focal lengths. We attribute the slight increase in blur at f/22 to diffraction limiting due to the Four-Thirds sensor's smaller pixels. Otherwise, the Olympus clearly outperforms Nikon and Canon's Kit lenses in terms of corner sharpness.

Lenses. Olympus has some impressive lenses available for the E-410. I played with a few during this review, and enjoyed both their size and overall sharpness. It took some time to get used to them and their idiosyncracies, especially the very narrow depth of field wide open (not unusual, but I find I have to play with a lens a few times before I tune in to its habits and capabilities on a given body). I used the 150mm f/2.0 and the 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5. Both were very sharp, but I got better results locking them to the center AF point due to the narrow depth-of-field. These were large and heavy enough that they really required a tripod, and were better suited to the Olympus E-510, with its bigger grip and sensor-shift image stabilization.

*UPDATE 8/14/07* Digital lens design. We're in the process of starting our tests of Olympus Four-Thirds optics on SLRgear.com, and the initial results show that my experience and Olympus's claims for their edge-to-edge sharpness are indeed valid, at least in the first lens we've tested. Jim Tanner, our lens technician, tested the Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6, and plotted the average results against the average results from Canon's EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and Nikon's Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G. While all three lenses are pretty close when compared by center sharpness, it's at the corners where we see a significant difference. As I've mentioned in other reviews, the Canon lens looked much better when used on a 6-megapixel camera, but the 10-megapixel Rebel XTi reveals significant softening in the corners. The same goes for the Nikon D40's performance with its kit lens when compared to the 10-megapixel D40x. The Zuiko 14-42mm kit lens does much better, as you can see in the plots at right.

FL-36. It's small and packs easily, but the FL-36 recycles too slowly for my kind of shooting.

Flash. I only used the FL-36 external flash occasionally. While it was fine with the E-410's kit lenses, and worked reasonably well in bounce situations, the flash recycle time was a little too long; and the camera wouldn't fire until the flash had recycled. That is probably fine if you're shooting in a darker setting, but very often I was using the flash for fill, and would have preferred to just take a shot without fill so that I didn't miss the moment. I'd recommend the FL-50, as the FL-36 doesn't recharge quickly enough after a full-power shot, probably due to its use of only two AA batteries.

It's also worth noting that with the FL-36 mounted, you really miss a larger grip. The entire combo slipped out of my hand easily at one point, thankfully landing on a 3-inch thick padded mat.

The on-camera flash is very small, and offers very poor coverage at the camera's wide angle setting. It's fine for telephoto shots, if a little underpowered. I also found that the E-410 didn't always make the right decision for proper exposure, producing underexposed, flat images.

Well enough. In one of the rare moments, the E-410 caught my kid sitting still.

Low light. I took my kids to a local play area recently, where it was dark enough that ISO 1,600 was insufficient to freeze action. So I worked with the FL-36 at first, then switched to the on-camera flash. Despite its narrower range, I had better results with the on-camera flash. Both flashes resulted in a very blue cast against the yellow lights, but they're usable shots. My biggest complaint was the poor speed of the autofocus system. I really had to work to get it to focus, and my little models didn't stay still for long. The E-410's pop-up flash actually had better success focusing, but it took a lot longer, with several bursts of illuminating flash. Most cameras will give you some trouble focusing in low light, but this was more trouble than I'm used to.

We also ran into an odd problem with hot spots appearing only at ISO 400 and above, and only at certain exposure times (e.g.: ISO 400 at 2.5 seconds and f/3.2). In our first sample, the spots exceeded hundreds, but our second sample was significantly better. This will not affect most shooters, but anyone doing time exposures for cityscapes might want to take note. See the Exposure tab for more (scroll down to Low Light).

Image quality. Take a look at the Exposure and Optics tabs for the full breakdown on image quality. It's a bit of a mixed bag, unfortunately. The test results do indeed show the corners to be quite a bit sharper than the competition's kit lenses, so it's likely that Olympus's digital-specific lenses do indeed have an advantage.

High ISO images are also pretty good, with admirable control over noise, especially considering the smaller size of the Four-Thirds sensor. Below, I've compared the E-410's ISO 1,600 shot with the Canon XTi and Nikon D40x.

Canon Rebel XTi
Nikon D40x
Olympus E410
Respectable high ISO. The Olympus E-410's ISO 1,600 performance was pretty good, producing somewhat soft images, but with little noise. Whereas the Canon XTi on top left much chroma noise to preserve detail, and the D40 effectively smooshed out chroma noise along with some detail, the E410 strikes a balance between the two extremes. The image is softer overall, however.

Difficult recovery. Though I managed to compensate for it in levels, the odd tone curve applied to this image by the E-410 made recovery difficult, requiring individual attention to each color channel. Auto Levels did next to nothing, by the way, and Curves didn't respond well at all, so this is not a tweak for the amateur, nor is it one I want to do often.

Odd Tone Curve. Our lab tests are designed to simulate common situations you're likely to encounter with a camera, but we also spend time with the cameras and use them in our real lives. I've been shooting the E-410 and E-510 for more than a few weeks, living with the cameras and using them for my personal photography (hence all the kids).

Taking nothing away from our lab shots, it's different when you're looking at a picture you took yourself of your child at a parade. When the highlights are blown and shadows are plugged in the lab's Sunlight Extreme test, I point it out and write in the appropriate warning to watch out for direct sunlight situations; but when it's a shot I'd like to post or print, I have to go through the rigors of trying to salvage the blown highlights or deep shadows, while making sense of the mid-tones. The lesson strikes home.

So it's also from experience that I can tell you: the Olympus E-410's tone curve produces images that are often difficult to tweak. Highlights are too often blown, and shadows are too deep; detail in these areas can't be recovered. But it's not just the darkest shadows, mind you: the mid-range tones are often too abruptly dark. Shots in the shade are flat, with very little nuance to allow an easy recovery. Recovering mids without blowing the highlights is also very difficult; way too complex for the average snapshooter.

In bright sunlight, we found that reducing the contrast to -2 in the Normal mode kept shadows from clipping too badly, but highlights were still too strong. Shadows were usually deeper in the images than they appeared to my eye. Skintones, especially, suffer in sunlight.

Because the LCD is somewhat dim in bright sunlight, these images seem badly underexposed; but if you adjust the exposure for a better appearance on the LCD, you'll blow the highlights even worse. It's frustrating. See the Imatest page for more on this.

300mm equivalent. Though it seems huge compared to the E-410, this 150mm f/2.0 lens is short compared to others of the same length and power. It is heavy, but it gives you a lot of light gathering ability in a small package.

Appraisal. The Olympus E-410 is a handsome and handy little SLR, one I could have easily fallen in love with. Though its Live View mode is not what it many will think, introducing extreme shutter lag, it is quite useful on occasion, allowing you to get shots you couldn't otherwise. Its small size and light weight let me take it along more often, and it was nimble and easy to adjust to my needs. Autofocus in low light was weak, however, resulting in many a missed shot; and its tendency to blow highlights and underexpose the mids left some shots similarly out of reach. As has been the case with every Olympus SLR I've reviewed, though, I managed to get some very good shots with the E-410. Some of them, unfortunately, were a lot of work, either before or after capture. Manually tweaking the contrast to a lower setting helped reduce the blown highlights, so there is a way to deal with it if you know how.

So it's a mixed bag. Easy to use, great design, perfect size, nice features, good lens; but sometimes getting a good shot is harder than it should be. I hesitate to recommend the E-410 to the rank amateur, because I think too many of their images will be disappointing, especially indoors or in shadow. I do think it's a good choice for those who need the smallest camera possible, and don't mind tinkering with camera settings, and tweaking pictures after.

Features

• 10.0-megapixel Live MOS image sensor
• Interchangeable lens mount accommodates Olympus Zuiko four thirds Digital lenses
• Kit includes Olympus Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED lens
• Digital SLR design and true optical viewfinder
• SuperSonic Wave Filter cleans dust from sensor
• 2.5-inch color LCD monitor with 230,000 pixels and Live View capability
• Manual and automatic focus modes, with adjustable AF area and Single-Shot and Continuous settings
• Shutter speeds from 1/4,000 to 60 seconds, with a Bulb setting (8 minute limit)
• Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual exposure modes, plus 20 Scene modes
• Spot, Spot with Highlight Control, Spot with Shadow Control, Center-Weighted, and Digital ESP metering systems
• Auto Bracketing and Sequential Shooting capture modes
• Variable ISO setting, with ISO equivalents from 100 to 1,600 (Set via menus)
• Contrast, Saturation, Monochrome (with several filter options), and Graduation image adjustments
• Adobe RGB and sRGB color space options
• Built-in pop-up flash with six operating modes and intensity adjustment
• Hot Shoe for attaching external flash units, compatible with Olympus' own line of dedicated flash units for better-integrated exposure control
• JPEG, and RAW file formats
• Images saved on CompactFlash cards and Microdrives, as well as xD-Picture cards
• USB cable for fast connection to a computer (USB auto-connect for driverless connection to Windows Me, 2000, XP, and Vista, and Mac OS 8.6 or greater)
• Video cable for connection to a television set
• Optional remote control RM-1
• Optional remote cable release RM-UC1
• Power from rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack (battery and charger included)
• Software CD with Olympus' Master utility software (includes necessary drivers)
• DPOF (Digital Print Order Format)/PictBridge compatibility and print settings

In the Box

The EVOLT E-410 kit package contains the following items:

• Olympus E-410 digital SLR body
• Olympus Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED Lens (kit only)
• Lens hood (kit only)
• Shoulder strap
• BLS-1 lithium-ion battery
• BCS-2 battery charger
• USB cable
• Video cable
• Software CD containing Olympus Master and USB drivers.
• Manuals and warranty registration information

Recommended Accessories

• Additional battery pack
• Large capacity CompactFlash memory card or Large capacity xD memory card. (These days, 1GB and 2GB cards are inexpensive, so get one or two.)

Conclusion

Olympus's EVOLT E-410 finally realizes one of the most clearly stated goals of the Four-Thirds standard: A small camera with a great lenses and good quality. Unfortunately, I think there's still some work that needs to be done to make the camera's imaging abilities all they can be. As has consistently been the case with Four-Thirds cameras -- the only exception being the E-500 -- I have to spend more time weighing the positives against the negatives than I do with other cameras.

On one hand, the Olympus E-410 is cute, quick, fun to shoot (used with Live View off), and stows easily. Its main kit lens is small and sharp even in the corners, and the 40-150mm telephoto lens makes for a small 10.7x combo. Its Scene modes are great for the novice, but two modes in particular are tuned for professional divers willing to spend more than the camera costs in an underwater housing and accessories. This little portable wonder also works with a pretty impressive array of high-quality optics that are themselves quite small.

On the other hand, I see the E-410 as aimed mostly at the consumer photographer. Though it has the great lens and full-auto modes, it too often fails to serve up accurate exposure and white balance indoors where consumers take a good portion of their pictures. Where I was most frustrated was when my pictures lacked contrast and nuance, with areas that weren't so dark to my eye appearing quite dark and flat in the image. There are workarounds, but it's harder to strongly and universally recommend a camera that kept me guessing most of the time, not to mention working too hard to recover images that should have been straightforward.

Still, I know that I can make great images with the Olympus E-410, because I have. It's a camera I'd love to take on a hike, or carry on a daily basis, but I'd have to spend some more time solving the problems I've mentioned. Unless your needs are specifically for a very small camera that you'll be shooting primarily in daylight -- and you have no problem regularly tweaking images -- I think most consumer needs will be served better with a different SLR. Those who are into photography and/or love the whole Four-Thirds philosophy would probably be happier with the Olympus E-510. Tinkerers who have been waiting for a small SLR and like to make good products better with a little attention to detail will love the Olympus E-410. The E-410 is a good camera in the hands of an experienced photographer, but not the best choice for the average consumer.

Design

Olympus EVOLT E-410 Design

Despite its small profile, the Olympus EVOLT E-410 is a true digital SLR, with full manual and semi-automatic controls, yet its automatic options are friendly to novices. Featuring an interchangeable lens mount, a host of exposure controls and 18 Scene modes, the E-410 is the smallest and lightest SLR on the market. The Olympus E-410 is set apart by its Live View LCD display, refined and simplified since the E-330. The optical viewfinder is in fact, a true optical viewfinder. But you also have the option of enabling the LCD monitor's Live View mode, which offer a view that digicam owners have grown accustomed to. A plastic body surrounds the E-410's aluminum die-cast chassis, which weighs in at only 1.41 lbs, (642 grams) including the lens, CF card, and battery. Measuring 5.1 x 3.6 x 2.1 inches (129.5 x 91 x 53mm), the Olympus E-410 is easy to bring along.

The front of the Olympus E-410 features the lens mount, self-timer LED / IR remote sensor window, the lens release button and the eyelets for attaching the neck strap. The small-sized handgrip (more of a contour) is covered with a textured, leathery material that clings to your fingers as they wrap around the camera.

Visible on the right side of the camera is the Compact Flash and xD-Picture Card compartment. The media compartment opens from the rear panel, with a hinged, hard-plastic door that snaps shut securely.

The opposite side of the camera has no controls.

The Olympus E-410's top panel has quite a few controls on it, including the Shutter button, EV button, Power switch, Pop-up flash button, Remote control/self-timer/continuous shooting mode/copy/print button and the Mode and Control dials. Also on the top panel are the pop-up flash unit and external flash hot shoe. The viewfinder diopter adjustment wheel is visible to the right of the viewfinder. A small blue LED flashes when the camera is powered on, indicating that the SSWF (Super Sonic Wave Filter) is operating to remove dust from the sensor.

The rest of the Olympus E-410's controls are on the rear panel, and are clearly and logically laid out. A series of buttons lines the left side of the 2.5-inch LCD monitor, and includes the Playback, Erase, Menu, and Info buttons. Just above the top right corner of the LCD monitor is the AE Lock / AF Lock / Protect button. To the right of the LCD is the Live View button. The four-way arrow pad in the lower right corner serves multiple functions depending on the camera's operating mode. A small OK button rests in the center of the Arrow Pad. The optical viewfinder eyepiece is surrounded by a rubbery cup that won't scratch eyeglasses, and features a dioptric adjustment dial on its right side to correct the view. Also on the rear panel is a small red LED next to the memory card compartment door that lights whenever the camera is accessing the card (meaning you shouldn't remove the memory card). Below the four-way arrow pad is the shared USB/Video Out connector compartment. The compartment is protected by a flexible, rubbery flap tethered to the camera.

The bottom of the camera holds the battery compartment cover and a metal screw-mount tripod socket. Depending on your tripod head, The tripod socket may be just far enough from the battery compartment to allow battery changes when mounted on a tripod. The battery compartment door features a sliding lock to keep it (and the battery) in place, and a second lock holds the battery in place inside the compartment.

Olympus EVOLT E-410 External Controls

Shutter Button: Located on the top panel toward the front at a slight angle, the Shutter button sets focus and exposure when pressed halfway and triggers the shutter when fully pressed.

Exposure Compensation Button: To the right of the Shutter button, this button adjusts the overall exposure compensation from -5 to +5 EV in 1/3-step increments. In Manual exposure mode, this button sets the lens aperture when pressed while turning the Control dial.

Mode Dial: Protruding up from the top panel, this dial controls the camera's main operating mode. Choices are Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Program, Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Sports, Night Scene, and Scene modes.

Power Switch: Jutting out from under the Mode dial toward the back, this switch turns the camera on and off.

Control Dial: To the right of the Mode dial is the Control dial, which adjusts a wide variety of settings when turned while pressing control buttons. Changes are usually reflected on the LCD panel.

In Playback mode, this dial controls digital enlargement of captured images up to 14x when turned toward the right. The dial also accesses the four, nine, 16, and 25 image thumbnail index display modes, as well as a calendar display, when turned to the left.

Flash Release Button: Located on the top deck left of the pop-up flash compartment, this button releases the pop-up flash. The flash can pop-up if needed in Auto or some Scene modes.

Live View Button: Near the top right corner of the LCD monitor, this button controls the E-410's Live View mode. Press once to turn on Live View, which draws a live image from the camera's main sensor, and press again to return to the optical viewfinder. With Manual focus active, you can use Live View's "Enlarged display" mode to enlarge a portion of the frame by either 7x or 10x so that you can fine tune focusing with the lens's manual focus ring.

AE Lock / AF Lock / Protect Button: Adjacent to the right side of the optical viewfinder, this button locks the exposure and/or flash setting in any record mode. In Live View mode, this button is the only way to prefocus the E-410, as half-pressing the shutter button does not perform this function.

In Playback mode, this button enables or removes write protection from an individual image.

Drive / Copy / Print Button: On the left of the camera's top deck, this button controls the drive mode in just about any exposure mode. Options are Single-Frame, Sequential, 12- or two-second Self Timer, and two Remote Control modes: one with no delay, and the other with a two-second delay.

In Playback mode, this button lets you copy image files between xD-Picture Cards and CompactFlash cards or Microdrives. You can also direct print from the camera to a PictBridge-compatible printer by pressing this button when the E-410 is connected to the printer via USB.

Four-Way Arrow Pad and OK Button: Made up of four buttons arranged in a circle around a central OK button, the Arrow Pad controls many of the camera's operations. Pressing the OK button while in Record mode turns the Control panel into a quick menu. Using the four arrow keys you can navigate through the items on the Control panel. Once the desired control is highlighted, you can either turn the Control dial to change the setting, or press the OK button to go to that item's menu screen.

In Playback mode, the left and right Arrows move forward or backward through the pictures stored on the card. Up and down arrows jump through the images 10 frames at a time. All four are used to scroll around portions of the zoomed image in Zoom Playback mode.

In the menu system, the Arrow buttons navigate through menu screens and select settings, while the OK button confirms choices.  

Playback Button: The first button in a series lining the left side of the LCD monitor, this button switches the camera to Playback mode. The E-410 is a "shooting priority" camera, so you can return to capture mode either by pressing the Playback button again, or by pressing the Shutter button.

Erase Button: Next in line below the Playback button, this button lets you erase the currently displayed image, with a Yes/No confirmation screen. 

Menu Button: Directly below the Erase button, this button calls up the settings menus in any camera mode. Pressing it when the menus is active also backs out of menu screens one level at a time.

Info Button: The final button in the series left of the LCD monitor, this button changes the Control panel display mode from Basic to Detailed. A second press turns the Control panel display off.

In Live View mode, this button changes the onscreen information display. Screens are Information on, Info on + Ruled Lines Display, Info on + Histogram, Info display off, and Enlarged display (where the 7x and 10x zoom focus-assist modes are available).

Diopter Adjustment Dial: On the right side of the viewfinder eyepiece, this dial adjusts the optical viewfinder's optics to accommodate eyeglass wearers. Settings range from -3.0 to +1.0.

Lens Release Button: Right next to the lens mount, at about the 3 o'clock position (viewed from the front), this button releases the lens from its mount when pressed, so you can rotate it counter-clockwise and remove it.

Operation

Olympus EVOLT E-410 Operation

The E-410's user interface is similar to the previous E-series models, though with a slightly different control layout. One change on the E-410 versus the previous E-330 is the Control Panel, which is essentially a shortcut to many of the camera's LCD menu options. When the Control Panel is displayed, simply pressing the OK button lets you use the arrow keys as a cursor to select an item and then make changes. This is a great shortcut once you get used to it. Once you delve into the LCD menu, layouts are straightforward. A Mode dial on top of the camera changes capture modes quickly. In any of the manual exposure modes, aperture and/or shutter speed is adjusted externally, as is exposure compensation. The other tricky aspect is juggling between the camera's Live View mode, the Control Panel, and information display screens. A somewhat complex system between the Live View, Display, and Info buttons controls the LCD's display modes; but once you understand how each functions, operation is much faster. On the whole, the E-410 is a fairly intuitive camera, just plan to spend an hour or two getting to know it (and keep the manual close at hand!).

Viewfinder
The E-410 has an optical viewfinder, although it's a little cramped. Still, you get something better than Live View mode on the LCD: a true live view of what you're about to shoot, with no electronic delay. Three autofocus points are arrayed across the center of the screen. At the right of the screen, the E-410 keeps you posted about its settings and status, including Aperture, Shutter speed, Focus confirmation, Flash status, Exposure compensation, Metering mode, Battery status and Exposure mode. See the complete list below.

Record Mode LCD Display
In record mode, the LCD monitor displays a Control Panel that you can navigate around in and make changes to a handful of menu options (ISO, White Balance, etc.). If you're in optical viewfinder mode, pressing the Info button cycles through a basic and an enlarged Control panel display, then turns the LCD monitor off entirely.

Controlled by the Live View button, Live View mode shows you exactly what the sensor sees; however, to focus, you must press the AEL/AFL button on the back, or just press the shutter button and the camera will autofocus right before it takes the shot. While in Live View mode, pressing the Info button a few times brings up a small green box. You can use the arrows to move the box around the screen and press the OK button to enlarge the center of the frame 10x for more precise focusing (manual focus must be enabled in advance).The information display in Live View mode includes exposure mode, AF mode, Live View mode setting, resolution, memory card selection, number of available images, flash mode, any currently-selected exposure compensation setting, ISO setting, and any Picture Mode setting. You can also enable a live histogram. A half-press of the Shutter button displays the shutter speed and aperture settings. You can bring up a Status display by pressing the OK button and make settings changes there as well. Through the Record menu, you can also enable one of a range of grid settings, which display alignment outlines for a range of conditions. Operating the display modes is a bit of a trick, given the combination of buttons involved, but is much less daunting once you get the hang of things.

An interesting side-note is that in Live View mode, the LCD display switches to black and white in low light to avoid colored speckles as it gains up. The result is a slightly improved ability to see detail onscreen in low light. Images are captured in color.

Playback Mode LCD Display
In Playback mode, the default image display shows the most recently captured image, with a modest information overlay present. Pressing the Info button cycles through the main display (with no information), a basic information overlay, more detailed information overlay, a thumbnail display with main and RGB histograms, a main histogram overlay, a blinking highlight display, and a blinking shadow display. Pressing the Display button returns you to the status display or live view mode, depending on the last setting.

Turning the Control dial to the left cycles through a four, nine, 16, or 25-image index display, and finally a Calendar display. Turning the dial to the right enlarges the captured image as much as 14x. You use the four arrow keys to move around the zoomed image.

Olympus EVOLT E-410 Modes and Menus

 Manual Exposure Mode (M): Noted on the camera's Mode dial with an "M," Manual mode provides complete user control over the exposure, with an extended shutter speed range that includes a Bulb setting for variable length exposures up to eight minutes.

 Shutter Priority Mode (S): Indicated by an "S" on the Mode dial, this mode lets the user control the shutter speed from 1/4,000 to 60 seconds, while the camera selects the best aperture setting.

 Aperture Priority Mode (A): The user controls the lens aperture setting while the camera selects the best corresponding shutter speed. Aperture ranges will vary with the lens in use.

 Program Mode (P): In Program mode, the camera controls both aperture and shutter speed settings, while the user can adjust all other exposure variables. Turning the Control dial in this mode enables Program Shift, which offers a range of equivalent exposure settings (for example, if you want a wider aperture or faster shutter speed for a given shot, you can change it while keeping the exposure value the same).

 AUTO Mode: In Auto mode, the camera controls both aperture and shutter speed settings. In low light the built-in flash will pop up automatically.

 Portrait Mode: This mode optimizes the camera for capturing portraits. A larger aperture is used, so that the subject will appear sharply focused in front of a slightly soft background.

 Landscape Mode: This mode is for capturing wide views of scenery, with both the foreground and background in focus, and enhances any blue or green colors in the image, for more vibrant trees, water, and skies.

 Macro Mode: The traditional macro flower symbol marks this mode on the Mode dial, which is intended for shooting closeups of small subjects. Of course on an SLR, the closest shooting distance is determined by the abilities of the currently mounted lens. This mode also sets flash power for Macro distances.

 Sports Mode: This mode biases the camera's exposure system toward faster shutter speeds to freeze action and moving subjects.

 Night Scene Mode: This mode is best for capturing night portraits or night scenery, such as cityscapes. A slower shutter speed lets you shoot under darker conditions.

 Scene Mode: Scene Mode accesses all 20 of the preset Scene modes. The following Scene menu automatically displays when the mode is accessed.

• Portrait: This mode optimizes the camera for capturing portraits. A larger aperture is used, so that the subject will appear sharply focused in front of a slightly soft background.
• Landscape: This mode is for capturing wide views of scenery, with mostly the background in focus, and enhances any blue or green colors in the image, for more vibrant trees, water, and skies.
• Landscape + Portrait: Similar to the above mode, this mode is for capturing portraits in front of scenery. Both the foreground and background are in sharp focus, and the camera also emphasizes blues and greens in this mode.
• Night Scene: This mode is best for capturing night scenery, such as cityscapes. A slower shutter speed lets you shoot under darker conditions.
• Night + Portrait: As with Night Scene mode, this mode uses a slower shutter speed to allow more ambient light into the image. However, the flash now fires in Slow-Sync mode with Red-Eye Reduction so that the subject is accurately exposed.
  
• Children: This mode is best for wiggly children, and uses a faster shutter speed to catch those fleeting expressions.
• Sport: This mode biases the camera's exposure system toward faster shutter speeds to freeze action and moving subjects.
• High Key: This mode is best for capturing bright subjects. An image is essentially allowed to be bright, rather than forced to fit into a standard histogram. Use this mode to maintain better highlight detail.
• Low Key: Opposite of High Key mode, this mode allows a scene to be dark, without working to balance lights and darks with the meter. Use this mode to maintain better shadow detail.
• Digital Image Stabilization: This mode raises ISO automatically in low light situations to enable faster shutter speeds, thus reducing blur caused by subject and photographer movement.
  
• Macro: This mode is intended for shooting closeups, the minimum shooting distance determined by the lens in use.
• Nature Macro: In addition to optimizing the camera for smaller subjects, this mode boosts color for brighter flora and fauna close-up.
• Candle: This mode uses a slow shutter speed and emphasizes a warm color balance for bright images in candlelight.
• Sunset: This mode also uses a slow shutter speed for capturing vivid sunsets and sun rises. Reds and yellows are emphasized in the final image.
• Fireworks: This mode uses a slow shutter speed to accurately capture the color and full pattern of firework displays.
  
• Documents: Best for shooting black and white documents, this mode increases contrast for better viewing.
• Panorama: Here, the camera lets you capture a series of images to be stitched together into one panoramic image. As with many Olympus cameras, this function is only available with an Olympus brand xD-Picture Card in use.
• Beach and Snow: This mode is best for bright subjects such as beach and snow scenes. The camera attempts to preserve detail in the bright highlights.
• Underwater Wide: For use with the E-410's underwater housing accessory, this mode captures bright underwater images at normal wide angle. The camera boosts reds to simulate the addition of a red filter, for better looking color underwater.
• Underwater Macro: This mode also boosts color underwater, but is for macro shooting of smaller objects.

Playback Mode: Accessed by pressing the Playback button on the rear panel, this mode lets you view previously captured images using the Arrow Pad to scroll through frames stored in memory. The Command dial switches the image display to Index mode when moved in the wide angle direction, and when moved in the telephoto direction, enlarges a single image as much as 14x. While zoomed in on an image, the Arrow buttons move the enlarged view around the full image area, allowing you to inspect all parts of it.

Still Picture Shooting Menu: In any camera mode, pressing the Menu button brings up following five-tab menu screen. Note that not all Camera menu options will be available in all modes.

Optics

Olympus EVOLT E-410 Optics

The Olympus E-410 is equipped with an interchangeable lens mount that accommodates the full range of Olympus ZUIKO DIGITAL or third party Four-Thirds lenses. A lens release button to the right of the lens mount releases the lens, and a set of alignment marks on the mount itself helps you line up the lens appropriately. Because the camera is compatible with a range of lenses, focal lengths and aperture ranges will vary with the lens in use.

The Olympus E-410 employs a three-point TTL Phase-Contrast Detection autofocus system, and the three AF points are outlined in black in the viewfinder display. Through the LCD menu, you can manually select which of the AF points you'd like to base focus on, or set the AF area to automatic selection (all three AF points active). The LCD menu lets you select Manual, Single AF, or Continuous AF modes. There are also options for Single AF and Continuous AF with Manual Focus.

When manual focus is enabled, you simply turn the focus ring around the outside of the lens to set focus. The focus indicator on the right of the optical viewfinder (a solid green circle) lights to indicate that you've achieved accurate focus. Note that this is not a true mechanical or analog focus, however. Turning the ring simply activates the camera's focus mechanism, actuating the focus motor built into the lens. Single AF mode means that the camera only sets the autofocus when the Shutter button is halfway pressed, while Continuous AF mode continuously adjusts the focus without you having to halfway hold down the shutter release (good for moving subjects).

Continuous AF uses what Olympus calls Predictive AF technology, in that the camera anticipates where the subject will move to next and adjusts focus just before it reaches that point. The modes combining Single and Continuous AF with Manual focus tell the camera to set focus with a half press of the Shutter button, but leaves the manual focus ring active so that you can fine tune the setting before pressing the Shutter button the rest of the way to trip the shutter.

Unlike the E-510, the Olympus E-410 always operates in focus-priority mode, where the shutter won't fire unless the subject is properly focused.

"Supersonic Wave Filter (tm)" Automatic Sensor Cleaning
The built-in Supersonic Wave Filter was first introduced on the E-1 SLR, and has been carried forward to newer models including the E-410. This is a feature that's hard to evaluate in any sort of a rigorous, quantitative way, but that appears to work quite well, based on subjective observation.

Dust has proven to be a bane for digital SLR users from the beginning. In film cameras, the imaging surface (the film) is constantly refreshed as each new frame is advanced. Any dust that might accumulate on one frame will thus not affect subsequent ones. In digital SLRs though, the sensor surface is fixed, so any dust falling on it tends to stay there, the surface becoming increasingly dirty over time. Various accessories are available to clean CCD surfaces, but their use presents an ongoing risk of accident. (That is, while the cleaning gadgets themselves may be perfectly safe, every time you open your SLR and start sticking things inside the camera body, there's a finite risk that you'll do something to damage the sensor chip.)

In the E-410, every time the camera is turned on an ultrasonic system activates, vibrating the protective cover glass over the sensor at a frequency of 350,000 cycles/second, thereby dislodging dust particles that may have settled on the sensor's surface. (Dislodged dust is collected and trapped in an internal receptacle, so it won't float around the mirror compartment to cause more problems down the line.) A full cleaning cycle takes only 200 milliseconds (0.2 seconds).

To set appropriate expectations for Olympus' Supersonic Wave Filter system, it's important to note that it almost certainly won't be effective against grease smudges caused by fingerprints. -- So continue to be careful about putting your fingers inside the mirror compartment when the sensor is exposed.

Lens

Zoom
Very good performance from the 14-42mm lens that comes with the EVOLT E-410 kit.

The Olympus EVOLT E-410 digital SLR comes with an Olympus Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 lens in the bundled kit, equivalent to a 28-84mm lens on a 35mm camera, about the same equivalent range covered by the 18-55mm kit lenses on SLRs with 1.5x crop factor sensors. Results were quite good at 14mm, with minimal corner softness and strong detail throughout the frame. Coma distortion in the trees was quite low, although there is some chromatic aberration visible in the corners and edges. Results were even better at the 42mm setting, with no signs of visible coma distortion or chromatic aberration.

Macro
An average-sized macro area with the kit lens, though good detail and high resolution. Flash exposure was uneven up close.

The Olympus EVOLT E-410's macro setting performed well, though macro performance will vary with the lens in use. With the 14-42mm kit lens, the E-410 captured an average minimum area of 2.85 x 2.14 inches (73 x 54 millimeters). Detail and resolution were both good, though details are a bit soft overall, with significant softening in the corners. The built-in flash produced an uneven exposure here, partially blocked by the lens barrel, so plan on using external lighting for macro shots with this lens.

Distortion
An average amount of barrel distortion at wide angle, but almost no barrel distortion at telephoto.

Barrel distortion at 14mm is 0.8%

Barrel at 42mm is less than 0.1%

This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel -- usually at wide angle) or inward (like a pincushion -- usually at telephoto). The Olympus EVOLT E-410's 14-42mm kit lens produced about 0.8% barrel distortion at full wide angle, and was noticeable in some images. This is about average performance, and somewhat expected at such a wide angle. At the 42mm telephoto end, barrel distortion was less than 0.1% and imperceptible.

Chromatic aberration
Moderately low, though bright at wide angle, almost nonexistent at telephoto.

Chromatic aberration is moderately low at wide angle, showing about 4-5 pixels of fairly bright coloration on either side of the target lines. The effect is only slightly visible in some shots. At telephoto, chromatic aberration is very low, and had little effect. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.)

Corner Sharpness
Minimal softening in the corners of the frame with the 14-42mm kit lens.

The EVOLT E-410's 14-42mm kit lens produced slightly soft corners in a few shots, but to a lesser extent than we're accustomed to seeing in cameras we test. At both wide angle and full telephoto, the corners were only slightly softer than the center of the frame. An excellent result.

Viewfinder

Coverage
Good accuracy with both the optical viewfinder and LCD monitor's Live View mode.

The Olympus EVOLT E-410's optical viewfinder proved fairly accurate, at about 95% at both wide angle and telephoto (with the 14-42mm kit lens). The camera's Live View LCD mode was very accurate, with about 100% accuracy at both wide angle, and telephoto.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Olympus EVOLT E-410 Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Olympus EVOLT E-410 Exposure

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Some oversaturation of strong red and blue tones, and undersaturation of some greens, but pleasing overall color.

In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located towards the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center.

Saturation. The Olympus EVOLT E-410 oversaturates reds and blues a little, and some yellows. It also undersaturates some greens, but results are still pleasing. (We did find that shots with a lot of foliage in them had a bit of a blue cast, and saturation was subdued though.) Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. The E-410 did render skin tones a bit on the pale, pink side in most cases. Still, results are reasonable, and not oversaturated as some consumer cameras are inclined to render them. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. Overall results here are pretty accurate, though some reds are pushed toward orange, and cyan toward blue. Still, overall color is quite good, closer to accurate than many. Note: Hue is "what color" the color is.

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Auto white balance is quite warm, but Manual and Incandescent white balance settings both produce good color. A greater than average positive exposure compensation required though.

Color balance indoors under incandescent lighting was very warm with the Auto white balance setting, though the Manual and Incandescent options both produced more accurate results. The Incandescent setting was actually pretty good, producing nearly accurate color, with just a hint of the warmth of the scene lighting showing through. The Manual setting gave the most pleasing results overall. The Olympus EVOLT E-410 required more than the average amount of positive exposure compensation here, at +1.7 EV. Overall color is quite good, though the blue flowers are rather dark. (A common outcome with this shot.) Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.

Outdoors, daylight
Good colors overall, though a tendency toward a warm cast and high contrast hurts both highlight and shadow detail. About average exposure accuracy outdoors.

Outdoors, the Olympus EVOLT E-410 tended to lose highlight detail under harsh lighting while requiring a slightly lower than average amount of positive exposure compensation of +0.7 EV. Contrast was quite high, resulting in clipped highlights in Marti's shirt and some of the flowers, and lost shadow detail in the darker areas. (This reinforces our dynamic range measurements, which showed that the E410 has less dynamic range than most SLRs currently on the market.) The outdoor house shot has good exposure and natural looking color.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
Very high resolution, 1,700 lines of strong detail.

Our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 1,700 lines per picture height, with extinction past 2,000. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail. Our interpretation of this standard is somewhat conservative. We watch for artifacts and color fringing then move back to the nearest pure part of the scale. In our opinion, detail with artifacts shouldn't be considered detail. You may see other numbers quoted elsewhere, but across the site, our reviews judge this parameter by the same conservative standard.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Pretty good detail, but images are a little soft overall. Some noise suppression visible in the deep shadows, but less noise suppression in midtones than many competing cameras.

Sharpness. The Olympus EVOLT E-410 captured a lot of detail, but its images straight from the camera are slightly soft overall. Even in the high contrast shot above, there's only slight edge enhancement visible along the edges of the white house trim. These images take unsharp masking fairly well, however. (Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.)

Detail & Noise suppression. The crop above right shows some visible noise suppression in the shadows, though quite a bit of fine detail in the strands of hair remains visible. Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

ISO & Noise Performance
Low to moderate noise at the normal sensitivity settings, higher noise with strong blurring at the highest settings.

Noise levels are low to moderate at the Olympus EVOLT E-410's lower sensitivity settings. At ISOs 800 and 1,600, noise is much higher (as you might expect), with stronger blurring, increased chroma noise and a slight shift in color balance. Compared to other cameras in its class, the E410 does a good job of controlling noise while retaining subtle subject detail. Its ISO 1,600 images are softer overall, but there's less of the "smoosh" of detail in areas of subtle contrast than we've seen in the images of many other consumer DSLRs at that ISO level.

Extremes: Sunlit and low light tests
High resolution with strong overall detail, though details are slightly soft. High contrast and limited shadow detail, however. Good low-light performance, capable of capturing bright images under average city street lighting and much darker conditions.

Sunlight. The Olympus EVOLT E-410 had a hard time with the deliberately harsh lighting of the above test, producing rather high contrast with washed-out highlights and deep shadows. Though Marti's face still looks a little dark at +0.7 EV, I preferred that shot to the image at +1.0 EV, which had too many blown highlights for my preference. (In "real life" though, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown above; it's better to shoot in the shade when possible.)

We puzzled over the E410's tone curve a little, it seemed to have higher contrast (resulting in less preserved detail) in both highlights and shadows than it has in the midtones. This made images harder to tweak without losing highlight or shadow detail (or both). The camera's low-contrast setting seemed to help a fair bit with this though, as it held the highlights and shadows in check, letting the midtones hold a more natural level of contrast.

Note: Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here.)

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16fc No NR
ISO 100	2.5 sec f3.5	5 sec f3.5	10 sec f3.5	20 sec f3.5	40 sec f3.5	40 sec f3.5
ISO 200	1.3 sec f3.5	2.5 sec f3.5	5 sec f3.5	10 sec f3.5	20 sec f3.5	20 sec f3.5
ISO 400	0.6 sec f3.5	1.3 sec f3.5	2.5 sec f3.5	5 sec f3.5	10 sec f3.5	10 sec f3.5
ISO 800	0.3 sec f3.5	0.6 sec f3.5	1.3 sec f3.5	2.5 sec f3.5	5 sec f3.5	5 sec f3.5
ISO 1600	1/6 sec f3.5	0.3 sec f3.5	0.6 sec f3.5	1.3 sec f3.5	2.5 sec f3.5	2.5 sec f3.5

Low light. The Olympus EVOLT E-410 performed well here, able to capture usable images down to the 1/16 foot-candle light level (about 1/16 as bright as average city street lighting at night), at all ISO settings. Color balance is just a bit warm from the Auto white balance setting. You'll probably want to keep Noise Reduction on, as quite a few hot pixels are visible with it off. The camera's autofocus system was able to focus on the subject down to just below the 1/4 foot-candle light level with its AF assist light turned off, so you'll want to keep it enabled in darker conditions. Keep in mind that the longer shutter speeds here demand the use of a tripod to prevent any blurring from camera movement. (A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.)

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Digital SLRs like the Olympus E-410 do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects.

Output Quality

Print Quality
Good print quality, great color, great 11x14 inch prints. ISO 1,600 images are surprisingly good at 8x10, even better at 5x7.

Output from the Olympus E-410 was good enough to produce sharp 11x14 inch prints. At 13x19, its prints were softer looking, but perfectly fine for wall or table display. High ISO images were also a nice surprise, with ISO 400 images holding together for very good 11x14 inch prints, and ISO 800 still producing a good 8x10, and ISO 1,600s making 8x10s good enough for wall display, and fine-looking 5x7s.

Color saturation was a little bright in the reds, but good overall, with relatively little detail lost to noise suppression. Greens were a little dull, summer foliage was a little flat and blue looking, but within an acceptable range. Color also doesn't fade as ISO increases, an admirable and rare trait among image sensors. A very good performance overall.

Note: Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon i9900 studio printer, and on the Canon iP5200 here in the office. (See the Canon i9900 review for details on that model.)

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Olympus EVOLT E-410 Photo Gallery .

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Olympus EVOLT E-410 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Performance

Olympus EVOLT E-410 Performance

Flash

Olympus EVOLT E-410 Flash

Flash Test Results

Coverage and Range
A fairly powerful flash, but with narrow coverage. Our indoor shots required slightly more than average positive compensation in the normal flash mode.

Coverage. Flash coverage was very uneven at wide angle, while results at telephoto were more uniform. In the Indoor test, the Olympus EVOLT E-410's flash underexposed our subject at its default setting, requiring a slightly higher than average +1.3 EV positive exposure compensation boost. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode resulted in a more even exposure and a brighter overall image, at +1.0 EV, though the longer shutter time resulted in an orange color cast.

Flash Range: Wide Angle
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/30 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/30 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/30 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/30 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/30 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/30 sec f3.5 ISO 100
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/30 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/30 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/30 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/30 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/30 sec f3.5 ISO 100

Flash Range: Telephoto
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/80 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/80 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/80 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/80 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/80 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/80 sec f5.6 ISO 100
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/80 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/80 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/80 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/80 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/80 sec f5.6 ISO 100

ISO 100 Range. Flash power remains pretty strong to about 15 feet at wide angle. At telephoto, the flash is bright to about 10 feet, drops off gradually from there and is quite dim at the 16-foot point.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range
Wide Angle	Telephoto
11.2 feet ISO 100	7.0 feet ISO 100

Manufacturer Specified Flash Range. The E-410's flash is rated with a GN of 12m at ISO 100. That works out to 11.2 feet at f/3.5, and 7 feet at f/5.6. As can be seen in the shots above, the E-410 seems to perform every bit as well as Olympus says it will, producing good exposures at the rated distances with its ISO set to 100.

Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.

Imatest Results

Olympus EVOLT E-410 Imatest Results

We routinely use Norman Koren's excellent "Imatest" analysis program for quantitative, thoroughly objective analysis of digicam test images. I highly recommend it to our technically-oriented readers, as it's far and away the best, most comprehensive analysis program I've found to date.

My comments below are just brief observations of what we see in the Imatest results. A full discussion of all the data Imatest produces is really beyond the scope of this review: Visit the Imatest web site for a full discussion of what the program measures, how it performs its computations, and how to interpret its output.

Here's some of the results produced by Imatest for the Olympus E410:

The Olympus E410 showed good color accuracy, and a more accurate saturation level than we're accustomed to finding in consumer cameras. Hue accuracy was very good to excellent, with most of the hue shift occurring in the cyans and sky blues. Average saturation was 106.4% (oversaturated by 6.4%, mostly in the reds, a bit in some blues, and with some undersaturation in strong greens. Average "delta-E" color error was 4.8 after correction for saturation, more accurate than most cameras we test. All in all, a very good color response for an SLR, just a little off the best we've seen, although some consumers may find its more accurate saturation a little disappointing, when compared to the oversaturated color that's more typical of the genre.

This image shows how the Olympus E410 actually rendered the colors of the MacBeth chart, compared to a numerically ideal treatment. In each color swatch, the outer perimeter shows the color as actually captured by the camera, the inner square shows the numerically ideal color, after correcting for the luminance of the photographed chart (as determined by a second-order curve fit to the values of the gray swatches), and the small rectangle inside the inner square shows the numerically ideal color, without any luminance correction. This image shows very good accuracy, as well as a contrast curve that results in slight overexposure of some of the darker swatches.

There's a lot in this particular graph, a lot more than we have room to go into here. (This set of plots has also changed a little in the latest version of Imatest. Some of the plots that were shown here previously are now shown in other Imatest output. Since we largely focus on the Noise Spectrum plot, we'll only show the graphic above, which includes that plot.) Bottom line, the Olympus E410's noise levels are low at low ISO, with a frequency spectrum that has more energy on the higher frequency (right-hand) side of the curve than do many cameras. In comparing these graphs with those from other competing cameras, I've found that the Noise Spectrum graph at lower right is the most important. Cameras that manage to shift their noise spectrum to higher frequencies have much finer-grained noise structures, making their noise less visually objectionable. In the graph above, this would show up as a noise spectrum curve that remained higher on the right side, representing higher noise frequencies. The champion at this was the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, which produced remarkably fine-grained image noise, even at very high ISOs. The E410's noise spectrum does a good job of keeping plenty of the noise energy at high frequencies, its low-ISO image noise is more fine-grained as a result.

Here's the same set of noise data at ISO 1,600. Here, the Noise Spectrum graph is shifted quite a bit toward the left-hand, lower-frequency side than it was at ISO 100 (note how the whole graph is piled up on the left side of the plot), coarsening the "grain" of the image noise patterns quite a bit. In the E410 though, while the frequency distribution of the noise shifts strongly to the lower range, the overall noise amplitude remains quite low, lower than that of most of the competition. The overall effect is actually quite pleasing: ISO 1600 images are somewhat soft overall, but the grain structure for the most part manages to not appear blotchy, and a fair bit of finer subject detail is left in the images. A good job, and improvement on the earlier E500, despite the E410's higher pixel count.

This chart compares the Olympus E410's noise performance over a range of ISOs against that of other cameras. While I continue to show noise plots of this sort because readers ask for them, I each time point out that the noise magnitude is only a small part of the story, the grain pattern being much more important. In the case of the Olympus E410, the magnitude of the image noise is quite low at ISO 1,600, and its images were somewhat soft, but the character of the remaining noise was fairly tight and uniform. Rather than ending up with blotchy-looking high-ISO shots with lots of lost detail in areas of subtle contrast, Olympus has traded in favor of a softer focus look overall, but with good detail retention and a fairly tight noise pattern. The blue channel is rather mottled looking, but the camera does a good job of concealing that in the full-color images. Nicely done.

Dynamic Range Analysis

A key parameter in a digital camera is its Dynamic Range, the range of brightness that can be faithfully recorded. At the upper end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is dictated by the point at which the RGB data "saturates" at values of 255, 255, 255. At the lower end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is determined by the point at which there ceases to be any useful difference between adjacent tonal steps. Note the use of the qualifier "useful" in there: While it's tempting to evaluate dynamic range as the maximum number of tonal steps that can be discerned at all, that measure of dynamic range has very little relevance to real-world photography. What we care about as photographers is how much detail we can pull out of the shadows before image noise becomes too objectionable. This, of course, is a very subjective matter, and will vary with the application and even the subject matter in question. (Noise will be much more visible in subjects with large areas of flat tints and subtle shading than it would in subjects with strong, highly contrasting surface texture.)

What makes most sense then, is to specify useful dynamic range in terms of the point at which image noise reaches some agreed-upon threshold. To this end, Imatest computes a number of different dynamic range measurements, based on a variety of image noise thresholds. The noise thresholds are specified in terms of f-stops of equivalent luminance variation in the final image file, and dynamic range is computed for noise thresholds of 1.0 (low image quality), 0.5 (medium image quality), 0.25 (medium-high image quality) and 0.1 (high image quality). For most photographers and most applications, the noise thresholds of 0.5 and 0.25 f-stops are probably the most relevant to the production of acceptable-quality finished images, but many noise-sensitive shooters will insist on the 0.1 f-stop limit for their most critical work.

The image below shows the test results from Imatest for an in-camera JPEG file from the Olympus E410 with a nominally-exposed density step target (Stouffer 4110), and the E410's contrast setting at its default position.

These are rather disappointing numbers for a current-model DSLR, and reflect the E410's tendency for its contrasty tone curve to plug deep shadows pretty badly. (This is somewhat apparent in the tone curve above, revealed by the way the shadow end of the curve tails off with large spacing between the steps, and no "tail" as it approaches black.)

Processing the E410's RAW (ORF) files through Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) version 4.1, we had somewhat confounding results. ACR 4.1's automatic settings increased the visual dynamic range a little, but produced a very flat tone curve, with no depth to the shadows. With a little manual tweaking, we obtained much better results, and Imatest recognized more density steps, but the net results were still weak when compared to competing cameras. The results of the manual tweaking are reflected in the table below.

Dynamic Range, the bottom line:

The net result was that the E410 performed rather poorly when compared against most current DSLR models, with a full f-stop less dynamic range than anything currently on the market.

To get some perspective, here's a summary of the Olympus E410's dynamic range performance, and how it compares to other digital SLRs that we also have Imatest dynamic range data for. (Results are arranged in order of decreasing dynamic range at the "High" quality level.):

The results shown in the table are interesting. One of the first things that struck me when I initially looked at test data for a wide range of d-SLRs, was that here again, purely analytical measurements don't necessarily correlate all that well with actual photographic experience. There's no question that the Fuji S3 Pro deserves its place atop the list, as its unique "SR" technology does indeed deliver a very obvious improvement in tonal range in the highlight portion of the tonal scale. I was surprised to see the analytical results place the Olympus EVOLT as highly as they did, given that our sense of that camera's images was that they were in fact noisier than those of many other d-SLRs that we looked at. In the other direction, I was quite surprised to see the Nikon D2x place as low on the listings as it did, given that we found that camera's shadow detail to be little short of amazing.

One thing that's going on here though, is that we tested each camera at its lowest ISO setting, which should produce best-case noise levels. This is in fact what many photographers will be most interested in, but it does perhaps place some of the Nikons (like the D40) at a disadvantage, as their lowest ISO setting is 200, as compared to the ISO 100 settings available on most other models.

Regardless of the positions of the other cameras though, the Olympus E410 does appear to offer rather poor dynamic range, the one notably negative mark against what is otherwise a good-performing consumer SLR.

As I always say though, at the end of the day I think you have to take the figures here with a grain of salt, and look at actual images with your own eyes to see what you make of each camera's tonal range and noise levels. We'll continue performing these dynamic range tests on the digital SLRs that we review, but (just as with the laboratory resolution target results), we suggest that you not rely on them exclusively for making your purchase decisions.

Resolution Chart Test Results

The chart above shows consolidated results from spatial frequency response measurements in both the horizontal and vertical axes. The "MTF 50" numbers tend to correlate best with visual perceptions of sharpness, so those are what I focus on here. The uncorrected resolution figures are 1,567 line widths per picture height in the horizontal direction (corresponding to the vertically-oriented edge), and 1,517 lines along the vertical axis (corresponding to the horizontally-oriented edge), both on the low side. Correcting to a "standardized" sharpening with a one-pixel radius increased both vertical and horizontal resolution significantly, resulting in an average of 2,085 LW/PH, a bit below the best we've seen for a 10-megapixel camera.

To see what's going on, refer to the plots below, which show the actual edge profiles for both horizontal and vertical edges, in both their original and corrected forms. Here, you can see that there's a modest in-camera sharpening applied (the slight bump at the top ends of the black curves), that the standard sharpening operator increases further. (Imatest complained that we were clipping the shadows a bit here (which would actually tend to improve the apparent edge sharpness somewhat), but that's just a consequence of the E410's high contrast. We couldn't eliminate the shadow clipping without losing the highlights.)

Comparison

Olympus EVOLT E-410 Comparison

The chart below compares the E-410 with other current Olympus DSLRs. We've used color tints in the cells to highlight differences. A red cell means that the the camera involved has lesser specs than the others, a green cell that it has better, and a yellow cell that its specification is somewhere between.

Note: if you're having trouble seeing the entire width of the table, try the "Print this Page" link near the bottom of the page.