Olympus E-410 and E-510 at PMA

[Photo-John]

I just posted about the E-410 and E-510 in the 2007 PMA Blog. Although Olympus is dragging their feet on the new pro body, the E-410 and E-510 look like very nice cameras, especially for first-time digital SLR buyers.

Olympus E-410 and E-510 at PMA >>
2007 PMA Blog >>
2007 PMA Coverage Index Page >>

And here's a link to all Olympus photos posted in the PMA gallery - so far. I think we probably have some more that we haven't gotten to yet.

PMA 2007 Olympus Gallery >>

[Tyson L. Sparks]

Do you think the E-1 is a better camera than the E500 E410 and E510?

[Jaedon]

From what I have read the 510 is the E500 re-released with a 10 MP sensor, live view, and Image Stability built in. Essentially the same camera but when the body is released I think I will step up to it. The store I bought my camera for will give me half back on the price of my original body towards the purchase of the new one for a decent savings. The IS and slightly faster shutter on burst mode (2.5fps on the E500 and 3fps on the 510) are my reasons. The live view will help in those situations where you are in a crowd and shooting over everyone's head.

John may be able to correct me if I am wrong but that was the impression I got from reviewing the info given.

[Photo-John]

From what I have read the 510 is the E500 re-released with a 10 MP sensor, live view, and Image Stability built in. Essentially the same camera but when the body is released I think I will step up to it. The store I bought my camera for will give me half back on the price of my original body towards the purchase of the new one for a decent savings. The IS and slightly faster shutter on burst mode (2.5fps on the E500 and 3fps on the 510) are my reasons. The live view will help in those situations where you are in a crowd and shooting over everyone's head.

John may be able to correct me if I am wrong but that was the impression I got from reviewing the info given.

That's pretty accurate. The internals of the E-510 are actually closer to the E-330. But the size and layout are more comparable to the E-500.

[Jaedon]

Now it comes to decidion time for me. In the fall I have the option of getting half back on my current body when purchasing the next model. Or I can just outright buy a new one and keep the E500 as my backup.

Any idea if they made any improvements with the 510 in regards to low light shots john?

[Photo-John]

Any idea if they made any improvements with the 510 in regards to low light shots john?

I checked the specs and the E-510 and E-500 appear to have the same ISO range, although they're listed a little differently. The E-500 lists ISO 100-400, expandable to 1600, whereas the E-510 lists ISO 100-1600. I'm not sure if there's a difference. Maybe, since you have the E-500, it makes more sense to you? I can check with Olympus to see what they say.

Here's what I know for sure. First of all, mechanical image stabilization makes a huge difference for low light shooting. One less than obvious benefit of image stabilization is that you can successfully shoot at least one stop lower ISO than you normally would. So image stabilization actually helps you get better image quality with lower noise.

The step up to 10-megapixels is a 25% increase in resolution. As long as noise is comparable to the E-500, then the noise is effectively minimized because there are more pixels and the noise is smaller. That's something I never see anyone mention. When you view a file at 100%, the noise might appear the same. But at the same print size as an 8-megapixel E-500 file, the E-510 image should be smoother.

Olympus claims the new TruePic III processor takes noise down one step. I assume this is as compared to the previous TruePic Turbo processor. Again, I think this is something I need to check on. But at least on paper, it looks like the E-510 should be significantly better for low light shooting. Combine the higher resolution, image stabilization so you can shoot at lower ISO, and better noise reduction at the processor level, and you should see a noticeable difference. Of course, this is all based on features and specs and not on any samples I've seen. So I wouldn't bet my life on it. But like I said, on paper, it looks like you should see a noticeable improvement between E-510 and E-500 files.

[Marc2B4]

John, thanks for the info on the 410 and 510. Olympus is trying to anger me with this procrastination on the pro replacement. My E-1s work fine for now, but a 5.1 MP CCD is a bit dated...

Mark