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| Name | Date | Helpfulness | Review | Overall satisfaction | Ease of use | Quality of Manufacture | Durability | Meets Expectations | more... |
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| Amazon.com customer | 2008-12-12 | | Excelente camara digital SLR!!! | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | Despúes de realizar una amplia investigación y preguntarle a familiares y amigos que conocen de fotografÃa, me decidi por Olympus (Las dos opciones que habia considerado era Canon (Rebel XSI) y Nikon (D60). Ninguna de estas la conseguia por menos de $520. Adicionalmente pude conocer que Olympus fue la primera marca en introducir la opcion "Live View", es lider en el estandar Fourth-Thirds (cuatro tercios). Sin lugar a dudas la mejor opcion para aquellos que quiere iniciarse en la fotografÃa digital con lentes intercambiables. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-12-12 | | Olympus Evolt E520 - Very Satisfied!! | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I got this camera for my birthday, November 2008 and LOVE IT!! I would highly recommend it to anyone! The delivery of the camera was excellent as well.. arrived just as I was told. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-12-08 | | Nice camera, very pleased | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | This is a great camera for the price. I have had it for about 2 months now. It feels really good in my hand, which I could not say with the same with the D60 or Cannon XS series. In-body IS works well. Autofocus is reasonably fast. Auto exposure works well, even with the annoying flash turned off (it uses the flash to get the white balance I believe). Lots of configuration options. Image quality is excellent. Downside: The included software isn't the most fully featured however. I don't know much about SLRs and am getting my feet wet. This is my first and I am not disappointed. I just shoot in auto mode and it does a very good job. Way better then a point and shoot, and a lot more fun to use. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-12-04 | | E-520 is fantastic value for price -- great performer | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I ordered an E-520; it was shipped on 11/30 and I received it at lunch on 12/02 by UPS w/free shipping. Can't beat that... (I also found it on a weekend Turkey Day sale for $469.) Anyway, this is a fantastic camera. I spent 11 years as a paid photographer, doing portraits and weddings and I'm sick of people trashing cameras over trivial crap. I want to photograph nature; my family; vacations; etc. Reading numerous reviews and tiny variances in lab condition tests both confused me and worried me as I toiled over a camera. I shot everything from Hasselblads to Nikons to Mamiyas as a photographer, but this is my first dSLR. The old Nikon is retired and now a shelf decoration at home. Hence I was shopping for a camera to do better than my pocket PAS I take hiking and paddling. I figured I knew a lot about cameras until I started reading all the test reports on digital SLRs. Man, it can get confusing. Not to bore you with technobabble, I am extremely happy with the camera and I've only used it for 2 days. A few of the things I've noticed as of my 3rd day with the camera are: This camera feels good in my hand. The grip is shaped just right to get a good hand hold and not be hitting buttons with my thumb. It feels a lot more like a pro-grade SLR than a consumer grade (at least to me). The mode and setting dials are conveniently located. The LCD is good. The menus, while there are a LOT of them, are pretty easy to understand once you play with the camera a while. They are bright and easy to read. I like them better than the Canon XSi. You might forget exactly where a sub-menu is if you don't use the camera for a while, but I suspect the average shooter won't be adjusting every little setting just to take pics. My guess is that most people will shoot jpegs and do some EV adjustments, etc. Plus, there are short cut buttons on the camera that can control the ISO, single vs. continuous shooting, etc. The overlay grid is kind of cool, mostly to play with if you have much experience. It has a square green box that shows you where it took the settings readings. As there are 3 focus points, when it focuses, small red dots light up to show you where the focus is. Basically I found this to be very helpful. In lower light, fast action or lots of differently spaced areas in a shot, it's easy to have the camera get your subject a bit out of focus. I haven't used the face recognition or auto-gradation (shadow adjustment technology) yet. Some of the articles say that a lot of the features are for a transition to a higher grade camera from a PAS. I disagree with that. While some are cutesy, they would help most anybody, especially in rush situations where you don't have to analyze things and make a quick decision. And, not everybody wants to scrutinize every situation and become super photographer. Mom or grandma might want a camera to photograph the kids at football games, or take fireworks pics with on July 4th, etc. Settings that have automatically compensated for variables (at least to some extent) can and do come in handy. I've used them in the past. The day my camera arrived, I did photograph a girls' basketball game at the school where I teach and I was pleased with the results. People complain the viewfinder is too small. It is a bit small compared to Canon, but it's still plenty big. I read where the shape of the 4/3rds sensor causes that perception, as compared to traditional viewfinders/sensors which are rectangular. The read out is a tad small, but the major info at the top such as f-stop and shutter speed is readable. Those are the important ones. The small clutter of information at the bottom is more of a learn what's where and just acknowledge it's set. Once you've set them in the control panel menu, do you really need to squint to read them and remind yourself they are there? Just hit the info button for the LCD and that will be displayed...a lot bigger. I used the view finder and 1600 ISO. It performed as expected, although I did have to adjust the controls at first as the girls were too dark...sort of shadowy looking. The adjustment cleared the pic up fine. Looking at the pics on my TV and computer, they are well exposed and very sharp, with vivid colors even on natural. The camera LCD flashes on areas with blown highlights, but in a gym, that's to be expected. Most any picture will have high and low key areas. The histograms will prove handy. People complained the LCD focus is too slow. For stability and a sense of feel for the composure and camera, I used the viewfinder A/F. Putting my elbows against my chest and the camera against my face is something I've done for many years. holding a camera out in front of me is just not natural, nor is it good for low speed shots. Plus, it looks sort of hokey...like my elderly mother holding up a PAS and saying "smile..." Basically, it performed top notch. Most of the time, I didn't even pre-focus and it caught the action. The LCD did take a bit longer, but in my opinion, LCD is for landscapes, wildlife, family group shots, sneaky shooting, etc. The camera does come with a little piece that slides over the viewfinder slots to block light from the sensor when using the LCD. I put it in one of the card pockets of my LowePro camera strap, so it would be handy and I wouldn't lose it. I have both the 14-42mm and the 70-150mm lenses and while the depth of field isn't as shallow as I'd like it, and the bokeh isn't comparable to top-end lenses, you wouldn't expect them to be. Other than the f-stops are not as low as I'd prefer, they are great lenses. I wish they would blur the background better, but different focal lengths can help the aperture out to some degree. The 300mm zoom is on my Christmas list. The 3-pack of lenses would give a person 28-600mm zoom equivalent. For a hobbyist or even a paid shooter, I would be hard-pressed to think of a situation where you would be wanting more. I haven't mentioned a lot of the technical details. You can get information overload on many sites if you want that. If you want to ask me questions, please do so. I'd be pleased to hear other folks' thoughts. I'm experimenting a bit more every day to learn it. I am very pleased with it. In my opinion, you cannot go wrong with this camera, especially considering the quality of the pictures, the features, and the price. I added a Gary Fong puff diffuser for the on board flash. Anyway, drop me a line if you want to talk. steve.in.kentucky@gmail.com | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-11-11 | | E510 / E520 | Awesome - Gem of the mid level DSLR: | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | Though I have E510. I actually tried and tested the E520 as well and picked E510 for the 2 kit lens deal and the extra features E520 has over E510 which I rarely care about. I thought to add my E510 review under this to give the readers a better idea about how the Olympus E510/E520 wins over the Canons XSi and Nikon D80 we tested. Hope this helps. Myself and a Canon lover Friend and a Nikon lover Cousin were hunting for DSLRs. We had Film SLRs and few Point & Shoot Digis. We don't want to spend $1500+ for the DSLR and was waiting for the price to come down. When it reached $1000 mark, we started hunting for it and tried out few DSLR models in-stores by carrying our own flash memories and took few sample shots at the same lighting, focal length, ISO, f-Stop and Shutter and narrowed down to most people(s) three choices - Olympus E510, Canon XSi and Nikon D80. I went with E-510 right on the spot after looking at the images on the digital PC monitor in just 4 week end hunting. The other two contemplated a while and my friend went with Canon XSi and my cousin chose D80 as he wanted to use his old Nikon lenses and gears. On a fine evening we got our stuffs ordered online. As soon we returned from work, we were excited to experiment our choices. Right out of the box results: (No tweaking) E-510 - Great Outdoor results with very good natural color processing well exposed. Indoor shots were good natural color tones with a bit dull and underexposed. XSi - Great Outdoor and Indoor results with very little pink tinted color processing with a good exposure. D80 - Great Outdoor results with little blue tinted color processing. Indoor results with very little blue tinted color processing with a good exposure. You can see the pink and blue tint obvious on the skin tone and on the white base subjects. We actually compared the images captured by these three with what we saw with bare eyes. We all observed this very little tone changes when tried out at stores and agreed upon the myth that "Every brand has it's own way and nothing is perfect". But still it's too early to decide which one is best. We tried it every evening as soon we come back and with little tweaking as suggested by the reviewers and professionals. In just 3 days - I made everyone to think that - I WON. Still those guys wanted to give a try because some times the results from Canon XSi and Nikon D80 will have the same color as E510 in long shots and when occasionally (say like one in 100 shots) E510 underexposes the skin tones will look greyish. We almost go as a group for all the functions/festivals and fill with flashes everywhere :) After 3 months of coutinuous use at the same places, here is our findings: Speed: XSi is better than E510 and D80. but thats for just 6-7 frequent shots. after that, the XSi will pop up with "BUSY" icon. It is famous and you can see the complaints in Amazon reviews. The other to will be steady through out the the session. no BUSY nothing. Color Tone: E510 is more natural across the lighting conditions. Indoor shots need to have exposure compensation set to either +0.3 or +0.7 Indoor Photos: E510 is a bit dull and underexposed right out of the box but after a little tweaking it just blows the other two out of the window with very natural color tones and bright images. It actually chooses the right ISO required where as the Canon XSi always chooses ISO 400 when using flash I don't know why it is set like that. Dynamic Range: Though the pro reviewers say, D80 is more dynamic we haven't came across a situation to prove it. Under most common outdoors shooting, we all three got almost identical resluts and we liked the E510 processing much better than the other two. ISO: upto ISO 400, E510 is noise free. It get's a slight noise pushing in at ISO 800 and at ISO 1600 noise is obvious. Canon XSi is noise free till ISO 1600. Nikon D80 is noise free till ISO 800 and at ISO 1600 it introduces a little noise. It is worth to be noted that we haven't seen a situation that we need to use more than ISO 400 under normal indoor/outdoor common user needs. We actually forced the camera to use ISO 800 and ISO 1600 just to see the results where the camera picked ISO 400 by it's own when you leave it to the camera choise in ISO. This is actually a dark night shot on the river bank pointing the camera at the lighted buildings on the other side of the river and the situation is really dark. Auto Focus: E-510 locks on for sharp focus almost 99% of the time but hunts for focus at low light with too much flash strobes for 4-5 seconds drving you nuts. XSi is zippy but occasionally the focus is not properly locked. When you view on the camera display it looks fine but when blow up in the monitor, it's unfocused. Nikon D80 had the most mis focus. You can see these misfocus issues at both Amazon reviews and DPreview. Image Stabilization: E510 wins hands down. I took tack sharp pictures using 70-300 lens zoomed all the way at 300mm with shutter going down till 1/30. XSi's lens based stabilization is not that effective when we used it with 50-200mm lens zoomed to 200mm. It was effective till 1/40. Nikon we haven't tried it as we don't have IS lens. Not to mention the hefty price my friend paid for the Canon 50-200 IS lens while I paid just $240 for the 70-300 lens as I had an effective IS built into my E510 body. Fit and Feel: E510 wins again with more robust build quality. Nikon D80 is also built good but a bit bigger. XSi looks kind of plasticky and has an uncomfortable grip. E510 just lays in your hand so comfortable and is a joy to use. Value for Money: I paid $560 for the 2 kit lens. Sold my 40-150mm for $110 and bought the 70-300 for $240 making my kit to cost me $690. FL-36 flash costed me $150, totalled to $840. XSi costed my friend $869 with 18-55mm (Now it is around $500-$600), 70-300mm IS lens for $510. With no flash his kit is now $1379. Nikon D80 costed my cousin $910 with 18-135mm with no IS !!! He can't simply use his camera hand held as I am using it with my long zoom 300mm or as my friend using his XSi with his 200mm or in low light. Now...you decide which one gives you more dollar for dollar...XSi with 70-300mm auto focus is faster than the E510 with 70-300 mm at the very long end of the zoom. XSi with 300mm zoomed couldn't get sharp results all the time, less than 250mm is ideal for hand held. E510 has effective IS and works all the way till 300mm handheld but had focus hunt when used in a slight shadow area. Follow this link "http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/43/e510-sett.html" to tune up your E510 and enjoy the long journey of Digital photography. Good luck. Verdict: We also asked the rest of the people at home and our friends to see the pictures and pick which one looks better without telling them which one came from what camera. The end result is 80% of the images picked by the them who don't even know which camera produced it, picked E510's pictures. We all three agreed that E510 is the best all around DSLR in it's category and we just pay the hyped price for the Canon and Nikon just for the label which produces image quality that is equal to inferior than the low priced, light weight E510. Look no further, go for this little gem and you will be more pleased than the Canon and Nikon users.
| Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-10-30 | | Great Camera for the money | 8 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I have a E410, E500 and now the E520 body. All of these are great cameras. The E520 has a very fast recycle rate on both the images and the flash. It is very easily used as point-and-shoot in auto mode and I can still get all of the effects that I could with a manual film camera. One point I will make very clear. If you buy this as a "kit" with lenses don't expect this performance. The lenses that come in most kits are cheap. Dont get me wrong, they work great in FULL SUN... ANYTHING other though you will likely have slow responses and blurry photos. Many times the camera just will not aquire. Buy good quality lenses and you will not be dissapointed! | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-10-18 | | A superb entry level DSLR | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I looked at Canon XSI/XTI and Nikon 60D and decided to go with Olympus. And I am very happy with my decision. The body is light, the pictures are sharp. AF is very good. When I showed the pictures to my friends who owned Canon and Nikon, they kept asking me if I improved the pictures on photoshop or not. I told them no and they didn't believe me. The battery lasted very long. I took hundreds of pictures so far in the last month and I have only recharged my camera once. 3.5 fps is pretty decent. The only minor complaint is that AF is a bit slow in low light situation, but it is no big deal for me. Overall, this is the best entry level DSLR in the market. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-10-18 | | great camera | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I've never purchased anything but Olympus Cameras... I have three of them dating back to the 1980's. Every Camera has been an excellent camera as the E 520 has also has proven to be. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-10-12 | | My first dSLR, and it blew my socks off! | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | Yes, the E-520 is my first dSLR. It took me months to make the leap, during which I did A LOT of research, posted questions in forums, went everywhere my mouse would take me. Here were my reasons for choosing this camera: 1. Weight. I have back and shoulder problems, and lugging around a huge camera and heavy lenses was never an option. 2. Mirror-cleaning system. One of the issues that held me back for so long, as I'd been reading about the problems and annoyances caused by dust in mirrors (electronic devices are dust magnets!). But Olympus came up with a solution for this, and everybody said it was the best cleaning system in the market. I chose to believe it. 3. Camera resources. If you're willing to learn them, you'll become a better photographer, and that was my plan. I no longer wanted to let the camera do all the thinking. Although the E-520 still allows that (auto mode), I wanted more control and a better idea of why I was getting the results I was getting. Thus, I can set everything by hand if I want to. Or not, if I'm having a lazy day! 4. In-body image stabilization. Like any point & shoot, the E-520 body is stabilized, which helps reduce camera shake, especially when using those bigger lenses. 5. Lenses. As they say, Olympus has great "glass". Even the most humble and inexpensive Olympus lenses have a lot of quality. They will surely outlast any camera body, which is how it should be: the biggest investment are always the lenses. Furthermore, the peculiar sensor size adopted by the company (four thirds) makes for twice the reach with no gain in bulk. Thus, for instance, a 70-300 mm Olympus lens is, in fact, a 140-600 mm lens -- a huge zoom in a compact package, which is perfect for me since I do a lot of bird photography. And this takes me straight back to the weight and bulk in item #1. I've had the E-520, plus the "kit"14-42 mm, the 70-300 mm and the 50 f/2 lenses for almost two months and I couldn't be happier. In terms of image quality, the differences between this camera and the superzoom cameras I owned previously (Panasonic FZ18, Canon S3 IS) are not only visible, they are incredible. I haven't had any problems with purple fringing, excessive noise, distortion, nothing. It is easy and intuitive to navigate the camera menus and controls to do things the way I want. Oh, and dust? I haven't yet given it a thought: the Olympus cleaning system really works. Truth is, for me it is simply a joy to use this camera. Photography is fun now -- not frustration at seeing something and then having the images be a total letdown. A bit of advice for newbies like myself: join forums, ask for advice, read the manuals and the literature out there (like Brian Peterson), take a lot of pictures then look them through to understand what you did right or wrong. It really helps the learning curve. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-09-25 | | Surprisingly good pictures at this price level | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I looked at several camera models from Olympus, Nikon, and Canon. While a lot of folks go with Canon or Nikon, I found the values and quality of the Olympus 510 or 520 to be much better. I considered for a long time whether to pay less for the 510 or get the latest 520 for a little bit more money. I decided to go with 520 eventually and I am very happy with my decision. I also bought another 40 to 150 mm lens The focus is very sharp, colors are very good. Picture quality is much better than I expected. At first, I used the Auto mode like many other DSLR beginners. Later, I tried different modes including P, A, S and could really create many different type of pictures. AE Bracket is very useful. I found image stabilization very useful. Occasionally, the pictures under expose a bit particularly indoors. But fear not, just set the exposure to overexpose by 0.3 or 0.7 and viola, the quality is great. Some complained that 510/520 only has 3 AF points but other brands provide more. I think that is a good thing. That makes focusing so much easier when you only need to think about using 1 of the 3 points. If you use Live View, you can many more focus points. But so far I use view finder most of the time. Battery lasts forever. I have taken hundreds of pictures and haven't had the need to recharge. All in all, this is an awesome camera. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-09-07 | | Best Entry Level DSLR | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I have this SLR with ZD 14-54 2.8-3.5 lens. There no other body and lens combination under one grand that can match the value and quality of pictures I can get from Olympus. The E520 is compact yet has super ergnormics when compared to E420 and Canon XTi, both of which I owned at one time. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-08-15 | | very much worth the purchase | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | The E-520 from Olympus is my first DSLR purchase and I must say that it is an excellent camera. I've taken some great shots with it outside and I'm very impressed. The kit lens (Zuiko 14-42mm) i find to be a great starter lens although in low light situations the auto focus takes much time and can be inaccurate. i plan to get the Olympus Zuiko 12-60mm lens to go with this camera as it handles lower light situations much better. the auto white balance can generally be accurate but i do suggest using either one of the presets or making manual tweaks. while live view is one of the big features in this dslr, as it has been with almost all of their dslr cameras, i find myself having more fun using the viewfinder, which hasn't really given me any problems. the anti-dust system is great, i still encourage cleaning the camera every once in a while as well just as a precaution. I encourage anybody in the market for an entry level dslr to look @ and try the e-520. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-08-14 | | Olympus E-520, an excellent choice | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I was shopping from my first DSLR and finally settled for the Oly E520 after shortlisting it with Canon XSi [450D] and Sony A300. Some of the features that made me go for it are mentioned below: - a nice package with 14-42mm and 40-150mm lenses - the quality of Zuiko lenses [and they are smart to market them as optimized for digital photography] - SSWF dust removal system [which according to some works the best] - Live View [XSi and A300 have that too] - In body Image stabilization, which means that you don't need expensive lenses with stabilization [A300 has in-body stabilization too] - the camera felt better in hand than the other two - the Olympus brand - Intuitive Menu I have both the CF and xD cards on it. The xD card box has a code that activates Art and 3D feature on the Olympus Master 2 Software. For someone who is moving up from the point and shoots, the Oly E-520 is one of the best choices. I have been using it for a week now and everyday I learn something new about it. Overall, it's one of the best and I have no hesitation in giving it 5 stars and recommending it highly!!!! | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-08-06 | | A + Camera | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I purchased this camera body only about a month ago and wow, I have an evolt 500 and now have the 520 both take great pics, spend the little extra and get the 520 if you are looking at Olympus I highly recommend it, this is an A+ in my book. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-08-06 | | Great value for money | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I evaluated the Canon 40D and new EOS XSI before stumbling onto this little beauty. I can argue that it takes just as good pictures as the 40D - at least in my hands. It's smaller than the Canons and for the price, an incredible deal. Now, not to put down Canon... I actually broke my Canon brand loyalty for this camera, but overall, Olympus did a great job in packing features and ease of use into this camera and once its in your hands, you'll see it. The back has lots of buttons but once you spend 15 min figuring out how to navigate the camera and its buttons, you'll like the ready access to many functions. In terms of image quality, it's breathtaking for those looking to step up from advanced point and shoot cameras. It's not a pro camera for sure but I'm no pro and for what I do, it more than gets the job done. I use it for baby photos, nature macro, nature landscape and cityscape photography and it does great for the variety of environments I shoot in. One thing I find really impressive is the flash. Flash on most DSLR's tend to wash out or harshen images. This camera's flash is just enough but not too much so long as you compose your shots correctly. (Like not having your subject 1 meter from the lens!) Overall - I'm glad I looked at this and Olympus won themselves a convert! EDIT - 8/8/08. After using the camera for a few days, I noticed that when I turned the camera off, a rattle would emanate from the inside of the camera. Distraught, I removed the lens and still the rattle continued. Upset that my new beauty was defective, I boxed it back up and prepared to return it... but before I did, I called Olympus support to see if they had any insight since I could find NOTHING on the internet about the rattling. Well, as it turned out, it was the image stabilizer in the camera body that was creating the rattle! The tech said it was a natural function of the IS "resetting" itself. (Remember, this camera has in-body IS, not lens IS) When I turned off the IS, no more rattle. Whew, good thing I called - Olympus support was great and saved a return. Only con is that they should document this in the manual, its a little unnerving at first but you get used to it. Don't worry, the rattle is slight - nothing that will jar the camera from your hands or damage any internal parts. It was that I just never felt something like this emanating from a camera before. Verdict after 1000 shots, still love it! | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-07-22 | | A Great DSLR - Highly Recommended! | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | This is my first DSLR. I bought this and the Canon XSI at the same time and tried them both for a week. To make a long story short, I returned the XSI and kept the E520. It was just easier to take good pictures indoors, which is where I do most of my shooting. The Canon took more effort to produce good pictures. Plus I liked the interface of the Olympus more. The XSI has a better viewfinder and a slightly better autofocus system but the Olympus image quality won me over in the end. Its white balance and exposure was just easier to get right than the Canon. The key is to purchase a camera that you will use and the Olympus does that for me. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-07-20 | | Happy I waited. | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I am coming from an Olympus C-8080 and a Panasonic DMC-FZ18. Both of these are decent cameras, but not quite SLR quality. Also, the Panasonic is the worst macro camera I have owned. Since I was looking for more options with macro/closeup photography, I wanted a DSLR. My old SLR was an OM2n (back in the prehistoric camera days). I considered getting the E-510 or Nikon D60. Both are decent cameras, but after seeing pictures, decided to stick with Olympus and wait for the 520. I am glad I did! I normally have a problem with a bit of camera shake and don't use a tripod. I just shot 400 pics and not one bit of camera shake! I was surprised to find out that I didn't even have Image stablization enabled. It is very easy to hold this camera steady. The lens and the viewfinder are crystal clear. I stongly suggest that you get the fastest CF card you can to record your pictures, and at least 4GB. I should tell you though, that I am shooting in both raw and fine jpeg format. This typically takes longer to write. The xd cards are too slow when shooting raw and fine jpeg. Another thing to make yourself aware of: Liveview does not seem perfected in any camera yet. It may take some time, but it is a bit bothersome, because there is a wait between recording photos when using Liveview. If you don't mind using the viewfinder,or waiting about 2 seconds between pictures, it's not a problem. Also, my battery compartment door seems to stick a bit. May need broken in, or it's just tight. On the plus side: I have only had this camera 36 hours and already feel totally comfortable with it. I have heard people say that it's not user-friendly. I disagree with that statement IF: you have previously owned and used Olympus cameras. This camera isn't that foreign when coming from Olympus. Yes, it takes getting used to the buttons a bit, and my thumb does accidentally hit a button, but heck, I haven't even had the camera a couple of days. I also suggest that you buy the telephoto lens. Unless you shoot all wide-angle pictures, you will not be satisfied with this lens package. Regarding the Olympus lenses ... Primo, very good quality for a zoom/package deal. Much better quality than I expected. I like my pictures to be as crisp as possible, with the lowest noise (who doesn't?), so I have experimented with shutting noise reduction off and using software to reduce noise. The results were good in my test results. The scene modes of the camera are good. I haven't used them all yet (I had to put the camera down and get some sleep sometime in the past 36 hours), but am impressed with face detection on, macro, night modes. The flash is fairly strong. I have never had a built in flash, which doesn't give some type of red eye or blue eyes in dogs, this has not happened yet with the 520. Impressive, but I would suggest if doing closeup, that you diffuse the flash, or stand back a bit and zoom on the subject. REVISION: If you use the Macro nature mode, it seems to adjust the flash a bit. Also, if you like to experiment, play withe the "Vivid mode" a bit. I'm usually not a fan of modes, but in bright sunlight, my colors came out exactly as they should be. If you are considering buying a more expensive camera and are NOT doing professional studio work, I would say; don't waste your money. Get this camera, because you will be impressed. If you are doing studio work, I would still tell you to get this camera, but get a better lens. After all, it's not always about the camera, but it is always about the lens. Anyone who has ever bought a no-name, camera-store "pushed on you" lens, knows what I am talking about. When my next lens arrives, I will post more information under the "40-150mm Olympus zoom lens". Highly recommend this camera! REVISION: Today, I received the adapter to let me use my old OM-2N lenses. I bought a generic one through ebay and it works just fine. I attached my old Tamron 90mm SP macro lens and began shooting. First, be aware that everything has to be done manually. This may not be practical if you need speed when focusing, unless you have mastered, manual focusing. I find that I shake the camera more with the heavier, manual lens, but with practice, I think that can be overcome. In other words, if you own the old OM lenses and don't have the money to get a new lens, buy the adapter and be prepared to make some adjustments. If you have a flash/lighting system and a tripod, those adjustments will be lessened. I don't think I would do this for the life of the camera, but I would use the old OM lens (especially if you have a high quality one), until I could afford a new digital lens. I also have the 40-150mm digital lens (the one they give in the package deals), and am very impressed with the quality. I have posted some pictures, so you can get an idea of what this camera can do. If you scroll over the pictures, you will see the pictures I shot with the old OM-2N lens. I didn't make any revisions, so that you can get an idea of how the pictures come out of the camera (no photoshop).
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-07-19 | | A New Era in DSLR | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I have done quite a lot of analysis before buying this camera, have used Nikon D40, D40x, D80, D200, Canon D350, D400, D450; but finally it was the Olympus E520 I fell in love with. I recently bought this camera in Hong Kong, when it wasn't even released anywhere in the rest of the world yet. :D Why did I like it? The ease of use, I have used a prosumer camera for a couple of years now, and was waiting for a camera with similar ease of use, and Olympus heard my prayers. Technology wise, its one of the best FourThirds system in the market, this has enabled smaller lenses. The Live View is amazing (though I prefer using the optical viewfinder, my wife loves the Live view), it has Face detection and multi-point focus, all I can say is that it is the best as yet (the Canon D450 liveView is really bad), the kit lens is very good too, awesome wide angle. The assisted manual focus is extremely useful; the auto focus is super fast. There are multiple RAW file formats to choose from. The Sensor based Image stabilization works like a charm, better than the optical image stabilization. The playback features are the best, anybody would want to see the photos they clicked a but closer, it is such a pain to zoom the preview on the Canons and the Nikons, in this even my 7 year old niece can do it. The image quality, you might have seen them on the internet, its comparable to any of the professional cameras. One small drawback i have noticed is the built in flash, its not as powerful as the Nikon, though we can increase the flash power, but the default setting is not as powerful as the Nikon. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-07-08 | | First SLR with Real Auto Focus Live View | 10 | NR | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | Just got this SLR today,have owned many Past & Present. First thoughts are this is a TOP Notch Step Up in a Digital SLR Camera. The Auto Focus in Live View is out of this world, just press the shutter botton half way and you are in focus. I currently Own the Canon 40D and Olympus 510. This is what I have been waiting for,SLR Quailty with the ease of operation of a Point and Shoot for quick easy pictures when you need them. Cant go wrong with this one. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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