Welcome to the third and final part of Camera Advices review of the award winning Olympus E620 entry level digital camera. Here we will be discussing the focusing, live view, the cameras ‘art filters’ and general performance
Olympus E620 Focusing
The Olympus E620 has an 11 point auto focus system which gives you the option of which point to focus on. This works pretty well in most scenarios with normal lighting conditions. It’s auto focus was fairly quick (0.3 seconds, from shutter release to capture) although this does slow down in live view. It does start to fall down though when the lighting conditions become tricky. I found that when I was shooting in the indoor climbing centre with low light, and particularly with a long focal length, the camera spent a long time hunting for focus lock. This for me was the one area that let the camera down but then this is a problem with a lot of auto focus systems.
Olympus E620 Shutter Lag and Continuous shooting
Shutter lag was pretty decent with the E620 (0.02 seconds from shutter release to capture when pre focused). This is fairly normal for a camera of it’s class. This did slow down though when shooting in live view. The continuous shooting was also pretty good (4.1 frames per second with a 4 frame buffer).
Olympus E620 Live View
I have not been a big fan of live view on DSLR cameras until now, but I think I have had my mind changed by the E620. The dedicated on/off button makes it an easy option and it is simple and fun to use. There is no blacking out of the screen which happens on some systems so you can see what you are taking all the way up until the capture. The screen also has a tilt’n’swivel action so you can view the image from a variety of angles. This can be useful if you want to take overhead shots, and also if you want to hide the fact that you are taking a shot.
The automatic face detection and contrast detection focus kicks in when in live view. This makes the camera behave more like a compact camera which made sense to me as an entry level digital camera. The only problem with this, as I have already mentioned, is the slowing down of the focusing. This is a little disappointing but I guess this happens with most point and shoot focusing.
Olympus E620 Art Filters
This feature was a fun option which will appeal to people who love iphone apps! It is simple to use and creates a variety of visual effects, some quite cool, others, a bit pointless. The pop art mode saturates colours, but tended to overdo reds, the soft focus was good as was the grainy film effect and the pin hole camera. The others are less interesting for my money. These are demonstrated below in this order from left to right: Art, Soft Focus, Light Tone, Pale and Light Colour, Grainy Film, Pin Hole, and Normal.
Olympus E620 Battery and Memory Card
The Olympus E620 camera is powered by a li-ion Olympus digital camera battery which takes, surprisingly, 3.5 hours to charge. The captures are stored on a compact flash card or Olympus’s own xD-Picture memory card. Each has it’s own slot.
Conclusion
Camera advice gives the Olympus E620 a big thumbs up. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I received this camera but I spent a few very happy days snapping away. The image quality was good, the camera felt responsive and good to hold, and I even liked some of the gimmicky features, like the art filters. What surprised me more than anything was how much I liked the live view, even though it slowed down the cameras focusing speed.
I would definitely recommend this as an entry level digital camera. It was a fun bit of kit and and would certainly encourage any beginner to be more creative with their photography.
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