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DCRP First Look: Olympus E-520
by Jeff
Keller, DCRP Founder/Editor
Originally posted: May 12, 2008
Last Updated:
May 25, 2008
This is a preview of the Olympus E-520 digital SLR. The camera shown is preproduction, and the features described here are subject to change. Olympus has asked that photos taken with this camera not be posted. When a production model is available, a final review will be posted.
The E-520 is the follow-up to Olympus' popular EVOLT E-510 digital SLR, which was introduced in March of 2007. The E-510 featured a 10 Megapixel CCD, sensor-shift image stabilization, dust reduction, full manual controls, and live view on its 2.5" LCD.
What's new on the E-520? Pretty much the same stuff that you'll find on the recently announced E-420. Those items include:
As you can see, the E-520 is more of an evolution of the E-510, rather than something radically different. Olympus has dropped the EVOLT moniker from their D-SLRs, as well.
Ready to learn more about this latest Olympus D-SLR? Keep reading -- our preview starts right now!
What's in the Box?
The E-520 will initially be sold in two kits: body only ($599), and with a 14 - 42 mm lens ($699). Here's what you'll find in the box for both of those:
If you get the lens kit then you'll get Olympus' fairly new 14 - 42 mm lens. On the E-520 (and all other FourThirds cameras), that's equivalent to 28 - 84 mm. As kits lenses go, this one's quite good, in terms of both build and photo quality. You can use other FourThirds lenses too, and there are now plenty to choose from. Do keep in mind that there is a 2X focal length conversion ratio.
Digital SLRs never come with memory cards, so if you don't have an xD or CompactFlash card already, you'll have to buy one. The E-520 has two slots: one for xD and the other for CompactFlash. The CF slot supports Type I and II cards, including the Microdrive. I'd suggest starting with a 2GB, high speed CompactFlash card.
The E-520 uses the same BLM-1 rechargeable battery as its predecessor. This is one of the most powerful lithium-ion batteries on the market, with a whopping 10.8 Wh of energy. Here's how that translates into battery life:
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The E-520's battery life is the same as its predecessor, and that's fine -- they were great before. In the group as a whole, the E-520 scores well above average. A battery grip is not available for the E-520.
Like all but one of the D-SLRs above, the E-520's proprietary battery has a few issues worth mentioning. For one, they're expensive, with a spare setting you back at least $43. Secondly, if the BLM-1 runs out of juice, you can't use an off-the-shelf battery to get you through the day. The only camera on the above list that takes AAs straight out of the box is the Pentax K200D, so it's a fairly uncommon feature these days.
When it's time to charge the BLM-1, just pop it into the included charger. And then prepare to wait for five hours for it to be charged. If you want a faster charger, Olympus would be happy to sell you one -- for $67! Whichever charger you use, you'll have to use a power cable with them, since they don't plug directly into the wall.
Being a digital SLR, you shouldn't be surprised to hear that the E-520 supports a ton of accessories. Here's a quick summary of what's available:
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One glaring omission from that list: an AC adapter. If you want to power your camera without using your batteries, you're out of luck.
Olympus Master 2 in Mac OS X
Olympus includes version 2 of their Olympus Master software with the E-520. Olympus Master is pretty snappy (except when loading a RAW image -- that took nine seconds), the interface is simple, and it can do just about everything you could ever want.
After you've transferred photos over from the camera (either into albums or folders on your hard drive) you'll arrive at the usual thumbnail screen that is standard in all photo viewing software these days. The thumbnail sizes are adjustable, and you can see shooting data and a histogram on the right side of the thumbnails. There's even a built-in RSS reader for subscribing to Olympus-related newsfeeds, though it wasn't yet working when I tried it.
Here you can organize photos, e-mail or print them, or display them in a slideshow. If you have a bunch of photos that you want to stitch into a panorama, you can do that with a few clicks of your mouse.
Editing JPEGs in Olympus Master 2
Above you can see the edit window, which you access by either double-clicking on a thumbnail or by clicking the Edit button in the toolbar. Functions here include resizing, cropping, brightness/contrast/sharpness adjustments, redeye reduction, distortion correction, and much more. When you're performing one of these edits, the software does a side-by-side before and after comparison, so you can see exactly what changes you've made.
Editing RAW images in Olympus Master 2
Olympus Master also features a basic RAW editor. It lets you adjust exposure, white balance, picture mode (color, b&w, sepia), contrast, sharpness, saturation, gradation, noise filter, and more. When you adjust any of the settings, Olympus Master shows you the results after a few seconds of grinding away. Do note that you don't get the before and after view like you do when you're editing JPEGs.
Olympus Studio 2 for Mac OS X
If you want more advanced RAW editing tools then you might want to consider Olympus Studio 2 ($100). This adds tone curve adjustment, false color suppression, aberration compensation, distortion correction, and batch processing.
Olympus Studio 2 - Camera Control Feature
Olympus Studio also lets you control the camera over a USB connection. You can adjust all the settings on the camera, and the images are saved right to your Mac or PC. Unlike with some other D-SLRs, you don't get live view on your computer here. You can get a quick still-image preview, but that's about it.
Oh, and if you have no idea what the heck RAW is, I'll tell you. Basically, it's a file containing unprocessed image data direct from the camera's sensor. You'll need to process it on your computer first (or on the camera -- more on this later), but this allows you to adjust things like white balance, exposure, and noise reduction without reducing the quality of the original image. It's almost like taking the photo again. Be warned that RAW images are considerably larger than JPEGs, which means that they take up more space on your memory card and decrease camera performance.
Since this is a preproduction camera, I will reserve my comments about the manual until I have one in my hands.
Look and Feel
The E-520 looks almost exactly like the E-510 that came before it, with the only major cosmetic change being its larger LCD. Despite its low price, the E-520 doesn't feel cheap when its in your hands. The rubberized grip is just the right size, allowing the E-520 to fit comfortably in your hands.
The E-520 is a bit of a poster child for what I call "button clutter" -- there are buttons, dials, and switches all over the place. I find that I have to search for the button I'm looking for, though that would certainly go away with time.
Now, let's see how the E-520 compares to other D-SLRs in terms of size and weight:
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The E-520 is the same size as the EVOLT E-510, and just a tad bit heavier. In this group of entry-level digital SLRs, it's right in the middle when it comes to size and weight.
Enough about numbers -- let's begin our tour of the camera now!
Here's the front of the E-520 with the lens removed. The camera has the same FourThirds lens mount as the other E-System cameras, and there are plenty of lenses to choose from. As I mentioned, there's a 2X focal length conversion ratio on FourThirds D-SLRs, so a 35 mm lens has the field-of-view of 70 mm. You can release the lens by pressing the button located to the right of the mount.
The E-520 has an enhanced version of the sensor-shift image stabilization system first seen on the E-510. Sensors in the camera detect the shaking caused by tiny movements of your hands. The camera then shifts the sensor to compensate for this motion. This won't freeze a moving subject, nor will it allow for multi-second handheld exposures, but it certainly does a good job at reducing blur. And, since the IS is built into the camera body, every lens you attach to the camera will have shake reduction.
New to the E-520's IS system are horizontal and vertical panning modes, which give you the benefit of image stabilization while you're following a moving subject.
I'll show you how well the IS system works when I post the final review of this camera.
Like all of Olympus' E-Series cameras, the E-520 has the SuperSonic Wave Filter dust removal system. This system literally "shakes off" dust with ultrasonic waves when you turn the camera on, greatly reducing the amount of dust that can litter your photos. Although most of the competition now offers dust reduction on their SLRs, Olympus was years ahead of them in this area.
Above the lens mount is the E-520's pop-up flash, which is released electronically. The flash has a guide number (GN) of 12 meters at ISO 100, which is unchanged from the E-510. Checking the competition, the Canon Rebel XSi and Pentax K200D have guide numbers of 13, the Nikon D60 and Sony Alpha DSLR-A300 score a 12, with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10 holding up the rear with a GN of 11. If you want more flash power, you can add an external flash via the camera's hot shoe, or you can have up to three sets of wireless flashes (requires the two flashes listed in the accessories section).
If the flash is popped up, the camera may use it as an AF-assist lamp. These flash-based systems allow for much faster low light focusing than traditional AF-assist lamps, with the downsides being that A) you must pop up the flash each and B) the strobe can be rather irritating to your subject. You aren't forced to take a flash photo, by the way -- just disable the flash in the menu.
The last item of note on the front of the camera can be found on the grip. That red-colored thing is the self-timer/remote control lamp and also the receiver for the optional wireless remote.
The most noticeable change to the E-520 is its larger, 2.7" LCD display (the E-510's was 2.5"). While the screen is larger, the resolution is the same as below: 230,000 pixels. However, Olympus has improved the contrast, color gamut, and viewing angle of this "HyperCrystal II" display, so it's more than just a size increase.
Olympus was the first SLR manufacturer to offer a camera with live view (on the E-330), and the E-520 has the latest and greatest version of that technology. If you're used to to composing photos on the LCD on your compact camera, then you'll feel right at home here (well, sort of). You get to see 100% of the frame, there's 11-point contrast detect autofocus, and exposure and white balance appear as they will in the actual photo. There's even a live histogram available.
In general, the live view isn't as sharp or fluid as it is on a good compact camera. Outdoor live view visibility is decent, though many point-and-shoot cameras do it better. Low light visibility is good, especially if you use the "live view boost" feature, which brightens things up, though everything will be black & white.
The contrast detect AF feature, first introduced on the E-420, brings the camera closer to the point-and-shoot experience, though it's on the slow side, and only compatible with certain lenses. The chart below compares the three distinctly different AF modes on the camera, and their restrictions:
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Imager AF is a fancy term for contrast detect AF. The camera can autofocus without having to flip the mirror down first, and you get 11 focus points and face detection, too. The face detection system can find up to eight faces in the frame, making sure they're properly exposed. I wasn't overly impressed with the FD system -- it struggled to find more than two or three of the six faces in our test scene. Do note that Imager AF is only compatible with select lenses, including the 14 - 42 and 40 - 150 mm kits lenses, the 25 mm "pancake", and the new 9 - 18 mm that was announced with the E-520.
The AF sensor option is how the E-510's live view focusing operated. Press the AE/AF lock button and the camera flips the mirror down, locks focus using the main AF sensor, flips the mirror back up, and returns to live view. When you fully press the shutter release, the camera will focus again, so you can skip the AE/AF lock button if you'd like.
As its name implies, the Hybrid option mixes the two previous AF modes. Press the shutter release halfway and the camera uses the contrast AF system for (relatively) quick focusing. Then, when you press the shutter release all the way down, the more reliable AF sensor is used for final focus lock, and then the photo is taken.
None of these AF modes are terribly quick. Contrast detect takes around a second to lock focus, as the lens grinds back and forth. Thus, these modes are not great choices for shooting a dynamic subject.
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| The green square shows the area that I want to enlarge | And here it is, blown up 7X |
When you're using manual focus in live view mode you can enlarge a part of the frame to verify proper focus. Just press the Info button, move the green square to the area you want enlarged, and press the OK button. The image can be enlarged by seven or ten times. This feature is especially handy when you've got the E-520 on a tripod.
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| Perfect Shot preview for exposure compensation.... | ... and white balance |
Another neat trick you can do in live view is called Perfect Shot Preview. This shows you the effect of different exposure compensation or white balance settings on your subject. The images are on the small side, though they're still quite helpful.
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| Info display on LCD when using viewfinder | Changing settings on the "Super Control Panel" |
When you're shooting using the viewfinder, the LCD displays a myriad of information about current camera settings (it's called the Super Control Panel). It's a bit cluttered, but it covers nearly every camera setting you'd ever want to change. If you want to change any of the settings displayed, you can press the OK button (in the four-way controller), navigate to the option you wish to adjust, and change away (see example). After a few seconds, the info display turns off the backlight (it kind of looks like a digital watch at this point), though outdoors you can still see it fairly easily.
Okay, enough about live view for now -- let's get back to the tour. Right above the LCD is the E-520's optical viewfinder. This viewfinder is good-sized, with a magnification of 0.92X. It displays 95% of the frame. To the right of the field-of-view is a column of shooting data, which tells you things such as focus status, shots remaining, aperture, shutter speed, and shooting mode. You can use a diopter correction knob on the right side of the viewfinder to focus what you're looking at.
Just to the right of the viewfinder is the camera's AE/AF lock button, which is also used to "protect" images in playback mode. Continuing to the right, we find the Function and AF Target buttons. The Function button is customizable, and by default it turns on face detection and "auto" Shadow Adjustment Technology. The AF Target button lets you select from three focus points when using the viewfinder, and eleven when using live view.
Now, onto the buttons to the right of the LCD. The first two are the IS and Display buttons. The IS button toggles between the three modes that I described earlier (normal, horizontal panning, vertical panning). The Display button toggles the live view feature on and off.
Next, we have the four-way controller. You'll use this for menu navigation, changing settings on the Super Control Panel (as shown above), and also for:
I'll describe all of those features in more detail in the menu section of the review.
The last thing to see on the back of the E-520 is its sole I/O port. This port is for USB + A/V out, and is also where you'll plug in the optional wired remote control. The E-520 supports the USB 2.0 High Speed protocol, so transferring photos to your Mac or PC won't take too long.
The first two items on the top of the E-520 are the two silver buttons on the left side of the photo. The top one adjusts the flash setting, with a lengthy list of options: auto, auto w/redeye reduction, flash on, flash off, slow sync w/redeye reduction, slow sync, 2nd-curtain slow sync, full power, 1/4 power, 1/16 power, and 1/64 power.
The drive button lets you select from single-shot or continuous shooting, 2 or 12 second self-timer, and 0 or 2 second remote control. You can redefine the function of this button to handle other tasks, as well (details in the menu section). In continuous shooting mode, the E-520 can take 6 RAW+JPEG, 10 RAW, and an unlimited number of JPEGs in a row at 3.2 fps (slower than advertised, but it's a preproduction camera). If you're shooting live view mode, the LCD turns off after the first shot, so you'll be using the optical viewfinder to track a moving subject.
Moving to the center of the photo, we find the E-520's hot shoe. The hot shoe works best with the Olympus FL-20, FL-36(R), and FL-50(R) flashes, which synchronize with the camera's metering system. Third party flashes will work too, though you may need to manually select the flash settings. The fastest shutter speed you can use is 1/180 sec, unless you're using the FL-36R or FL-50R, in which case you can use the Super FP mode, which lets you use any shutter speed. As I mentioned before, you can also cut the cord entirely and use the two "R" flashes wirelessly -- up to three sets worth.
Continuing to the right, we find the camera's mode dial, which has the power switch underneath it. A lamp that indicates when the dust reduction system is running is also close by. Here's what you'll find on the E-520's mode dial:
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Olympus has a nice balance of auto and manual controls on the E-520, so you can start simple, and work up to more advanced shooting when you're ready.
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I do want to mention a few of those scene modes before I move on. The high key mode enhances bright areas of a photo, while the low key mode does the opposite (enhances the shadows). The digital image stabilization mode will boost the ISO sensitivity to reduce the risk of blurry photos. Since the camera already has an optical IS system, using this feature probably isn't necessary. Finally, there are two underwater scene modes, for use with the optional U/W case.
To the lower-right of the mode dial is the camera's command dial, used for adjusting manual exposure settings. Moving up, we find the exposure compensation (with a -5EV to +5EV range) and shutter release buttons.
There's nothing to see on this side of the camera.
On the other side of the camera you'll find its dual memory card slots, which is protected by a plastic door of average quality. The slots here include xD (left) and CompactFlash Type I/II (right).
On the bottom of the E-520 you'll find a metal tripod mount (in line with the lens, of course) and the battery compartment. The door covering the battery compartment comes off easily, but it reattaches in a snap (literally).
The included BLM-1 lithium-ion battery is shown at right.
Using the Olympus E-520
Record Mode
The Olympus E-520 performs its dust reduction "shake off" and is ready to start taking pictures in one second. There are faster SLRs out there, though they either lack dust reduction, or perform the cleaning at shutdown only.
Autofocus speeds will depend on a number of factors, including whether or not you're using live view, the chosen focus mode, and what lens is attached. Without live view, focusing is generally very snappy, with delays ranging from 0.1 - 0.3 seconds at wide-angle to around 0.5 - 0.8 seconds at the telephoto end (with the 14 - 42 mm kit lens). Low light focusing times generally hang around one second. If you're using live view with the default Imager AF, don't expect miracles: focus times were around 1 second in good light. In low light, the camera had a terrible time locking focus, sometimes just giving up (we'll see if this improves in the production model). The other two AF modes are more accurate, though not necessarily any faster.
Shutter lag isn't an issue if you're shooting with the viewfinder, and it's barely noticeable with contrast detect live view. However, if you're using either hybrid or AF sensor live view, you can expect to wait about a second between the time you fully press the shutter release and when the photo is actually taken.
Shot-to-shot delays were minimal, regardless of the image quality setting or whether the flash was used. You can keep shooting until you fill the buffer, which isn't easy.
There's no way to delete a photo immediately after taking it -- you must enter playback mode first.
There are a ton of image quality options available on the E-520, and I've compiled them into this handy chart for you:
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Enough options for you? RAW images may be taken alone, or with a JPEG at the size of your choosing. I told you why RAW is handy back in the software section of this article.
Olympus uses a rather unusual file naming convention on their cameras. Files are named PMDD####.JPG where M = month, D = day, and #### = 0001 - 9999. Photos taken with the AdobeRGB color space start with an underscore ("_"), instead of a "P". You can customize the first two characters of the file name in the setup menu, if you wish.
The E-520 has a detailed, complex menu system. There are a lot of options to be found here, some of which are buried pretty deep. Unlike many of Olympus' consumer cameras, there's no help screens available. The manual doesn't explain things terribly well, either. The menu is divided into five tabs, covering shooting, playback, and custom options. Here's what you'll find:
Shooting Menu 1
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Shooting menu 2
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Playback Menu
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Custom Menu 1
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Custom Menu 2
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| Picture Mode menu | Editing the custom picture mode |
There's plenty to talk about here, and I'll start with the E-520's Picture Modes. The presets are fairly obvious: vivid, natural, or muted colors, plus portrait for smooth skin tones. For each of those, you can tweak the contrast, sharpness, and saturation. For black and white shooting, there's a monotone mode. There you can apply virtual color filters, or add a color tint to the image. Finally, a custom option lets you select a Picture Mode as a starting point, and you can then adjust the settings I just mentioned, plus the gradation, which I'll cover below.
The gradation feature takes advantage of Olympus' Shadow Adjustment Technology. When you set this to "auto", the camera will break the image into smaller sections, analyzing and adjusting the brightness in each individually. I'll give you an example in the final review.
There are numerous white balance options available on the E-520. First, you've got the usual presets, and each of those can be tweaked in the amber/blue or green/magenta directions. The camera can also store up to four sets of custom white balance settings, which you set by taking a photo of a white or gray card. You must set the Function button to One-touch WB first, though. I don't know why Olympus (and Nikon, for that matter) makes this so difficult. You can also set the color temperature, with an available range of 2000K - 14000K.
The E-520 has two unique metering modes. Highlight control spot metering gives you accurate whites, while shadow control spot metering gives you accurate blacks. The metering area is the same as it is in regular spot metering mode.
What are those AF modes all about? Single AF locks the focus when you halfway-press the shutter release button. Continuous AF keeps focusing, even with the shutter release halfway-pressed. Manual focus does just as it sounds. The Single AF+MF and Continuous AF+MF modes let you manually focus after the camera has locked focus automatically.
The E-520 has three types of auto bracketing. You can bracket for exposure, flash exposure, and white balance. If you've got the space on your memory card, this is a good way to ensure that you always get the shot you want.
Since this is a preview, there are no photo tests or sample photos available. Look for those when the final review is posted later this Spring.
Movie Mode
Digital SLR cameras do not have movie modes.
Playback Mode
The E-520 has a pretty nice playback for a digital SLR. Basic features such as slideshows, DPOF print marking, image rotation, image protection, and zoom & scroll are all here. This last feature lets you enlarge your photo by as much as 14X, and then scroll around to make sure that everyone's smiling.
Photos can be viewing one-at-a-time or as thumbnails of varying sizes (some of which are tiny). You can also navigate to photos that were taken on a certain date by using the calendar view (pictured).
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The camera offers two edit modes -- one for JPEGs, another for RAW images. The JPEG editing feature lets you downsize an image, or apply shadow adjustment technology (described back in the menu section) to an image. The RAW data edit feature is handy, but not as easy to use as it could be. Instead of just adjusting the RAW properties right there in playback mode, you first need to set the desired settings in the record menu, and then return to playback mode to use the RAW edit function. The resulting image is saved as a JPEG.
Side-by-side image viewer
Another nice feature is a side-by-side image viewer. Press the focus point selection button to split the screen, select the image you want for the right half, and then you can compare them easily. When you scroll one image, the other one scrolls with it. Very handy!
Since the E-520 has two memory card slots, it's not surprising that it lets you copy photos back and forth between an xD and CompactFlash card.
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By default, the camera doesn't show you much information about your photos, but press the info button a few times and you'll get a lot more, including histograms and a display of over and underexposed areas.
The E-520 moves from photo to photo instantly in playback mode.
How Does it Compare?
The conclusion will be posted when this review is finalized.
Photo Gallery
Olympus has requested that photos from our preproduction camera not be posted.
Feedback & Discussion
To discuss this review with other DCRP readers, please visit our forums.
If you have a question about this review, please send them to Jeff. Due to my limited resources, please do not e-mail me asking for a personal recommendation or technical support.
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