Review: Olympus E-410 digital SLR

Olympus made a splash at the tail end of last year with the announcement that its latest digital SLR – the 10-megapixel E-400 - would be the world’s smallest.

Eight months later we have the next edition, the E-410. This has a faster processor and a new imaging sensor, in an attempt to combat our previous criticisms about image noise. It’s also better value than the E-400, and it’s still the tiniest SLR available.

Unsurprisingly, not much has changed outwardly. The camera still has the traditional SLR styling, but it lacks a decent rounded grip with which to get a firm hold.

When we tested the original E-400, we noticed noise starting to creep into pictures taken at upwards of ISO200, which would be poor quality on a compact camera, let alone a digital SLR. This was because Olympus had crammed 10 megapixels onto what was a relatively small sensor. That’s not the case here: happily the user can now bump light sensitivity up to a maximum of ISO1600 before substantial noise starts to appear.

A big advantage of digital SLRs is that it's possible to swap the lens on the front to suit the subject, but this also means that dust can get onto the sensor as you do so. Happily, like the E-400, the E-410 boasts a grandly named Supersonic Wave Filter that physically shakes the sensor free of undesirables each time the camera is switched on.

There’s also a feature called Live View that lets the photographer compose images using the LCD screen – for technical reasons, this is rare on digital SLRs even though it is common on compact cameras. It does, of course, have a physical viewfinder for composition, like all SLRs.

Another impressive feature is that lenses used by the Olympus system – known as Four Thirds – offer twice the focal length of their 35mm equivalents, meaning the bundled 14-42mm zoom lens is equal to a 28-84mm lens on another manufacturer's SLR. So you get a bigger range from a physically smaller lens, even if it is just the standard 3x zoom (dividing the 42mm longest focal length by the 14mm shortest). There’s some barrel distortion – the edges of the picture curve very slightly – at maximum wide angle, but for the most part images are crisp and colour is naturalistic.

To sum up, the E-410 has so many boxes ticked it’s hard to see where Olympus has made any oversights, and it represents a great camera for the first-time digital SLR user.

Vista compatible: N/A

See also:

Review: Nikon D40x digital camera

The usability and features of the D40 enter the 10 megapixel market  03 Jul 2007

Review: Canon EOS 400D digital SLR

The successor to the EOS 350D has arrived  08 Sep 2006

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