POST 1:
27 of 44 people found the
following review helpful:
I Returned It... WB Never Gets Right... Dark
Pictures... Dull Colors, December 13,
2007
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By
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wildcatgoal (Chicago, IL)
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A lot of people seem to like
this camera. Why? I bought this from Amazon.com (great service), took somewhere
around 250-300 pictures at all qualities, settings, scenes, lighting, color
pallets, etc., using the kit lenses trying to get things to look like I see
them with my eyes or better and it just never happened no matter what I did
with the settings. Listen, I'm not a pro but, get this, I took it to a product
photographer at work and my neighbor who's a big Canon buff and using their
advice, I still couldn't get it to brighten up! Still, the camera's AUTO mode
should take, say, B+/A- grade pictures in the "average" situation but
this sucker does not. Why?! In fact, no Olympus camera I've had has! Weird.
The menu makes sense, but it's just so "filled" with options that
already have their own button on the camera itself, mixed in with unique
settings, that it get's tiresome to flip through. Speaking of flipping through,
the buttons on the menu control worry me. I've used cameras where the buttons
feel like they're right out of the interior of a BMW - tight, quiet, heavy
feeling - but these buttons feel like they're right out of a Ford Fiesta (okay,
maybe Daewoo). They are light, overly "clicky," and I feel like
they'll pop off someday.
Same goes for the rest of the camera, including the kit lenses. Now, this thing
is light and that is nice. But camera feels, again, like a Ford Fiesta in terms
of build quality vs. other cameras. It feels hollow to me, as if there's a lot
of room in there for "improvement." No, there are no echos. We all
know what cheap feels like vs. well-built! The kit lenses don't scope out and
in as smoothly as I feel like they should. Sometimes they snag just a teeny,
tiny bit and coupled with the fact that they are just not smooth operating
makes me wonder how long they'll last.
The white balance (WB) adjustments on this camera work just like any other SLR
I'm sure but, my gosh, all it does is make dull, dark photos go straight to
washed-out and super-mega bright! This isn't a defect model. I went to Ritz
thinking it was and played with their display; same thing. I could NOT get this
camera to take a picture with the right WB so that the image was crisp, clear,
properly lit, and all that. No matter the ISO, contrast setting, sharpness setting,
noise filter setting, etc. At Ritz, we put on a fancier lense for the heck of
it, and though things improved (not enough at all though), because the screen
is not high-res enough, you couldn't tell if the detail got better other than
noticing - due to the expanded ability of a higher apeture lense - that the
brightness got more accurate.
Plus sides of this camera are:
> Image stabilization built in in two modes (horizontal + vertical for most
shots and just horizontal for panning)
> 10MP
> Screen size
> Grip and size of unit is perfect (Rebel XT/XTi is horrible)
> Light (but in a bad way to me)
> Takes pictures fast
> Auto focus is accurate and fast (only 3-focus points though)
> And other stuff, but this is a negative review....
You can obviously tell I was just not impressed with this camera! For $600+
it's just doesn't cut it relative to what it SHOULD be. I took 10 shots with
the Nikon D80 and almost bought it right then and there! I would have IF it had
image stabilization built in and - though I don't believe this does much more
than setting the camera down hard - dust removal technology. I still might but
I'm going to explore the Nikon D80, Canon EOS 20D/30D/40D, and the Pentax K10D.
The Rebel XT/XTi is out of the question because the grip isn't bulky enough for
my taste.
I bought this camera because I was attracted to the dual lenses and the big
feature list. But, once again, I realized that if you ask for everything,
everything presents itself, and you know you aren't paying enough for it, then
what you are buying is 2/3rds of what everything could be had you paid what you
should have paid for it. If that makes sense. Think about it.
Thanks for the read. Look elsewhere, please.
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POST 2:
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13 of 24 people found the
following review helpful:
it is the cheapist DSLR, but you have to know why, December 22, 2007
it is good
camera,especially in this low price ($549 with two lens in fry's). I don't
want to mention good points because a lot of people already did. I just want
to point out big problem for this camera because it looks like nobody
mentioned yet. The big problem is auto focus in very low light( I mean very
low light),the camera has no response or lens zoom in and out, just refuse to
fire. I tried many times. Probablly the reason is that camera couldn't see
any subject although alluminating assist light kept flashing. I tried it in day
time, too. I just point camera to sky(blue sky without clouds), the camera
had same problem ( could not focus and refuse to fire). In above satuations I
had to change to MF or turn on release prority, but picture came out with out
of focus. This is very annoying and never happend to other camera,even very
cheap point and shot camera. I could not figure out why, probably this camera
only has 3 point auto focus compare with canon has 9 points. olympus e500 has
the same problem. I heard olympus e3 has 11 points auto focus. I don't know
if it has the same problem. If you want to buy this camera, you have to know
this problem. If you can tolerate this, you can buy it. it is the cheapist
DSLR with high qulity in the market.
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POST 3:
Does everything an amatuer would expect from it, January 8, 2008
I want to say that I love
this camera. I've taken over a thousand pics with this thing and the battery
lasted a ridiculous long time. I bought the camera with the two lens kit. As
bad as the live view seems to some people I loved it when I was taking pictures
for a friend's wedding. Yes, it wasn't moving action, but when you are taking a
still photo and you want that awkward angle then it is perfect. The lag is
about 1 second or so, about what you would expect from a point and shoot. I am
inexperienced with SLRs but I have been around a few between my coworkers
having a Rebel XTi and a D50. I must say I've handled the XTi a few times and
it feels good and shoots great but I'm in love with my purchase. The ability
for my mother to use the live view to get pictures of me and my wife with our
two year old's first xmas with her family together (I was in iraq for her
first) was amazing. The pictures turned out great and she didn't have to bother
with the viewfinder. I do have one SMALL problem with it. My point and shoot
doesn't have a problem whatsoever with low light pics, if it can't see it, it
focuses as best it can and takes the pic anyways. With the E-510 it will not
stop trying to focus for 3 sets of strobing flashes unless it does focus and
will not take a picture until it does. I guess its ok when you don't want blur,
but sometimes just getting the quick photo is a lot better than missing the
opportunity altogether. Also, this camera is perfect in size for those
transitioning to D-SLRs. I find myself picking up the XTi thinking, "Wow,
this thing is huge!" Even though it's a small SLR, lol...
All in all I think I made a very wise purchase. It had every feature I wanted
and yes, live view was one of them. I paid 650 for it at the first of december,
and didn't regret waiting for another price change one bit even though it dropped
around the holidays to 600.
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QUESTIONNAIREITERATION 3 - OLYMPUS E-510
ITERATION 3 - OLYMPUS E-510
