Olympus E-420

Olympus E420

Last Update: 29th December 2009

Olympus has been pioneering many new trends and technologies in the past. The 4/3 sensor size that was specifically designed for the digital SLR camera was another such pioneering and winning technology. Often I read or hear people refer to the “small” sensor SLR when referring to the Olympus SLR. Although true, I believe totally out of context and the result of poor education by the industry. Let me explain why. The Canon SLR, the Sony and the Nikon SLR to name a few use two different types of sensor sizes, the so called Full Frame and the so called APC sized sensor. The latter is a smaller sized sensor used in the main stream bodies of most manufacturers. The difference is that Olympus went back to the drawing board when designing a whole new digital camera including lenses and bodies. Most of the other manufacturers tried to hold onto the older lenses and therefor adapted to a best fit small SLR sensor.

People say that the Olympus sensor has more noise because its smaller. Again that is true for today. My question is, what will it look like 5 years from now when considering the rate at which things are developing. In 5 years, when the Olympus sensor is possibly performing like a general full frame sensor of today or better, will it still be possible to afford the superior lenses produced by Olympus?

What it brings to the digital camera world is many advantages in terms of lens design, how the “picture” signal is projected onto the sensor and finally physical size. It was the size that enables Olympus to first launch the E-400, then the E-410 and currently the advanced E-420.

The new 25 mm Pancake lens is potentially one of the most exciting developments for the E-420 or the E-410. The new pancake lens reduce the physical size of the E420 and the E410 SLR to the compact camera arena. Another significant development on the E-420 is the new advanced Live View mode.

One of the features people became use to when using a compact camera was the comfort of using the screen to compose a picture. No longer was it necessary for compact owners to peep through the small view finders on their compact cameras when taking a picture.

The E-420 has the same look and feel of the advanced compact camera in terms of its Live View function.

In addition to a number of new lenses, Olympus has also prepared an exciting range of accessories for the E-420. On the bottom right you can see a practical carry case for the E-420. I owned a similar type carry case for my G7 and one of the advantages of having such a carry case is that it forms a natural sort of grip.

Another great accessory is for example the remote control that one can buy for these cameras. It enables the user to trigger the E-420 from a distance without touching the camera.

Olympus gave me a E-410 for a period of 15 days to test and to write a users report on the new camera. You can read about my experiences with the E420 on the following pages.

Something I noticed and that could be of interest to the compact owner interested to upgrade is the difference between the live view and the optical view finder.

The live view screen on the G7 can be difficult to read in bright sunlight plus the OVF on the G7 it not really good. Switching to the E-420 solve that problem completely. Do not let forum gurus tell you the view finder on the E-420 is to small. Compared to what you know on the G7 or the G9 OVF, believe me the E420 is really something send from heaven. Compared to other entry level SLR cameras the E420 OVF is not that much different. That said, for the compact owner its awesome to be able to clearly view the scene, to see the shooting values and to be able to correctly frame a picture with the view finder.

Picture Quality of the E-420

Personally I still have mixed reactions on the picture quality. I think what is happening on the forums is something similar to what happened when the G9 was launched. There were many people who dreamed about the G7 but they maintained that the G7 had no RAW and therefor they decided not to get one. When the G9 was launched with RAW then it became the best ever G series PowerShot.

Similar the E-410 was a really great camera, but the forums claimed it had poor dynamic range plus a few other problems and therefor many did not get it. The E-420 seem to address these small problems and the E-420 seem to be the next hit. I think that’s great because I believe the E-400 line of Olympus is a great idea and I will be very sad to see it disappear.

That brings me to the picture quality. Out the box the E-420 is the leader and the E-420 can really produce awesome quality pictures, no doubt. BUT, the E-420 is a user friendly SLR and it has many things designed to make the average user happy without the need for much or many adjustments. The E-410 requires a little tuning to deliver its best. If done correctly it seems to me that the E-410 could have the edge in terms of picture quality. I included a few initial pictures for you to see. In my user report I will give more details.