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Olympus E-620 is an entry level digital SLR shooting 12.3 megapixel photos and having some really good specs and promising features.

Overview:

Olympus E-620 has an LCD screen that pivots and turns quite freely making it an ideal digital camera for shooting at unusual angles. The camera has illuminated controls at the back so taking photos in low light is really easy, especially that the Olympus E-620 has plenty of flash options and it is small and quite light.

Olympus E-620 pros:
+ Rotating LCD screen
+ Excellent image quality
+ Very nice kit lens
+ Wireless flash control is excellent
+ Creative features are fun, useful
+ Illuminated buttons
+ Light and compact

Olympus E-620 cons:
- Live view experience still not perfect
- Noisier at high ISOs than competition
- AF performance is hit or miss
- No video mode
- Slow write time to xD cards

The design:

Olympus E-620 measures 130 x 94.0 x 60 mm and weighs 475 grams. The camera is made of high quality and very light materials which makes it easier to take photos unusual angles and hold the camera for a long time. The front of the Olympus E-620 features only the lens, white balance sensor, remote control receiver and the lens release button. On the other hand, the back of Olympus E-620 is crammed with various buttons and controls. The rear of the Olympus camera features: Power switch, viewfinder, 2.7-inch 230.000 dot LCD, 4-way controller, USB port, image stabilization control and a few other controls. The left side of the Olympus E-620 is completely bare, whereas the right side houses the memory card compartment. The top of Olympus E-620 houses the pop-up flash, hot shoe, shutter release button, mode dial and control dial, while the bottom only the tripod mount and the battery compartment door.

Performance:

The articulated LCD on the Olympus E-620 really aids shooting in Live View (something that the Sony A900 lacks). Moreover, as the rear buttons are illuminated it is also easy to change settings in dark areas and thus achieve better results. The Olympus E-620 supports both xD Picture Cards and the preferable CompactFlash cards and has a good viewfinder showing plenty of information. Still, one of the biggest flaws of the Olympus E-620’s performance is the Live View lag during fast panning.

Image quality:

The Olympus E-620 renders very good colors in bright light and as the Olympus camera has five different picture modes it is easy to find the right one for the present circumstances. However, the photos taken with the Olympus E-620 tend to be too noisy when compared to competition, such as Sony A900, or Pentax K2000. Still, the Olympus E-620 has a very good ISO range (details below) and quite good resolution and sharpness.there are some distortion problems, but only at extreme wide range. Thanks to the extensive white balance settings and custom WB the camera scores quite well in white balance test, although there may be some issues with incandescent lighting in the auto mode.

Menus / ease of use:

The Olympus E-620 is quite easy to use thanks to the abundance of Shooting Modes, dedicated buttons and, of course, the easy mode. In the Auto mode the camera does everything for you, but you can still adjust certain settings which is very handy, especially for more advanced shooters, but still not professionals. The menus are maybe not the most attractive ones, but they are quite clear and it is not too difficult to find the desired options.
All in all, the Olympus E-620 is a very good digital camera for beginners and semi-professionals offering good image quality for a reasonable price.
Selected Olympus E-620 features and specifications:
Body material

• Glass fibre reinforced plastics

Sensor

• • 4/3″ Hi-Speed Live MOS sensor
• • 17.3 x 13.0 mm active area
• • 13.1 million total pixels
• • 12.3 million effective pixels
• • RGB (Primary) color filter array
• • Fixed low pass filter (anti-alias filter)

Dust suppression

• Supersonic Wave Filter

Image stabilization

• • “Supersonic Wave Drive” (in-body sensor shift)
• • Three modes: Horizontal+Vertical, Vertical only, Horizontal only
• • Up to 4 EV Compensation (claimed)

Image processor

• TruePic III

Image sizes

• • 4032 x 3024, 3200 x 2400, 2560 x 1920, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480

File formats

• • RAW, RAW + JPEG, JPEG (EXIF 2.2)

Lenses

• • 4/3 standard lens mount
• • Range of ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses available
• • Multiply focal length by 2 for 35 mm equiv. FOV

Auto focus

• • 7-point TTL Phase Difference Detection
• • Automatic or manual point selection
• • EV -1 to 19 (ISO 100) detection range
• • Available in Live View (slight pause and mirror flip required)
• • Fine adjustment +/- 20 steps, 20 data can be registered

Focus area selection

• • Automatic
• • Manual

Focus modes

• • Single shot AF, Single shot AF + MF, Continuous AF + MF, Continuous AF, Manual focus

Manual focus

• Focus by wire (SWD lenses have mechanically-coupled manual focus)

AF assist lamp

• Yes, flash strobe (flash must be raised)

Exposure modes

• • Auto, Program AE (with shift), Aperture priority AE, Shutter priority AE, Manual, Scene program, Scene select

Scene modes

• • Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Sport, Night + Portrait, Children, High Key, Low Key, DIS mode, Nature Macro, Candle, Sunset, Fireworks, Documents

Art Filter

• • Pop art, Soft focus, Pale & light color, Light tone, Grainy film, Pin hole

Sensitivity

• • Auto
• ISO 100, ISO 125, ISO 160, ISO 200, ISO 250, ISO 320, ISO 400, ISO 500, ISO 640, ISO 800, ISO 1000, ISO 1250, ISO 1600, ISO 2000, ISO 2500, ISO 3200

Metering system

• • 49-zone multi-pattern
• • Range: 1 to 20 EV (50 mm F2, ISO 100)

Metering modes

• • Digital ESP
• • Center-Weighted Average
• • Spot (2%)
• • Highlight based spot
• • Shadow based spot

AE Lock

• • AE/AF lock button
• • With shutter release half-press

AE Bracketing

• • 3 frames
• • 0.3, 0.7 or 1.0 EV steps

Exposure steps

• 1/3, 1/2 or 1.0 EV

Exposure compen.

• • -5.0 to +5.0 EV
• • 1/3, 1/2 or 1.0 EV steps

Shutter speed

• • 60-1/4000 sec

Flash X-sync speed

• • 1/180 sec or less

White balance

• • Auto, Cloudy, Shade, Flash, Daylight, Fluorescent 1, Fluorescent 2, Fluorescent 3, Lamp, 1 custom preset , Kelvin (2000 – 14000 K), Dual sensor WB measurement (external WB sensor and TTL)

WB fine tuning

• • Red – Blue: +/- 7 steps (2 mired each)
• • Green – Magenta: +/- 7 steps (2 mired each)

WB Bracketing

• • 3 frames
• • 2, 4 or 6 mired steps

Color space

• • sRGB
• • Adobe RGB

Image parameters

• • Picture mode (Vivid, Natural, Portrait, Muted, Monotone, Custom)
• • Saturation (5 levels)
• • Sharpness + Contrast (5 levels)
• • Contrast (5 levels)
• • B&W filter (Yellow, Orange, Red, Green)
• • B&W/Sepia toning (Yellow, Orange, Red, Green)
• • Gradation (Auto, High Key, Normal, Low Key)

Drive modes

• • Single
• • Continuous H and L
• • Self-timer
• • Remote control

Continuous

• • 4.0 fps
• • RAW: 5 frames maximum

Self-timer

• • 2 sec
• • 12 sec
• • Anti Shock: 1-30 sec delay

Flash

• • Built-in pop-up
• • TTL auto / manual
• • Guide no. 12
• • Sync modes: Auto, Red-eye reduction, Slow sync with red-eye reduction, Slow sync, 2nd curtain slow sync, Fill-in, Off
• • Flash power: Up to +/- 3EV in 1, 1/2, or 1/3 EV steps

External flash

• • Hot shoe
• TTL Auto FP / TTL auto for Olympus dedicated flash (FL-20, FL-50, FL36, FL-36R, FL-50R) 
• Modes: Auto, Manual, Red-eye reduction, Slow sync with red-eye reduction, Slow sync, 2nd curtain slow sync, Fill-in for exclusive flash.
• Flash power: Up to +/- 2EV in 1, 1/2, or 1/3 EV steps
• Wireless flash possible with FL-36R and FL-50R

Viewfinder

• • Eye-level TTL Optical pentamirror
• • Field of view approx. 95%
• • Magnification 0.96x with a 50mm lens and -1 dioptre
• • Dioptre adjustment -3 to +1 dioptre

Orientation sensor

• Yes

LCD monitor

• • 2.7″ HyperCrystal III TFT LCD monitor (wide viewing angle, transmissive)
• • Vari-angle (swing and tilt)
• • 230,000 pixels
• • 100% frame coverage
• • 15 step brightness adjustment

Playback functions

• • Single
• • Magnify (2 – 14x)
• • Index (4, 9, 16, 25, 49, 100frames)
• • Calendar view
• • Rotation
• • Light box view
• • Slide show
• • Histogram (Lum / RGB)
• • Highlight & Shadow point warning

Editing

• • RAW development
• • JPEG editing (B&W, Sepia, Red eye reduction, Color saturation, Resize, Shadow Adjustment Technology, Anti red-eye)

Storage

• • Compact Flash (Type I and II) / Microdrive
• • xD- Picture card

Connectivity

• • USB 2.0 (Hi Speed)
• • Video Out (NTSC / PAL)
• • IR Remote control (optional)

Optional Accessories

• • Battery Grip HLD-5
• • Underwater case PT-E06

Power

• BLS-1 1150 mAh Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery (supplied & charger)

Box contents

• E-620 Body, Li-ion battery BLS-1, Li-ion battery charger BCS-1, USB/Video Multi cable, Eye piece cover EPC-1, Shoulder strap, OLYMPUS Master CD-ROM, Instruction manual, Warranty card

Other recently reviewed Digital Cameras:

Panasonic Lumix ZS3, Sony A900, Olympus E-30, Pentax K2000.