Camera Labs

Hi. A friend of mine have a SP 550-UZ !

She really likes photography, and even if she's not ready to have a DSLR money wise,

I told her that the E-620 was great, but now there's the E-30 !!

Is it better than the E-3 ?

And for the price , do you think that the E-30 offers good or better performance than competitors (D60, 400D,etc) ?

The E-30 is so nice, I'm thinking about selling my 400D !

The E30..... good, or not so good ?

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Canon Rebel Xti (400D), EF-S 18-55, 50mm f/1.8, Sandisk Extreme III 2gb.
Http://cr4zyh3ad.sisimple.ca

in my opinion, E-30 is not better than E-3 and it is not worth the money right now.

E-620 is feature packed, but we don't really know the actual performance because the product is still in production or not on sale yet.

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RadiantLite - Cameras and Lenses Comparison Reviews, buying guide, photo taking techniques and other tips
My Portfolio - Some photos from my work

Cr4zYH3aD, I'd hold off on selling your XTi. Wait until the E-620 actually gets released and tested.

Although I am an Olympus user, I'll tell you that your XTi's high ISO performance is probably superior to the E-30 and even the E-3. So if you like to use high ISO, you may want to stick with the larger sensor cameras. In my E-410 and 510, everything looks great up to ISO400. Probably even looks better than my sister's Rebel XT. BUT, on ISO800, images gets iffy because of noise. At ISO1600, and it's AARGH.

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Olympus E620 | 25/2.8 | 50/2 | 12-60 | 14-42 | 14-54 | 40-150 | 70-300
Olympus E-P2 | Panasonic GH2 | 20/1.7 | 14-42 | 14-140
Leica M7 | M9 | 21/4 | 35/1.4 | 50/2.5 | 50/1.5 | 70/2.5 | 90/2
Sony NEX-3 | 16/2.8| 18-55
My FlickR!

Agreed, the E3 is better than the 30 IMO as well. And its cheaper than the E30 as well, so I dont see any good reason to go for the E30...

Ive seen a few samples from production E620 models. They seem great. Definitely going to be a best seller for Olympus. Though until I get one in my hands with my 12-60 attached, I wont be considering it as a replacement for my 510.

Right now Im leaning towards E3.

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E-3!
12-60 2.8-4.0
12-60 2.8-40 [Also going]
40-150 3.5-4.5
70-300 4.0-5.6
Fl-48

Sorry for being off-topic
Hi Atomic, where do you go (whether in Chicago or not) to play with new camera and lenses before you purchase them? There are so few friends using Olympus around. There used to be some you can play in Circuit City but they are all gone now...

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Please forgive my poor English...
My camera gears
Sony M1
Olympus E-520
14-42mm, 40-150mm, 70-300mm
Wish list for now:
12-60mm or 14-54mm II, a decent tripod
flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/donalone/
design portfolio: http://www.id.iit.edu/~chlee
blog: http://donniett.spaces.live.com (Chinese)

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E-3!
12-60 2.8-4.0
12-60 2.8-40 [Also going]
40-150 3.5-4.5
70-300 4.0-5.6
Fl-48

Apologies for being away from the forum for a while, but I also have a mind to be made up about an Olympus DSLR choice, i'm looking to upgrade from my E-400 to either the E-520 or E-620, I have been weighing up the advantages of both. The E-520 body only is around £150 cheaper (limited budget you see) but the E-620 has more features and 7-point AF (rather than three which I have begun to find quite annoying). I'm hoping that other Oly owners can help me decide which I could go for.

But then again I was considering a new lens, either the 9-18 or 14-54.
So should I go for a new lens or a new body or should I just shut up and carry on with the gear I have now?

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Olympus E-400 + 14-42mm + 40-150mm + 70-300mm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spinner673/

Given that I am trying to stimulate the world economy out of recession, I say Buy Buy Buy!!!

For the price of the E-620, you could get the E-520 and an used 14-54. I am not sold on 7 point AF. I don't even use the 3 point AF on my E-410 and 510. I use the single point. But then, it's b/c the 3 point AF seems to be a bit slower than the single point. For me, the selling point of the E-620 is the swivel LCD in a smaller body with image stabilization built in.

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Olympus E620 | 25/2.8 | 50/2 | 12-60 | 14-42 | 14-54 | 40-150 | 70-300
Olympus E-P2 | Panasonic GH2 | 20/1.7 | 14-42 | 14-140
Leica M7 | M9 | 21/4 | 35/1.4 | 50/2.5 | 50/1.5 | 70/2.5 | 90/2
Sony NEX-3 | 16/2.8| 18-55
My FlickR!

lol at above comments

E-620 is not released yet, so you might need to wait for a while.

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RadiantLite - Cameras and Lenses Comparison Reviews, buying guide, photo taking techniques and other tips
My Portfolio - Some photos from my work

E520 or E620 whichever you are buying, wait for a few months. The price of E620 will drop after first released. And there will be many second hand E520s in the market from people who want to upgrade.

_________________

Please forgive my poor English...
My camera gears
Sony M1
Olympus E-520
14-42mm, 40-150mm, 70-300mm
Wish list for now:
12-60mm or 14-54mm II, a decent tripod
flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/donalone/
design portfolio: http://www.id.iit.edu/~chlee
blog: http://donniett.spaces.live.com (Chinese)

Adorama's website is selling the E-620 now. Prices range from $699 for body alone to $899 with dual lens kit (14-42, 40-150). It says you can "buy now."

So tempting!! Specs look so much better than E-450. Of course, it's much more too.

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Olympus E620 | 25/2.8 | 50/2 | 12-60 | 14-42 | 14-54 | 40-150 | 70-300
Olympus E-P2 | Panasonic GH2 | 20/1.7 | 14-42 | 14-140
Leica M7 | M9 | 21/4 | 35/1.4 | 50/2.5 | 50/1.5 | 70/2.5 | 90/2
Sony NEX-3 | 16/2.8| 18-55
My FlickR!

The 510 would save you EVEN MORE money. The difference between the 510 and the 520 is insignificant IMO unless you REALLY like using live preview, and even then, most the good lenses cant take advantage of the difference between the two.

So IMO you should be comparing the prices of the 510 to the 620 instead. That might make the decision a lot easier, or a lot harder...

If you want my honest opinion between the two... I'd go for the 510 and Ill tell you why. The 620's images dont really seem any better than the 510s, in fact it looks like there is almost MORE noise. Certainly ISO3200 [which the 510 doesnt have] is completely unusable on the 620 so theres no advantage to having it. To be honest, the 400 produces fine images, but you dont have IS which will help you a lot I feel. So going from 400 to 510 will be a big jump, but from 510 to 620? not so much.
The 620 has the flip out screen, which is a neat feature but ultimately doesnt effect photo quality, so unless you plan on shooting from awkward angles very often, its more of a novelty than anything. It also has a larger viewfinder than the 510, which I feel is important. However the difference seems pretty insignificant. Off the top of my head, I believe the figures are .92x vs .96x, however to put that into perspective, the E3 offers 1.15x and the E-30 offers 1.02x. Also I have still yet to try the 620 in my hands, but it doesnt seem like it would feel very nice. The grip is so much smaller on the 620 than on the 510. It has a very beefy grip and I feel very secure holding my camera with the heavy 12-60 and flash attached, even with one hand. I dont know if you will get that with the 620.

The 620 though has a bit faster continuous shutter speed, which is nice.

It all comes down to specs/$ and although the 620 has many new features and improvements, you really need to dissect them one by one and figure out which ones will you actually use/need, and which ones are just a novelty. If the camera is comfortable to hold, and comes down in price a bit by ~june, I will be strongly considering it myself. However as it stands today, I recommend going for the 510, or reaching for the E3 which will actually have improved picture quality... [this is what I'll probably do]

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E-3!
12-60 2.8-4.0
12-60 2.8-40 [Also going]
40-150 3.5-4.5
70-300 4.0-5.6
Fl-48

Well, it's really a matter on how you weight the differences.

Personally, I think the AF of the E-510 is not the best, especially with the 50mm. It just doesn't work for me in low light situations. So, buying the E-620 would be an real improvement for me and the swivel LCD really gives you more photographic opportunities than you had before. Be it macro or portrait, it really gives you more flexibility.

On the other hand, the reduced grip of the E-620 is something I don't like, which is propably what will drive me to buy the E-30 after it's price has fallen.

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Olympus E-30, ZD 9-18mm 4.0-5.6, ZD 50mm Makro 2.0, ZD 14-54mm 2.8-3.5, ZD 70-300 4.0-5.6

Light travel equipment:
Olympus EP-2, µZD 14-42mm , Panasonic 20mm 1.7 pancake.

Cullmann Trento IT Daypack

It looks like (from the samples floating around the internet) the low light capabilities of the E-620 are slightly better than the E-510. Another advantage that I do see with the E-620 (other than viewfinder and swivel LCD) is the ability to adjust the ISO in smaller increments.

I agree that the grip is a concern when used with heavier lenses. And the battery life is going to be much less than the E-510 too, given that the E-620 uses the E-4xx batteries.

When I bought into the 4/3 system, it was because I wanted smaller SLR's. So from the portability perspective, the E-620 is very attractive, and much more so than the E-30. Of course I just bought both of my current bodies this year, so I shouldn't even be thinking about this!!

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Olympus E620 | 25/2.8 | 50/2 | 12-60 | 14-42 | 14-54 | 40-150 | 70-300
Olympus E-P2 | Panasonic GH2 | 20/1.7 | 14-42 | 14-140
Leica M7 | M9 | 21/4 | 35/1.4 | 50/2.5 | 50/1.5 | 70/2.5 | 90/2
Sony NEX-3 | 16/2.8| 18-55
My FlickR!

Having now picked apart the features of the 510/520 and 620 and I think I'll go for one of the two 5XX series cameras. I've been poking around the interweb on ebay, Amazon, pixmania all my usual photography sites and the 510 body only for less than £349 (E-520 Body only price) is quite a rare beast. --EDIT-- i've found one and it's only £20 less

Cue Atomic finding an amazing deal somewhere right under my nose that I hadn't looked

On the new lens front I have found a few 14-54s on ebay all for around £200-£250 and a 35mm macro for £30!

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Olympus E-400 + 14-42mm + 40-150mm + 70-300mm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spinner673/