Olympus E-410 full review Cameralabs gallery

Olympus E-410 gallery

The following images were taken with the Olympus E-410 using the Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 lens. The E-410 was set SHQ quality, Auto White Balance, Digital ESP Metering and its default Vivid Picture Mode; Noise Reduction and the Noise Filter were set to their default On and Standard settings. The individual exposure mode, file sizes, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO and lens focal length are listed for each image.

The crops are taken from the original files, reproduced at 100% and saved in Adobe Photoshop CS2 as JPEGs with the default Very High quality preset, while the resized images were made in Photoshop CS2 and saved with the default High quality preset. The three crops are typically taken from far left, central and far right portions of each image.

Note: we are aware of reports concerning underexposure issues affecting certain Olympus E-410 evaluation samples. Our sample came from a different source and did not exhibit these issues.

Landscape: 6.62MB, Program, 1/250, f9, ISO 100, 14-42mm at 14mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						This shot was taken with the kit lens zoomed-out to its widest equivalent of 28mm. The f9 aperture selected by the E-410 in Program mode here is close to the optimum for sharpness and there's certainly plenty of detail in the crops. The exposure is perfect and at 100 ISO, there's no noise at you'd expect. You can compare this with a similar shot from our Olympus E-400 Gallery.

Portrait: 5.52MB, Aperture Priority , 1/1000, f5.6, ISO 200, 14-42mm at 42mm (equivalent to 84mm)

						This portrait shot was taken with the E-410's 14-42mm kit lens fully zoomed-in and the aperture wide open in Aperture Priority mode. The sensitivity of 200 ISO wasn't necessary for the bright conditions, but selected to illustrate a range of settings. The crops are certainly very sharp and detailed and again there's no exposure problems, nor any noise to worry about. The depth-of-field is still quite large though, so if you're really into blurring backgrounds, you'll need a longer (or faster) lens. The 40-150mm in the twin lens kit would be ideal.

Indoor: 6.30MB, Program, 1/40, f4, ISO 400, 14-42mm at 14mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						For this indoor shot we increased the sensitivity to 400 ISO, but left the E-410 on Program mode and Auto White Balance. Like many cameras, the E-410 didn't quite get the white balance right here and could also have perhaps done with +1/3 EV compensation. But otherwise it's a good result, illustrating clean, detailed crops at 400 ISO.

Indoor: 5.89MB, Program, 1/8, f3.5, ISO 800, 14-42mm at 14mm (equivalent to 28mm)

				This bar interior is deceptively dark and even with the sensitivity increased to 800 ISO, the E-410 metered an exposure of just 1/8. This is getting close to our limit of acceptable handheld exposures, and there's evidence of slight blur. Sadly there aren't many stabilised lenses for the E-410 right now. There's an inevitable fall in quality at this higher sensitivity with noise and a little noise reduction visible, but it's still quite usable - and you can adjust the noise reduction filter if desired.

Indoor: 5.39MB, Program, 1/40, f4, ISO 1600, 14-42mm at 14mm (equivalent to 28mm)

				Our final Gallery shot was taken at the E-410's highest sensitivity of 1600 ISO and the only one here to employ exposure compensation: +1EV. While there are reported issues with the E-410's metering, it's not unusual for the bright windows in this composition to fool metering systems into underexposing. Noise has become quite apparent, as have some noise reduction artefacts, but it's no worse than its predecessor. See a similar shot in our Olympus E-400 Gallery.

If you found this review useful, please support us by shopping below!