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Olympus Evolt E520 10MP Digital SLR Camera with Image Stabilization (Body Only)
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List Price: $897.67
Our Price: $446.78
Your Save: $ 450.89 ( 50% )
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Manufacturer: Olympus
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Electronics
Brand: Olympus
Display Size: 2.7
EAN: 0050332163959
Feature: 10-megapixel CMOS sensor captures enough detail for photo-quality 18 x 24-inch prints
Is Autographed: 0
Is Memorabilia: 0
Label: Olympus
Manufacturer: Olympus
Maximum Resolution: 10
Model: E520
Publisher: Olympus
Special Features: nv:Sensor^10 Megapixel|Image Resolution^3648 x 2736|Storage Media^MicroDrive|Storage Media^xD Picture Card (Dual Slot)|Storage Media^Compact Flash Type I/II|Compressed Format^RAW (12bit)|Compressed Format^JPEG, RAW+JPEG|Optical Viewfinder^HyperCrystalTM II LCD (semi-transmissive TFT color LCD)|LCD Monitor^2.7 inches|LCD Pixels^230,000 pixels|LCD Coverage^100%|Shutter Speed^AUTO: 1/4000 to 2 Sec.|Shutter Speed^P(Ps), S, A, M mode: 60 - 1/4000 sec.
Studio: Olympus
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Features
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10-megapixel CMOS sensor captures enough detail for photo-quality 18 x 24-inch prints
Lightweight ergonomic design; body only, lenses sold separately
Enhanced in-body Image Stabilization with Supersonic Wave Drive technology
Face Detection and Shadow Adjustment technologies; Perfect Shot Preview
Compatible with CompactFlash Type I and II, Microdrives, and xD-Picture Cards (not included)
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Editorial Reviews:
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Your life is full of priceless, fleeting moments that you want to keep just the way you see and feel them. Preserve each moment with the E-520. With the E-520's Live View, you can shoot your subject while viewing it on the LCD monitor, so it's just like shooting with a compact camera. In addition to phase-difference detection AF, the E-520 incorporates a high speed Imager AF that offers easy 11-point multi-area autofocusing with Live View simply by half-pressing the shutter button. Face Detection AF automatically detects up to 8 faces at a time and adjusts focus appropriately. Accurate composition is assured by the monitor's 100% field of view. The E-520 is equipped with a 2.7" HyperCrystal II LCD monitor with high-definition 230,000-dot resolution, improved contrast ratio, and enhanced color reproduction capability. While shooting with Live View, framing-assist patterns or a histogram can be displayed on the LCD monitor to improve your picture composition and check exposure condition. The E-520 incorporates a Live MOS sensor with 10-Megapixels, Olympus' original TruePic III image processing engine delivers improved imaging, gradation expression and color reproduction capabilities as well as minimized noise at high ISO setting. Olympus' highly acclaimed dust reduction system employs a Supersonic Wave Filter in front of the image sensor, which vibrates at such high speed and with such great power that it removes even the most stubborn dust; dust that cannot be removed by just shaking the image sensor or by discharging the static electricity. Weight - 475 grams (body only) Requires use of an Olympus Zuiko lens or compatible for use of camera
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: E-520 is fantastic value for price -- great performer
Comment: I ordered an E-520; it was shipped on 11/30 and I received it at lunch on 12/02 by UPS w/free shipping. Can't beat that... (I also found it on a weekend Turkey Day sale for $469.) Anyway, this is a fantastic camera. I spent 11 years as a paid photographer, doing portraits and weddings and I'm sick of people trashing cameras over trivial crap. I want to photograph nature; my family; vacations; etc. Reading numerous reviews and tiny variances in lab condition tests both confused me and worried me as I toiled over a camera. I shot everything from Hasselblads to Nikons to Mamiyas as a photographer, but this is my first dSLR. The old Nikon is retired and now a shelf decoration at home. Hence I was shopping for a camera to do better than my pocket PAS I take hiking and paddling. I figured I knew a lot about cameras until I started reading all the test reports on digital SLRs. Man, it can get confusing. Not to bore you with technobabble, I am extremely happy with the camera and I've only used it for 2 days. A few of the things I've noticed as of my 3rd day with the camera are: This camera feels good in my hand. The grip is shaped just right to get a good hand hold and not be hitting buttons with my thumb. It feels a lot more like a pro-grade SLR than a consumer grade (at least to me). The mode and setting dials are conveniently located. The LCD is good. The menus, while there are a LOT of them, are pretty easy to understand once you play with the camera a while. They are bright and easy to read. I like them better than the Canon XSi. You might forget exactly where a sub-menu is if you don't use the camera for a while, but I suspect the average shooter won't be adjusting every little setting just to take pics. My guess is that most people will shoot jpegs and do some EV adjustments, etc. Plus, there are short cut buttons on the camera that can control the ISO, single vs. continuous shooting, etc. The overlay grid is kind of cool, mostly to play with if you have much experience. It has a square green box that shows you where it took the settings readings. As there are 3 focus points, when it focuses, small red dots light up to show you where the focus is. Basically I found this to be very helpful. In lower light, fast action or lots of differently spaced areas in a shot, it's easy to have the camera get your subject a bit out of focus. I haven't used the face recognition or auto-gradation (shadow adjustment technology) yet. Some of the articles say that a lot of the features are for a transition to a higher grade camera from a PAS. I disagree with that. While some are cutesy, they would help most anybody, especially in rush situations where you don't have to analyze things and make a quick decision. And, not everybody wants to scrutinize every situation and become super photographer. Mom or grandma might want a camera to photograph the kids at football games, or take fireworks pics with on July 4th, etc. Settings that have automatically compensated for variables (at least to some extent) can and do come in handy. I've used them in the past. The day my camera arrived, I did photograph a girls' basketball game at the school where I teach and I was pleased with the results. People complain the viewfinder is too small. It is a bit small compared to Canon, but it's still plenty big. I read where the shape of the 4/3rds sensor causes that perception, as compared to traditional viewfinders/sensors which are rectangular. The read out is a tad small, but the major info at the top such as f-stop and shutter speed is readable. Those are the important ones. The small clutter of information at the bottom is more of a learn what's where and just acknowledge it's set. Once you've set them in the control panel menu, do you really need to squint to read them and remind yourself they are there? Just hit the info button for the LCD and that will be displayed...a lot bigger. I used the view finder and 1600 ISO. It performed as expected, although I did have to adjust the controls at first as the girls were too dark...sort of shadowy looking. The adjustment cleared the pic up fine. Looking at the pics on my TV and computer, they are well exposed and very sharp, with vivid colors even on natural. The camera LCD flashes on areas with blown highlights, but in a gym, that's to be expected. Most any picture will have high and low key areas. The histograms will prove handy. People complained the LCD focus is too slow. For stability and a sense of feel for the composure and camera, I used the viewfinder A/F. Putting my elbows against my chest and the camera against my face is something I've done for many years. holding a camera out in front of me is just not natural, nor is it good for low speed shots. Plus, it looks sort of hokey...like my elderly mother holding up a PAS and saying "smile..." Basically, it performed top notch. Most of the time, I didn't even pre-focus and it caught the action. The LCD did take a bit longer, but in my opinion, LCD is for landscapes, wildlife, family group shots, sneaky shooting, etc. The camera does come with a little piece that slides over the viewfinder slots to block light from the sensor when using the LCD. I put it in one of the card pockets of my LowePro camera strap, so it would be handy and I wouldn't lose it. I have both the 14-42mm and the 70-150mm lenses and while the depth of field isn't as shallow as I'd like it, and the bokeh isn't comparable to top-end lenses, you wouldn't expect them to be. Other than the f-stops are not as low as I'd prefer, they are great lenses. I wish they would blur the background better, but different focal lengths can help the aperture out to some degree. The 300mm zoom is on my Christmas list. The 3-pack of lenses would give a person 28-600mm zoom equivalent. For a hobbyist or even a paid shooter, I would be hard-pressed to think of a situation where you would be wanting more. I haven't mentioned a lot of the technical details. You can get information overload on many sites if you want that. If you want to ask me questions, please do so. I'd be pleased to hear other folks' thoughts. I'm experimenting a bit more every day to learn it. I am very pleased with it. In my opinion, you cannot go wrong with this camera, especially considering the quality of the pictures, the features, and the price. I added a Gary Fong puff diffuser for the on board flash. Anyway, drop me a line if you want to talk. steve.in.kentucky@gmail.com
Customer Rating: 
Summary: EVOLT 520
Comment: A GREAT CAMERA FOR THE AMATEUR IF SERIOUS ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY, IT HAS AN AWFULLY LOT OF SETTINGS THAT CAN BE USED BUT TAKES A LOT OF STUDYING THE MANUAL TO MASTER ALL OF ITS POTENTIAL.
I HAVE YET TO EXPERIMENT WITH CONTROLLING WHITE BALANCE AND BRACKETING BUT I'M GETTING THERE.
THE PRICE GIVES MORE BANG FOR THE BUCK THAN THE MID-RANGE NIKON OR CANNON.
Customer Rating:
Summary: E510 / E520 | Awesome - Gem of the mid level DSLR:
Comment: Though I have E510. I actually tried and tested the E520 as well and picked E510 for the 2 kit lens deal and the extra features E520 has over E510 which I rarely care about. I thought to add my E510 review under this to give the readers a better idea about how the Olympus E510/E520 wins over the Canons XSi and Nikon D80 we tested. Hope this helps.
Myself and a Canon lover Friend and a Nikon lover Cousin were hunting for DSLRs. We had Film SLRs and few Point & Shoot Digis. We don't want to spend $1500+ for the DSLR and was waiting for the price to come down. When it reached $1000 mark, we started hunting for it and tried out few DSLR models in-stores by carrying our own flash memories and took few sample shots at the same lighting, focal length, ISO, f-Stop and Shutter and narrowed down to most people(s) three choices - Olympus E510, Canon XSi and Nikon D80. I went with E-510 right on the spot after looking at the images on the digital PC monitor in just 4 week end hunting. The other two contemplated a while and my friend went with Canon XSi and my cousin chose D80 as he wanted to use his old Nikon lenses and gears.
On a fine evening we got our stuffs ordered online. As soon we returned from work, we were excited to experiment our choices.
Right out of the box results: (No tweaking)
E-510 - Great Outdoor results with very good natural color processing well exposed. Indoor shots were good natural color tones with a bit dull and underexposed.
XSi - Great Outdoor and Indoor results with very little pink tinted color processing with a good exposure.
D80 - Great Outdoor results with little blue tinted color processing. Indoor results with very little blue tinted color processing with a good exposure.
You can see the pink and blue tint obvious on the skin tone and on the white base subjects. We actually compared the images captured by these three with what we saw with bare eyes. We all observed this very little tone changes when tried out at stores and agreed upon the myth that "Every brand has it's own way and nothing is perfect". But still it's too early to decide which one is best.
We tried it every evening as soon we come back and with little tweaking as suggested by the reviewers and professionals. In just 3 days - I made everyone to think that - I WON. Still those guys wanted to give a try because some times the results from Canon XSi and Nikon D80 will have the same color as E510 in long shots and when occasionally (say like one in 100 shots) E510 underexposes the skin tones will look greyish. We almost go as a group for all the functions/festivals and fill with flashes everywhere :)
After 3 months of coutinuous use at the same places, here is our findings:
Speed: XSi is better than E510 and D80. but thats for just 6-7 frequent shots. after that, the XSi will pop up with "BUSY" icon. It is famous and you can see the complaints in Amazon reviews. The other to will be steady through out the the session. no BUSY nothing.
Color Tone: E510 is more natural across the lighting conditions. Indoor shots need to have exposure compensation set to either +0.3 or +0.7
Indoor Photos: E510 is a bit dull and underexposed right out of the box but after a little tweaking it just blows the other two out of the window with very natural color tones and bright images. It actually chooses the right ISO required where as the Canon XSi always chooses ISO 400 when using flash I don't know why it is set like that.
Dynamic Range: Though the pro reviewers say, D80 is more dynamic we haven't came across a situation to prove it. Under most common outdoors shooting, we all three got almost identical resluts and we liked the E510 processing much better than the other two.
ISO:
upto ISO 400, E510 is noise free. It get's a slight noise pushing in at ISO 800 and at ISO 1600 noise is obvious. Canon XSi is noise free till ISO 1600. Nikon D80 is noise free till ISO 800 and at ISO 1600 it introduces a little noise. It is worth to be noted that we haven't seen a situation that we need to use more than ISO 400 under normal indoor/outdoor common user needs. We actually forced the camera to use ISO 800 and ISO 1600 just to see the results where the camera picked ISO 400 by it's own when you leave it to the camera choise in ISO. This is actually a dark night shot on the river bank pointing the camera at the lighted buildings on the other side of the river and the situation is really dark.
Auto Focus: E-510 locks on for sharp focus almost 99% of the time but hunts for focus at low light with too much flash strobes for 4-5 seconds drving you nuts. XSi is zippy but occasionally the focus is not properly locked. When you view on the camera display it looks fine but when blow up in the monitor, it's unfocused. Nikon D80 had the most mis focus. You can see these misfocus issues at both Amazon reviews and DPreview.
Image Stabilization: E510 wins hands down. I took tack sharp pictures using 70-300 lens zoomed all the way at 300mm with shutter going down till 1/30. XSi's lens based stabilization is not that effective when we used it with 50-200mm lens zoomed to 200mm. It was effective till 1/40. Nikon we haven't tried it as we don't have IS lens. Not to mention the hefty price my friend paid for the Canon 50-200 IS lens while I paid just $240 for the 70-300 lens as I had an effective IS built into my E510 body.
Fit and Feel: E510 wins again with more robust build quality. Nikon D80 is also built good but a bit bigger. XSi looks kind of plasticky and has an uncomfortable grip. E510 just lays in your hand so comfortable and is a joy to use.
Value for Money:
I paid $560 for the 2 kit lens. Sold my 40-150mm for $110 and bought the 70-300 for $240 making my kit to cost me $690. FL-36 flash costed me $150, totalled to $840.
XSi costed my friend $869 with 18-55mm (Now it is around $500-$600), 70-300mm IS lens for $510. With no flash his kit is now $1379.
Nikon D80 costed my cousin $910 with 18-135mm with no IS !!! He can't simply use his camera hand held as I am using it with my long zoom 300mm or as my friend using his XSi with his 200mm or in low light.
Now...you decide which one gives you more dollar for dollar...XSi with 70-300mm auto focus is faster than the E510 with 70-300 mm at the very long end of the zoom. XSi with 300mm zoomed couldn't get sharp results all the time, less than 250mm is ideal for hand held. E510 has effective IS and works all the way till 300mm handheld but had focus hunt when used in a slight shadow area.
Follow this link "http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/43/e510-sett.html" to tune up your E510 and enjoy the long journey of Digital photography. Good luck.
Verdict:
We also asked the rest of the people at home and our friends to see the pictures and pick which one looks better without telling them which one came from what camera. The end result is 80% of the images picked by the them who don't even know which camera produced it, picked E510's pictures.
We all three agreed that E510 is the best all around DSLR in it's category and we just pay the hyped price for the Canon and Nikon just for the label which produces image quality that is equal to inferior than the low priced, light weight E510. Look no further, go for this little gem and you will be more pleased than the Canon and Nikon users.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Camera for the money
Comment: I have a E410, E500 and now the E520 body. All of these are great cameras. The E520 has a very fast recycle rate on both the images and the flash. It is very easily used as point-and-shoot in auto mode and I can still get all of the effects that I could with a manual film camera. One point I will make very clear. If you buy this as a "kit" with lenses don't expect this performance. The lenses that come in most kits are cheap. Dont get me wrong, they work great in FULL SUN... ANYTHING other though you will likely have slow responses and blurry photos. Many times the camera just will not aquire. Buy good quality lenses and you will not be dissapointed!
Customer Rating:
Summary: great camera
Comment: I've never purchased anything but Olympus Cameras... I have three of them dating back to the 1980's. Every Camera has been an excellent camera as the E 520 has also has proven to be.
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