Olympus E-620 review

Olympus E-620 at a glance:

• 12.3 million pixles
• Self-cleaning Live-MOS sensor
• Articulated 2.7in LCD screen
• Art Filters
• Built-in image stabilisation
• Live View with face-detection AF
• £599.99 (body-only list price)

Olympus E-620 – Introduction

The Four Thirds system, which debuted in 2003 with the innovative Olympus E-1, is still unique in being the only SLR system designed specifically for digital rather than film photography.

The theoretical advantages of such a system are obvious. A camera designed in this way will be optimised for the particular demands of the new medium, rather than simply being adapted from an older, film-based architecture. This is important because film and digital are entirely different media, both in how the images are captured and in the demands they place on lenses.

Designing a system ‘from the ground up’ should ensure that both optics and sensor are working together to deliver optimal image quality. The choice of a small sensor (the Four Thirds sensor measures 18×13.5mm compared to the full-frame 36x24mm) also means that theoretically both cameras and lenses can be made smaller in turn.

If the birth of the Four Thirds system six years ago was a great leap forward for digital photography, its adolescence has been rather difficult. Although the original E-1 was well received, and is still prized by loyal Four Thirds photographers today, some of the cameras that followed it onto the market lacked the same star quality. Those models that were genuinely compact, such as the E-410, tended to be compromised in other areas, such as primitive autofocus systems and cramped viewfinders, while the most technologically advanced of the range, such as the excellent new E-30 and flagship E-3, are barely any smaller than their APS-C and even full-frame equivalents.

The E-620, however, bucks this trend by combining both portability and usability with very advanced features, adapted from those put to use in its more expensive stablemates. Could this be the Four Thirds DSLR we’ve been waiting for all these years?

Features

The Olympus E-620 is very closely related to the E-30 and we understand that tweaks notwithstanding the two models share the same 12.3-million-pixel Live-MOS sensor.

Like the E-30, the E-620 features an ISO sensitivity span of ISO 100-3200 (equivalent) and images are recorded to either xD or a (more practical) CompactFlash card, in either JPEG or .ORF (raw) format. With a CF card installed, the E-620 can capture JPEG images at an impressive maximum frame rate of 4fps up to the capacity of the card.

In raw mode, burst depth is limited to six pictures before the frame rate has to drop to allow the buffer to clear, and four frames is the maximum burst depth in raw+JPEG recording mode.

Olympus E-620 Autofocus

Although the AF system of the E-620 has seven points compared to the E-30’s 11, the two TTL phase-detection systems are closely related, and both are adapted from the system used in the E-3.

Automatic focus is also possible in Live View mode, and three modes (plus face detection) are available: contrast detection, ‘normal’ phase detection and a hybrid mode, where contrast detection is performed using a simulated seven-point AF array overlaid on the 2.7in, 230,000-dot HyperCrystal III LCD screen.

Contrast-detection AF isn’t possible with all E-system lenses, although recent models, including the 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 kit option, do support the feature.

Olympus E-620 Image stabilisation

Olympus’s in-built image stabilisation has been justly praised in the past, and when we tested the E-30 we found it to be very effective.

The same system is used in the E-620, and three modes are available: vertical+horizontal stabilisation (the default), and vertical or horizontal stabilisation as separate options. The sensor is also fitted with a self-cleaning mechanism that should keep it free from dust and grime.

Olympus E-620 Spot metering

A further feature of the E-620 is highlight and shadow spot metering, which has been present in high-end Olympus cameras since the OM4-Ti of the 1980s.

With this feature activated, the camera automatically adjusts a spot reading taken from highlight or shadow areas to ensure an appropriate exposure bias.

Furthermore, the E-620 allows the photographer to set exposure compensation of ±5EV, and even bracket the selected ISO setting and white balance, too – the latter in ±2, 4, 6 mired steps.

Build and handling

At first glance the E-620 bears a strong resemblance to the E-420 and its predecessors, the E-410 and E-400. Only from the back does the E-620 look significantly different, due to its articulated LCD screen. This screen is a major selling point of the E-30 and E-3, and it is great to see that Olympus has made room for it on the E-620. This in itself is impressive, given the small size of the body, and although the screen adds a little bulk to the camera, the E-620 feels barely any larger than the E-420 when the two are compared directly. Interestingly, though, both are heavier than they look. The new camera is a little more comfortable to hold than the E-420, for me at any rate, thanks to a redesigned and more substantial handgrip, which greatly aids handling when the camera is held to the eye.

As far as the control layout is concerned, the E-620 is typical of the Olympus E-series. A group of buttons to the right of the LCD screen provide access to key features such as ISO sensitivity, AF mode, white balance and metering. Meanwhile, the status screen, which is shown by default on the LCD screen in ‘normal’ SLR mode, provides alternative access for these functions and almost everything else. So complete is this interactive display that the Menu button is almost completely redundant after the initial setup.

In fact, when out shooting with the E-620, the only time I regularly needed to delve into the main menu was to format my memory cards. An additional menu tab, which, confusingly, is turned off by default, can be activated to provide access to extra ‘nuts and bolts’ features such as noise reduction, but it is unlikely these settings will need changing very often.

As I reported in my First Look of the E-620, I find that when Live View is activated it is easy to forget I am using a DSLR. I have written more about the E-620’s Live View system, but for the time being it will suffice to say that the articulated LCD screen makes a huge difference to the handling of the camera in Live View mode.

On a fixed screen, Live View is very handy in some situations (especially when the camera is attached to a tripod), but of limited use when a photograph needs to be taken from an awkward angle. An articulated screen removes this limitation and, when coupled with the E-620’s highly effective contrast-detection AF system, Live View becomes an indispensable rather 
than simply optional feature.

White balance and colour

I am impressed by the performance of the automatic white balance system of the Olympus E-620. Notably, it copes very well with mixed lighting conditions, which cannot be said of all current DSLRs. In a museum, lit partly by sodium lights and partly by sunlight, the E-620 consistently delivered pleasing results, with only a few images needing minor adjustments to remove the suggestion of a pink colour cast.

In daylight, the AWB system performs slightly differently from what I would expect, but not in a bad way: although it removes a little warmth from images taken in low-contrast conditions, it actually adds a little into pictures taken in bright sunlight, producing images that are warmer than those taken using the daylight WB preset.

Viewed in isolation, equivalent images taken at the two different WB settings look fine, but viewed side-by-side I prefer the warmer colour rendition of daylight pictures taken using AWB. The only environment in which I found the E-620’s AWB system consistently struggled was, again, back in the museum under low-intensity 100% sodium lighting, where the camera did what I expected and gave a yellowy-green cast.

The Olympus E-620 features a small collection of Picture Mode presets for its JPEG files: Vivid, Natural, Muted, Portrait, Monotone and Custom. Although this is a smaller range than can be found on some competitive DSLRs, it is more than adequate for normal photography, and all colour presets can be customised to the extent that the contrast, sharpness and saturation can be adjusted on a ±2 step scale (with 0 as the default in all cases). The Monotone picture mode is fairly
versatile, and black & white filter effects can be added as well as a range of toning options including sepia and ‘blue’ for a cyanotype effect.

Metering

Olympus’s ESP (Electro Selective Pattern) metering is very reliable in general use, and I find that it rarely needs to be overridden except in unusually challenging lighting conditions. These include any scene where an especially light or dark area makes up most of the image, and/or where a small subject is significantly brighter or darker than its background.

In this latter situation, spot metering is the best choice for accurate exposures, and Olympus’s highlight/shadow spot metering provides an added level of flexibility compared to the E-620’s competitors. This function is very useful, although I do worry that casual photographers or first-time buyers may not necessarily understand how and when to use it.

In essence, highlight/shadow spot metering works by adjusting a reading taken from a highlight/shadow area to ensure that this area isn’t burnt out or ‘blocked up’ in the final image. The same result can also be achieved using ordinary spot metering (with manual intervention to slightly increase/decrease the original reading).

Using ESP metering, I was impressed to see that very few of my pictures showed any significant loss of detail in highlight areas. Of those that do, the majority were taken at ISO 100. Having noticed the same effect on previous E-system DSLRs, I set up a few scenes and shot them at ISO 100 and then ISO 200, adjusting the exposure by 1EV to compensate. Those images taken at ISO 100 contain brighter highlights, in which detail is often lost (marked in red, above). This suggests that ISO 200 (or thereabouts) is the base ISO setting of the E-620.

Autofocus

In the past, one of the more glaring weaknesses of the Olympus E-system and other Four Thirds DSLRs from Panasonic, has been the relatively sluggish, unsophisticated autofocus. Last year’s E-3 was Olympus’s first stab at a DSLR with more than three AF points and the E-620’s seven-point AF derives from the same system. In addition, a highly flexible autofocus adjustment feature (borrowed from the E-30) allows every AF point of the E-620 to be fine-tuned for front or back focusing. It’s a level of control rare in a camera of this sort, but is the kind of function that may, in inexperienced hands, create more problems than it solves.

In use, I have found the autofocus system of the E-620 to be adequate in most situations, but it is not the equal of a camera like, say, the Nikon D90. Although seven AF points are definitely better than three, they are concentrated in quite a small area in the centre of the frame, which means that moving subjects don’t have to move very much to stray outside the coverage of the array. Unfortunately, too, the E-620’s AF displays the same characteristic ‘fidgeting’ as other Four Thirds cameras I have used – the AF gets almost all the way to the subject very quickly, then goes a little further, then settles on (most of the time) the appropriate point.

The AF rarely settles on the wrong point, except sometimes in low-contrast lighting, but it can take its time, on occasions, to find the right one. Interestingly, when one of Olympus’s excellent range of SWD lenses is mounted, the AF still displays the same jitteriness, but as everything happens much faster it’s less noticeable, which aids responsiveness. The difference in terms of handling between the 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens and the 12-60mm f/2.8-4 SWD optic, for example, is profound. It is a pity, therefore, that there are currently so few SWD lenses in Olympus’s line-up, and that they are so expensive. The 12-60mm is an ideal standard zoom for the Four Thirds system, but it costs more than £800, adding cost, as well as bulk and weight, to the package.

Normally, AF performance in Live View mode is worthy of little more than a cursory mention, since it is rarely particularly impressive. Not so with the Olympus E-620. This tiny camera comes into its own in Live View mode, thanks to a very impressive contrast-detection AF system.

Resolution, noise and sensitivity

In normal use, in bright lighting conditions, images from the E-620 are reasonably clean until around ISO 800, but in subdued light, images taken at ISO 400 start to show some chroma noise in areas of smooth tone. Shooting in raw mode allows greater control over noise reduction, as well as providing a better basis for sharpening and extreme tonal adjustments.

Assuming, as seems very likely, that the base ISO sensitivity of the E-620’s sensor is closer to 200 than 100, we can see here that in a studio environment at ISO 200, the camera is capable of resolving a lot of detail. At higher ISO settings, images from the E-620 are essentially indistinguishable from those shot with the E-30, and it is clear that although noise reduction (which is set by default in JPEG mode) helps to reduce grittiness, when the function is turned off the camera is able to resolve more lines on our test chart.

However, while turning noise reduction off at ISO 3200 means that resolution increases, the corresponding increase in luminance noise renders ‘real-world’ images unattractive, and greatly reduces the density of shadow areas. With noise reduction turned off, the E-620 produces virtually identical noise level readings to the E-30. This graph shows noise levels with noise reduction set to ‘standard’, and it is clear that measured noise levels decrease significantly, although fine detail suffers. That said, sub-A4 prints look fine until ISO 1600, when noise starts to degrade quality. ISO 3200 is best avoided except in emergencies.

These images show sections of images of a resolution chart, still-life scene and a grey card, shot with a 105mm macro lens. We show the section of the resolution chart where the camera starts to fail to reproduce the lines separately. The higher the number visible in these images, the better the camera’s detail resolution is at the specified sensitivity setting. 

Dynamic range and Gamut

The Olympus E-620 has a maximum dynamic range of around 12.5EV at ISO 200. Interestingly, though, at ISO 100 dynamic range decreases by 1EV to 11.5EV, which confirms my suspicions that ISO 100 is effectively an extension setting. The fact that the true ‘native’ ISO range is not indicated anywhere on the camera or in the E-620’s handbook is disappointing.

It means, after all, that anyone following the normal ‘good practice’ of shooting at the lowest standard ISO setting available is unwittingly risking burnt-out highlights. With this in mind, I would recommend treating ISO 200 as the minimum ISO setting with the E-620 (and the E-30), at which point, with ESP or highlight/shadow spot metering activated, images contain an excellent tonal range.

This graph shows the brightness values recorded by the test camera when it is used to photograph a stepped graduation wedge. The wedge has transmission values in 1⁄2EV steps ranging from 0 to 12EV.

The camera’s exposure is set so the 12EV section in the wedge has a brightness value of 255. Software analysis of the image then determines the recorded brightness values of all the other steps and calculates the camera’s dynamic range.

Olympus E-620 Gamut

This graphic indicates that when set to the Adobe RGB colourspace, the Olympus E-620 produces JPEG images that exceed the sRGB gamut, and even the Adobe RGB colourspace in some areas, notably in delicate pink and blue tones. As usual, however, the full range of emerald greens in the Adobe RGB gamut are not recorded.

Viewfinder, LCD and Live View

Dioptre correction

The E-620’s viewfinder is smaller than those found in the high-end E-30 and E-3 DSLRs, but it does feature dioptre correction from -3 to +1 dioptre

LCD

The 750,000-dot LCD screen is articulated so it can be viewed from a range of angles, making high and low-angle compositions easy

Fn button

This button can be customised to provide access to a range of functions

Image stabilisation

This button provides access to the three image stabilisation modes

Olympus E-620 Viewfinder and LCD screen

Olympus likes to say that it brought Live View to the DSLR marketplace with the E-330 of 2006, but although this isn’t strictly true (Fujifilm actually got there first in 2004, when it introduced a basic system in the S3 Pro) Olympus certainly deserves credit for popularising and driving development of the feature.

In a studio environment I still prefer to use manual focus in combination with the 5x and 10x magnification option, but in contrast-detection AF mode the E-620 is the first DSLR I have tested that I feel spans the handling gap between compact cameras and DSLRs without significant compromise. It isn’t all good news, though.

The E-620’s HyperCrystal III LCD screen offers a decent resolution of 750,000 dots, but at 2.7in it is a little smaller than the screens of most competitive DSLRs. These limitations are offset by the fact that the screen can be articulated, but it is noticeable that the image on the E-620’s screen isn’t quite as clear as it is on cameras with 920,000-dot LCDs.

As far as the pentamirror viewfinder is concerned, the E-620 improves on the E-410 and E-420, but can’t quite match the E-30 or E-3 for size and brightness. I have found that, as usual, accurate focus is easier to judge when telephoto lenses are used rather than with a wideangle, because the depth of field is visibly shallower, but APS-C and full-frame DSLRs still provide a better window on the world. That said, the E-620 is a great improvement over some early Four Thirds DSLRs such as the E-300, and shooting data is clearly legible beneath the focusing screen.

In ‘normal’ SLR mode, the LCD screen plays host to the delightfully named Super Control Panel. This is an interactive status screen that displays current settings for many functions, and provides an interface through which they can be changed. This display is extremely useful, but aesthetically there is room (literally) for improvement. Much of the screen consists of a monochromatic grid of tightly packed, poorly delineated abbreviations for functions, the meaning of which isn’t always obvious.

Although less of a frustration after extended use, the minimalist in me wishes that Olympus would make photographers’ lives easier by allowing the Super Control Panel to be customised. In that way, options that are rarely changed (colour space, and xD/CF card selection to give just two examples) could be removed from the display if desired, which would allow the interface to be significantly ‘decluttered’.

Our verdict

While shooting for this test, I found myself trudging through a field, humming a merry tune, and absent-mindedly tossing the E-620 from one hand to another. Being a responsible camera reviewer, I stopped as soon as I realised what I was doing and put the strap around my neck, but it made me wonder how many other mid-range DSLRs I could have done that with. Not many, I’m sure.

The Olympus E-620 really is a very small camera, and with the ‘pancake’ 25mm f/2.8 lens attached it isn’t far off being pocketable. The really great thing about the E-620 though, is that despite its size, it is a fully featured camera that genuinely makes good on the ‘Four Thirds promise’ of high quality in a small package. There are some downsides to the smaller format: there is no getting around the fact that the E-620’s sensor is noisier than APS-C and full-frame equivalents, for example, but for most purposes, and in most situations, the E-620 can slug it out with the best of the competition.

The only area in which I found its performance worryingly lacking is AF, which, while more responsive when an SWD lens is used, is still a little too jumpy to be relied upon in poor light. Taken as a whole, though, the E-620 is a very satisfying camera to use. I think its price needs to drop, and I really wish that Olympus would introduce some low-cost SWD lenses, but if and when these things happen, the E-620 will become even more desirable. With this in mind, I have awarded it the same score as the E-30.

Olympus E-620 Focal points

Wireless flash

As with all Olympus E-series DSLRs, the E-620’s built-in flash can be used as a wireless trigger for one or more of the company’s separate hotshoe flashguns.

AF adjustment

Each of the E-620’s seven AF points can be independently adjusted to correct for front/back focusing.

Face-detection AF

Like many compact digital cameras, the Olympus E-620 features face-detection AF in Live View mode, which allows photographers to lock focus quickly on a human subject. The E-620 can recognise up to eight faces in a scene.

Fn button

An Fn button on the rear of the Olympus E-620 can be customised to fulfil a range of purposes, the most useful of which are probably depth of field preview and one-touch custom white balance.

LCD screen

The E-620’s 2.7in HyperCrystal III LCD screen is fractionally larger than the 2.5in one of the flagship E3, but it offers the same 750,000-dot resolution. A wide viewing angle and anti-reflection coating aid visibility in bright conditions.

The competition

The E-620 is relatively expensive at present, although its price is likely to drop in the coming months.

Its current price puts it alongside the Nikon D90 and Canon EOS 40D, and in terms of specification it can compete with both.

The Nikon D90 offers a superior phase-detection AF system and a video recording mode, but it does not offer the same level of sophistication in its Live View mode.

The Canon EOS 40D contains less advanced technology than either camera, but offers significantly better build quality than both, albeit in a larger, heavier body.

A first-time DSLR buyer would be well advised to go for the E-620, but a more experienced photographer would probably get more out of the D90.

Anyone currently using an E-410 or E-420 who is considering an upgrade should consider the E-620 over the more expensive E-30, given the similarity in performance.