TooMuchGreen

Although in my possession for over six months I haven’t as yet blogged properly about my favourite camera so far (aside from the Samsung NV10, so actually I’m lying), it’s the lovely (and *almost* pocket size) Olympus E-410 DSLR, I suppose this could be a ‘long term’ test report then, quite a first for me.

While still relatively small in comparison to the big boys even my little Nikon D40 kit became too bulky for lazy me while I was in NYC last year, I just couldn’t be arsed with the array of lenses, filters, tripod and associated camera bag required to lug it all about, so I eBay’d it, got a good price too – $750, very good, especially as it had been treated to the beaches of Costa Rica for six months.
So, what next, well size was a priority but years of trials and delusion had made me aware that no matter what you just don’t get DSLR quality shots from any sort of prosumer, I’d already bought a Panasonic FX500 for pocket widescreen-ness (since eBay’d also) but superb as it was there was no RAW, and it wasn’t DSLR quality, even with that wondrous little 25mm Leica lens (it was bloody good all the same), so what to get?
The answer came from (funnily enough) a camera shop window, not just any camera shop though, B&H Photo in Manhattan, THE camera shop, although in this instance I never even had to go in as they had an ad in the window advertising the worlds smallest DSLR, it immediately caught my eye and as soon as we got back to the apartment I fired up eBay with a search for the Olympus E-410, yes, the worlds smallest DSLR, just what I was looking for.
In the end I managed to get a refurb, second user, shop display or whatever it was with a 14-42 (28-84mm) 4/3rds kit lens and warranty for a mere $400 (£200 equivalent at the time, when the exchange rate was good to us Brits), fucking bargain, I loved it the moment I took it out of the box, without even switching it on (I’m so fickle).

Anyway, I’m not going to go into any major technical analysis (none in fact) as there are plenty of other sites for lens polishing, and to be fair most DSLR’s of around the 10mp mark really are a much of a muchness (again – unless you’re a lens polisher), no, its the aesthetics of this groovy little thing which do it for me, it really is a joy and it’s shape and grip are quite reminiscent of an old 70′s film camera, dead nice, it really feels quite retro and is very satisfying and solid to operate with everything dropping in easily where you want it after a few outings. The only small gripe would be it’s use of CF media over SD, but there again that’s only as I already had a fistful of SD cards and had to buy a CF for it so fair enough, it’s just a personal thing.
General use has proven most pleasing and has covered such personal achievements as my Berlin KONEKTION:KOMUTE project from last September. To be honest I haven’t used it much after that as three months back in the UK didn’t really inspire me, I fully intend to though, when the time is right, especially as I hope to be back in Berlin for the Summer, a month just wasn’t enough.

There we have it then, a review (?) of the Olympus E-410, they take good pictures, they’re cheap, look cool and will easily drop into your bag without any fuss, an Olympus is also a welcome break from the cult of Nikon with all their pixel poking and lens polishing – buy one.

*EDIT* – I forgot to mention the 4/3rds ‘Pancake’ lens available for the Olympus(es)……check it out, these are a fixed  25mm (50mm equiv) @ a lovely f/1:2.8, offers up a field of view more or less on par with the human eye and makes the E range even more compact. That’s one cool lens, nothing like this over at Nikon either – LOL.