Exceptional Camera, Highly Recommended
Olympus has knocked one out of the park! I have had my e620 for just a few days and I must say I am very impressed with it’s capabilities and features. The competition can not even come close in this price range. You really would have to spend hundreds more to get the same caliber of camera from the leading competition. Although no camera is perfect, this one comes close for my needs. There are already lots of reviews out there talking about the technical specifications and capabilities of the e620 so I won’t go into that. I’ll just tell you what I like:
I bought this camera as replacement to my e520. I loved my e520 but it was lacking in a couple of areas, mainly, the e520 didn’t perform well at high ISO settings. But that is all fixed in the e620. I also wanted the improved continuous shooting speed from 3.5 fps to 4 fps. There are many other improvements over the older e520 so I sold my e520 and ordered the e620 from Amazon / Adorama.
The e620 produces super high quality photos. In auto mode this camera takes amazing photos. I have members of my family using the two leading brands of DSLRs. If we all take photos of the same thing, mine always turn out better with more vivid colors, sharper image, more accurate white balance and better bokeh effect,. The ironic thing is they paid about the same amount as I did for their more popular name brand camera kits. They thought they were getting better cameras because of the name, but the truth is, currently, no one can match the e620 at the same price. The features and capabilities of this camera at this price puts the e620 in a class all its own. The images produced by the e620 are really great. You can shoot in RAW if you want, but the JPEGs produced by this camera are amazing. I used to shoot in RAW but now I almost always use the JPEGs straight from the camera.
The e620 has tons of flexibility and custom settings. It truly gives you all the control you would ever want. There are many extra features that I will probably never even use but I like knowing they are there in case I ever need them. For those who don’t need all of the extra control, this camera’s full auto mode takes very suburb photos on its own. But if you’re like me and like to play in the manual settings, this camera is a dream. The e620 pretty much gives you the same control as the professional cameras. The menu system is laid out in a very logical way and is easy to get accustom to. The other brands don’t give you near this many manual settings in this price range. Some amateurs complain that they are overwhelmed by the many buttons and controls on the Olympus cameras. But the button layout and the control panel make it a snap to quickly adjust your settings on the fly so you can get the perfect photo. For me, I would rather have the flexibility and options to control the camera than be locked down to a limited set of functions.
Image stabilization is built into the camera body. Don’t believe anyone who tells you lens stabilization works better than in-camera stabilization. For the type of photos I take, lots of action and sports, and some with a 300 mm lens without a tripod, the in-camera stabilization works very well. And the best part, you can save a lot of money when buying lenses because you don’t have to buy the image stabilization with each lens. This is a must have feature.
Fast continuous shooting at 4 frames per second. Faster than the other brands at this price. This is very nice for sports and action shots. I use this feature a lot to take photos of my children’s sport events.
Fast auto focus. You can take photos really fast with this camera because it focus locks so fast. And it has lots of focus points making focusing even more accurate and fast.
The buttons are back lit. This is great when you are trying to shoot in the dark and need to make adjustments. Once you are used to the camera, you will pretty much have all of the button locations memorized, but it is still nice to have a visual confirmation of the button locations when shooting in the dark.
Excellent high ISO performance. This is a huge improvement over the e520 which I previously owned. This make taking pictures in low light without a flash possible. And the noise level is quite acceptable and on par with the competition. I have already taken 3200 ISO photos that are usable. And the 1600 ISO photos I have taken are not bad at all. I am very excited I will be able to use these high ISO settings. I couldn’t really go over ISO 800 with the e520.
Art filters are fun to use and allow you more creativity with your photos. I like these art filters. You can do the same thing in Photoshop, but it is fun to be able to use the effects in the field and see the results on the spot. I think I will use these quite a bit.
The ingenious dust reduction system was invented by Olympus and works flawlessly. You don’t ever need to worry about needing to clean your camera’s internal sensor.
The fold out screen makes macro shots near the ground so much easier. This is a huge improvement. Screen is very bright and crystal clear. Not sure how much I will use the fold out screen, but it is a cool feature.
This small camera body is nice and comfortable to use. The camera feels well built and does not have the cheap plastic feel of the other brands at this price. And it is unbelievable how feature packed this small body is. I can easily fit this camera with the pancake lens in the front pocket of my cargo pants. Even thought the camera body is small, it still feel adequate and balanced with my 14-54 mm lens attached.
This camera has really good battery performance. You can take several hundred photos without needing a charge. Charge time is 3.5 hours. I bought a spare battery for $10 from eBay and it works as good as the Olympus battery but I’m not sure I will every really need to use it but it will be nice to have.
Live view works really good and is nifty for some situations like macros. I’m not a big fan of live view on the DSLRs, but it is a feature that is nice to have when you need it.
The Olympus lens lineup is top notch and the kit lens is very good, and better than what you get with the other brands’ kits.
In summary, this is a top notch, highly capable camera, packed with features. You can not go wrong with the e620. Check out [...] for an in depth technical review of the e620.
