Olympus E410 Review

They don't come any smaller or lighter than the Olympus E410! It's a virtually pocket sized Digital SLR camera. But can this tiny Olympus model really compete with its bigger 'full fat' rivals? Here's what we thought of Olympus' new model.

In almost every physical respect, this tiny Digital SLR camera is identical to the Olympus E400, launched barely six months before. 

It's both still supremely small and light, and it noticeably lacks the bulge of a battery grip that appears to be a standard fixture on all current digital SLRs. 

This slim line appearance makes it feel much more like a traditional compact SLR camera model.

As well as its good looks, the Olympus E410 has an excellent LCD interface. This doesn't just show the current settings, it also enables you to select and adjust them directly with ease. 

Inside the camera, though, some major changes have taken place. The biggest is the incorporation of a Live View mode, where you can choose to compose pictures using the LCD rather than in the viewfinder. Olympus pioneered Live View in the complex and ugly E330, which had a secondary 'viewing' sensor within the camera. The E410 dispenses with this. It simply flips the mirror up, opens the shutter and feeds the image from the sensor to the LCD.

Olympus was first to introduce an anti-dust system, and the E 410's 'Supersonic Wave Filter' vibrates the sensor to shake dust off each time the camera is started up. 

We were pleased to see that none of our test shots showed any visible signs of dust or debris. 

The Olympus E410 also boasts a new image-processing engine. We previously noted that the E400 didn't have the 'bite' of other 10MP D-SLRs, but the Olympus E410 seems to be a significant step in this area.

There's no clear difference in image sharpness between this model and the Canon EOS 400D. At low ISOs there's no noise effect, as you'd expect, and at high ISO quality holds up well too. The E410's color rendition, contrast and saturation are excellent. 

The camera's exposure system helps, combining great accuracy with a high degree of control. It doesn't fall into the trap of overexposing heavily back lit subjects, nor does it produce dull and gloomy colors in bright, high-contrast conditions.

Some people may find the E410 a little small in the hand but that didn't stop the classic OM series from becoming one of the most favored tools of travel photographers. 

Others may be unsure about committing to the 'Four Thirds' sensor that's been championed by Olympus as other manufacturers use rather larger sensors in their digital SLRs. 

However, if you can get over those two points then you'll be rewarded with a really great camera that produces consistently excellent results.