Ergonomics & Interface

The Olympus E-620 is built as a diminutive camera with all the components of a traditional DSLR. The short grip provides a comfortable hold on the camera which is well secured by a finger indentation on the grip and an outward curve on the back. On the top of the grip one finds in very close proximity the shutter-release and EC button. Both are comfortable to reach and switching between them is quick. The camera's short height also means that in will rest on the lower palm of your hand.

This DSLR is littered with buttons, the only thing missing compared to a high-end model is a second control-dial. it only leaves a small but comfortable space for the thumb on its back. The camera itself as more angles than most modern cameras do. This helps access buttons easily.

The top of the camera has the usual prism bump with a standard hot-shoe. To the left is the flash-release button which also serves to select the flash-mode and apply FC when used with the EC button. Just behind it is the drive-mode button which includes continuous, self-timers and remote-trigger options. Bracketing is controlled separately which is a great thing, particularly to allow it to be used in conjunction with the self-timer. Speaking of bracketing, the E-620 supports exposure and flash bracketing, as well as virtual bracketing of WB and ISO. A virtual bracket is made from a single exposure with the file being saved 3 times with different parameters. This is similar to converting a RAW image multiple times in different ways. Strangely this form of bracketing works in RAW mode as well.

To the other side of the viewfinder chamber, which also has the E-620's built-in flash, is the mode-dial which is on top of the power-switch. Next to the mode-dial, we find the only control-wheel. The dials and power-switch have nice clicks to prevent accidental changes. They move well and firmly. The shutter-release is pretty standard with a distinct half-way point and short travel to full-press from there.

The back of the camera is where most of the buttons are. It also, as usual, has the viewfinder and LCD display. If you are considering the E-620 it is important to know that the viewfinder is tiny and dark, something which can be a deal breaker. This may depend on your vision but I found it very hard to verify focus through the viewfinder, so much that I kept thinking I must have bumped the diopter-correction dial. This is the only serious ergonomic issue found with this DSLR.

The LCD screen is hinged to make it movable. The hinge is solid enough that this does not seem affect the solidity of the camera. The position of the hinge is such that the LCD has to move sideways before tilting. This is rather a poor choice as far as movable LCDs go because seeing the screen from a high or low angle requires protruding the LCD completely to the left of the camera. It does work well for self-portraits though. The screen is dated in terms of brightness and sharpness but still quite usable. In live-view the LCD exposure-priority except in S and A mode. So one does not see under-exposure in these modes.

Above and to the left of the LCD there is a menu and info button. The info button toggles a status display on the rear LCD when using the viewfinder and goes through various display modes in live-view. The menu button does what is expected.

To the other side of the viewfinder, there is a customizable AE-L/AF-L button, a customizable Fn button and a focus-point selection button. The remaining buttons on the back are: playback, live-view, delete, stabilization and the 5-way controller which is made of 5 separate buttons. Each of these is assigned a function: up is white-balance, right is autofocus, down is ISO and left is metering. It would have been better if the ISO button was the highest, in place of the playback button and the metering mode button be just below it, in place of the live-view button. This would make operation more efficient as the most used functions while shooting would be accessible without shifting your grip. It would be an improvement but the current arrangement is pretty usable.

The Olympus E-620 has a choice of 5 metering patterns. The usual multi-segment, center-weighed and spot are there plus two modes unique to Olympus: highlight and shadow based spot metering. These extremely useful metering modes work like spot metering except that they meter for highlights or shadows, instead of mid-town. The reasons these are worth it is that it is easy to determine the brightest or darkest area where details are needed.

Further functions of the camera are setable via a tabbed menu system or an interactive status screen. The central OK button activates the status screen which is quite easy to use. The menu system is easy to navigate but it a mess in terms of organization. Luckily there are external buttons for most common operations. The most common deeply hidden function is WB fine-tuning.

The settings menu has a whopping 69 items. This camera is extremely customizable, from minor details such as dial rotation to important camera customization. The most useful options include: AE-L/AF-L options per focus-mode, choice of AE-L metering pattern, info screen choices, one-touch custom white-balance assignable to the Fn button, WB fine-tuning and control over noise-reduction. The first two letters of filenames can be changed but sadly not the numbering convention with is based on the date, day of month first. This causes files to sort out-of-order when a images cross a month boundary.

Image Quality & Performance

The image quality of the Olympus E-620 is quite good and has come a long way since the first Four-Thirds cameras. As with all interchangeable lens cameras, several aspects of image quality depend on the lens used. Sharpness is one aspect that depends on both the camera and lens. It seems that the anti-alias filter on the E-620 is pretty strong and so it is expected that the E-620 be more often sensor limited than lens limited. Zuiko lenses are reputed to be of excellent quality relative to their price. Another aspect of a smaller sensor is that it is easier to produce bright lenses.

Olympus has the only F2 zooms as a prime example and their 50-200mm is F2.8-3.5, more than a full stop wider than competing lenses. Even the standard 14-54mm lens is F2.8-3.5, giving an equivalent os 28-108mm. The E-620 came with a 12-60mm F2.8-4 lens which is an excellent range going from ultra-wide 24mm equivalent to a 120mm telephoto reach.

Image noise is certainly the most discussed aspect of image quality. In this regards, the E-620 manages well, although a stop or so behind DSLRs with 1.5X or 1.6X crop sensors. ISO 100 to 400 are completely usable and ISO 800 is where noise becomes apparent without being too intrusive. ISO 1600 is certainly noisy and 3200 noisier but these can still be used for small prints. What is really good about the ISO performance is that softness barely increases with sensitivity.

Metering and dynamic range are really good. The E-620 requires less exposure-compensation that most DSLRs. White-balance is good but not perfect. It does have a bit of trouble under artificial lights, leaving a slight orange cast.

Color accuracy is fairly good too, with some oversaturation in reds and blues.

Performance is generally good with the E-620, although a few aspects are on the slow side. Startup is fast but not instant. At over 2s, power-off time is slow. The camera is almost always quite responsive. Dials and menus respond instantly.

Focusing speed is highly variable. First, the lens makes a huge difference. The excellent 12-60mm F2.8-4 can focus very fast in good light and slows down noticeably when the light is low. The 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 lens on the other hand is rather slow all the time. Manual focusing is done using a fly-by-wire system on some lenses. Luckily, it responds quickly. The downside is that you cannot focus while the camera is powered down.

Continuous drive runs at 4 FPS with a short buffer but it only drops down to 3 FPS after that and manages to keep shooting until the memory card is full. The black-out time is noticeable here, being a little longer than average.

Playback mode is always fast. Zooming and panning are completely responsive, even at low magnification. Going through the various info screens is also quick. Deleting is just a tad slow. One thing that is too bad though is that we cannot delete images from the instant-review screen.

Battery-life is quoted at 500 shots-per-charge. By DSLR standards this is short but certainly not problematic. Live-view eats up more power though, so it is possible to get a lot fewer shots on a single charge.

Overall Score: Excellent   Buy it from:

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Conclusion

The Olympus E-620 is one of the smallest DSLR, yet it has a well-rounded feature set and quite a few external controls. The most significant compromise for a DSLR this size is a tiny viewfinder which makes it difficult to confirm focus, and the E-620 is no exception here.

In terms of image quality and performance the E-620 does quite well without being class-leading in any area. Despite the small sensor, image noise is kept low and dynamic-range is excellent. The autofocus performance is slightly below average but the camera always responds quickly.

The bottom line is that the E-620 makes an outstanding choice for those needing a small DSLR, without losing the viewfinder and going to a Micro Four-Thirds digital camera like the EP-1 we just reviewed. The main difference is that, while the EP-1 actually beats the E-620 in terms of image quality, the lack of reflex viewfinder makes tracking moving subjects next to impossible, so for action and sports, the E-620 will be much more useful.

Direct competitors are all a little bigger and include the Pentax K-x and Canon Rebel XSi, both excellent cameras with good feature sets. Note that the XSi does not include built-in stabilization.