Product Reviews

The Olympus CAMEDIA E-20P is essentially a higher-resolution version of the E-10. Increasing the resolution of an award-winning camera is never a bad thing, though, and there are a few other worthy improvements.

The E-20P has a five-megapixel CCD, which is higher than the four-megapixel CCD employed by the E-10. This is the same CCD used by Sony's Cyber-shot F707 and Nikon's Coolpix 5700 (see p24), delivers images at 2560 x 1920 pixels, with sufficient detail to be printed on an inkjet up to 13in x 10in, or 8.5in x 6.4in at 300dpi.

The E-20P has dual memory slots, and takes either SmartMedia or Compact Flash cards. Unlike its predecessor, the E-20P is certified to use the IBM MicroDrive, and our 1Gb model worked fine. The E-20P offers a wide range of file options, including uncompressed TIFFs and three levels of JPEG compression. The mildest 1/2.7 setting may produce images measuring a fairly hefty 3.5Mb each, but they're virtually bereft of compression artefacts. You can, of course, drop to a one-quarter or one-eighth setting for smaller files, and a RAW mode is also offered.

Measuring 128mm x 103mm x 161mm and weighing 1.17kg (with a pair of CR-V3 or four AA batteries), the E-20P looks and feels like a serious piece of kit. Olympus has produced one of the most comfortable and ergonomic digital cameras we've ever used.

Unlike many SLR-styled digital cameras, the E-20P's design isn't just for show. Like the E-10, the E-20P is an optical SLR camera, which means you're looking through the lens when you peer into the viewfinder.

Of course, you can also enjoy through-the-lens focusing on digital SLRs such as Canon's EOS D60 (see Reviews, 28 June 2002, p30), but you'll be paying over £2000 (inc VAT) for the body alone. The unique thing about the E-10 and E-20P is that they offer this facility for half the price, including a lens.

Body work

The lens on the E-10 and E-20P is identical, and permanently

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attached to the camera body. It's a 4x optical zoom, equivalent in coverage to 35mm-140mm on a 35mm camera. It's optically quick too, with a maximum aperture of just f2.0~2.8. The closest focusing distance is a disappointing 20cm, but a macro extension lens is available for £100.

After the motorised zooms of almost every digital camera, the E-10 and E-20P refreshingly employ a responsive mechanical ring. The manual focusing ring may be motorised, but at least the SLR design lets you use it precisely.

At the back of the camera is a 1.8in screen that can be tilted upwards for waist-level shots, but not sufficiently back for over-the-head photography. While high-end digital SLRs can only use their screen for playback, Olympus's optical design allows the E-10 and E-20P's display to be used for composition too. This doesn't work very well, though, as the image quality during composition is poor.

The time taken to shoot long exposures has been extended to 60 seconds and a new noise reduction mode eliminates most of the annoying blobs on images. It's disappointing that the E-20P is stuck with a fastest shutter speed of 1/640, but a new progressive scan mode offers speeds up to an amazing 1/18000. Sadly this mode suffers from lower vertical resolution, so you're really limited to 1/640.

A more serious problem is that it typically takes over 10 seconds to write an image to the card. The image buffer only stores four images, and the burst mode has dropped to 2.5fps. If you take four pictures in rapid succession, you're effectively locked out for at least 40 seconds, which isn't great for a camera at this level.

These are about the only complaints with the E-20P, though, and if you can tolerate the slow write-times, it handles like a dream. Admittedly, the SLR viewfinder isn't as good as, say, the Canon D60's, but it's infinitely superior to relying on a electronic viewfinder for focusing.

Goody bag

Olympus charges £1499 for the E-20P, but has dropped the E-10's price to £999. It is bundling the E-20P with 1.4x tele and 0.8x wide angle adaptors (extending the zoom range to 28mm - 200mm), along with a leather case and an extra 64Mb SmartMedia card on top of the standard 16Mb. Since these extras usually retail for around £500, the E-20P is a good package.

The E-10 and E-20P also have superb features, such as the SLR viewfinder's precision focus and the ability to synch with proper studio lighting, which help them stand out as the cheapest professional digital cameras in the market.