Product Reviews

Olympus has championed SLR cameras with a permanently fixed zoom lens - first in its film cameras, then more recently in the Camedia E-10 digital SLR. But things move quickly and, with the availability of five-megapixel CCDs, it's not a major surprise that Olympus sees a need to take advantage of this by using a design that's already proved popular.

The E-20P is a 4.95 megapixel model fitted with a fast and high-quality f/2-f/2.4 zoom lens covering 9-36mm. On a 35mm film camera this equates to a 35-140mm optic, making it suitable for most types of general pictures. With a close focus of between 20 and 60cm in macro it covers the majority of requirements. But this isn't intended as simply a snapshot model, although it is capable of that. No, this is intended to be a professional and advanced amateur product. To enhance this appeal is a light but tough metal chassis, as well as many other features that the dedicated user demands.

The E-20P is liberally covered in buttons with two main dials on the top for selecting exposure and playback modes, with the forward option adjusting settings when an appropriate button is engaged. It works well and should be equally as accessible to those with little digital camera experience.

When used for serious photography, both in and out of the studio, it was instinctive to use. This is a vital but often overlooked aspect. An example of this is the rear 1.8in LCD, which can be angled up to 90 degrees or down to 20 degrees for use at difficult shooting angles.

The optical finder is another professional-level feature and this is still better to work with than an electronic alternative. This one has a diopter correction facility and displays a reasonable 95 per cent of the image recorded.

Autofocus covers a central area and proved very good either for centrally placed subjects or, via a half press on the shutter release, a locked focus setting for an off-centre subject. It utilises an active infrared system and a passive design together to minimise response time.

Images are created as JPEGs with three compression ratios, and TIFF or RAW files can also be recorded. The last is another indication of the advanced use the camera is intended for, and the Photoshop plug-in for the RAW files worked well, making them practical to deal with. However, for general use most people will probably use JPEG because of the quicker file writing times

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to the media cards. In all cases, image quality is excellent, although not quite in the same league as the Nikon D1x (see Reviews, issue 83, p157) for sharpness and colour rendition. However, overall quality will certainly suffice for all but the most demanding user.

The choice of cards is interesting - no, make that intriguing. The camera has both CompactFlash and SmartMedia slots, allowing for the use of a 1Gb Microdrive too. You can even use cards in both slots, swapping and copying between them.

The top TIFF and RAW files are generated at a maximum 2,560 x 1,920 size. But, sensibly, when you need really fast shutter speeds you can switch from the best quality standard Interlaced Scan mode, which uses a mechanical shutter up to 1/640th second, to Progressive Scan mode. This allows shots to be captured at up to 1/18,000 second through an electronic shutter. Although this reduces quality, it's still good enough for 7 x 5in print output.

Metering is very good with digital ESP (Electro Selective Pattern), centre-weighted average or spot measurements, fully in tune with various professional working styles, while for exposure there are the usual suspects of program, aperture, shutter priority and manual modes. For the auto options there's compensation +/- 3 EV and bracketing. The ISO range is a little unconventional using 80, 160 or 320 ISO, but the auto option selects what the camera decides is the best.

Olympus has also included some innovative technology into the E-20P. For exposures of half a second or longer it uses a Noise Reduction mode that takes two shots. The first is with the shutter closed in order to highlight noisy areas, and the second is in the normal way. The camera subtracts the 'black' frame data of the first image away from the second, eliminating noise in dark areas. This is important, as noise is still a problem for digital cameras with long exposure times.

Many people will also appreciate the flash, which can be set to fill-in, slow sync, red-eye reduction and either first or second curtain sync. Rounding off the flash options are a PC socket for linking into a studio flash, dedicated hotshoe and remote dedicated terminal. The last two work with the optional FL-40 Flash. Plus, if you have larger than average-sized hands, another useful accessory is the LBS-32 grip, which will make the camera bigger and more professional looking. That said, its handling is already superb. It also takes a rechargeable LBP-12 battery.

If you need interchangeable lenses and, in particular, wide-angle coverage, the Olympus E-20P isn't ideal, but for all other situations it's superb. While not quite on a par with the Nikon D1x, which is to be expected given the price difference, it's not that far behind. The E-20P is capable of serious output sizes and of producing terrific pictures. It also handles like a dream and is packed with important features. Quite simply, it's excellent value and the best SLR-type digital camera bar the Nikon D1x.