Labs

The E-510 is a beefed-up version of Olympus's E-410 (What's New, Shopper 235). The main difference is the inclusion of optical image stabilisation, but it also has extra buttons for depth-of-field preview and auto-focus point, plus labels on its navigation pad for direct access to ISO speed, white balance, metering and auto-focus settings. This speeds up an already quick control system, although the command dial

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responds lethargically when making large adjustments to settings.

This is the smallest SLR on test, and the only one here to offer a live preview on its LCD screen. This shows white balance, and a momentary 7x digital zoom gives enough detail for accurate focusing. A histogram and the preview image's brightness help with exposure adjustments, but strangely, they reflect only underexposed and not overexposed settings.

The E-510's sensor is smaller than those in the other SLRs here, which results in a smaller viewfinder and relatively high image noise, but still much less than any of the ultra-zoom cameras. There were hints of noise even at ISO 100, and ISO 1600 photos were only just passable. However, image stabilisation means there's less call for high ISO speeds. Detail was a little below par, too, but comparing the RAW output of the SLR cameras, the E-510's photos looked as sharp as the others. This suggests that its JPEG photos sacrifice some detail for the sake of noise reduction.