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Olympus EVOLT E-520

Digital Camera Review

Jul 29, 2008 - By Tim Barribeau

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The strap is placed well on the body of the camera, so it feels balanced when hanging around your neck.

Handling Ability (6.5)
As previously noted, the rubberized grip is generously proportioned. It is wide, deep, and it curls around comfortably to let you get a firm grip. The texturized rubber on the body serves to prevent slippage both on the hand grip and on the thumb rest on the back of the camera. However, if your hands are big enough to require the extra real estate afforded to you by the grip, you’re probably going to find the thumb rest a might too small, though the surrounding buttons are stiff enough that it’s unlikely you’ll press them accidentally. The primary buttons and dials are all easily reachable.

The E-520's substantial grip allows for easy handling

Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size (8.75)
The chrome shutter button, which is raised above the surrounding body on a platform of sorts, sits comfortably under the finger, and is prominent enough that it is easy to find by feel when your eyes are up to the viewfinder.

The mode dial is located prominently on the top of the body. There are the standard MSAP (Manual, Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority and Program), Auto, and then five presets (Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Sports and Night Portrait) followed by ‘Scene’. ‘Scene’ brings up a menu on the LCD for another 20 presets, for almost every conceivable situation. Unfortunately, the dial is rather stiff, making changing between modes quickly problematic. On the same shaft as the mode dial is the power switch. The power switch is in an awkward spot. It’s easy enough to switch the camera off with a flick of the index finger, but turning the machine back on requires shifting your grip significantly. If you’re one to turn off your camera in-between shots, this makes it rather difficult to turn it back on in a hurry.

The single control wheel is easy to reach with your thumb and appears to have been made easier to turn since the E-510, but retains the problems of having only one control wheel when shooting in full manual. Turning the control wheel adjusts shutter speed;  to adjust aperture you have to press down a small button next to the shutter release to toggle the function. This can be difficult when shooting at high speed.

The four-way controller is placed in the usual location on the back of the camera. The buttons all serve double duty, navigating menus as well as adjusting the white balance, auto focus, ISO and metering. They are arranged to be easily differentiated by touch, and are resistant enough that you are unlikely to press one by accident when moving your thumb around the back of the camera.

The IS (image stabilization), Live View, Function, Auto-Focus Area and AEL/AFL buttons are located in areas easily reached with your right thumb, making all of them highly accessible. Of particular note is the programmable ‘Fn’ or function button, which can be bound to such useful features as white balance, image format or depth of field preview.

The diopter control is small and difficult to turn, but it's a setting that isn’t meant to change frequently.

On the left side of the body sit the buttons that are not needed as readily during shooting. Instead, tucked away here, are those functions related to playback and menus; the Play, Delete, Menu and Info buttons. Of the four buttons, the top two are placed in individual depressions, with a small raised line between them and the other two, while the bottom buttons sit in a single indentation. The goal appears to be preventing accidentally pressing the Delete button.  The uppermost of the four buttons activates Playback, and, as already mentioned, the one just below it deletes photos. In case the raised boundaries weren’t enough, the delete button has a red icon by way of warning. The final two are Menu and Info. All function as you would expect. Playback allows you to review your photos, Delete erases images, Menu gives you access to various levels of complex customization, and Info shows histograms and the like during playback.

Strangely, even though your picture is displayed on the LCD as soon as you take it, you cannot delete it at this point -- you have to go into playback mode first. This is irritating if you’ve just taken a picture, can tell that it’s mediocre as soon as the preview arrives, and want to mercifully put it down. Instead of just hitting Delete and being done with it, you have to press Playback, wait a second to switch modes, delete, and then switch back. While not a great time delay, it still seems unnecessary.

There are two small chrome buttons to the left of the viewfinder hump. The front one controls the flash. Press once to deploy the flash, and press again to access the flash menu and control flash settings. The button situated closer to the photographer seems to be a catch-all, where Olympus has decided to lump all the leftover features in together. When shooting, this magical Swiss Army knife button allows you to choose single shot, sequential shot, self-timer modes and remote control modes. In playback, the button copies or prints, depending on whether you’re linked directly into a printer via cable or not. Unfortunately, both of these two small buttons are identical to the touch and located very close to one another. One can imagine accidentally pressing the wrong button in the dark while trying to activate the flash.

The buttons are universally easy to push, but not so loose as to be pressed accidentally. One hopes the labeling on them is sufficient to take the abuse of repeated use without wearing out completely.

Controls are well marked and easy to use.