Olympus EVOLT E-520 Digital Camera Review - Olympus DSLR

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Picture Quality / Size Options (11.83)
The E-520 offers Large, Medium and Small resolutions for JPEG files, but again takes the customizable route and allows you to define what these sizes actually entail. While Large is permanently 3648 x 2736, Medium can be defined as 3200 x 2400, 2560 x 1920 or 1600 x 1200, and Small can be 1280 x 960, 1024 x 768 or 680 x 480, making for seven sizes altogether. The definition of Small and Medium sizes is adjustable through the Menu system. Once again the E-520 puts the emphasis on customizing the camera, so you can decide what sizes fit your needs. Image quality can be set to Superfine, Fine, Normal or Basic. This compression decreases the amount of space taken up at the cost of image quality, with Superfine compressed at 1/2.7, Fine at 1/4 Normal at 1/8 and Basic at 1/12. The levels of Large, Medium and Small can be combined with Superfine, Fine, Normal and Basic to create 12 different levels of image size. Any four of these combinations can be set to appear on the Super Control Panel’s image size menu.

The camera shoots uncompressed RAW, churning out 3648 x 2736 files that take up 11 MB each. The advantage to RAW shooting is the complete lack of compression, providing more freedom for editing purposes. The E-520 can also shoot RAW+JPEG, which helpfully combines the two formats to allow you to review images quickly while shooting, and still have the uncompressed image available for editing. The level of compression of the JPEG when using this mode can be controlled through the Super Control Panel, and are the same four combinations of sizes mentioned above.

Picture Effects Mode (4.00)
Traditionally the domain of the point-and-shoot, in-camera editing is a feature that seems to appearing in more SLRs, but still in a rather piecemeal fashion. Olympus has introduced a few basic editing modes and effects into the E-520 to help those who aren’t interested in post-processing their images on their computer.

For basic image resizing, both scaling and cropping make an appearance. Scaling will only adjust the image down to preset sizes (1280 x 960, 640 x 480 and 320 x 240). Cropping is likewise limited to one of four different crop sizes, which can be maneuvered around the screen using the directional buttons. The actual sizes available for the cropping are never defined, instead relying on a green rectangle on the LCD screen to show the crop area.

Red-eye removal, Saturation adjustment, Black and White and Sepia tone transformation and are all present. Unfortunately, no other image adjustment tools are available, such as brightness or contrast editing. Of these tools, only saturation adjustment is manually controllable, and can be shifted five steps in either direction. The others are all automated transformations, without any customizability. If any of the editing tools are used, a copy of the image is made and all edits are applied to the duplicate.

The one new introduction since the E-510 is the Shadow Adjustment tool, which Olympus references heavily on its website. It takes parts of the image that are underexposed or in shadow and lightens them up. It essentially boils down to changing the tone curves, a function usually reserved for those with access to Adobe Photoshop and a high level of skill. Incorporating a simple version as an in-camera editing feature furthers Olympus’ apparent goal of building the ease of use of a point-and-shoot into an SLR.

Strangely, the editing tools aren't accessed in Playback mode. Instead you have to go through the Menu, go to the Play sub-menu, chose Edit, select the photo you want, then change it. This adds a couple of unnecessary steps to the process, rather than being able to edit directly during Playback, as is done in the Nikon D60. The time lost in the E-520’s slightly more convoluted method is relatively minimal, but feels inelegant by comparison.

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