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Model Design / Appearance
The E-400 looks like many typical DSLRs, but smaller. The shallow handgrip is significantly responsible for the small appearance. The E-400 is mostly plastic, but Olympus uses heavy, thick material. Like other models, the E-400 feels solid. Though we examined a prototype, the fit and finish were excellent.
Size / Portability
The E-400 is 5.1 x 3.5 x 2 inches, and 13 oz., which is very small for a DSLR. It's still a DSLR, though, and we expect most users will need a separate camera bag, particularly if they add an additional lens and flash into their kit. The E-400 will be comfortable on a neck strap.
The E-400 should have better environmental seals than it does. Though its sturdy construction should prevent dust from entering though joints between structural elements, the ports and doors are not well-sealed, and the camera needs the typical level of care for a DSLR.
Handling Ability
The E-400 is small enough that a fair portion of users will find it cramped. The handgrip particularly feels tiny. We didn't get the firm grip we wanted with our right hand, and found a need to rely on our left hand to maintain our grip on the E-400. That's unusual – we find it typical to hold a camera with our right hand, and simply brace it, for steadiness, with our left.
 Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size Olympus tends to be careful with their control buttons – they're well-made, they feel good to use, and they seem durable. The buttons on the E-400 fit in this laudable tradition.
A symptom of the E-400's small size is that the buttons are close together. The E-400 has only one control dial, so it is necessary to turn it while pressing a button to access various functions, and that's hard when everything is so close together. We prefer 4-way controls that are built as a single dish which rocks in two directions, but the E-400's 5-button configuration works well. The buttons are large enough but close enough together to be easy to operate quickly, without making it likely to hit two buttons at once.
We also found the distribution of buttons around the body to be logical.
Menu
Olympus burdens its DSLRs with very long menus. On the E-400, there are fewer than on some other models, but they are split into 5 tabs: 2 for shooting parameters, one for playback and two for setup. Still, the tabs for setup scroll down to reveal their long lists of content.
In shooting mode, a large set of parameters appear on the LCD, and can be adjusted directly. The include exposure, exposure mode, ISO, white balance, which balance fine-tune, color mode, exposure compensation, flash exposure compensation, autofocus mode and pattern, color space, filename, memory type, file format and quality, and the number of frames left.
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Shooting
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Card setup
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Formatting
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Custom Reset Setting
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Return camera to saved user settings
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Picture mode
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Vivid, Natural or Muted color, monochrome or sepia
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Graduation
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Tonality
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Quality
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File format, size and compression
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White Balance
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ISO
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100 to 1600
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Noise Reduction
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Allows digital processing
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Metering
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Meter pattern
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Flash EV
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Exposure compensation for flash
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AF mode
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Single or continuous focus
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AF zone
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Choose autofocus sensor
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AE Bkt
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Exposure bracketing
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Set-up
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All white balance adjust
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Bias all white balance settings with fine color adjustments
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SQ Size
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Set pixel dimensions and amount of compression for images shot in the “SQ” quality setting
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Auto Pop up
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Enable the camera to open the flash when the meter indicates flash is needed
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AEL/AFL Lock
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Set the button behavior for exposure and focus lock
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AEL/AFL memo
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Show viewfinder reminder when lock is turned on
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AEL metering
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Sets meter pattern for lock button
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Fn
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Set behavior for function button
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Beep
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Alert sound
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Scene mode
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Set mode dial to allow underwater scene modes instead of the terrestrial ones
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Date/Time
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CF/xD
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Set behavior for the two compatible types of media card
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Sleep
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Set time before camera goes in power-saving mode
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USB mode
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Set for downloads or printing
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Color Space
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sRGB or Adobe RGB
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Pixel Mapping
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Note hot pixels
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Cleaning mode
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Expose sensor cover for manual cleaning
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Firmware
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Show current firmware version
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Playback
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Slide show
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Show images is sequence, on the LCD or via a video connection
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Rotate
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Set to have vertical images display correctly
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Edit
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Apply effects to existing images
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Print
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Print via PictBridge or DPOF
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Copy
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Copy images from on memory card to another
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Reset protect
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Remove file protections
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Ease of Use
The Olympus E-400 offers extensive automation as well as full automatic controls. A significant level of customization is possible, though not as much as on the E-330. One could call it a loss of features, but we welcome the simplification.
We wish the controls weren't so cramped, and that it was easier to control aperture, shutter speed, and exposure compensation without such finger gymnastics.
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