Great write up Bob, I stand to be corrected but as I understand Camera Raw
4.1 does not officially support the 510 Raw files yet.
Is it worth trying some other Raw converters, just a thought, one method
being used sucessfully in to convert to DNG and use Camera
Raw with the CS2 package, hell knows why it should be better but some have
reported so?
It does appear though that many are judging the IQ based on web images, you
are the first I have heard of putting to print.
Keep us posted
Phil
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Whitmire" <bwhitmire@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 6:10 PM
Subject: [OM] E-510 First Impressions
>
> Okay, the new E-510 arrived Wednesday. I had to work in a craft shop
> all day Thursday, so I took the camera with me, and then after the
> shop closed shot a few frames on the drive home. Took it out again
> this morning for another work out.
>
> No images posted yet, and I'm not sure there will be. Seems pointless
> to waste time putting together test images for the web when the use
> for which the camera is intended is so different. I've seem some
> really nice stuff out of the 410 and the 510 on the web, but it
> doesn't jibe with what's coming out of my printer, which is what
> counts for me and my customers.
>
> Not that I want to go negative from the git-go, but I'm not sure the
> 510 is what it's been cracked up to be, and furthermore, if the 510
> is a sneak preview at the new E-Thing, I'm not feeling too good about
> it.
>
> Build quality is excellent. Nothing toylike about the feel. Not an
> E-1 by any stretch, but a good, solid feel. Controls are pretty
> convenient, and intuitive enough for me to get most of them working
> as intended without a _lot_ of cussing. It's definitely angled toward
> the more casual shooter, but with enough features to make semi-pros
> nod with approval.
>
> Live View is pretty spiffy. I can see uses for it. The imposed grid
> is nice, too. Menus and such are straightforward, and there are
> several different ways to directly address stuff such as white
> balance, ISO, etc.
>
> Image Stabilization is worth the extra money on this one. True, it's
> not a miracle cure. I tried to make it work at f/8 @ 1/60th shooting
> a 50-200 racked all the way out with a 1.4 extender to boot. Not
> going to happen. It's not that miraculous. But at the shop yesterday
> I was taking pictures of price tags on the other side of the room,
> with and without IS, and there was a very definite improvement in
> sharpness with IS, at least as shown by the huge LCD on the back of
> the camera. It magnifies up to about 14x, to you can check your focus
> with some degree of confidence.
>
> My problems with the camera are twofold: Sharpness and Noise. Before
> I get into this, a caveat: I've had the camera less than 48 hours.
> I'm sure I don't have it all sussed out yet. The E-1 has been in my
> hands for years and I know how to make it sing for my supper. Not so
> with the E-510. So if anything jumps out at anyone in what I'm saying
> here, don't hesitate to dive in and get me straight. It may save me
> from sending this camera back in the next few days.
>
> First, I'm not sure Oly has done that much improvement in the noise
> department. Yes, the images shown on the web seem to suggest vast
> improvement, but that's because of the noise reduction function, the
> default of which is on, and the effect of which is to somewhat soften
> the image, depending on how much noise reduction is used. (This is
> not the same as the noise abatement function that kicks in on long
> exposures.)
>
> With noise reduction off, I can see a good bit of noise even at ISO
> 400, which had appeared to be virtually noiseless in the stuff I was
> seeing on the web. But then as I said above, what you see on the web
> and what you see coming out of your printer are two different things.
> I've turned noise reduction off, and left camera sharpening at 0
> (Where my E-1 lives), and I plan to shoot more frames this afternoon.
>
> Which brings me to images. To my eye, the E-510 produces quite soft
> images, at least in RAW mode, where I live, and with the several I
> worked on earlier today, I couldn't get the same level of sharpness
> in an E-510 image I can get out of an E-1 images. In fact, the Raw
> files from the E-1 convert noticeably sharper than the E-510 images
> through Adobe Camera RAW 4.1, even though both the E-1 and E-510
> shared similar in-camera settings, and even shared the same tripod,
> lenses, f-stops and such. (I try not to be a pixel-peeper, but
> sometimes I can't help myself.) It also should be noted my images are
> with the 14-54 and 50-200. I'll shoot a few this afternoon with the
> kit lenses just to see the difference.
>
> My ego is not such that I am opposed to being straightened out by
> some of the folks on this list who know this digital stuff front to
> back. My intent is not to trash Oly or the 510, but to point out how
> it's working for me early on. Right now, I don't see it taking me
> where I need to go, which is paper output rather than web output. Too
> bad, because the native image size coming off that 10MP sensor is
> roughly 11x15 inches. In the CS3/Genuine Fractals world, that ought
> to go to a true 16x20 without even breathing hard. The color fidelity
> for which Olympus is known seems to have survived, and all in all I'm
> a realy Oly fan, so I'll gladly take some correction from those who
> know what I may be doing wrong! I can't think of anything better than
> to find that my clumsiness and ignorance are at fault, not the 510 or
> Oly's marketing department.
>
> Just my first impression, and worth exactly what you paid for it.
>
> --Bob
>
>
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