Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

This camera is so light I use to take wildlife photos. It is very easy to use and learning takes a short time.

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

I use my camera when I go about town in Chicago. It is very parctical and easy to use. I am still learning some of the functions, but it is very intuitive. When I received the camera it look like new. The price is very reasonable. I did buy a back up battery, and I am now looking for a 25 mm lense to make it more practical.

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

Used Strictly For Pleasure.
Mostly Landscapes And Timelapse Water Shots.
This Camera Has Many Features I Have Yet To Discover.
Auto Setting And Program Such As Sunset Modes Are Excellent. Aperture And Shutter Modes Are Great As Well.

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

I purchased this camera to replace an E-420 that was damaged on a recent trip to Ireland.
This is the perfect travel camera. Has all of the slr features you really need, but is much smaller than other slr's. I realize that many photo nuts will think that this camera does not have the technical or feature stats that they want in a camera. I wish those folks could have heard the people in our group who were lugging big, heavy slr's comment on the handiness and capabilities of the E-420. Takes excellent photos, has all the flexibility you can use effectively when you are constantly on the move and want to do things other than twiddle with your camera. The only really sad thing is that the E-420 has been discontinued. Now you will have to step up to the E-620, which is also a good, small slr, but costs a good bit more. So if you want an E-420, get a move on while you can still find new ones here and there or a factory recon, like I got, from B&H. By the way, the reconditioned camera looks new. I have also had the damaged camera repaired by Olympus so that I have a back-up.

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

So far it has been everthing i was hoping it would be.

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

Compact, light weight, and still powerful. This camera was delivered just prior to a trip and it performed wonderfully. The perks of a DSLR with many of the "quick" settings of a point and shoot. The Live View feature and its on screen auto focus was wonderful.

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

Bought this camera as a first DSLR. Overall a good buy but I think that first timers would be better off purchasing something with image satbilisation.

Also feel that olympus has abandoned the 4/3rds format, so you would be better off looking for Nikon, Cannon or K mount cameras.

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

I decided to make the jump from a point and shoot to a DSLR and the E420 has proven to be a great choice for a beginner like myself. It is very user friendly and the size of the camera is perfect for me. Despite it's small size, the camera produces quality images and I look forward to learning more about DSLR photography alongside my trusty E420.

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

This was a gift for my wife. She loves it. Light and fits her hand. She takes photo's of the family and landscraps (i.e flowers, animals, etc).
Len slection is great.

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

I have been a Nikon shooter for many years and have been getting tired of lugging big, heavy gear around with me on personal photo outings. I bought the E-420 with the kit 14-43mm and the 25mm pancake lenses as a portable solution.

I'm loving this camera and have hardly touched my Nikons since I bought it. Nothing against the Nikons, but the Oly gives me what I need for serious photo taking in a small package. Unlike "entry level" models from other manufacturers, Olympus chose to give this camera some serious customization ability so you can set it up the way you are comfortable with. This is usually only found in $1000+ cameras.

It feels very well built with a decently soft, sticky rubber grip. I have large hands and I don't find the camera to be too small, however I'm pretty adaptable. Because of the small size of the sensor and, thus, reflex mirror, there is almost no vibration when pressing the shutter release. Thus, even a light weight camera like this one is not prone to camera movement due to its inner workings.

I've found the colors to be amazing from this little camera. Olympus is known for their color rendition, but I've never experienced it myself before buying the E-420. Now I'm hooked. I've read that the rich colors, particularly the blues, are due to the telecentricity of the E-system lenses where light strikes the sensor more directly.

No camera is perfect. ISO 100-800 is really quite good, but I stay away from ISO 1600. At that sensitivity noise is excessive (I have noise reduction set to "low" to retain more details) and you can get banding in the image. I really wish that you could set noise reduction differently for different ISOs before hand... "low" for 200-800, "high" for 1600, etc.

The viewfinder isn't particularly large, but it's not as small and unusable as some would claim. It's really not bad, and it's certainly bright and contrasty enough to compose well. If you're a fan of manual focus, however, you may not find it large enough.

My only other wish is that Oly would come out with a small, wide prime lens, but that's a discussion for another time.

In summary, it's a great little camera, feels well built, fits even my large hands well, fast and responsive in the field, offers great customization and best of all gives great image quality. Just stay away from ISO 1600.

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

I recently purchased the Olympus E-420 and love taking pictures with it! The colors are brillant and the pictures are unbelievably crisp! Without the flash on, it takes about 3 pics a second. The battery did not need to be charged for exactly a month and I am constatly taking pictures of my daughter! Still trying to figure it out but I have not found anything about it I do not like!

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

Use it as primary camera, backed up with cheap point–n–shoot one.
Very friendly. All modes are self-explanatory (no need to read manual). Image stabilization (absent in this model) is not needed with standard lenses.
on-off switch is clumsy, but ok.
Manual focus could be set only via settings, not an "on-off" switch, is disadvantage but compensated by quick AF acquisition.
Panorama mode requires "Olympus" card, it could not be written on regular SD, but you will find it only later (and not too important).
Weight and size are advantage. Battery last long enough but spare is needed.

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

This is my first D-SLR; had a C-7070 and a number of small point & shoot cameras. I love the camera body, the ergonomics are superb. The kit lens (14-42 F3.5) is slow, but works well under most conditions. Most importantly, it's a very light-weight package. Will be great for architecture & panoramic work, I will upgrade the lens soon.

Comments about Olympus E-420 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 14-42mm Lens:

This is one of the best "bang-for-buck", general use DSLR's you're going to get.

I own a Canon 5D and have owned the Canon Mark II, Canon 20D, Nikon D80 and Nikon D200. I also owned an E-410 before this one. All those other cameras are great cameras, but they can't match the E-420 for general usage. I do a lot of hiking and climbing and there's no way I could carry a Canon 5D with 28-300mm worth of lenses along!

The Olympus E-420 has way more Dynamic Range, speed and options than any point 'n shoot (like the Canon G9), and is not much bigger. The E-420 also has a better sensor than the E-410.

The E-420 can not do everything. It can't match the 5D for landscapes, low noise or portraiture and it can't match the Mark II for speed and auto focus. You can't have everything but you can get close!