Buy Olympus E-20 5MP Digital Camera w/ 4x Optical ZoomOlympus E-20 5MP Digital Camera w/ 4x Optical Zoom Product Description:
- 5.2 megapixel sensor creates 2,560 x 1,920 images for prints at 11 x 14 and beyond
- 4x optical zoom lens with autofocus
- Included 32 MB SmartMedia card holds 7 images at default resolution
- Compatible with SmartMedia and Type I and II CompactFlash
- Uses 2 disposable lithium batteries (included) or 4 AA batteries; auto-connects with Macs and PCs via USB port
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
167 of 171 people found the following review helpful.
This Is A Camera Not A Toy
By W. J. Haskett
What an amazing machine this is. After suffering through the flimsy plastic trinket cameras with little or no real optical quality, I finally own a truly versatile digital camera. The E-20 (as with the E10) offers extraordinary flexibility in digital photography. Prior to my recent purchase I spent at least a year and a half researching and waiting for this last pixel jump. The E-20 offers all of the flexibility of a high-level SLR which is missing on most other digital cameras.
Good Points:
- The feel... It has enough weight for good stability, and it fits your hand very nicely.- Excellent lens with the ability to add extenders, filters, what-have-you.- Super Image Quality- Good bundled software (Adobe PhotoShop Elements and Camedia)- Image control- SmartMedia, CompactFlash, AND Microdrive compliant with the ability to use more than one card type at a time (you can switch between the cards).- True SLR (some competitors offer interchangeable optics, but still have you look through a viewfinder. What's with that? I want to see what I'm taking.).- Great accessories! (I can't wait to get the lithium polymer attachment)
Drawbacks- I'll have to get a better strap- Flexibility & control vs. ease of use trade-off... there are roughly 30 buttons to learn (but most of us will want that kind of control).- It doesn't come with a case... even a cheapie- I need to buy stock in a battery company- Remembering to turn it off whenever I open the media bay or change power source
This is probably not the camera you would buy for your instamatic dependent Aunt Sally or Uncle Jimmy-Bob, but if push came to shove you could always tell them to just put the big knob on "P" (Program) and snap away.
When you pick your camera, don't go by statistics alone (or reviews alone for that matter). You've got to get out there and see how the camera feels in your hands. If you've a history with good quality 35mm SLR's you are going to love the E-20.
89 of 92 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent VeriPic compatible camera
By A Customer
We tested this camera for compatibility with VeriPic. We put it through its paces in all the modes including adjusting manual white balance, IS, PS and Noise Reduction mode, sharpness filter, all combinations of the 5 resolutions and 3 compression modes. The camera performed flawlessly and what amazed us is the camera was very frugal on the batteries. Once set of charged 1600 mah NiMH AA batteries actually got us through 350 pictures! This was a very pleasant supprise. The technical specs also don't mention another gem...There is a large RAM buffer that allows you to take up to 5 FULL mode resolution (5 MegaPixel) photos one after another without waiting for the photos to write to the Compact Flash card! This means you can take photos quickly without having the normal digital camera wait between photos that other cameras have. (The manual lists a 60 ms wait between shutter press and photo capture. This is almost too small to notice and the user will think this camera responds like a 35 mm SLR). The photos look great in FULL resolution JPeg at 1:2.7 compression. Don't use the two TIFF modes because you'll run out of memory card soon and there is no noticable quality difference between the TIFF and JPeg mode so you might as well use JPeg and save some memory. Additionally this camera is VeriPic compatible! That means it is suitable for professional insurance or evidence photography work. We would have given this camera 5 stars instead of 4 except for two things we didn't like about it. The camera is a bit too heavy and hard to lug around unlike the direct competitor (Minolta Dimage 7 which is significantly lighter) and the second drawback is that it is significantly higher price than the Dimage 7. Otherwise it is a great camera!
64 of 65 people found the following review helpful.Good and Versatile
By A Customer
I am now using the E-20N for our newspaper and have found it to be excellent for sports and news photography. The only drawback is the write time from buffer to card can be long and ties up the camera when the buffer is full. It is a little slow powering up, about 5 seconds. However, I am learning to overcome it and work around it. It takes excellent quality photos and does night football on the high school level very nicely with the FL-40 Flash. The flash is a necessary accessory. It is a wonder to handle, good focus, fast auto focus and love the manual flexibility it has. I definitely recommend it. I did not know if it would take night football, but it has done very well. I am still learning it and trying to master the many features it has. Very, Very good digital camera, it has all but eliminated our wet darkroom. we also use Nikon Coolpix 950s and 995, both very good digital cameras.
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