Olympus Evolt E-420 digital camera resource

Last update: Feb. 2nd, 2012 Feb. 2nd: Lenses section updated

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Technical data and reference manuals

• Olympus E420 complete specifications
• Software for the E420 can be downloaded here.
• The complete reference manual can be downloaded here.
• See here the FAQs of Olympus America.

Reviews and previews

• Imaging Resource have a detailed review of the Olympus E420 with many tests.
• DCResource have an interesting and detailed review of the Olympus E420 with many images and tests.
  
• The cameralabs.com review is interesting and contains a side-by-side comparison to the Canon 450D.
  
• PhotographyBlog have a detailed multipage review of the E-420.
  
• See dpreview's in-depth review of the E420.
• TrustedReviews have an interesting multipage review with a noise comparison at various ISO levels.
  
• Steve's Digicams have a detailed multipage review of the E420.
• Let's go digital have published a multipage review of the E420 with several test images.
  
• ephotozine have a review of the E420 with several tests.
• Digitalcamerareview.com have a review of the E-420 with several tests.
  
• Macuser have a short one-page article about the E-420.
• Techradar.com have a short review of the E-420.
• Andrzej Wrotniak has a short, but interesting article about the Olympus E420 on his site.
• digicamreview.com have a one-page review of the Olympus E-420. No tests, only some high ISO crops.
  

Sample images

• letsgodigital.org have a page with 12 high resolution samples at ISO settings from 100 to 1600 taken with the kit lenses.
• DCResource have 14 high resolution sample images of the Olympus E-420 taken at ISO settings ranging from 100 to 1600 in the lower parts of the review page.
  
• Olympus Asia has a page with five high res samples taken at ISO 100 with different lenses.
• Imaging resource have a page with many full resolution test images (studio and outdoors) taken at different ISOs and camera settings.
  
• dpreview have a gallery with 35 high res samples of the E420 taken at different ISO settings and with different lenses
  
• Steve's Digicams has 15 full resolution samples taken with the 25mm pancake lense at ISO 100.
• fourthirds-user.com have a page with eight high res sample images of the Olympus E-420 taken with the 25mm pancake lens. The RAW files can be downloaded as well.
• photographyreview.com have a few high ISO sample images of the E420.
• phtographyblog.com has 40 samples of the E420.
• digicamreview.com have 18 sample images of the Olympus E-420.

RAW file format

• Dave Coffin is listing on his dcraw page every RAW image processing software which either is using his decoder or use the decoder as documentation (scroll down to "Other Raw Photo Decoders").
  
• Some of these packages are free, some are not.
  
• I have tried out a number of these packages and in my opinion the Adobe Photoshop one delivers the best performance in terms of image quality, user interface and processing speed (with some decoders when you make a change to the parameters you have to wait for a while until you see the change in the preview window).
• If you use Photoshop you will need CS3 or later versions, because CS2 (or earlier versions) cannot import the camera raw file filters needed for the Olympus E420 RAWs.
  
• Olympus has released a codec for Windows Vista. The codec is a piece of software running under Windows Vista with which Vista can import and display RAW images of all Olympus DSLRs.
  
• Another good RAW converter is Olympus Studio.
• Even Irfanview can decode E420 RAW files, thanks to the dcraw code.
  

Memory cards

• The E420 has a dual slot for CompactFlash card (Type I and II), Microdrive and xD picture cards.
  
• There is no reason to use xD cards (unless you want to use the inbuilt panorama function), since CF cards are cheaper and usually faster.
  

Firmware

• Firmware updates released so far (can be downloaded here):
  
• Version 1.1, 30.09.2008
  
• Improved brightness level of optical viewfinder AF target points.

Questions ? Comments ? Put them in the Olympus E420 user group

Chromatic aberrations / Purple fringing

• To remove chromatic aberrations you can process the RAW image with the Adobe Photohop RAW plugin.
  
• To remove chromatic aberrations with an image editor (desaturation of the magentas):
• It is very simple to remove chromatic aberrations from an image. Simply use a photo editor and set the saturation level of magenta (also green where this makes sense) to the minimum. In some images you might have to set the saturation level of red to the minimum. It might also make sense to limit the processing to the affected area (i.e. select the affected image area and only process that).

Accessories

• The ME-1 eyecup magnifier enlarges the view by 20%. The eyecup incorporates two lenses and measures 40 x 30 x 12mm.
  
• The FP-1 Power Flash grip is designed for use with the FL-50 high-voltage pack and can be used in combination with the flash unit's built-in power supply to provide fast flash charging for an extended number of shots. The head is can be rotated by 180° for increased versatility.
• This page lists all accessories of the E420.

Infrared photography with the Olympus E420

• Echeng.com: Digital infrared photography - site devoted to digital infrared photography with image galleries, information about filters and equipment and links.
• Wrotniak's Infrared Photography page - excellent information resource devoted to infrared photography with Olympus cameras. Information about infrared filters, exposure settings, focus, post-processing, sample images and links.
• Also see the Infrared photography page of the Apogee magazine: this is an interesting general introduction to infrared photography with digital cameras.

Lenses

• Wide angle and Fisheye

• Standard zooms

• Superzooms

• Telephoto zooms

• Prime lenses (fixed focal length)

• Extension tubes, teleconverters and adapters

• Photozone.de have detailed and accurate reviews of four thirds lenses.

• Firmware updates for Olympus Four Thirds and the Leica D Summilux lenses are available on this page.
  
• How good are the kit lenses? John Foster has done an interesting review comparing the Zuiko 14-42, 14-45 and 14-54 lenses. The review was done with the 10MP Olympus E400 DSLR and shows better results with the pro Zuiko 14-54 lens.
• Here are two tests of the Zuiko Digital 7-14 mm F4 lens, one performed by Andrzej Wrotniak and one by John Foster. The one by Andrzej Wrotniak is a bit more scientific, with physics formulas and resolution charts, while the one of John Foster is more from a user perspective and contains many sample images.

External flash

• The Olympus E420 has a standard flash hotshoe and can take standard external flashes (among others the FL-20, FL-36 and FL-50).
• Try out the Metz flash units - cheap and reliable. Alternatively try the FL-36 or other Olympus flash units.
  
• See here for how to measure the trigger voltage of your flash.

Controlling the Olympus E420 with a computer

• You can use Olympus Studio 1.5 to control the Olympus E420 with a computer.
 

Underwater Photography

• Olympus is currently not offering an underwater case specific to the E-420, but the PT-E03 underwater housing for the E400 and E410 might fit. Policarbonate, waterproof up to 40m, takes the FL-36 TTLflash with the PFL-01 & PFL-E01 flash housing. Five interchangeable lens ports allow the optional use of the Olympus 14-45mm, 14-42mm, 11-22mm or 14-54mm, 7-14mm, 8mm Fisheye and the 35mm as well as the 50mm Macro lens.
• Olympus also offer several lens ports needed to use the Zuiko lenses underwater. There are lens ports for the 14-45, 14-54, 50mm, 7-14, 14-42 and for the E-14 teleconverter as well as other accessories needed when using the camera underwater.
• The site Digideep.com is an online directory for digital underwater photography.
• Interesting forum for underwater photography: DigitalDiver.net

Data recovery

• Jpegdump, by Kurt Stege, is a free tool to recover deleted images from a memory card. Recommended, alough it involves more work an e tool of Convar.
  
• These software tools are not free, so since Convar's software is available for free, there is no real need to use them:
  
• Datarescue also has a software tool (Photorescue) for repairing damaged memory cards, although it's not free.
• Photorecovery is another tool. Price is $39.95.

Noise reduction

• In addition to the E420's inbuilt noise reduction, you can post-process the images with NeatImage. This software package produces surprisingly good results.
• Here there is a comparison of different noise reduction software tools.

Exposure information data (EXIF)

• The picture files of the Olympus E420 contain the complete exposure information (aperture, exposure time, focal leng, white balance etc.).
• To read this data you can use these software tools:
• ExifReader, by Ryuuji Yoshimoto. Haven't tried the software myself, but it looks interesting. Freeware.
• Exif Image Viewer, by Michal Kowalski. This is the one I'm using. Quoting from his homepage:

"EXIF viewer is a simple image viewer application for photos taken with digital cameras. It's capable of reading EXIF information embedded in photos as well as little thumbnail. Because small thumbnail is already present in most photos displaying it is really fast.
EXIF viewer can also provide detailed information about photos (shutter speed, aperture, etc.) and conveniently list them for comparison purposes.
EXIF viewer also displays image histogram. It also features copying/moving and deleting of selected photos. Single photograph can be displayed in separate window or in a full screen mode."
• Exifer, by Friedemann Schmidt. I'm using this one too. It can rewrite EXIF data to images which lost it due to processing with a software package which doesn't support EXIF. Quoting from his site:

"Exifer is a nearly free software (you only should send me a postcard if you're using Exifer frequently) with which you can manage the metadata (EXIF/IPTC) of pictures taken by digital cameras. Because many image processing software destroys this metadata when saving such files, the idea was to create a backup of the metadata before editing it in any software, and then, after that to restore it back into the processed file. With Exifer you can do this very easily. "

Panorama shots

• Personally I can recommend PTGUI (which I have been using for years now): not free but an excellent piece of software.
  
• Some interesting links:
• http://www.skipwilliams.com/panos/panorama_links.htm
• http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/tutorials/360/calibrate/
• http://www.johnhpanos.com/pttute.htm
• Tripod specific for panoramas: http://www.kaidan.com/

Questions ? Comments ? Put them in the Olympus E420 user group

Astrophotography with the Olympus E420

• Here is an astrophotography forum for users of the Olympus DSLRs
  
• Astrophotography users's group here
• This may be also a good source.

Links

• MyOlympus.org photo sharing site: here Olympus E420 users can upload images and give/get feedback
• Yahoo Olympus E420 discussion group: a discussion group dedicated to e Olympus E420 digital camera