Design

Olympus E620 Review – Design

The body of the Olympus E-620 is perhaps best described as an amalgamation of the E-420, E-520 and E-30. The hinge adjoining the vari-angle LCD screen has displaced the menu, info, play and delete buttons from the former two’s template, though their basic structure has remained. A four-way menu pad is twinned with metering, AF, white balance and ISO controls, with these joined by separate buttons for image stabilisation and live view.

The E620’s focusing points may be changed quickly via the dedicated button positioned by the thumb-rest, while the function button beside this may be assigned an option for quick access. The gloss finish of the E-520’s buttons has been replaced with a matt one on the E-620, though the buttons seem a touch smaller and with less travel; on such a small body this makes an already tricky job that little bit harder. Olympus does redeem itself somewhat by backlighting the buttons on the rear of the body; when you’re shooting in low light this is nothing short of a godsend.

Olympus E620 Review – Size matters

As regards the grip, the Olympus E620 sees a slight beefing up of the E-420’s, though it still feels a little lacking in comparison with the E-520’s, particularly when a heavier lens is mounted. This does have the advantage of a smaller footprint, however, and with the 25mm pancake lens the model may easily be slipped inside a roomy coat pocket – something not many DSLRs may lay claim to.

I’m pleased to see that Olympus has logically opted to place the strap eyelets on the top-plate (like on the E-520) as opposed to the front of the camera (as on the E-420), just as I am that the memory card door may now be slid open, rather than previously needing to be opened via an uncomfortably small groove.

Olympus E620 Review – Different viewfinder

While the Olympus E620 provides a 95% coverage viewfinder (as did its predecessors), its magnification has increased from 0.92x on the E-420/E-520 to 0.96x on the E-620. Clearly this is good in that it gives the new model a slightly larger view of the scene, but the exposure information within it is no longer along its right-hand side, instead lining the bottom. This makes the view ‘taller’, and, consequently, a little harder to see both exposure information and the full scene at the same time than it is on the E-520.