Refurbished E620 arrived today

I purchased a refurbished E620 on e-bay via Cameta Camera last friday around 2:30 pm and it arrived tuesday at 2:30pm, this was my first experience with company and so far it's very good. The camera was advertised as a Olympus factory demo and that's what it said on Oly's refurbished style box when it arrived, although the seal had been broken prior to arrival. I paid $426.01 us not bad but others have done better (350), I accessed the service menu to find 11 shutter actuation, 4 flash fires, 0 Mirror lock up, 18 times it was turned on to activate SSW.

I have slapped the 50 f.2 on and it's weight seems to be about the same as my 510 with a lens, I love the swivel screen but the smaller grip does seem to make this camera feel tiny. I have very large hands and I think I would like the feel of a bigger camera (E5) better. I'm off to get some shooting in and I will report back latter with some shots, praises, and faults. Like anyone cares!

Oh, the battery came fully charged.
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And now for something totally different
Tim

Congratulations! Good choice.

My E-620 and 50mm/f2 lens is my favorite combo. Love that lens - and the camera is GREAT!

Looking forward to seeing your pics.

Maria
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Tim,

Good choice. You may want to consider the HLD-5 grip for your E-620. It helps considerably with balance, etc. especially if you have large hands.

BigScooter said:

BigScooter said:

Bill Turner

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Thanks for the information. I have been seeing lots of e620 posted by cameta on ebay. I was not sure about the condition of the item(actually credibility of cameta). Now I have bit more confidence if I am buying from them.
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Antony Vance

I have 10 DSLRs in my camera cabinet (8 of them are Olympus) and 6 of them came from Cameta...

Whenever Im looking for a camera, Cameta is the FIRST place I look.

Over the last 5 years, they have been courteous, prompt, and sold things at the advertised price.

I think the 620 is the best over-all bargain in an entry level DSLR.

(I just bought a second one to have back-up.)
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Larry Lynch
Mystic, Connecticut

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.
Oscar Wilde

I spent all day yesterday with camera set up from Wrotniak and Biofos.com and just took a few pics around the house, but nothing worth posting. I can say I really like the features on this camera and if you are thinking of one, here they are-

LCD is great

lighted buttons are a nice feature

and the menu is extensive

the info in the bottom of the view finder is nice - I never got used to it on the side on the 510

the view finder seems just a touch better than the 510

as for the photos, I haven't master that yet. I took some this morning but forget to switch the eyepeice to the +3.0 I use on the 510, plus I can't use ACR unless I upgrade tp CS4 and I don't like using Master for PP. I took a couple of shots today at ISO 100-200 that were blured but the noise levels were good in the dark areas, but shots at ISO 400 - 800 had a lot of noise in the dark areas and just looked terrible.

This camera is going to be a lot different than the 510 as far as noise filters etc. I may just reset everything to the factory defaults and start over.
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And now for something totally different
Tim

The "noise" you are seeing is probably caused by the "gradation" setting (it defaults to "Auto") it needs to be "Normal" most of the time.

Menu 1 "Gradation" right to selection pick "normal" set by pressing "OK".

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Larry Lynch
Mystic, Connecticut

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.
Oscar Wilde

Another thread I'll be watching with interest up to Christmas - my E620 is wrapped up .
Phill D

Phill D said:

Another thread I'll be watching with interest up to Christmas - my E620 is wrapped up .
Phill D

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I hope you unwrap it in time to get some Christmas morning shots...

I have here the:

E-1
E-300
E-510
E-520
E-620..

The E-1 (of course) is a "breed apart" but the E-620 is what I consider to be the "best possible Entry Level Camera" (from all brands)..

I like it enough that I bought a second one to "back-up" the one I had.

It has its faults, but none of them are radical enough that they cause it to fail as a good camera.

The list of things it doesnt do well is short:

1. High ISO is just OK up to 800 if properly exposed
2. Low light focus is slow

The list of options, settings and things it does do well to too long to bother to type.
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Larry Lynch
Mystic, Connecticut

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.
Oscar Wilde

herebefore said:

The "noise" you are seeing is probably caused by the "gradation" setting (it defaults to "Auto") it needs to be "Normal" most of the time.

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Interesting ... can only guess that maybe the earlier E-620's the default for Gradation was Auto, or the exposure mode being used has the Gradation setting at Auto?

Have the E-620 and the default for Gradation is "Normal" with the P, A, S, & M exposure modes, and in the E-620 (English) Instruction Manual on page 137, Normal is noted as the "Factory default setting".

I did notice in the Instruction Manual (page 39) that with the "Face Detect" mode, the Gradation setting is Auto. Do not used nor have I read about the other modes so at this time not aware if other modes use the Gradation setting at Auto.

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Jon_T said:

Have the E-620 and the default for Gradation is "Normal" with the P, A, S, & M exposure modes, and in the E-620 (English) Instruction Manual on page 137, Normal is noted as the "Factory default setting".

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In both my E-620's manuals the gradation options are listed on page 137, but no default setting is mentioned. Default gradation setting on both my E-620s was however "Auto." They must have changed the manual after hearing constant complaints about noise with the Auto Gradation setting.

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http://photography-by-thomas.blogspot.com/

TheEye said:

In both my E-620's manuals the gradation options are listed on page 137, but no default setting is mentioned. ...

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Just curious ... in your E-620 manuals on page 137 at bottom of the "Shooting Menu" table, does it have "* Factory default setting"?

In the table any of the settings noted with an * is the Factory default setting. This has been a standard notation method used in Olympus manuals/documentation for a long time.

BTW I purchase the E-620 late Dec 2009 from B&H for a little more than $100 less than B&H's current $599.95 price.

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Jon_T said:

Jon_T said:

In both my E-620's manuals the gradation options are listed on page 137, but no default setting is mentioned. ...

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Just curious ... in your E-620 manuals on page 137 at bottom of the "Shooting Menu" table, does it have "* Factory default setting"?

In the table any of the settings noted with an * is the Factory default setting. This has been a standard notation method used in Olympus manuals/documentation for a long time.

BTW I purchase the E-620 late Dec 2009 from B&H for a little more than $100 less than B&H's current $599.95 price.

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You are absolutely correct. I didn't notice the asterisk. "Normal" is indeed the factory setting. However, both my E-620s came from the factory with Auto Gradation activated. I had to turn it off, which I promptly did.

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http://photography-by-thomas.blogspot.com/

Someone said that once you use live-view face-detect the dang thing resets gradation to "auto".
I haven't experienced this, just saying ... watch it like a hawk!

Ulfric M Douglas said:

Someone said that once you use live-view face-detect the dang thing resets gradation to "auto".
I haven't experienced this, just saying ... watch it like a hawk!

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Correct, face detection will activate auto gradation. Only Oly knows why. I never use face detection (Would want eye detection!), so I never run into the accidental auto gradation bug feature.
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http://photography-by-thomas.blogspot.com/

I really have used the new camera lightly, but so far I haven't gotten a good results which makes me feel like I'm under the gun to hurry up and return it before my 14 days expire. I shoot RAW and this may be my problem but I feel the overall IQ of my 510 was much better and I'll post some shots here and ask for your help.

I have set the ISO at 200, gradiation at normal, NR to on, and NF off (I am currently going to try low) but I understand that none of these even work until the Jpg conversion and that's why I like my 510 better (so far), these shots are just really noisy form my liking, so I guess my next test will be to shoot only Jpg.

These shots are dark and they all are taken with the 50 f2, the last is from my 510 and is what I would like to get from the 620 plus more.





















Please let me know if my thinking is correct and if I'm headed in the right direction
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And now for something totally different
Tim

BigScooter said:

BigScooter wrote:

...the last is from my 510 and is what I would like to get from the 620 plus more.

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Unfortunately not going to happen without using some type of noise reduction software; the E-620 (& E-30) are nosier than the E-510.

I also have E-510 and noticed that under "similar" lighting conditions and same ISO the increased noise in E-620 images. Have not yet had the time to do a side-by-side comparison of the E-510 and E-620.

The E-620 and E-30 noise have been discussed in several previous topics; e.g.,
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=37045558

So I generally use Neat Image to reduce noise and sharpen. However I noticed that with the increased noise, the E-620 images usually retain a little more detail than the E-510.

If you have not read, Wrotniak did a article on the E-20 noise and taken a complete series of photos of the different combinations of ISO, NF, and Sharpness settings:
http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/43/e620-samp-iso.html

Wrotniak also has a full technical review of E-620, a few other articles (Noise Filtering and Sharpness in the E-620) on the main page of his "The Olympus E-System":
http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/43/index.html

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Thanks for the links and info, I have read most of Wrontiak's pages but I am still not a great fan of this camera, but I hope it will grow on me. I was suprised that you think the 620 retains more detail, I find the focus very soft and detail is lost by adding NF but I haven't owned it long enough, just first impressions.
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And now for something totally different
Tim

BigScooter said:

I shoot RAW and this may be my problem but I feel the overall IQ of my 510 was much better and I'll post some shots here and ask for your help.

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What are you using to process the RAW images? If you're using Olympus Master or Viewer and don't change the defaults, you'll get essentially the same images as you would for out-of-the-camera (OOC) JPEGs.

The first shot looks like it's blurred because of the slow shutter speed - was it handheld? If so, bumping the ISO up to 400 would probably have helped a lot.

The second shot isn't very sharp - maybe focus was missed? Also, I would probably have shot this at ISO 100 - not too much in the way of highlights to clip, and you would've had less noise in the shadows.

It looks like the camera performed pretty well in the third shot. I think it would have been better with a lot more depth-of-field, but it looks like you chose an aperture of f/2. In fact, it looks like you had your camera in aperture priority mode and f/2 for all of these shots - why?

Note that your E-510 shot was at ISO 100, whereas all of your E-620 shots were at ISO 200. Higher ISO means more noise. With the E-620, ISO 200 also means fewer blown highlights. Your E-620 at ISO 100 will be very similar to your E-510 at ISO 100.

Learn a bit more about the camera, and I think you'll find you can get shots at least as good as your E-510.

I have large hands too and the e-620, I got the battery grip and it is perfect now. I even got the knock off version Rokinon grip from overstock.com. Came with a remote and works great.
I have shot entire day events with just two batteries in the grip.
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Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?... Sun Tzu
http://www.awaitedmoments.smugmug.com