Olympus E-410

From what I've noticed, a good majority of people who are used to the live preview advantage of a compact camera, cringe when they hear that most D-SLR cameras require you to use the optical viewfinder. They also hate the fact that you can't shoot video from it, but that's another story. The point is, a live preview mode in D-SLRs has been in the works (and even successfully implemented) for a while now because that would be the best way to bridge a casual user to a semi-professional camera.

We here have just encountered our first D-SLR with live preview - the 10 megapixel Olympus E-410. We just can't wait to find out how well its live preview works... among other things of course.

Build & Features
Anyone who's hated D-SLR cameras for their bulky nature is in for a treat here. At 130 x 91 x 53 mm its just about as big as a superzoom and the 435g weight of the body is quite light too. But the size seems to come at a price. The first thing I noticed was the missing auto-focus/manual-focus switch. I actually did spend a while scoping out the camera body for a switch placed probably at a not-so-obvious location, but it just wasn't there. Then I noticed that I had an option to change my focus options by going through the menu, which is by-far the most inconvenient way to do it.

The camera has just a single display screen, which is the 2.5 inch LCD display at the back, which also doubles up as a digital viewfinder (the camera's USP). When you're not using the screen for live preview, you get a list of all your current settings, as in most D-SLRs. When you're looking through the optical viewfinder, there's another basic display on the right, which gives you all your basic information regarding the exposure settings, the kind of focus you're using, white balance and flash.

It's good to have a big screen on your D-SLR, but since that's the only display you'll really have for quick reference, I believe it should have had a tilt-n-swivel function. Not only will that function fill in for the lack of a top digital display but also make better use of the live preview mode.

On the top, you have a wheel to select the shooting mode, which consists of the basic scene modes like portrait, landscape, macro, etc., along with a separate scene mode that has more options like high-key, low-key, candle, sunset and fireworks to name a few. Every mode comes with a good description about the situations it would be best for.