Olympus Olympus E-520

The E-520 also incorporates some entry-level features appropriate for SLR beginners. The large, easy-to-read dial at the top includes scene selections that are clearly labeled: portrait, landscape, macro, sports, and night portrait. You can also go with shutter or aperture priority mode, as well as auto or manual mode. The back of the camera has buttons dedicated to ISO, white balance, and exposure/focus lock.

The camera's Low Key and High Key settings, accessed through the menu, have their place and function reasonably well, but in my tests they worked best outdoors. The High Key setting is meant for scenes that are bright overall, such as a beach or snow environment, or other scenes where most of the subjects are light in color or well lit. The Low Key setting, similarly, is for scenes that feature predominantly dark items. I found that both settings brought out additional midtone detail and kept extreme darks and lights from going flat.

This model received an overall image-quality score of Very Good in the PC World Test Center's digital camera tests, although many competitors outscored the E-520, particularly on our exposure tests.

In my field tests, the camera sometimes took incredible shots, especially outdoors, at low ISOs (400 and below). The E-520 cranked out saturated but not unnatural-looking landscapes. Its autofocus was quick and accurate. Some of my RAW and JPEG images taken outdoors were incredibly sharp, some of the sharpest (yet not oversharpened) pictures I've ever seen from a camera in this class. Regrettably, the image quality falls off dramatically at higher ISOs, and the performance of the live-view screen also declines, losing saturation and sharpness.

Indoor shots taken above ISO 400 were often muddy and sometimes showed banding in darker areas of the scene. In low light, I also discovered that, even with the AF assist lamp, the lens hunted--and hunted--for focus.

Some cameras in this class are still priced quite a bit higher, and do some things better--such as handling noise at higher ISOs--but as an entry-level DSLR, the Olympus E-520 offers decent performance and consistently good results with outdoor shooting. It gives novices lots of features to grow into, as well.