
The E620 is my first DSLR and I have no regrets in buying it. Before this camera, I primarily used point-n-shoot cameras which I feel are great for casual events do to the portability and ease of just taking it out of my pockets and shooting away. However I wanted an upgrade to use for more special gatherings such as graduations, weddings, family functions, or vacations. I wouldn't say that the pictures I was taking with my point-n-shoot were bad, but they were definitely a step below photos taken from my friends DSLRs. The most imporant features for me were 1) size, 2) price, 3) live-view screen, and 4) quality of pictures with the included lenses. With those factors in mind, I narrowed my choice down to the Nikon D5000, Canon T1i, and Olympus E620
1) Getting used to small pocket point-n-shoot camers, I wanted a DSLR that was also small and light weight. I knew that there was no way I'd be able to fit the DSLR into my jacket pocket or anything like that, but I at least wanted something that was going to be easy to carry around and easy to take in and out of the bag. I've seen people who carried what looked like 10-15 pound bags of camera gear and this is what I wanted to avoid. The E620 is probably one of the most compact DSLRs out there. I went to the local store and compared the E620 with the Nikon D5000 and Canon T1i. It wasn't clearly the smallest camera since the Canon seemed pretty compact too, but when holding the camera, the build quality of the Olympus felt like it was a better assembled camera. The buttons, dials, and switches all felt like they were carefully put together and would last many years of use.
2) The price of the E620 was about a $100 less then the Nikon and Canon. This was a pretty big factor for me since I knew I also had to spend money on a bag, storage device, lens/camera cleaners, simple lens filter, possibly an extra battery. My budget for the entire package was about $800. I didn't want to get low quality accessaries like a $5 camera bag or the generic storage device, since I knew that my bag was going to help protect the camera from any accidental drops and the difference between a failed flash card and a one that didn't fail is almost priceless. The accessaries I wanted to get was about $100 street value, which was perfect since that was about the same amount of money saved from buying an Olympus compared to the Nikon or Canon.
3) Being used to point-n-shoot cameras, I really wanted a DSLR with a good live view screen. Before doing more research into the DSLRs, I used to think that live-view was standard on all DSLRS. They all had lcd screens which I thought was for the users to see what s/he was taking a photo of. However this is not the case and live-view is a relatively new feature on DSLRs. Apparently most DSLR users use the view-finder which I find to be slightly annoying. The E620 easily and acurrately focused on the subjects when using live view and this made it a very easy transition to use the E620. Now I just need to play around more with the manual controls and have my photos coming out the way I want them too. As an added bonus, the E620 offers a swivel screen. This is great when you need to raise the camera above your head to take a picture since you can easily swivel the screen so you can see what you are taking a picture of. Its also very useful when you need to take a picture from the ground up.
4) Lenses are the most important part of a DSLR camera. Even after a few years when a camera depreciates, a good lens can hold its value fairly well. Many times buying an extra lens will cost more then the camera itself! Since price was a concern for me I wanted a camera that came with decent lenses. I didn't want to spend an extra $500 on another lens. After reading many reviews, it was determined that the Olympus came with very qualified kit lenses that were quick to focus and took sharp looking photos. I understand that a more expensive lens should produce better results, but many times I always felt that my point-n-shoot cameras took really good photographs already, so there's a good chance that I'll might not even be able to tell the difference between the a good picture and a great picture. And again, I'm just a casual camera user and wouldn't even consider myself a hobbiest or an amateur photographer. So I think kit lenses will be enough for my needs.
I've owned my camera for about 6 months now and I must say that I'm still very pleased with it and that I'm slowly learing more and more about photography and how to take better pictures. This camera fit perfectly for my needs and happens to also take very good photos. For those of you trying to decide between the Nikon, Canon, or Olympus, you really can't go wrong with any of them, but just know what your needs are and it'll be a much simpler choice. Get more detail about
Olympus Evolt E620 12.3MP Live MOS Digital SLR Camera with Image Stabilization and 2.7 inch Swivel LCD w/ 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Lens.