Olympus E-420

portability, lens, usability, image quality, price

shutter, zoom, reliability

97% of the reviews on Amazon.co.uk give this product a positive rating.

performance, portability, usability, price, image quality

stabilizer

96% of the reviews on Amazon.com give this product a positive rating.

Very compact and lightweight digital SLR, especially when combined with the 25mm pancake lens Comfortable to hold despite the lack of a 'real' grip Control panel display allows quick access to most important shooting parameters Generally snappy...

LCD could be a little brighter for outdoor shooting with live view and is prone to smearing LCD turns monochrome and noisy in low light Auto white balance and presets not brilliant (but there is a white balance fine tune option) Image parameters only...

Olympus claims the E-420 is the smallest and lightest (only its predecessor is a few grams lighter) DSLR on the market and there is no doubt that this is true. The E-420 - especially in combination with the new 25mm F2.8 pancake lens - makes an...

Light weight and small size make it far more portable than most DSLRs. Live view lets you compose on-screen instead of peering through the viewfinder. Speedy autofocus. No discernible shutter lag. Paging all photo geeks: RAW format support

Fewer buttons means it takes more menu-surfing to adjust basic settings like ISO and white balance. Face-detection feature can be slow. Four Thirds lens compatibility is largely moot, as no manufacturers beside Olympus and pricey Sigma support the...

10 megapixel resolution2.7 inch HyperCrystal II 230,000 dot LCDBuilt-in dust reductionLive View and Face Detect autofocus

small viewfinder

The Olympus E-420 Digital SLR is the world's smallest DSLR camera...

When Olympus first introduced the E-400, with the E-410 following not much later, they showed for the first time just how compact a DSLR camera from a FourThirds system can be. The design appealed to me immediately, and although I was prejudiced,...

From close examination of the Olympus E-420 it's fair to say that owners of the previous E-410 have little to feel threatened by. Doppelganger control layout aside, operationally too the E-420 delivers a performance that's nigh on identical, though if...

Pocketable size (particularly with 25mm pancake lens) ; great walk-around camera, 11-point contrast-detect autofocus in Live View (but slow, and works with only a few lenses), Digital-specific lens line offers advantage in edge-to-edge sharpness,...

Small grip can make it difficult to comfortably handle camera ; becomes much more pronounced when long lenses are applied, Shutter lag in Live View (can reach at much as 2.6 seconds), LCD show odd metallic-like sheen in bright daylight, can be...

Very good photo quality ; Good value -- starts at $500, body only ; World's smallest D-SLR; excellent build quality ; Dust reduction system ; Live view with contrast detect AF and face detection (with some lenses) on a 2.7" LCD display ; Full manual...

Photos are slightly soft; noise reduction a bit heavy at ISO 1600 (shoot RAW to avoid) ; Slow contrast detect AF, unimpressive face detection in live view mode; both features only available with a select few lenses ; Low light focusing could be better...

If you're looking for a compact digital SLR, then the Olympus E-420 is absolutely worth a look. Heck, it's worth checking out if you don't care about the size of the camera and just want a good entry-level SLR. The only real caveats here involve the...