Oly E-520

[erniehatt]

Hi All,
I am in the process of upgrading the from the E-410 to the 520, anyone had any success with this one. The E-410 with noise even at ISO 100 was a big disappointment, for Digiscoping anyway. I am sticking with Olympus simply because I have a number of lenses and accessories to fit, not much point in starting over again, just too expensive.
Merry Christmas to all. Ernie

[SteveClifton]

Ernie, I have no experience using the E-520, but do have an E-510 (should have the same sensor as your camera) and am surprised you're finding noise to be a big problem even at ISO 100. Have you had it checked out? I was a little disappointed by it too, and some other users on BF suggested that I might have a faulty camera, but it isn't always noticeable and wouldn't say it was a huge problem, so just accepted that it was probably an inherent limitation of the system. I wouldn't think the E-520 would be much different, but perhaps will be a little better. Your best bet would be to ask on the Four Thirds Photo website. There are lots of friendly and helpful Olympus users on there who could better answer your query.

I have only just begun using my Olympus for digiscoping, but find my P&S is generally easier, though some of this might just be down to practice. The attached shot was taken last week hand held through my Swarovski 80mm scope. I think I was using the 30x wide angle at the time, but it could have been the zoom. Strangely, the best image I could get, with respect to no vignetting was using the 40-150 kit lens @ 40mm. There is very little noise here at ISO 200, though I have noticed it in some other photos, especially after sharpening. I would be interested in trying something like the 50mm f2 Macro, which is faster and sharper than the kit lenses. What lenses do you find best?

Noise levels at around ISO400 are a bit of a disappointment to me too, especially compared to some of the Canon/Nikon cameras, but I think there are other benefits to the Olympus system. Eventually I will upgrade to a better camera, assuming Olympus continue to invest in the development of newer SLRs. It sounds like the new E-30 is a substantial improvement in its high ISO performance, but the price is too high at the moment. I'm prepared to wait a couple of years for these improvements to trickle down to their cheaper cameras, as I only bought my E-510 this year.

Cheers, Steve

[erniehatt]

Thanks Steve, liked that image, my noise problem is with the E-410, the 520 will arrive today or tomorrow. With my scope, its setup with a 90 degree diagonal, so this makes it difficult to use the kit lenses, will have to change my adapter arrangment somehow. It works fine with Pano FZ50. Lenses I mainly use are old film type ones, that were left over from my Practica, plus one from a modern Pentax, lent to me by my Daughter-in-law. I have found the smaller focal lengths like 50mm don't work very well, much like closeup lenses than anything else. Ernie

[Neil]

Ernie,
You should be ok up to iso 400 , but 800 will show a bit of noise. You can it out with Noiseware easily though. I'm happy with the E420 although the Liveview implementation is not as good as the Nikon D90. I only have 7x and 10x digital zoom whereas the D90 has a continuous digital zoom and faster response when the subject moves.
The 25mm Pancake is a good digiscoping lens but the Nikon 20/2.8 is better.
Neil.

[erniehatt]

Ernie,
You should be ok up to iso 400 , but 800 will show a bit of noise. You can it out with Noiseware easily though. I'm happy with the E420 although the Liveview implementation is not as good as the Nikon D90. I only have 7x and 10x digital zoom whereas the D90 has a continuous digital zoom and faster response when the subject moves.
The 25mm Pancake is a good digiscoping lens but the Nikon 20/2.8 is better.
Neil.

Hi Neil,
thanks for the response, and the info, that sounds fine, I don't have a lot of use above 400 anyhow.
I looked at Canons and Nikons but follow up expenses would prove a bit to much. As I mentioned above I have all those lenses with adapters for the E-410, so it seemed practical to just upgrade the body. Still we will see how it performs.
Since the Williams scopes culmination went adrift, I have not done much digiscoping, the Skywatcher at 600mm proved a bit to big for my yard, but the Williams is now fixed, so will see what we can come up with after the holidays. I wish you and your good lady a Merry Xmas and New Year. Ernie