dslr.ws

There’s a new E-410 firmware and a new E-510 firmware posted at the Olympus web site.

The new firmwares for both cameras improve the CompactFlash write performance. The E-410 update also improves the white balance preview accuracy when you’re using Live View, and fixes a problem that caused the filename numbering to get reset when you delete an image. I guess those issues didn’t affect the E-510? Either way, both sound like valuable firmware updates to get — at least, if you have one of those cameras — so go get ‘em!

vnunet.com has posted a new review of the Olympus E-410 DSLR. It’s short, just 8 paragraphs, so you might just want to click over and read the whole review.

If not, the summary is that they like the camera, calling it a “great camera” for a first time DSLR buyer. They seem especially happy about the much improved high ISO noise characteristics compared with the Olympus E-400:

When we tested the original E-400, we noticed noise starting to creep into pictures taken at upwards of ISO200, which would be poor quality on a compact camera, let alone a digital SLR. This was because Olympus had crammed 10 megapixels onto what was a relatively small sensor. That’s not the case here: happily the user can now bump light sensitivity up to a maximum of ISO1600 before substantial noise starts to appear.