Olympus D-510 Zoom

You can playback captured images by pressing the MONITOR button when the lens barrier is closed or when in record mode you can quickly push the MONITOR button twice to enter the quick review mode. You will see a screen like this with the image quality (SHQ), date and file number displayed.

In the playback menu you can enable the INFO option to display the information shown above which includes the quality (SHQ), image size (1600 x 1200), the ISO speed (100), the file folder and file number and the date.

Press the zoom lens control to the wideangle position toggles the index playback mode. In the menu you can select the number of images to display per screen. Using the 4-way jog control you can select a picture to display, delete, mark for DPOF printing or protect or unprotect.

Pressing the zoom control to the telephoto position will enlarge the image on the screen. There are several magnifications available from 1.5x to 3x. Once the image is enlarged you can scroll around inside of it using the 4-way jog control.

Movie clips can be played back on the LCD screen. On the bottom is the running time and total time (2 secs / 15 secs).

Pressing the MENU button while in playback mode brings up this screen of options.

PLAY movie file or

Automatic Playback (slideshow mode for still images)

ROTATE - Rotate portrait mode images 90 or -90 degrees

Print Reserve - DPOF printing information (Off, Date, Time)

INFO - Select whether or not to include image information

EDIT - Color mode: b&w or sepia or reduce the image size

CARD - Erase All or Format SM card

Index Display - Select 4, 9 or 16 images per page for Index mode

Clear Settings - Remember settings when powered off

Beep Sound - Enable or disable beep sound when button is pushed

Date/Time - Set internal clock

LCD Adjust - Adjust brightness of LCD display

Steve's Conclusion

The D-510 Zoom can capture up to 1600 x 1200 size images in JPEG or TIFF format as well as 320 x 240 QuickTime motion video clips at 15fps. Up to 15 seconds can be captured at HQ (320 x 240) resolution or up to 66 seconds if using the 160 x 120 email mode. Also new is the USB Auto Connect feature which when used with the newest OS like Windows ME needs no drivers at all to download images to the host computer.

No camera is better than its lens and the D-510 Zoom uses a fast F2.8 all-glass 3x optical zoom with a focal length of 35-105mm (35mm equivalent). There is also a seamless 7.5x digital zoom feature to further extend the zoom's range. The builtin popup flash comes up as soon as you open the lens barrier and fires when needed if in the default "auto" mode. It has the usual fill and redeye reduction modes but it also has a front curtain slow snyc and a redeye plus front curtain slow sync mode.

Like all the other Olympus cameras we have reviewed in the last year, the D-510 employs the TTL digital iESP metering with spot option and an excellent white balance system that consistently produces realistic colors in a wide variety of normal lighting conditions. By default the ISO sensitivity is set for auto and will be varied between 100 and 200 as necessary. The user can also fix the ISO speed at 100, 200 or 400.

Even though this is a relatively inexpensive camera it is equipped with a sizeable RAM buffer that allows for up to 5 frames in JPEG at SHQ, 16 frames in HQ and up to 86 frames in SQ mode to be captured in sequential drive mode. There are lots of other high-tech features in this easy to use camera so it will please even those that like to play with settings other than fully automatic. It accepts any size SmartMedia card right up to the latest 128MB size. Battery power is flexible, use the power of NiMH type AA cells or alkaline or use two of the Olympus CR-V3 lithium batteries that last forever when stored away in the gadget bag or left on the closet shelf.

I see Olympus selling a ton of these cameras, they're reasonably priced, loaded with features, produce excellent picures, small enough to slip into your pants pocket and most important - they're incredibly easy to operate.