Olympus E-420 First Look

I always admired the Olympus OM-2 when I first got into into photography in the late 1970s. I could not afford one then, but I gravitated to the smaller, light weight SLR cameras represented by the OM-1 and OM-2. I decided on a camera I could afford, the Fujica ST-605, which was introduced in 1977 and designed along the same compact pattern as the OM-1. When it came time to look for a digital SLR camera, I was impressed by the compact Olympus E-410. I decided on the E-510 because the 410 lacked image stabilization and a few other features. It was aimed at a less serious photographer, although a fine camera in the hands of anyone. At the time, I thought this would make a wonderful "street photography" camera if it had small fixed focal length lens available, especially a thin "pancake" lens.

Olympus has answered our prayers with the E-420. An upgrade of the E-410 with a 25mm f/2.8 pancake lens. The first pictures are out. The pancake looks nice, very much like the lenses Pentax is well known for. I would prefer a similar lens with a wider focal length, about 17mm, which would give an effective field of view of a 35mm lens on a 35mm format camera. This would be the ideal street photography lens in my view. At f/2.8, the lens is fast enough to be useful in evening or available light while avoiding some of the image quality problems faster lenses can introduce (such as poor bokeh). I also love the simple, symmetrical lens designs like the Tessar. These lenses often make up in bokeh for what anything they lose in sharpness.