This Camera Has A Real Edge

So don't be surprised if every real estate agent or insurance adjuster begins to pine for their inner Ansel Adams, not to mention save money by moving their photography needs in-house in greater numbers. The choice is up to each solution provider whether they wish to spend time talking to customers about choices in cameras and photo technology. We see a clear opportunity there.

As a trusted local adviser there may be few, better opportunities to build a personal level of trust with a customer than recommending devices like smartphones or cameras. On this point, the Test Center has taken a good look at the Olympus E-420 digital camera. Not only can we recommend the E-420 as a solid, midrange SLR choice for many solutions, we came away convinced the segment itself is ripe for VAR opportunities in either commercial or retail channels.

The E-420 itself, which maintains street pricing in the $450 to $500 range (Olympus' estimated retail price is $549), is built at a size of 5.1 by 3.6 by 2.1 inches and weighs in at 13.4 ounces. Olympus has engineered the camera to offer a comfortable fit.

It's not a point-and-shoot; it's a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR). Its features and performance do more than enough to justify the price point. While the manufacturer bills it as the world's smallest DSLR, we have no way of verifying that claim. What we can verify is that it's a powerful camera, simple enough for the photo-illiterate but robust enough for the more advanced.

The Test Center looked at the E-420 to gauge for three basic traits: Could it fit significant business needs, could it perform well enough for those companies that sought to bring more marketing and design work in-house, and could it get the job done without a lot of follow-up intervention from a solution provider. We found the E-420 scored top marks on all three counts.

The E-420 provides 10 megapixels, a 14-42mm lens, both viewfinder and LCD view, easy aperture control with an open-aperture metering system, 15 levels each of brightness and color control, and its shutter can shoot between three and four frames per second (the specifications say 3.5). We used it for both outdoor action photos, as well as indoor product portraits over the span of a few days and found it to be both intuitive and robust. In particular, taking clear photos of moving objects outdoors—ranging from moving traffic to a skateboarder—was easy. The camera really did all the work.

The E-420 is engineered to provide autofocus, with live view as well as face detection. When shooting still images indoors, that meant a slight delay as the camera paused to adjust the lens, focus and take the shot. Outdoor, in brighter light, this was not a big problem.

Another feature we liked was the camera's ability to shoot photos of documents. While not as clear as digitally scanned documents, it could certainly work in a pinch (think of a sales or corporate representative in the field who seeks to photograph both a parcel of real estate and title and tax documents, to upload them back to a main office.) It's a nice multiuse function that enterprising solution providers could deliver to clients with specific mobility needs.

We found the li-ion battery included (along with the charger) to provide plenty of power for almost a full day of shooting. For our testing, Olympus provided a 2-GB, high-speed Type M+ xD picture card that slides in alongside the battery and was fine for our needs. The package also comes with USB and video connectors, which we didn't feel the need to use. (The card fit neatly into an Acer TravelMate 6293, which has an on-board media reader for that format.)

Olympus, with U.S. headquarters in Center Valley, Pa., provides the E-420 through retail channels; however, it does have a history of working with solution providers through education channels. Whether in a business relationship with Olympus, or not, guiding customers to an integrated photo and design solution could very well include the E-420 and should include photography hardware nonetheless. This particular camera displayed to the Test Center that on a price-function basis, as an edge and personal technology offering, solution providers can and in many cases should consider wading into these waters—and can do so with a minimum of pain or effort.