Is $300 a good deal for the Olympus E-20? Thoughts on this camera?

Question

I need a DSLR camera but am on a limited budget. I found someone with this camera for $300.

Olympus E-20 5MP 4x optical zoom w/ memory card, remote, camera bag, usb cord for $300.

Answer 1

Well, hard to tell.

E-20 is out of production for so long, that you really should check it's condition and shape. The price will depend fully on how well kept it is.

I bought my E-10 (very similar camera, just with 4mp) back in 2002 for nearly $1000 and it was a great deal then (regularly $1200 back then). E-20 was even more money..

A few thoughts on the camera from someone who used it's small brother for 5+ years, but switched to Nikon SLR now in no particular order:

1. The lens is fixed, but it's quality is simply AMAZING! At f/2.0 and 35-140 equivalent with nearly no distortions through the whole range and tack sharp even wide open - you would be looking to pay thousands of dollars just for the equivalent piece of glass if it ever existed for interchangeable lens cameras. And if you know a bit about photography, you probably know that high quality glass is one of the most important things to have on a camera. I'd even argue it's THE most important thing.

2. Speed simply horrible. This camera was designed when memory was expensive (remember buying my first CF cards for that camera, it was $100 for 255mb). So it only has 4 frames buffer and card writing speed is snail-slow.

3. Viewfinder not as bright, due to prism light split, and lacking focusing screen, but otherwise pretty good.

4. It's heavy.

5. The sensor is only slightly bigger than most point&shoot cameras. Pretty much useless it ISO 360 (highest it can go), but at ISO 80 (lowest) the clarity and sharpness is amazing due to high quality optics. Also because of it's very fast lens, lack of ISO performance is well compensated by the lens speed.

6. Nobody believes that several 11x14 prints I have on my walls came from a 4mp camera :/

7. It sits solidly in the hands, and very well ergonomically designed. All buttons are just where you expect them to be!

8. Autofocus can be slowish sometimes, especially in dim light.

9. Accessories used to be expensive. Though today you may get them used at well discounted prices, I guess.

Overall - I think it's a great camera, beats most modern p&s hands down, but it's yesterdays technology as far as SLR world is concerned. For only $150 more you can have a modern, lighter and much much faster SLR, albeit with a basic lens that is not nearly the quality of E-20's...

So basically here you have to make a choice similar to "should I buy a used 2000 Mercedes or a brand new 2009 Toyota for about 50% more money". Because this is where you stand now. A very solid and high quality but old technology and well used camera, or a basic modern SLR that is still a great camera, still an order of magnitude better than any p&s, but probably not as great by todays standard as E-20 was back in its days as compared to what was on a market at the time.

LEM.