Olympus E-620 Performance

The E-620's timing performance ranged from a bit slow to reasonably fast, depending on the task.

Startup time was a bit slow for an SLR, due in part to the ultrasonic sensor cleaning that takes place during each power-up. Shutdown was very fast, hard to measure. Buffer clearing time depends on the image size and quality, burst length and the speed of memory card used.

Mode switching is fast, except for Record to Play, which is much slower than average.

In terms of the E-620's ability to determine that it's properly focused when shooting the same target multiple times, its speed is below average for a recent consumer SLR when using the optical viewfinder. The E-620 measured 0.298s in single-area AF mode at both wide-angle and telephoto. Continuous autofocus mode lag time was a bit slower at 0.324 second, and manual focus was slightly faster at about 0.290 second. When prefocused, shutter lag dropped to a very fast 0.073 second.

As expected, autofocus performance drops considerably in Live View mode. Full AF shutter lag in the default "Imager AF" (contrast-detect) mode is 2.7 seconds, much longer than even the slowest point & shoot digicam these days. Switching to "AF Sensor" (phase-detect) mode and holding down the AEL/AFL button while fully depressing the shutter release improved lag to 0.55 second, which is good for an SLR in Live View mode. Lag with "Hybrid AF" mode, which uses a combination of contrast-detect and phase-detect AF was 1.21 seconds, still very slow. Even prefocused, Live View shutter lag is a relatively pokey 0.33 second, independent of mode.

Single-shot cycle time performance is below average for an SLR, at about 0.8 second between shots in best JPEG quality mode, 0.9 second in RAW and almost 2 seconds in RAW + JPEG mode. Continuous mode is about average for an enthusiast model at about 3.92 frames per second in for JPEG and RAW modes, and 3.95 frames per second for RAW + JPEG mode. Buffer depths were quite shallow though, at only 5 frames for JPEGs or RAW, and 4 frames for JPEG + RAW. Flash recycling after a full power shot is 4.5 seconds, which is a bit on the slow side for an SLR, especially one with a weak flash.

Download speeds were quite fast, fast enough that you probably won't feel the need for a separate card reader.

Bottom line, the Olympus E-620 is a bit slower than the average enthusiast's model, but still able to handle average family shots as well as some faster action.

Battery

Slightly below average battery life when using the optical viewfinder.

The Olympus E-620 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with both a single battery and charger. The rated 500 shots per charge using the optical viewfinder is slightly below average for an SLR. Olympus doesn't publish battery life for Live View mode, but you can expect it to be a lot lower, so we recommend getting a second battery.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of on fully-charged battery, based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

Storage
The Olympus E-620 stores its photos on Compact Flash and/or xD memory cards, and no card is included with the camera. The table below shows average file size and capacity figures, as well as approximate compression ratios.

The Olympus E-620's images are pretty large. We strongly recommend buying a large capacity Compact Flash or xD-Picture card, at least a 2GB one, preferably a 4 or 8GB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings. (Check the shopping link above, cards are really cheap these days, so no reason to skimp.)