Olympus E-620 Hands On Video Preview

Prior to today's official announcement of the Olympus E-620, we were fortunate enough to get to spend a little time with a pre-production version of Olympus's latest consumer DSLR.

While we weren't able to evaluate the image quality or performance from our pre-production sample, some hands-on experience with the new model was helpful in beginning to sort out where Olympus is headed in launching yet another mid-tier DSLR.

For a basic overview of the E-620 and our impressions on it, take a look at our Olympus E-620 Video Preview:

Given its price and level of specification, what really makes the E-620 stand out is its size. With a 25mm "pancake" lens, the E-620 is not appreciably larger than most ultrazooms.

Olympus's Art Filters remain a neat touch, and in the E-620 it feels like they've perhaps found a more logical home than in the E-30, even.

While the logic behind putting advanced in-camera processing into a camera clearly targeted – by its price, if nothing else – toward shooters who will most likely be photo enthusiasts comfortable with post-processing may be shaky, putting those same creative tools into a squarely consumer camera makes a whole lot of sense.

Our only other serious gripe with the E-30 came down to its price, and on this score the E-620 once again comes up a winner: while it doesn't offer every single function and feature that graced Olympus's recently launched prosumer body, the E-620 captures much of what makes the E-30 unique at a price point that's within the reach of many more buyers.

We'll follow up with a full review of the E-620 as soon as final firmware versions of the camera become available.