The oldest DSLR I have EVER used - The 5 megapixel, twenty year-old Olympus E-20

[@snappiness]

How 'bout that -slug- snail?

[@adrianharrison5208]

love that picture!

[@lawsonpix]

Love it!!

[@stevenfennell7020]

I have the previous version of this the e10 which is 4mp.It takes the most beautiful indoor portraits i have ever seen. Amazingly realistic skin tones. Btw that sticky rubber grip problem can be sorted by scraping and wiping the whole lot off. Takes a while but underneath is bare black metal/plastic that looks pretty fine. Uses 4AA batteries also so no issues there.

[@WoodyDemon6421win]

Talcum powder can also be useful. The proviso being keep it strictly external.

[@shadowgunner69]

I just recently found my E10 after it went missing for a few years. I found it in a box out in the shed. Removed all the gummy parts with hand sanitizer gel. Voila! Usable again, everything works. It was an old friend that served me well through many years of car show photography. It replaced my damaged Minolta S-1 (which you also reviewed) and produced some of my best images in the mid 2000s. I can now put it in my rotation of Olympus cams, EM1, EM 5 II and E-PL2. It is a slow but enjoyable camera.

[@certs743]

Great video. I have the older E-10. These were billed as serious workhorse cameras at the time and Olympus at the time seemed to think having a permanent lens to keep dust away from the sensor and well made google lenses were the way to go. Sadly my camera and the telephoto add on lens got separated at one point and I sold the lens so I just have the fixed zoom now. This camera can do some surprising things like rigging it up to studio strobes and such for studio work. The build quality also speaks to it being intended for a serious camera and not just a consumer level bridge camera. There was a controversy at the time with the E-10. Some eventually developed a "hot pixel" issue that Olympus fixed with a firmware patch but they only ever released the firmware update on the E-20. That ended up rubbing some people the wrong way. I have actually owned 2 E-10s at various points and it is currently my only CCD camera. I bought the second one because I regretted selling my first one. It definitely introduced alot of firsts and was and is still a very capable camera when you work within it's limitations. An interesting thing about these cameras is also that the base ISO is 80 which was way lower than most DSLRs at the time and for awhile afterwards.

[@leonmccurdy3672]

The E-10 was the first digital camera i bought and was using in the studio as well as out in the field for weddings and events.

[@RogerSpiers]

I endorse your valid comments. I acquired my E-20p in 2001and it is still going strong after all this time. It is so well engineered and a pleasure to use. I also have a Nikon D700 and Fuji S2 Pro but the E-20p remains a favourite. Today a second hand E-20 represents a fine camera for the enthusiast with a limited budget.

[@jdiazpdx]

Awesome video and so cool to see these old dinosaurs getting some love. I always drooled over the e-10 and e-20 (of course the D1, 1D MK1 too) as a young teenager in the late 90's and early 2000's. My first "real" camera before the Canon D30 was an Olympus C-2500L "ZLR". Anyways I just scooped up a E-20N on eBay for $50. Looking forward to using it. Keep up the great work

[@graywz]

Love your videos - they make me appreciate what I have and remind me that newer isn't always better. Yes, Pentax are insane to cripple their K-3III by neglecting to articulate their first ever touch screen. Even my Oly PEN E-P5 from 2013 has an articulting touch screen. The oldest (and first) digital camera I still own and use is a 3 MP Kodak DC4800 that I bought in 2001.

[@snappiness]

Cool! My first digital camera was a point and shoot from around the same area with around the same megapixels :) learned most of my photography on that little guy.

[@saraofnorthwales]

That Kodak DC4800 was the greatest evolution in photography that nobody knew about - I have four of them and would never sell any single one of them.

[@robstammers7149]

Second Comment : I've owned my E20N for a while now, bought on your recommendation, mint condition, and I love using it. The rubber grip was in a poor state too, so I stripped all of it off back to the shiny plastic underneath, and it looks pretty good. It's heavy but this allows me to keep the camera really steady. I'm gonna enjoy exploring this camera, it has its quirks. once again many thanks, Rob.

[@jonlouis2582]

I have a few pretty old digi cams, but nothing quite this old. I really enjoy using them. The images are plenty good enough for me.

[@snappiness]

Thanks for stopping by! I enjoy using them too :)

[@tdlens4459]

The e10 was my first digital camera. I loved it. Thanks for the vid

[@adrianharrison5208]

I would try one of those and why not as it does the job and looks fun to use, and $50 is nothing!..I bought a Pentax K100 with a Takumar 135mm f2.5 for I think it was $70 Canadian.. Old stuff still does the job for me and it is all about having fun

[@snappiness]

Great! Always thought it would be cool to use an old 135mm f2.5. Great find.

[@adrianharrison5208]

@@snappiness It really is good lense, I will be trying it on the Q tomorrow to see what that is like

[@SianaGearz]

I have owned and used an older bridge DSLR. I sort of hated it and sold it in 1999. Olympus C-1000L. The big problem was that the lens was 50-150mm equivalent due to high crop factor, completely useless. They simply designed one camera with one lens the C-1400L, and with a 2/3" sensor at 1.3MP it was presumably fairly usable with 35-110mm zoom range, then they made the lower cost model C-1000L where the sensor was changed to a sub-1MP 1/2" sensor. Otherwise it's nice, the fully enclosed zoom/lens mechanism is quick and reassuring. I replaced it with a 1.3MP Sanyo VPC-Z400 that i thrifted for ridiculously little money, i think less than $50, which i absolutely loved. The camera had an unusual spring loaded zoom lens that you could just cap back into the enclosure at any time even if the camera suddenly lost power or when it's on, and an unusual LCD which had a sun window, you point the top of the camera into the sun to review your photos. Oh and it had a live view feature that would drain the battery in 20 minutes! A little longer with sun window engaged. And it made better pictures than Olympus i have no idea for what reason, especially in low light. A lot of barrel distortion but i didn't care.

[@Frazorg]

I have owned a olympus e 20p for around 4 year and despite its 20 years old age you still get some great quality photographs.

[@snappiness]

Awesome. I really like mine too. I just bought a few more of the accessories for the system like the Teleconverter. Excited to try them out.

[@markperrins3152]

The E-20p was my first digital camera (still have it) I loved the colour this camera produced, shot some gorgeous sunsets with it. My other main memory was that shooting with it was so sloooooowwwww! Slow to focus, slow to write, slow to preview, especially when using noise reduction. But maybe I should revisit it for that reason. I'm currently shooting with an all manual OM-1 film camera to slow me down, so trying the E-20 again may be a useful learning experience. The E-20 is a digital camera that feels a bit like shooting film.

[@dxace1]

One of the challenges in using E20 today is obtaining batteries. If the camera is missing the battery unit, you have to obtain another whole E20 that does have that. And finding a rechargeable battery to use with the battery hand grip is almost impossible.

[@johnnyc.5979]

I modded my battery pack with the battery cells from a laptop battery, soldered the wires to the inside of the shooting grip. The batteries last like a month or more.

[@fosterb300]

I love the K3 III shade!

[@snappiness]

This is why I have to hide from the Pentax forums and facebook groups sometimes ;)

[@johnwest7228]

I have the Camedia E10 which I bought new way back when (I'll have to do a bit of detective work to put a date on it- but I bought it at Circuit City, that much I do remember- ) Used it for many years and loved it. I did and still have an older digital camera ( I am like a black hole for cameras- once I have it, it does not get away) , the Agfa e1680- uses only smart media cards- not an easy find these days, how much tech has changed

[@snappiness]

Haha, I remember Circuit City! That does date it. That Agfa e1680 is old! Closer to the origins of consumer digital photography. Very interesting.

[@johnwest7228]

@@snappiness I found the magazine that featured the E 10 Olympus camera- Digital Camera, dated October 2000. I had the camera before this issue came out but I suspect I bought it back in early 2000- still takes amazing photos with that massive 4mp sensor

[@snappiness]

Cool! I found a digital archive of another magazine for October 2000. Fun reading about it when it was released and how people thought about it then :)

[@ggeimer]

I still own a E-20, but haven’t shot anything with it in years. I love the images it produced. I noticed that my alkaline battery life tanked after a couple of years, but the lithium batteries gave it new life. I would go through a set if alkaline batteries in about 50 shots. The lithium ion batteries gave me hundreds of pictures on a charge. I abandoned it for my D90 with over 2,000 pictures on a fresh charge. I still think that the colors are better on my E-20.

[@55Wassy]

I have an E20-p. I bought it new when they first hit the market and 5mp was the max for consumer/pro digital cameras. I had to take out a business loan of over a thousand pounds (UK) to pay for the kit with all the extras. I still use it regularly as my art studio camera, mainly on a tripod. It does everything I need and is a pleasure to use. Write speeds are not an issue if you're not in a hurry. It`s paid for its self and owes me nothing.

[@verablack3137]

I hadn't really seen that one, but it seems like a more "pro" version of a C5050 which was just such a good camera. I had a Kodak Easyshare in the early 2000s, which I used alongside 110 film occasionally using my families' 35mm camera or my brother's APS camera, but the C5050 is the camera I wanted. If you like old CCDs the C4040, C5050, etc have super fast lenses and are quite cheap these days.

[@snappiness]

Somebody else told me about the c4040/c5050. I'll check it out. Looks right up my alley. Thanks!

[@usednotuseless]

Had one of these a few years ago and loved it! Only got rid of it bc the grip had deteriorated into that gross sticky mess like a lot of old cameras do. Amazing little camera though

[@B9scrambler]

Woo! Was excited for this vid :D

[@snappiness]

Probably the most out of anyone 😁

[@B9scrambler]

@@snappiness I can't disagree, lol. Great vid btw. Perfectly encapsulates what I love about my E-10. Also, not sure if you tried this already but you can slow the deterioration of the grip on your E-20 by storing it with silicone packets. They've been keeping the grip on my E-10 from turning into a sticky mush, lol.

[@johnwest7228]

@@B9scrambler I have an E 10 too, alas the rubber on mine has already turned to goo, trying to figure out what to do about it- if you have any ideas, would love to know-

[@B9scrambler]

@@johnwest7228 Not sure how thick the rubber is, but I had a Canon RT whose grip went. Used alcohol and a few paper towels to dissolve it and clean up the rest of the cam. Looks great now, and no grip goo. Maybe it'll work on an E-10 grip too.

[@johnwest7228]

@@B9scrambler thanks, I'll give it a try- just holding the camera makes my right hand black and sticky- no longer an enjoyable photographic experience

[@MrCyssiek]

I still own E10 and since film is sooo expensive these days, it gives me this look that Im after. Especially i love reds produced by this CCD, very much like Proimage 100. Definitely a keeper

[@johngriffiths3984]

The E 20 was my first digital camera, followed by a Pentax K200D, then K20D and then a K3. The E 20 was great for close up shots with good depth of field due to the small sensor. I mostly saved TIFF files in the beginning. The E 20 seems to save files very slowly now. My next Olympus camera was mirrorless, a Pen E-P1. Back to my roots I suppose since my SLR of the 1970s and 80s was an OM-1.

[@BobHodgkiss]

Hey, I got the E20p a few years ago (pre-owned)and it's a great piece of kit. Despite the fixed lens I have managed to acquire the add on T-con 14b tele lens (haven't had much call to use it yet but have tried it and it's fine, does make for a heavy chunk though when its screwed on) and a bunch of close up screw on lenses +1 through to +10 (couldn't locate a M-con 35 macro) and they work great too. I picked up the FL-40 flash last year so all in all I have a pretty vintage and cool bit of kit and the lot has cost me around £80

[@Flyguy3054]

First digital camera used was the Olympus E10 for work and pleasure. I can review the photos today and still be amazed at the quality and colour.

[@ajurjans]

Oddly enough, I happen to own one. I can only share most of your findings, however I don't go out with it often. I was, though, really pleasantly surprised with the images that it gave.

[@marcp.1752]

It also had a superb build quality. Something, into later years only the Olympus C-8080 had, and the Sony F828, from that bridgecam era.

[@robstammers7149]

Just about to pick one these up... Really looking forward to exploring its capabilities, great fun for very little money.

[@snappiness]

I really enjoy mine! I was pleasantly surprised by the handling and quality. Have fun with it!

[@spyke1984]

Your channel is the cure for “G.A.S.” As why buy new when old can do great!

[@snappiness]

Or maybe the cause for G.A.S... Why buy only one camera when they're so cheap 🤔

[@yalborap]

@@snappiness Oof, this is where I land. NEW gear is easy to convince myself to walk away from, when it costs as much as a game console. But the old forgotten stuff, sometimes cheaper than a game for said consoles? That's soooo tempting...

[@shaocaholica]

GAS doesn’t just apply to new gear tho

[@mmadmic]

I love "vintage" DSLR, I still use an Olympus E-3 and a Canon EOS 5D and their pictures are very nice, even the noise is nice, closer to film grain than digital noise. I had an E-10 when it was release, it was my second digital camera and first DSLR and I loved it, but I replaced it with a CW-8080 another great camera from Oly. My first one was a Sony Mavica FD81, the one with floppy disks, still have it but floppy drive and batteries are dead.

[@palmerino1965]

Ho usato per qualche tempo questa modello Olympus, e lo trovavo tra i migliori come godimento nella esperienza fotografica. Acquistata anni fa usata ad un ottimo prezzo. Questo perché regala i vantaggi di un mirino ottico (ben fatto e luminoso) con quello del monitor elettronico senza ritardi, grazie allo specchio semi riflettente. Amavo la discrezione; grazie all'otturatore centrale, lo scatto è davvero silenzioso, praticamente inudibile dalle persone anche vicine. Peccato che proprio l'otturatore, un giorno si è bloccato. Se la trovassi a 50 euro, la riacquisto. 5 megapixel nitidi possono regalare anche belle grandi stampe, magari anche aiutate da un software tipo Photo AI, che nei fatti regalano una resa relativamente moderna, anche alle vecchie fotocamere digitali degli anni 2000. Del resto dal 2004, nei matrimoni stampavo album fotografici 30x40cm partendo dai jpg di una Olympus E-1 senza problemi.

[@sigmagamer364]

that color science really looks like kodak colorplus film

[@anthonyr.9566]

Love this one. Found one for 20$ working in Charleston SC

[@levifeiler9047]

I have the Olympus e20n and it is by far my favorite camera

[@SuperZarkosis]

I picked up the newest, younger sister of this camera, the c8080, for 40$, and I loved the images out of it so much I decided to get the E-1 so I could stick to a ccd sensor with a pro body that can take adapted lenses, and its completely blown me away so far. I honestly like the images out of it more than my modern EM1 and EP5. I would recommend you to try to pick one up as well. It takes better images than the 2/3 sensor "compacts" like the e-10, e-20, c8080, and c5050 with much less noise while having a pretty huge buffer and much faster write times than any of these cameras while being able to use a fairly large amount of adapted lenses (ive only used my om mount ones). Its frankly a wonderful camera, and I absolutely love it. I was completely blown away by the c8080 as the image quality from the raw files is astounding, its just that the write times for raw images absolutely sucks (10-12 seconds!), and if you shoot jpeg the artifacts are horrible on anything past base iso (im sure its similar with the e-20), and the e-1 completely alleviates that problem.

[@snappiness]

The e-1 and e-3 have been on my alerts for a while now. I do plan to try one eventually. I've heard only great things about it!

[@SuperZarkosis]

@@snappiness apparently the e3s handling isn't as good as the e1, but the colours and rendition of the ccd in the e1 is incredible. the build and handling if my E1 is second to none, even better than my em1! it's interesting because 800iso on the E1 looks like 800iso on my modern 16mp cameras. 1600 and 3200 seems to be a little more noisy but not much, but loses lots of shadow detail quickly. i can't really comment on the E3 as I've only seen one but I'm sure it's also wonderful, it's just missing that sweet Kodak ccd so i didn't end up getting one.

[@snappiness]

@@SuperZarkosis good info, thanks. 👍

[@terrym540]

I am currently going through a phase of buying, and using, old cameras. My oldest is a 7.5MP Panasonic DMC-L1 SLR, and the kit Leica lens, from 2007, and I am waiting delivery of an Olympus E-1, which also uses a 5MP CCD sensor, and an E-3.

[@snappiness]

Fantastic :) should be a lot of fun.

[@DonalLeader]

I have two Olympus cameras from this era. A challenge to use but great images once one lets go of the megapixel complex!

[@snappiness]

It's a fun challenge to shoot with them today! Agreed.

[@jaymikevillanueva1212]

Funny. I just bought (and received) a similar camera like that from around the same era. It's a Sony Cybershot F828. Same idea and approach. Very quirky and one of a kind. I love it.

[@snappiness]

Cool! I am familiar with that camera even though I've never held one before. Very neat piece of photographic history.

[@jaymikevillanueva1212]

@@snappiness It sure is! A shame Sony didn't bother to continue that unique design. It's really a well-built piece of tech. Good manual controls and its not as heavy as it looks. What surprised me is that it works surprisingly well with my 16 gig WiFi SD card housed in a Type I CF card. Oddly it won't work with a Type II CF adapter. At least it now has a second life in 2021 with that small upgrade and I can't wait to shoot with it when the weather ain't crazy.

[@shaocaholica]

I just bought 2 of these in pretty good condition

[@Michael-fw5ef]

In 1981, my family bought the best VHS player on the market. It cost us 2,000 back in 1981, which in today's money is about $8,000. Funny thing is that in 2001, it still performed better than the modern VHS players that were being sold. Yes, in 2001, I still used VHS tapes.

[@_Corndawgg]

What was it

[@Michael-fw5ef]

@@_Corndawgg JVC

[@tonynightingale3868]

Hi , I've just this afternoon purchased on eBay UK an E 20p with two lenses and remote control for £55.00. I already have two E10s so I know that they are good, I have a large collection of camera's and must say I prefer quality above latest technology...Thanks for your video's ...they are very informative with no,how you Americans say ..bullls#;:*% you take care and stay safe ..that's a quote from Boris Johnson...UK PM...... kindest regards Tony..

[@labradax]

I still believe CCD tech is way better then CMOS for film type photography. I wish they would have built on that sensor technology further.

[@xmeda]

35-140/2.0-2.4 was quite good for that time. And concerning reach, there are some teleconverter add-on lens available like 62mm 2.2x so it converts the lens to 77-308/4.4-5.3 if you want to try wildlife retro :D In 2004 I bought my first digital camera, the tiny Casio QV-R40 which had 4 Mpix and 39-117/2.8-4.9 lens.. and ISO 80/160/320 :D So roughly similar technolgy, but in pocketable version. And it serverd me well.. producing over 30k images before shutter malfunctioned. At the same time Olympus had cameras like mighty C-5060WZ wich had 5Mpix CCD, 27-110mm lens with F2.8-4.8, completely articulating screen and quite good image output. Sister has one. Cameras were evolving quickly in early 2000s

[@snappiness]

I was really impressed with the lens. A lot of thought went into making this a usable system where you could get some really nice results. I have the wide angle converter as you can see in the video, and I have looked at the other converters. I decided not to cover them in this video in case I end up picking up the tele and could do a video just on those. At least the wide angle one is very good quality. I saw some results from 2002 blog post about the tele and it seemed surprisingly good quality for such a huge jump!

[@Karhallarn]

I've never owned one but it starts to build up my itch to get a Minolta Dimage 7i again... ;-)

[@daveh2938]

i have several E20 and a E10 and i like them very much but sometimes the tiny micro switch fails in the battery compartment which causes no power up so i put a small piece of tape on the bottom of the battery holder which causes the micro switch to be pushed in harder and solves the problem...i also have two Sony DSC F828 cameras which i like very much...i feel the older camera's have a better build quality.

[@steverobinson9801]

I still have my Oly E-10, the 4 megapickle original. I bought it refurbished in 2004 for a cruise to Alaska. I got some pretty nice images of the trip but not any whales. It and I were just too slow.

[@snappiness]

What a trip. I'd love to go to Alaska someday.

[@steverobinson9801]

@@snappiness Alaska is a wonderful place but today I wouldn't go on another cruise ship. Fly there and drive or sail or fly where you want to go.

[@molnarandrassandor3448]

I miss my CCD Pentax K100D. CCD was really a better sensor. Wish they made new ones!

[@sergeykozinets9979]

Thanks for the info man. Now I know what a Darth Vader camera looks like. I'm going to eBay =)

[@iM-mf1ke]

Will you ever review the Leica Digilux 2 or its Panasonic counterpart?

[@ThorstensMOBAWelt]

I used both the Olympus E-10 and the E-20 in parallel for over 15 years. I preferred to use the E-10 because I took photos in RAW format. And the E-10 didn't take quite as long for its 4 MP as the E-20 did for its 5 MP. After the well-known lens defect on the E-20, I bought a Sony RX-10M IV.

[@LordMitac]

They both do raw bro

[@ThorstensMOBAWelt]

@@LordMitac - Yes, I know. The E-10 takes a long time to save the RAW. But the E-20 takes an almost endless amount of time.

[@jalakanen]

Grip is similar like Olympus e-1

[@unbroken1010]

The E10 used the same Tele extender? We're the interchangable?

[@natbug1865]

My friend just gave me a old one she got and never used, it was probably pretty expensive when made. •>•The battery area is broken and parts are sticky. Need to figure out how to turn on or charge. I wanna do photography so I feel with having no money and a teen I can deal with this

[@gdjaybee742]

Hello, what do you think of the raw files generated in this camera? Does it have at least something to work with when processing it to a decent image? or is it like those point and shoot old cameras where there either lots of noise or you can see the compression when you blow it up to pixel peep? Or is it clean like a crop sensor with 6 mega pixels like a Nikon D100, or a MFT with 6 megapixels? I just won one on ebay and having second thoughts since a Sony A100 Silver edition just became available on ebay.

[@snappiness]

I went in pretty skeptical that a 2001 camera could produce that great results and was pleasantly surprised at how capable the RAW files were. That could be because I went in with such low expectations, though. Still, I believe the files are good and the lens performs really well. It could actually be on par with files from a 6mp crop sensor, but I didn't do a side by side. I think the 6mp would have the edge being newer technology and larger (crop sensor), but the difference might be as much as you'd think.

[@arilinn8756]

Anyone know how to check the shutter count on these e-20? I tried using the e-1 and e-520 method and nothing. I'm just curious to see what my shutter count is. Great video btw! I really enjoy this channel. Love the old tech too!

[@3DOM65]

I pickup a Canon G 5 with box and all cable for 10.00 Love to play around old camera.

[@snappiness]

awesome grab!

[@davidkan5469]

I'm still using my Olympus E-30...

[@The-Tall-Photographer]

I had one in 2003. I liked it but I wanted interchangeable lens and ended up with the Fuji S2Pro which was, let's be fair, a better camera.

[@snappiness]

And also a cool camera! I've had the s3 and S5 on my list to try one day :)

[@sergeyperlov1893]

I have Olympus E-1 & Olympus E-500📸📸📸

[@antonioestupinian2732]

I Have NIKON D50 and take excelent photos! We are lost in a war of megapixeles!!!

[@kevinlui8601]

Are those pictures straight out of camera JPG or have you shoot RAW?!

[@snappiness]

These are straight out of the camera :) there isn't a whole lot of latitude in these files so I just played with the limited profile settings and had at it.

[@hariranormal5584]

can you review about the 1300D canon? I have one just laying around dunno what to use it for xD

[@snappiness]

Yeah, I'd love to! Old cheap DSLRs are my favorite. I'll get around to more of them one day :) A lot on my list.

[@hariranormal5584]

@@snappiness I might need tips too, it has a standard lens which says Macro, I don't know but when it takes indoor pictures it looks quite moody, outdoor ones are beautiful on it however. I think tinkering with the settings might produce a better output

[@anthonywebb676]

Would the camera be suitable for street photography

[@snappiness]

It's a little slow I would think. I'm not a street photographer, but just writing a shot to the card takes several seconds. Cool camera though if you find it for cheap.

[@daktarioskarvannederhosen2568]

my name is Egbert

[@petepictures]

I got E-10 for free, and it works cool, built to last you 2 life times, just Sloooooooow, and eats batteries for breakfast........

[@oogabooga2744]

I have this exact camera is it okay for photography?

[@snappiness]

Yes. :) It is a little hard because the ISO doesn't get very high same with the shutter speed but for well lit situations it works out well. Dated, but full manual controls.

[@oogabooga2744]

@@snappiness awesome thank you so much :)

[@unbroken1010]

4:58 he has no feet 🤷 I think he is a size 12 and hiding it. 😔

[@jan-martinulvag1953]

I just found one in Norway for 30 dollars

[@snappiness]

Sounds like a good buy!