Curious question,i'm looking at buying the olympus e410, but I noticed that itsdynamic range isn't all that great.Notably, bright areas seem to wash out to white really easily in itsimages..

It sounds like the pictures you saw were overexposed - not a camera problem, a user problem! The lab test on this site does say that the camera has slightly less dynamic range than others but not by much and this is the sort of difference that would probably only be visible in a lab test. If you wait for a camera that performs perfectly in all lab tests you'll wait a long time....

Will a polarizer lens be the cure for this?Worth skipping the camera over this?.

Your thoughts much appreciated,thanks..

You mean a polarizing filter. It cuts down reflections in bright sunshine and reduces the dybnamic range of the scene - it doesn;t affect the camera sensor. It is well worth using a polariser in bright, sunny conditions whatever camera you have.Mike..

Mike703 wrote:.

You mean a polarizing filter. It cuts down reflections in brightsunshine and reduces the dybnamic range of the scene - it doesn;taffect the camera sensor. It is well worth using a polariser inbright, sunny conditions whatever camera you have.Mike.

I wasn't aware that it cuts dynamic range, but it certainly saturates color. Great for those times that the sky would other wise be washed out. And yes, it's also great for reducing glare off of most surfaces..

The problem being that it cuts two f stops... .

Dave..

No. They reduce the light available by about two stops - meaning there's less light reaching the lens/sensor..

To get the best dynamic range you can shoot RAW and post process to the desired result. I think the E-410 has a function to lift shadows when generating an in-camera JPEG. This is the equivalent of brigtening shadows without loosing highlights..

You need to read up on exposure and how it works..

StephenG.

Fuji S9600Fuji S5200Fuji F30Fuji E900Canon A710ISPCLinuxOS..

Well I wasn't going off the lab tests actually,.

I was going off of the sample images, and comparing them to other images of similar locales and conditions with competitors cameras(rebel xti, pentax k10d, etc)as well as the reviewers notes...

No. They reduce the light available by about two stops - meaningthere's less light reaching the lens/sensor..

...but don't polarizers have a greater effect on highlights (especially reflections from shiny surfaces)? If highlights are dimmed to a greater extent than shadows, that would have the effect of reducing the dynamic range in the image captured by the sensor..

I'm no technical expert and more than happy to be put right on this, but that is my understanding of how they work..

Best wishesMike..

Mike703 wrote:.

No. They reduce the light available by about two stops - meaningthere's less light reaching the lens/sensor..

...but don't polarizers have a greater effect on highlights(especially reflections from shiny surfaces)? If highlights aredimmed to a greater extent than shadows, that would have the effectof reducing the dynamic range in the image captured by the sensor..

I'm no technical expert and more than happy to be put right on this,but that is my understanding of how they work..

Best wishesMike.

Polarizers don't dim highlights, they dim reflected light off of some surfaces..

I've always been under the impression that polarizers increase dynamic range. Searching the net, I certainly can't prove this, although I'm sure the answer is out there..

But I couldn't prove the opposite as well. Some seem to imply that it did, some that it didn't. It certainly saturates colors, and brings out things like the blue in a sky, that would otherwise be wiped by the camera..

Most sites refer to this filter as the single most useful and one of the few that make sense in digital photography..

Dave..