The Olympus FE-5020 is small enough to fit into most pockets. In terms of price it is one of the cheaper models of its type. It has a fairly basic set of features. The upside of this is it helps to make the FE-5020 straightforward and easy to use. Olympus has given the camera an extra wide, 5x optical zoom lens. This is a 12 megapixel model. Other features include a 2.7 inch LCD screen.

The camera comes in four colours. These are black, white, blue and brown. Olympus has adopted a two layer finish. This helps to give the camera a shiny appearance.

I can see this camera being attractive owing to its reasonable price, size, style and ease of use.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
The FE-5020 gets off to a solid start. The brightness of the photo is good and the colours compliment each other well. There is a loss of detail in the shady areas of the shot where the camera could do with a touch more light to work with.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
Looking at this picture I can see darkness creeping into the corners of the shot. This is especially noticeable in the sky. This could pose a problem any time when the lens is zoomed all the way out. You will also have to be careful when it comes to print sizes when the lens is zoomed out. There are no major issues with smaller, snapshot sized prints, but you might start to notice a loss of sharpness if you get over enthusiastic with the size of the prints you make.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
In terms of quality this shot sits somewhere in the mid range. There are minor niggles such as a loss of detail on the white boats and sharpness is a degree or two below what some of the better cameras are capable of.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
With the zoom neither fully extended nor zoomed all the way out the FE-5020 is at its most comfortable. I am impressed by the sharpness of this shot. When the photo is blown up you can make out the individual bricks in the building.

Outdoor Portrait
I find this test shot darker than I would like it to be. Although the FE-5020 is able to take a photo that is a decent enough snapshot the result should do a bit better.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
This is a good effort for a cheaper, pocket camera. As with the outdoor portrait the main difference you will find between the FE-5020 and more advanced cameras is related to the lighting in the shot. In this instance the darker areas, such as the hair suffer from a lack of light and therefore a loss of detail.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
A small amount of noise shows here. Again this will have an impact of the size of prints you can make before the loss of quality really becomes an issue.

Colours
Olympus digital cameras tend to produce subtler colours than some other brands. Examples of this include the colour of the sky in my outdoor shots.

Macro
I am happy with the quality of my close up test shot. The model I had for testing was white. This colour coupled with the reflective surface of the camera can make it difficult to avoid reflection of the camera if you are also photographing a reflective object.

Noise
I felt the FE-5020 handled noise levels well for a camera in this price bracket.

Overall
Taking into account the price, small size of the camera and also the extra wide angle lens I am happy with the quality of my test shots. You can get better quality if you step up to a more expensive camera and that is fair enough.

The FE-5020 is a bit slow. A single shot timed 0.49 seconds. Five photos took 13.58 seconds. With flash on the times were 1.57 seconds for a single shot and 17.27 seconds for five.

To turn on the camera and take the first shot timed 2.69 seconds.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

This is a compact camera with a simple design.

92.7 x 55.8 x 24.7mm

107g

Lithium ion.

48mb of storage has been built in by Olympus. This is enough for around 18 shots. The FE-5020 is compatible with both xD cards and micro SD cards.

Click here to save money on xD cards..

Excellent. With a standard set of features there is not a lot to trip you up.

Ease of use - price for a small, compact camera

Photos could be brighter in places - shutter delay

Another cheaper pocket camera worth a close look is the Panasonic LUMIX DMC FS7. I think out of the two cameras the Panasonic one has the edge.

On the whole the Olympus FE-5020 does the job it sets out to do. Picture quality is suitable for snapshots and ease of use is a major strength. There are one of two compromises made to keep the price down. These include a couple of picture quality niggles and a slower shutter response.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menu

Description:	12 megapixels and a 5x optical zoom lens
Ease of Use:	9
Features:	7
Colour:	8
Macro:	8
Indoors:	8
Value for Money:	8
Style:	8
Movie Mode:	8
Image Quality:	8
Build Quality:	8
Total:	80
Verdict:	The Olympus FE-5020 does a decent job for a cheaper, pocket sized digital camera. As you would expect there are a couple of issues, but on the whole I like this camera.
Review Date:	October 2009
Related Pages:	Olympus FE-5020 Specification Olympus FE-5020 Sample Images Olympus FE-5020 Features

	GBP 109.99
	GBP 121
	GBP 128.99
	GBP 135.13
	GBP 138.05
Click a flag for prices from other countries:

Camera	Rating
Canon Powershot A2100 IS	83
Canon Powershot A1100 IS	83
Fuji Finepix J250	82
Fuji Finepix Z35	82
Panasonic DMC LS85	82
Canon Powershot A480	82
Nikon Coolpix L20	81
Nikon Coolpix L19	81

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Olympus FE-5020