Olympus E520 vs Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10 — Which Is Better?

The Olympus E520 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10 are compact DSLRs sharing one design direction: a Live MOS sensor in the Micro Four Thirds format with an optical pentamirror viewfinder. The E520 arrived in 2008, a year after the L10, and both bodies stay near the same weight, at 552 g and 556 g.

Their measurements differ mainly in depth: the L10 sits 78 mm front to back against 68 mm for the E520, so it needs a little more room in a bag. Height and length are close, at 135 x 96 mm versus 136 x 92 mm, making either a manageable carry.

Handheld shooting in dim light is where the E520 has a real advantage: it offers in-body stabilisation, and the L10 does not. Stabilisation in the body steadies handheld frames at slower shutter speeds with any lens you mount, so you are not limited to stabilised optics.

The remaining stills specifications are a close match rather than a divergence. Resolution is nearly identical, 10 megapixels for the E520 against 10.1 for the L10, so neither offers a cropping lead, and both use a native ISO range of 100 to 1600 with a top shutter speed of 1/4000 second. For a short action sequence like a child running toward you, the E520's 3.5 fps burst gives slightly more coverage than the L10's 3 fps.

Neither camera suits a buyer who wants motion recording, because both lack video capture entirely, and neither includes a built-in timelapse function. Anyone planning clips or in-camera interval work needs a different body altogether.

The L10's articulating screen is its most useful control advantage, letting you tilt the LCD for live-view shots overhead at a parade or low to the ground for flowers. Both cameras offer live view, so the E520 still frames those angles, just without the flexible viewing position.

Two further differences favour each side. The E520 has the larger display, 2.7 inches at 230,000 dots against 2.5 inches at 207,000 dots, which makes playback checking a little easier. The L10 supports Wi-Fi, so images can be moved off the camera without a card reader. Neither offers GPS, weather sealing or a touch screen, and both carry a built-in flash plus an external hot shoe.

A long day of shooting favours the E520, whose battery is rated for 650 shots against 450 for the L10 under their respective test conditions. Neither charges over USB, so each needs its own charger, and they use different batteries: the BLM-2 and the DMW-BLB13.

Card formats split along brand lines. The E520 takes CompactFlash Type I or II alongside xD Picture Cards across two slots, so it can hold two cards at once. The L10 records to a single SD, SDHC or MMC slot, so it holds one card at a time.