The Olympus E-510 is the bigger brother of the world’s smallest digital SLR, the E-410. It has largely the same specification but is £100 dearer, so what else are we getting?

The answer is image stabilisation, which means that its sensor can shift about to counter-balance any camera shake, using one of two settings.

The result? Any lens attached automatically becomes stabilised, allowing for sharper pictures than would otherwise be possible when shooting in low light without flash, and at the extreme telephoto end (at the maximum zoom) of the lens. We rarely got a shaky shot, in fact.

Single or double lens kits are available as well as a body-only price if you have your own Olympus lenses. The best deal is the 14-42mm and 40-150mm bundle which, because of the way digital cameras work compared with 35mm film, supplies you with a combined focal range equivalent to 28-300mm on a 35mm camera - a real boon.

While the solidly built E-510 is bulkier than the E-410, it has a nicely rounded grip, making it easier to hold. The catches for the strap, which got in the way on the E-410, have been moved to the camera's top.

As the optical viewfinder is small and murky, you also get the very useful Live View mode, in which the rear screen can be used to line up shots. Also worth noting is Olympus’s dust removal system that shakes the sensor free of any dust in the relatively rare event of it intruding when swapping lenses.

Pictures are colourful, if a little less vivid than those from Canon, Nikon or Pentax budget digital SLRs - though luckily there’s a Vivid option to improve on this. Image noise is kept to a minimum at the highest ISO settings (800 & 1,600). Where the E-510 falls down is its white balance, which can vary considerably in accuracy from shot to shot, but this can be corrected on the computer. Still, the lens quality is commendably sharp, meaning that overall the E-510 represents an excellent choice for those wanting an all-purpose beginner kit.

Vista compatible: Yes