Olympus Evolt E500 8MP Digital SLR with 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 & 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 Zuiko Lenses

Average customer rating: 4.5

so far so good
Review of Olympus EVOLT 500 DSLR
If it only had image stabilization - what, the E510!
An Exceptional Camera
"Wow" says it all!

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Olympus Evolt E500 8MP Digital SLR with 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 & 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 Zuiko Lenses

Manufacturer: Olympus
Product Group: Photography
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B000BK39N4

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Product Description

Premium picture quality and superb performance come easy with this comfortable to handle digital SLR. At a time when we want complex things to become simple, the EVOLT E-500 succeeds in doing so with a sleek, lightweight design for impressive portability and advanced controls and options that can be accessed with minimal effort. Bursting with speed and producing spotless pictures with exceptional color and detail, the EVOLT E-500 is tailor-made for anyone to use while capturing the imagination in the process. Patented Dust Reduction System uses our Supersonic Wave Filter (SWF) to loosen and remove any and all dust and debris from the image sensor. The SWF vibrates at a rate of 35,000 times per second upon start-up as well as when manually activated - and is unnoticeable to the user - for clear, aberration-free images. This removal of dust also means you never have to worry about changing lenses Exercise total control with creative modes like Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual Auto/Manual Focus Automatic pop-up flash provides just the right amount of illumination when necessary and remains out of the way (closed) when not PictBridge compatible Dimensions 5 x 3.7 x 2.6 inch / 15.75 ounces body only Rechargeable Li-ion battery Pack BLM-1/3x CR123A with LBH-1 PC and Mac

Customer Reviews:

so far so good.......2007-06-10

i've this camera for about a month now and in a month i already have few shots which i can enlarge to the max. perfect digital SLR, its the one i was looking for. all i can say is, its just great so far.

Review of Olympus EVOLT 500 DSLR.......2007-06-08

The Olympus EVOLT 500 is the best representative of a line of amazing DSLRs which have the potential to unseat Nikon and Canon as the premier market leaders. The E500 is simply loaded with features, but let me point out why you need to buy this right now.

1. Simple controls. The E500 has a great design philosophy: the standard metaphor for doing anything on this camera is `press a button and rotate the control wheel'. Controls such as ISO, WB, AF and metering are mounted on the 4-way key located on the right of the large 2.5'' screen. I prefer to maintain Single AF, unless, of course, I am photographing something moving really fast, like birds. I keep the screen switched off to conserve battery; every time I activate one of the 4-way keys, like ISO, the screen lights up with only the ISO displayed. Very efficient.
2. Fast and efficient AF. People are known to crib about just 3 AF points, but I don't see why. If I am ever photographing under really tricky light conditions, I tend to use spot metering with the central AF point. Sure, the EOS30D has 9 AF points, but it weighs a tonne and costs as much as a Ferrari. The continuous AF is quite nice, but beware: don't use it when you don't need to. I was once photographing turtles in a marsh, and my AF kept throwing me off, it was only later that I realized that at maximum focal length, continuous AF can be easily fooled by surrounding reeds which are practically invisible to you (at 140 mm).
3. Easy metering. You can under/over expose to within 0.3 stops (or EVs). This is easily accomplished by holding down the exposure compensation button and rotating the wheel. You can also change the step size in metering to 0.7 stops or 1 stop.
4. The screen is nice and bright, and can spew out much more data than you need. Fortunately, it also has a basic mode, with only essential mode data displayed. My favourite mode for the screen is to keep it off. Saves battery power.
5. The menu is much more readable than on, say the Rebel Tx. I sometimes need to switch to monochrome, and this is easily done. I would have liked a hotkey for this, but well..
6. Small viewfinder. Apparently Olympus sells an eyecup magnifier. Why can't they include it in the kit? Oh, profits..
7. Reasonably fast operations. This is not a professional camera. Don't expect EOS30D or D200 level work, but there is no shutter lag, and as I found out during a dolphin show, the speed factor is going to be your reflexes and not that of the camera.
8. Excellent battery. Takes forever to charge, though. Good for 500 pictures, which is about what you can fit into a 2GB CF card. Remember to switch off the screen.
9. The onboard flash is awful. But all onboard flashes are awful, so nothing new there. I always shoot in ambient light anyway.
10. Kit lenses. The Zuiko lens lineup is truly impressive, and very costly too. I would like the 18-180 mm lens to be a little cheaper. I really hate it when I am shooting people pictures with the 40-150 mm outside in the street, and then I want to take pictures of buildings and then I have to go to a Starbucks and switch to the 14-45 lens. The 18-180 mm would be the perfect walkabout lens, except that it is rather costly. Oh, it would be soooo nice if the Sigma 70-300 mm lens was available on a 4/3rd mount. Hey, people at Sigma, Tamron, Tokina.. listen up... we need some decent third party 4/3rd mount lenses... please?
11. Ok, bad points. There should be a DC power connection and adapter for transferring pictures, or displaying them on a TV.
12. Really bad point. USB 1.1!!!!! What the bleep???? Pictures take FOREVER AND AN HOUR to transfer. I could finish my PhD by the time the contents of a 2 GB card make their way to my computer. Well, not really, otherwise I would have graduated....

Summary: this is a great camera with an good pedigree and an ever expanding range of lenses and upgrades available. I recommend it without hesitation. It delivers the best value for money.

If it only had image stabilization - what, the E510!.......2007-06-05

I got this camera in fall of 2006. I has been great. The lenses are sharp and very good for part of a bundle package. I have an OM4t and many OM manual lenses. With an adapter most of these work well on this camera. I wish the view finder were more friendly to manual focusing. The optional eyecup/magnifier helps some, maybe just enough.

I got the adapter for studio flash and it's been a workhose in the studio. The battery lasts and lasts - for me that's a real feature. Having dual storage media is also a major plus though the CF cards are pretty huge these days compared to just a couple of years ago.

The on-board flash is OK for snapshots but not impressive for other use. I was amazed how well the camera did in poor light. It had some trouble focusing but was much better than I expected.

The one thing I wish it had is image stabilization. Now the E510 is coming out and answering that need. And a good thing to see.

In keeping with olympus SLR tradition this camera is relatively compact, strong, and with well thought out controls. The standard 4/3 lens mount is a big point for me. I like an open mount and I'm happy to see Olympus go that direction.

Olympus is doing amazing things with their professional line of digital lenses. Check it out and you'll be amazed at the optics.

The software that comes with the camera is actually useful. Who would have thunk it! I got the upgrade to the full version of olympus master (about $30 as I recall) and it was worth it. Later I got Olypus Studio for batch processing capabilities and that is what I use most of the time for mass manipulations. Kudos to olympus for being the exception to the norm.

I'm very happy with this outfit but may upgrade to the E510 for the image stabilization.

An Exceptional Camera.......2007-05-30

I purchased this kit about a month ago, and had the opportunity to recently photograph an all day wedding. I took better than 600 images without any problems whatsoever. 99% of the images are great, while the remaining 1% are the product of photographer error. This is a workhorse of a camera. At times I was taking images as fast as I could press the shutter, and the auto focus responded wonderfully, allowing for crystal clear pictures in sequence. I do not consider myself a professional photographer, but I can take good pictures, and this camera made it easy. My pictures looked professional!!
I highly recommend this camera and the accompanying lens. Sure, you can pay a lot more, but if you want professional quality without going completely broke, this is the one!

"Wow" says it all!.......2007-05-20

This is my first DSLR and I can say it will be the last for a long time. I've only had it for two weeks and I haven't even scratched the surface of all that it can do. The picture quality is awesome and the ease of use is even better. I've owned an SLR (Minolta) before but it didn't compare to the quality of this unit. The older Minolta even costed about the same as this unit and it couldn't even come close to the feature for value ratio of the Olympus Evolt E500.

This camera is beginner friendly and the manual supplied with it is easy to read and understandable. I can't wait to get aerial shots of Afghanistan. Exceptional clarity in any mode is an understatement. Buy one today and see what I mean. Enjoy!!!

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