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Olympus EVOLT E-500 8 Megapixel Digital SLR Camera Body with Lens Kit - 0.55"-1.77"

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• Reviewed by: MetromacBill

  Updated: 12-09-06

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:6 Days

  Strengths: Light Sturdy Body, 4/3rds System, Many Lenses to choose from, Better then average Built in flash, Nice smooth controls, Decent Battery life

  Weaknesses: None

  Overall Evaluation: I love this Camera!! Bought this for my Wife to take Pics on the Sidelines at Football Games for our Website. Got the 2 lens kit, and Got three Addl. Lenses(18-180MM f3.5-6.3, ED90-250MMf2.8, and the ED300mm) and the EC-14 Teleconverter. This camera is impressive for it's size and weight, much less then a like-priced Cannon, and the lenses are interchangeable with other E series bodies unlike the Canon D-series.

• Reviewed by: manishaggarwal12

  Updated: 10-30-06

  Overall Rating: 4 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:6 Days

  Strengths: Price, autofocus capabilities, feel in the hand, 2.5 inch screen.

  Weaknesses: Inbuilt flash provides limited range, accessories are very costly, limited capability of autofocus in extremely low light situations

  Overall Evaluation: I was contemplating whether to go ahead with Olympus 500 or D80 but after looking at reviews on web I decided to go for it.....and let me tell you I do not regret my decision. This is a great camera at a great price. It takes crisp pics. If you have an energetic toddler you would know how difficult it is to capture their beautiful moments in a camera.....evolt 500 does its work brilliantly while taking pics on inbuilt "Children" mode. I have been using it for a week or so only but have already taken more than 500 pics. I am not at all disappointed. However, there are few negatives as well. All Olympus accessories are very costly. In case you want to take pics inside I would suggest to buy a mountable flash. One of my bad experiences was when I was trying to shoot in moonlight, camera had difficulty in focusing the objects. in fact in all instances it was just unable to auto focus. All in all I would say its a good buy and the more you use it the more you will love it.

• Reviewed by: jamo888

  Updated: 10-04-06

  Overall Rating: 4 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths: Supersonic Wave filter, 15 Scene mode, Large LCD screen, Better build, higher height for flash (minimize red eye)

  Weaknesses: Small View finder, AF assist throuh flash, No top LCD display. Continuous burst available only for HQ

  Overall Evaluation: I have read articles and technical review for the 4/3 sensor. This approach makes more sense and it optimizes for digital photography. Olympus took a big step on this technology. Most of the big companies used the APC size. Well, Olympus E500 has the supersonic wave filter this is very important a necessity. Canon, Sony, Pentax all followed this feature. The camera has a lot of features for advance users. I suggest read the manual or get some info from the internet. Otherwise, you will not take advantage of the great features.Small viewfinder, It doesnt bother me much. ME-1 finder is available to address this issue. Only 3 point focus points, I would rather have more. All the SLRs are coming out with more. Slow start up time is due to the Wave filter working, you could have this disabled (check manual). to increase speed to 1.5 Sec.Bottomline, Each camera in the market has its own edge. Overall, I would say Value for money this one is a winner.

• Reviewed by: fastfashn

  Updated: 09-05-06

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:90 Days

  Strengths: great lenses, functions, settings, build

  Weaknesses: low light AF, manual AF (vf is small so manual focus tricky)

  Overall Evaluation: I looked at the Pentax DL/DS line, Canon Rebel and Nikon D-70 line before I settled on this camera. I am glad I did. Despite a certain anxiety at switching from film to digital I've found that the kit lenses and image quality are quite good, especially for the kind of shooting I love (street photography, parties, portraits). If I were doing landscapes I'd like a few more MP, but I think the system will be progressing in that direction soon enough.

• Reviewed by: byount

  Updated: 08-07-06

  Overall Rating: 4 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:6 Weeks

  Strengths: Great value, compact, lightweight and fun to use.

  Weaknesses: Expensive accessories, need to buy external flash for typical indoor photos.

  Overall Evaluation: This is my first dSLR, and I purchased the E-500 after significant research. The best advice I ran across was to go into stores and physically put your hands on the cameras you are considering. The main thing that put this camera ahead of the Canon Rebel XT was how much better the E-500 felt in my hand. The Canon's grip was just too shallow, and if you don't like how it feels, then you're less prone to use it. The Olympus had a substantially larger handgrip and its construction felt much more solid. The pictures produced by both cameras are compared on numerous websites, and except at high ISO (800/1600), are very similar. The primary downfall of this camera for my pics is the on-board flash, but that is not at all uncommon in dSLRs. It is readily corrected by the awesome (and expensive) Olympus FL-50 flash.

• Reviewed by: Watch_Tower

  Updated: 08-06-06

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths: Great Picture Quality | Hugh 2.5" LCD | 8MP | Supersonic Wave Filter to eliminate all of the Dust | Light Weight | Durable | Very Easy to Use

  Weaknesses: Poor AF in Low Light

  Overall Evaluation: The Olympus Evolt E-500 is by far the best camera in the consumer digital SLRs. As a Circuit City employee I have experience with the Olympus Evolt E-500, Nikon D50& D70, Canon Rebel XT, and the New Sony Alpha A100. I have found the Olympus the easiest to use and operator. It is the best bang for the buck, especially if you get the dual lens kit. It is the most consumer oriented DSLR, but it still has all of the features if not more than its competitors. The picture quality is amazing, with sharp detail, and great colors. The only downfall that I have with this is with the auto focus mechanism seems to perform very poorly in low light situations; in order to overcome this switch on the "AF Illuminator" mode, allowing the camera to send out about 3 "pulses" of the flash to measure the distance of the subject. Keep in mind that can get extremely annoying if your subject is a person. I have found that the Canon Rebel XT performance just like the Evolt-500 in low light with the "pulses" of light, only I have found no way of disabling it on the Canon unlike the Olympus. If you know you're going to be doing a lot of low light shots you would want to look into the Olympus FL-36 Flash or the Nikon D50, which is a baulker camera and only 6MP. What I always tell my customers is to remember they are not just buying a camera now but a camera for life, meaning you want to stick with the same brand as you can use your valuable lenses with a camera upgrade down the road. Over all I am very pleased with my camera and would buy it again without hesitation, it is one of the finest feeling cameras to hold and is of high craftsmanship with a light body.

• Reviewed by: 3DFreek

  Updated: 06-01-06

  Overall Rating: 4 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:7 Days

  Strengths: Great feature list, Automatic modes really good

  Weaknesses: Auto focus can be tricky

  Overall Evaluation: I've owned my E-500 for a week now... I also purchased a twinMOS 2 gig 140x memory card from NewEgg. The camera is lighting fast with this card... I can easily get (without flash) 2.5 frames per second. I have taken 400 or 500 pics with it so far and most of them are astonishing. The first pics I took were in fully automatic mode "portrait". They were of flowers and are brilliant in color but a little off focus. I found that the default focus method doesn't focus sharp enough on small subjects so you need to adjust the camera so that it only focuses with the center point instead of all three points. Anyone else having this problem? Once changed, shots are very sharp indeed. (I can live with it!!) Motion shots that I've taken are in the fully automatic "sports" mode and this camera stops motion perfectly... with autofocus set and continous shooting mode set you simply line up your shot and hold down the shutter... later you can find the best picture of the group. I bought the two lens set and can tell you that I will use both lenses equally... the wide angle has an effective range of 25mm as compared to a 35mm camera and it's bright and clear when used. I use the wide indoors because it lets in more light and you can get more of the surroundings... be careful with any wide angle becase it will produce a somewhat strange result at the edges (fisheye). The zoom is great for outdoor shooting when you never know how far out your shot will originate. I've gotten some really nice shots of the quarter moon and with the 8 megapixel you can crop and zoom these images without any loss. We took hundereds of pictures of our kids playing in the water and throwing the water straight up and then it crashes down on their heads... the sports setting will completely stop the motion and what remains is water that looks more like ice... AMAZING!!! I love this camera, Several years earlier I purchased an E-10 and it was amazing in it's day... The reviews here on PC World convinced me to take another chance on Olympus and I'm very glad I did... What a price, what a value!!!

• Reviewed by: hfeng

  Updated: 01-10-06

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:1 Weeks

  Strengths: Nice and large size LCDMany features for advanced usersCompact design and light-weightAmple fine-tuing optionsCompetitive pricingExcellent image qualityHigh-quality lense

  Weaknesses: Battery door lock can jam infrequentlyAccessories inadequate

  Overall Evaluation: I got this camera for a week. I love it! Excellent picture quality and many options for advanced users. It's also very user-friendly for beginners. It took a few minutes to set it up.Decent battery life. However, the charger needs an external cord, which many people may not prefer.The knit does not include adequate accessories. So you have to spend $$$ to get compact flash (1GB or bigger), extra lense and a case. (well, a case costs close to $50). Overall, I think I am quite impressed by this product, and give it the highest rating.

• Reviewed by: Network Solution

  Updated: 12-11-05

  Overall Rating: 4 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:30 Days

  Strengths: fast focus, smooth operation

  Weaknesses: noise at high iso settings

  Overall Evaluation: The camera is a successful upgrade for E300 which I also previous owned. The bulit quality isn't as solid as E300, but you can still feel it's well made.The focous was pretty quick, and menus are well placed. The only thing I don't really like is above ISO400, it's pretty much useless unless you want to like the noisy film taste -- and you do need to convert it to b/w otherwise the picture get too ugly.One thing you need to notice is the default setting for the flash is too weak, up to +0.7EV, and you'll get bright and well balanced images.

• Reviewed by: speaklightly

  Updated: 11-23-05

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:1 Months

  Strengths: A very easy to use dSLR nicely oriented to new users and photographers with little experience. The two lens kit is a bargain.

  Weaknesses: This is not a pocket or a small throw it in your purse kind of camera,

  Overall Evaluation: Uniquely, the Olympus E-500 will please all ranges of photographic users, from beginners to advanced, as well as all in between. Olympus is to be complimented for scaling the dSLR camera to such a wide audience.The two lens kit, which includes the OLY 14-45mm lens and the OLY 40-150mm lenses is a real bargain. The lenses in the 2 lens kit are far above the quality of most, so called, "kit lenses" included with the N & C dSLR cameras. At a minimal cost, the user will be have an effective range (in 35mm terms) of 28mm to 300mm because the Olympus lens additive is 2:1. Especially when using the vivid mode the Olympus E-500 easily produces well exposed, brightly saturated photos, that most traditional sanapshooters are accustomed to seeing in their photos.For the more advanced photographers, the E-500 offers all of the features, bells, and whistles anyone could ask for in a dSLR.All in all this is a digital camera that can take great photos for such about any level of photographer. I would highly recommend the Olympus E-500 digital camera.

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