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Olympus EVOLT E-500 with 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens & 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 lens
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"Last camera you will ever buy!" on by CbrettC
Pros: Easy yet can be complex, truly film quality photos.
Cons: Limited accessories available... yet
Summary: Being a life long advanced amateur photographer (40+ years), I am all but certain this will be the last camera that I will buy. It delivers truly high quality film equivalent photos. In the "Auto" modes, I will reiterate plural "MODES" a child can operate it very successfully. This camera also allows the user to do as they wish with available manual modes, try doing that with other digitals - good luck. There are too many positive things to say about this product, if you are interested read the user guide available on the manufacturers web site. If you intend to run prints yourself be absolutely certain to buy QUALITY BRAND NAME – printer designed for photos, ink and paper, these will be your weak link. The only con I have encountered is the minimal accessories that are available at this time, a lens doubler and some basic filters would be huge.
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"So easy to operate" on by SuznG
Pros: Spectacular photos, nice feel, love the two lenses
Cons: Haven't encountered any yet
Summary: I spent a great deal of time researching before buying this camera. As a matter of fact, I had pretty much decided on the E-300 when this came on the market, so I was ecstatic. And, it hasn't let me down. Very little effort required in taking excellent photos.
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"Point & Shoot or Creative Photography? Do Both!" on by jdsailor
Pros: Competitive Price, Good Lenses, Broad Feature Set
Cons: None to date
Summary: I'm not what you would call an early adopter of new technologies. I was perfectly content shooting a 1970-something Contax & primaries until a friend borrowed and broke it 5 years ago. I replaced it with a Nikon N-65 and was introduced to the luxuries of zoom lenses, auto-focus, auto-exposure, scene modes and such about 25 years after the rest of the world had forgotten what a fully manual camera looked like. I never much liked that Nikon. After lugging an all metal body and case full of lenses around, it seemed too light & toy-like. A two week vacation last summer stunned me with another draw back to new-fangled ways--it was too easy to use. Not having to select & change lenses, focus the chosen lens, study the light meter, mentally calculate exposure settings, advance the film, reconfirm the light and finally trip the shutter made it all too easy burn up great gobs of film. (That motor drive costs a lot more than the price of the motor). I came home with so many rolls of exposed film, the photo processing added 20% to the cost of the trip and too many of those easily taken shots really weren't worth the cost of the paper they were printed on. Reason enough to try digital.
I set out in search of a digital SLR that would give me the manual control I enjoyed with the Contax and ease of use I'd become accustomed to with the Nikon. A price ceiling of "under $1,000" quickly limited the field to Canon Rebel, Nikon D-50/D-70, Olympus E-1, Evolt300 or Evolt500. (Pentax & Minolta products were reviewed but not considered because no local dealer seemed to stock them). I settled on the Olympus because the 4/3rds format makes sense. Preserving the aspect ratio of 35mm film strikes me as more historic legacy than intelligent design. I might have thought differently if I still had a bag full of 35mm primaries but I sold them with the damaged Contax body and the kit lens that came with the Nikon wasn't worth enough to be a consideration. The Olympus also "feels solid" which is not the way I'd describe the Rebel and it offers 8 mega-pixels in comparison to the 6mp Nikon D-50/D-70. I hadn't any experience with Olympus lenses but the reviews were pretty good and I've since found them to be quite sharp.
The Evolt 500 offers an amazing set of "scene modes" (25!). This enables point & shoot ease of use but gives better results than you'd get with a single full auto setting. More importantly, I find this to be a very good training tool. It is fun to calculate exposure, white balance, sharpness and all the rest of it, take the best shot I know how to take, hedge my bets by bracking both white balance & exposure settings and then switch to the appropriate scene mode and let the camera do the thinking. Comparing the finished images, on screen without the delay or expense of a photolab is teaching me a lot about what does and doesn't work. Before buying this camera, I also debated between the Evolt-500 and Olympus E-1. With 20-20 hindsight, I am glad I chose the less expensive Evolt-500. It probably isn't as durable and I'm told the dynamic range of the sensor isn't as good but the ability to use all those pre-programmed scene modes is quite handy when all you really want to do is take a snapshot and the ability to compare studied shots to the results obtained with scene mode settings has proven to be an invaluable tool for learning the fine art of digital photography. For this purpose, the Evolt seems a better choice than the Canon/Nikon competition simply because it offers more pre-programmed scene modes.
I've also been comparing the finished results obtainable using PaintShop Pro-10 and the bundled Olympus software. Olympus Master isn't as fully featured but it produces outstanding results. I'd recommend to anyone buying this camera that they stick with the bundled software and save the price of Paintshop/Photoshop products. It will likely take anyone new to digital some time to out-grow Olympus Master and I suspect that if I ever do outgrow it, I'll end up bypassing the Corel/Adobe learning curve and buy the Olympus Studio software that ships with the E-1.
All in all, the Evolt 500 is a very fine camera. It takes good pictures all by itself if that is what you want it to do and it offers enough manual control to appease a tinkerer like me who still misses that bag of primaries and a manual film advance lever. -
"BEST CAMERA EVER" on by Rastus_Man
Pros: has everything one would need in a DSLR.
Cons: i cannot fugure out how to change the setting to black and white or tungsten...
Summary: I cannot believe how good this camera is!!
I saw it in an add in the newspaper. This add said this camera is loaded with features. It also went on to say that it is more capable than all other DSLRs right now, which I believe. I believe this because I have worked with Cannon Rebels everyday in school, my dad has a Nikon D70, and I have played with that also.
I decided on the Olympus because of their reputaton fo great lenses, and all the cool features.
I truly believe that this camera is very much more capable than the othe DSLRs. -
"Good Camera, Bad Company....." on by cellorey
Pros: Camera was easy to use and the pictures I took were good and solid.
Cons: I had a problem with the camera rear panel having movement and being loose. I have tried now for over two months to fix problem but Olympus customer service is ridiculus.
Summary: I physically drove my camera to their Haupauage NY location twice only to receive the camera back in the exact same condition. The first time they sent it back without the camera body cap, I left with them, and with a piece of paper scotch taped to the opening. After the second time of non repair I finally found one person, out of many, willing to try and help me with out transferring me to someone else or telling me someone would call me that never did. He told me to send it in for a replacement. It took them a week or so after having received my camera to send out the new one. When I received the replacement it was the Silver Body version not the Black Body version, which I had originally bought. They now tell me I have no choice in the matter and that I am stuck with the silver camera. They say they have no way of differentiating the camera color when they pull it from the shelf, even though it is clearly marked on every side of the box I received. I am trying to see if they will exchange it but so far I'm being told I am stuck with whatever they sent me as a replacement. I am absolutely astonished at how this has all panned out. I was happy with the cameras performance initially but the company behind it is not solid, as far as customer service, if you happen to have a problem. I was told different things by different people throughout the whole process and made to feel like a nuisance rather than a paying customer. I will never buy an Olympus product again and will probably try and sell this camera and accessories on Ebay and will spring the extra cash for another Manufactures camera. I guess you get what you pay for. The lower price is definitely reflected in the way the support is run. If anyone else has had a similar experience I would like to hear about it.
Updated
The person who had initially finnally gotton me some help called me and set it up for me to go back and exchange the Silver for the Black. I got it and am back up and running. It took sometime but in the end I was helped. I always liked the camera it was just the warranty service delays that I had trouble with. The lower level customer service reps really are not all on the same page but if you esculate your issue the corporat level reps can be helpful.
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