Self Cleaning Mirror.
User friendly.
14 pre-set shooting modes.
Excellent auto operation, including great focus.
Long battery life.
2 different memory storage systems built in (CF and XD).
Sturdy ergonomically built body, with great controls.
Great platform to enter the high-grade of digital imaging. Easy to learn and build skill with.

Viewfinder for TTL is small, but NOT unmanageable. I wear glasses and I am still able to get what I want viewing through the small eyepiece. The newer Olympus DSLR cameras have LIVE VIEW in the large LCD screen and that may suit you better.

Pros: Olympus combined with Zuiko glass is without peer. The combinations of utility and user override, great shooting controls and features, the Olympus Evolt 500 is a complete digital camera. 14 shooting modes, very capable AUTO programming, and the full gamut of user selected control makes this camera sweet to operate. I have NEVER had a moment that I was not able to get this camera to do what my intentions were to do. Self-cleaning feature is incredibly effective. I've yet to see any unwanted elements in my captured images. 4/3rd lens size availability is excellent, and other manufacturers are upping the inventory of available glass for the full Olympus 4/3 digital camera lineup. The 500 was lone camera in a field that now boasts 5 different Olympus DSLR cameras. This camera is easy to use, easy to create beautiful images with, and for the price relatively easy on the pocket book. Sets with lenses have always been a great deal. The set with lenses also allows the new camera owner the opportunity to get to work, putting this camera system to its limits right away. I am considering moving up to the E3, Olympus' newest DSLR. I won't be getting rid of my 500, I will simply use one or the other in two different shooting modes and maximize the fun Olympus brings to digital photography. I came, I saw and I am glad I bought an Olympus - the camera has truly been a blessing for conveying my desire to share what I see. Words of advice... Go for it, you'll never regret purchasing this fine piece of equipment!

Customer Service

Have not had to use "Repair." I have had the pleasure of using The Olympus Store for after market items I sought. Helpful, friendly, competitively priced and a pleasure to do business with.

Similar Products Used:

My first Olympus was back in the 1960's - an Olympus Pen F/T. Olympus and Zuiko have never stopped improving upon their products.

Price, quality/ sensor cleaner (anti-dust), very easy pre-programmed functions, good feel.

Small Viewer, purple fringing on wide angle zoom, Above average noise levels and softness on iso 800 and above.

This camera kit has 2 good lenses , with my favorite being the 40-150 zoom.
Easy to use and high quality prints from Costco's uploading service. The longer zoom appears to have less chroma ab's than the wide angle. I bought because I have old OM lenses, but the lenses appear "green" when processed. I am very satisfied with the battery runtime and also very happy with the camera's speed from shot to shot. Looks film-like when processed. Great Value!

Customer Service

unknown.

Similar Products Used:

non/sony f717 previous camera

Easily navagating thru the menu
Great feel to the camera, nice to carry and hold when using.
Crystal clear pictures.
Built in flash takes really good pictures, even in low light.
Comes with lens hoods for both lenses.

Camera struggles to focus on distant objects. I miss being able to focus to infinity in a hurry.

The E-500 is the first DSRL that I have owned. Up until now I have shot only with film cameras. But because I am getting more serious with my photography I wanted to upgrade. What attracted the the E500 two kit lens was the price. I also felt that with the two lenses the kit would do me for quiet awhile without upgradeing or buying an additional lens later.
I have found the Olympus camera to be a very easy to use camera. The menu is easy to navigate and there are many short cut buttons, some programmable, that makes changing basic settings quick. White balance, ISO, AF features, spot metering can be changed in a flash.
You can use it in automatic settings and get some very good results. When I am chasing kids around with a camera I have little time to think of changing settings. This camera performs very well in those conditions. But when I am taking landscape pictures I like to have much more control of things and this camera can produce some stunning pictures.

Ease of use. You can change your settings three different ways. Find what works best for you and you can even save two custom settings for yourself.

Price point can't be beat.

Kit lenses don't feel cheap and cover a wide range 14mm to 150mm (28 to 300 35mm equiv)

Dual card slots (CF and Xd)

Long battery life

Lots of lenses to buy now.

Feels good in your hand.

Just a fun piece of equipment.

People complain about the viewfinder being too small. I don't see it and the only ones I've heard this from all seem to wear glasses (my experience only) You can buy the magnifying eyepiece for $40 that will increase the magnification by 1.2.

I don't like the camera's built in flash for AF assist. It is annoying with the mulitple burst it puts out and it can agitate your subjects. But with the FL-36, you don't have this problem. I don't even use the built in flash generally.

Takes longer to turn on than most cameras (about three seconds), but in the scheme of all things, so what.

Because of these I only give it an overall of 4, but I've yet to see a camera that's perfect.

This is my first time here, but I purchased the camera in the middle of December, so I have had it for about a month. In that time, I've actually shot a wedding (as the second camera), a new year's eve party, a basketball game, a general get together, and just walked around and shot anything I thought would look good.

I have to say I did a lot of research before I picked this camera. My other choices were the Nikon D80, the Sony A100, the Canon XTi, and the Pentax K10D. Luckily for me, I have a great camera shop right in my town and went down to play with all of them. The first knock off was the Canon. I just didn't like how "cheap" it felt in my hands. And I didn't like the kit lens that came with it. The Nikon went next mainly for the price (which I still feel is overpriced, but my sister in law bought one and I've got to say it is a nice piece of equipment.) The Sony seemed too soft when reviewing the photos it took and the lense wasn't the most impressive. the Pentax K10 is a great camera, but for $999, you get the body and one lense. for $1100 I got the E-500 body, both kit lenses, a 4 gig 120x CF card, a camera bag, a CF usb reader, cleaning cloth, and a FL-36 flash (complete with Sigma bounce card and four AA rechargable batteries with the charger). This also included buying an extra two year warranty. I dare somebody to beat that!

What do you really lose? The anti-shake the new cameras offer and two megapixels (that you won't notice anyway)

What I really like about the camera is its options. You can really customize it to your liking. One point people seem to put the e-500 down about is its lack of a secondary screen on top, but to me, you have the information on the LCD (in two different formats) and inside the viewfinder itself. You just have to pull the camera away from you to see what's happening, not turn it up.

It's pretty light with the 14-45mm lense, but you will feel the weight of the 40-150mm after awhile. I think the response is pretty quick and focusing is good. Many choices of how you want to save your photos is a breeze and I find myself using super high quality jpgs and Raw a lot. Although set at high quality 1.4 compression, you can shoot until the card is full. I've only gotten as many as five in a burst with Raw or SHQ.

Detail is great, but the camera really shines when you add the FL-36 flash. The whole system is digital and it shows as the lense, body and flash all work together. When the batteries are fully charged, the flash resets in from one to five seconds, depending on how bright your burst was, bounce options, etc. I get about 200 shots for the flash before I have to recharge. I get about 400-500 shots before I have to change the camera battery. More if I turn the LCD off and only use it for setting my options.

By trade I am a graphic designer and video editor as well on the side, so the 4:3 ratio made sense to me. I can take shots that will natively fit into projects that I am doing. Besides, the only 3:2 ratio in use today is photos that are 4 by 6 inches. I commonly print 13 by 19 and I've been printing out a lot of 8 by 10's of native photos from the camera with no photoshopping and the colors are marvelous, clear, and very detailed. Depth of field is good and getting some macro shots with the kit lenses works very well, but I'm sure a dedicated lense would be better.

Customer Service

Have no use for them yet.

Similar Products Used:

Canon XT 300D, Nikon D80, Canon XTi 400D, Sony Alpha A100, Pentax K10D

Not too heavy
Fits well in hands
Has 15 automatic modes of picture taking
Has manual setting
lens is good, nice clean, clear pictures with not a lot of noise
one of the cheaper dslr cameras

auto focus is a little slow
would rather have the 14-54 instead of the 14-45 although kit lens is a good one
really missing that 40-150 lens!

I love this camera! This is my first dslr so I can not compare it to others but, I enjoy it's easy to use functions, fits well in my hands and takes excellent pictures. The lens that came with it works well enough, I get great pictures but I am regretting not getting the two lens kit. My kids are in sports and I love taking candid shots so I am a little frustrated I can't zoom in any closer but all in all this lens and camera have more than met my expectations of a dslr. I believe for a first timer, this dslr is the perfect choice! And after reading many different reviews on the 4/3 system of lenses, I am convinced that Oly has one of the best series of lenses available, and at not too high a price.

Customer Service

have not experienced CS yet

Light weight, small body that does not draw attention.

Fast menu design.

Beautiful, HUGE LCD screen.

2X the focal length.

No AF assist other than popup flash.

Noise over ISO 800 is a problem, but no more than other DSLRs.

Manual Focus By Wire.

Only one control wheel.

Wow, what a great camera!

I bought this little gem after selling off all of my Canon equipment, and let me just say that I do not regret the choice to move to Oly one bit.

I have had this camera for just over a week now, and I am ecstatic over the image quality. I mainly shoot in full manual with the ISO set to 160 (Do that with a Canon!), and so far the image quality has been nothing short of stunning. All the whining about noise is way over blown. At low ISOs it's no more noisy than my D60 was, and at higher ISOs it's not much worse than my Canons were. If you expose well and do not have to do a lot of post with images over ISO 400 then you will get images that are still stunning and detailed.

The more menu oriented control system took some getting used to, and for a guy that never thought he would ever use such a system, let me just say Olympus got it right. These guys did their home work. Using the menus to change settings like ISO, Focus Mode, WB, etc... is natural and fast.

I have to admit, it was hard to get used to the idea of no top LCD for quick settings changes, but after using the E-500 I see now that using the top LCD only made me turn the camera over and waste time.

Having only one control wheel is a downside for me. I figure if you are only going to have the one wheel then aperture selection should be on the lens barrel, where it belongs anyway. Also I have trouble with the Focus By Wire stuff. I find manual focus to be somewhat difficult, mostly because the focus ring offers no resistance. Usually I just see the focus go right by, and by the time I have backed up I have missed the shot, or I just can't locate the sweet spot again. This is not a huge issue for me, because I don't manual focus very often do to poor eyesight.

The size of the camera is an issue for some, but for me it is one of the reasons I chose to go with the 4/3 system. I was tired of the size of my Canon and the attention it garnered me. After years of photography I have learned the virtue of being inconspicuous, of blending into the crowd. If you want to stand out and look like a member of the NFL Films crew, then more power to ya', but for me there is something to be said for just fitting in.

The camera feels great in my hand, and even though I have very big hands it doesn't get swallowed up and disappear. The grip is deep and comfortable, and the camera is so light, even with the 40-150mm and my flash attached to it. toting it around all day on an outting is like wearing a necklace compared to my old D60 with V-Grip and lens.

The screen is HUGE, and the best I have seen on a digital camera. No matter what angle you view it from it is clear, bright, and contrasty. The only downside to it is when you have it on in low light situations it can pretty much blind you as you try to look through the viewfinder. I have to turn mine off when I am not shooting outside in bright light.

The Viewfinder is not huge, but all the pertinent information is displayed, and for the size of the camera, and lenses it is a good size, and much brighter than I had been led to believe. I had read that using the VF on the E-500 was like peering down a long dark tunnel. Well, that is just not true. It is comparable to any other VF on any other camera in its class.

The focus is fast and accurate. In fact none of my Semi-Pro Canons ever performed half as well in that regard. I would like to have had an AF assist light, but the flash does a good job of that. If you have an Olympus external FlashPak it will use that as an assist.

I am a BIG fan of the fact that with the 4/3 system every lens focal length is automatically doubled. What this means is that you get longer focal lengths with lenses that are half the size. As a nature/wildlife photographer this is a huge advantage for me as a 300mm lens suddenly becomes an 600mm lens on this camera. With my D60 that would have only panned out to 480mm.

Finally, the camera is really quite speedy. With a fast card it shoots 6 RAW+SQJPEG images at 3FPS. Not too shabby. Add to that the speed of refresh with a fast Compact Flash card and it can hang pretty well with the Nikons and Canons of the world. Of course if you have slower cards you will get slower results, but not but a whole lot. However, it does get quite slow with XD cards, which in my humble opinion should only be used in dire circumstances. The only real reason to own one is the small size and easy portability. In fact you can just keep one in the camera full time, because the camera is set to use CF by default unless you choose XD or have no CF card in the camera it will not use it at all, and an XD card adds no weight, so it's not a bad idea to have one, but don't expect to rely solely on an XD card and be happy with it.

Well thats it. All and all I really like the Olympus E-500, and I am glad I have one.

Customer Service

Not needed...yet.

Similar Products Used:

Canon DSLRs, Minolta DiMage 7i.

Dual lens Kit for 800
Manual settings
Menu is easy to use
Buttons are under fingers

Takes a long time to preview after long (20 sec +) exposures
Noise over 400 iso

Two Lens Kit 8.0 MP.

The Kit really works for me with two lenses for that price you can't really beat it. Noise is a problem in color over 400 iso. However to avoid that shoot in black and white. It still has the noise but it isn't as distracting as having the blue and red squares all over. Dual card slot so if you have any old xd cards you can use them as well as the Compact Flash.

Menu is fairly easy to navigate even if you don't have the manual with you.
The auto focus works great in regular lighting situations, but in the dark it has trouble. I use the manual focus ring setting in these situations.

It was an easy transition from my Minolta x700 film camera.

All in all it has been a reliable, versatile camera.

Similar Products Used:

Minolta x700 film

- excellent ergonomics
- quiet shutter/mirror reflex
- small and light, balances well with the 11-22 and 40-150 lenses
- extensive features
- compatible with Sigma and Leica-D lenses
- dust buster

- no muti-spot metering
- no dedicated button for DOF preview
- no Off-the-film metering capability (OTF)
- small viewfinder

basically, these are the things missing from my OM-4... :)

- not acceptable noise above ISO640
- white balance accuracy

I bought this camera with the 17-45 and 40-150 kit lenses for RM2800. This is a very solidly built camera with a comfortable grip. The ergonomics is quite good, especially the photographic controls are very well laid out near the shutter button. The shutter/mirror reflex is not as quiet as the OM-1, but it is okay for me. Along with the 11-22 lens, this is my favorite combo.

Similar Products Used:

Olympus C-750UZ

Some strenghs of this camera are, its easy to use, and the factory auto settings are pretty good as far as exposure and focusing goes, in normal day time use. Easy to use with any computer, no special software, or wires.
Easy to change ISO for indoor/outdoor photos, ISO goes from 100-1600. If your using the external flash the battery last a long time, i have taken about 500 photos on one battery.

Some weeknesses in focusing in low light, but can be fixed by using external flash.

I have owned my Olympus E-volt 500 for about a year now and It is the best camera that i have ever owned, If you buy one you have to buy the flash for it, It will make your photos alot better, The reson I bought mine is that it was on sale at casto and digital SLR at the time were verry expensive and the $899.00 that i paid for my camera was well worth it,
Alot of the pictures that i take with my camera are of my friends and family, when i show my pictures some people think at first that i had a studio take pictures. This camera takes verry sharp and clear pictures, 8 megapixles goes a long way when you enlarge your prints, I have make some 20x30 of some of my shots and they stay sharp and clear.

Similar Products Used:

Minolta freedom Zoom 65, Minolta Maxxum300 si, Minolta QT si maxxum, Olymps Camedia c-50 zoom.

* LCD 2.5"
* usable spot (shadow/highlight) metering like Olympus OM-4
* Fast response
* Anti-Dust sensor
* Impressive Color rendition (Natural Skintone)

* Noisy for ISO > 400
* No battery grip option
*

one of the best price/performance in its class.
Fastest camera on Olympus D-SLR family.

Customer Service

none

Similar Products Used:

Olympus E-1
Canon EOS 30D