at this price, you could buy six E-500s before getting into the Titanium market per Digital SLRs.

Olympus has done their homework and provided fast setups for most picture situations one would come across. So point and shoot, and the camera will do the rest. It is really hard to take a bad picture with this setup! But they didn't stop there. Olympus also allows you to modify the quick setups manually per your creative desires per the moment. So use the quick setups to get on target, then modify it per your special needs.

The camera comes with the lower end Zuikor 14-45mm and 40-150mm lenses. Not as good as the high-end Zuikor ED lenses, but much better than any point-n-shoot camera. I keep an Olympus SP-350 in the car, which comes in handy when you rub fenders with another car! It is also an 8 MegaPixel camera, but take the same pic with the SP-350 and the E-500, and the quality is definitely noticeable.

The good news. The E-500 is a quality professional camera at a great price.

The bad news. The accessories cost more than the camera! You can spend $6,000 if you want to goto a 300mm Zuikor ED lens (600mm equivalent per a 35mm film camera). Even the basics are overpriced per Flash Brackets and Sync Cords.

But if you are looking to find a camera to match your creative talent, it is well worth considering the Olympus E-500.

Who am I? I was a wedding photographer for years using Nikons, Hasselblads, and Mamiyas. I also worked with Rocky Gunn in California, considered at the time to be one of the top ten wedding photographers in the USA. Time and decades have passed, and I've moved on to other more profitable endeavors. Still my heart was in still photography. And for all my years of experience, I'm hard pressed to find a major flaw with the E-500. So check it out and decide for yourself.

Best Regards,
George

 ________________________________________________________________

          
 Best $$$/performance ratio, April 4, 2006
Reviewer: M. Lo
Think no further if you have been looking for a low price dslr, this is the camera for you. You will never get the same quality pictures out of the competition at the same price levels. Its competitors bundle low quality kit lenses that will never match the ones on Olympus kits. The 14-45 is as sharp (some even say sharper) as the pro 14-54 2.8-3.5, and the 40-150 is the best amateur tele lens in any system. With this two lens kit it will be long before you think about upgrading. On other systems, you will have to spend twice as much in order to get the same optical performance.
Low price doesn't mean lack of features. 8 megapixels, beginner modes, plus all the advanced options pro dsrls have. It is well built and has sensor cleaning technology. Never worry about dust!!
Pictures come out great with no post processing, usual in Olympus. Get it, you will not regret it. No camera gives more bang for your $$$.
________________________________________________________________

           
Great Camera, March 23, 2006
Reviewer: Yiannis CHRYSOSTOMIDIS
Great Camera for a great value. Two interchangeable lenses with very good quality for the money. Very nice and clear pictures
________________________________________________________________

          
 Best deal, February 24, 2006
Reviewer: ostawookiee "ostawookiee" ews, and finally chose the Olympus E500 over the equivalent Nikon and Canon. What sold me on it was the relatively identical quality shots produced, the lower price, and the new Four-Thirds system, which I think really sets it apart from the other digital SLRs out there (if you're not familiar with 4/3, PLEASE read up on it). Battery life has been awesome, even with lots of flash and LCD reviewing.

There's two things I would change about it:
Autofocus in low light - you can use the annoying strobe flash to aid it, but otherwise it doesn't focus well, which surprises me because my Olympus C-60 has no issue with this.
Lack of a "Supermacro" - this is understandable as you can get a macro lens for it, but again, the lesser model C-60 has this feature built in, and so if I need to get a super close shot, I revert back to my C-60!
________________________________________________________________

          
What's not to love?, February 17, 2006
Reviewer: R. A Gibson
Olympus got this camera right. Great 4/3rds sensor takes crisp, beautiful shots edge to edge. You have beginner options in the umpteen shooting modes available (check out high key and low key, they're wonderful). You can save to Compactflash AND/OR XD picture card (you're not going to run out of room on a shoot provided the cards are large enough). You have advanced options like using the Adobe RGB color space. Menus are intuitive and smart. Options you'll reference often either have their own button or are at the top of the menu stack. Autofocus works very well in all but the poorest lighting conditions. I've taken portraits, landscapes, sports photos, macros, indoor and outdoor and been satisfied with them all. Olympus's decision to bundle the body with the two lenses (admittedly Zuiko's lower end stuff... the 14-45mm & the 40-150) gets you a setup you can use for nearly every situation from the get go (Note: an affordable 18-180mm has been released, demand is high and everyone has this lens backordered). You can shoot at varying qualities, but I've grown accustomed to Camera Raw which this camera supports. RAW gives you so much more flexibility in correcting your shots after the fact. Battery life is better than point and shoots because the LCD is NOT used to compose the shot. You use the viewfinder, as is the case with all dSLRs except for the soon to be released E-330 (April 1, 2006). Bottom line, I've taken 4000 photos with this camera since late November and I don't have a single complaint. I use the camera 3-4 times a week and I'll confess if something happened to it now, I'd need therapy. So if you're sitting on the fence about purchasing this camera, you need not be. Go ahead, spend the rent money (just a joke Moms, no letters please) and have a blast with a great camera. After all, what's not to love?

   Back to Olympus EVOLT E500 8MP