EVOLT E-500 (Olympus)

25 SHOOTING MODES.
The EVOLT E-500 makes it so simple to capture great pictures with 15 easily selectable scene modes and 10 exposure modes that all you need to do is point it in the right direction.

ALL DIGITAL LENSES.
Each pristine Zuiko digital-specific lens is perfectly matched to the camera's image sensor and features an internal CPU for direct communication with the camera to produce super sharp, bright, colorful pictures from edge-to-edge.

BIG, BRIGHT 2.5" HYPERCRYSTAL LCD.
View and share pictures with outstanding color and contrast - up to a 160-degree viewing angle, from left to right and up and down - on this super high-resolution 2.5" HyperCrystal LCD that makes pictures stand out and menu options and icons simple to see.

DUAL MEDIA SLOTS.
Shoot, store or backup pictures on your preferred choice of an xD-Picture Card, CompactFlash or both with the convenience of two media card slots.

SPEED AND QUALITY WITH TRUEPIC.
Our exclusive TruePic TURBO Image Processor delivers a camera that responds with impressive speed from the moment it's turned on and smooth, colorful images every time.

SPOTLESS PICTURES.
Olympus is the only digital camera manufacturer that has a proven anti-dust system. Our exclusive Supersonic Wave FilterTM vibrates 35,000 times per second to eliminate dust from the image sensor, along with any concern you'll ever have about changing lenses ... anywhere. With the EVOLT E-500 you can be confident that you’ll get spot-free pictures, every time.

ADVANCED 8 MEGAPIXEL CCD.
The full-frame transfer CCD is designed to capture more information from each individual pixel to help you receive brilliant results from edge-to-edge with a full range of color, contrast and detail.

Steve's Digicams
"The Olympus EVOLT E-500 is a full-featured, 8-megapixel digital SLR camera that was designed to be used easily by photographers of any skill level...(and) delivers the versatility and power that are the hallmarks of a performance SLR, but at an affordable $799 USD price." - Steve's Digicams

Much like an Olympus digicam, the EVOLT E-500 has a wide selection of Scene modes for common shooting situations. The Mode dial covers the basic Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Sports, and Night Portrait modes, but the Scene setting opens up even more. Landscape and Portrait, Children, High key, Low key, and Candle modes are among the interesting offerings that are not often seen on digital SLR cameras. Also missing from the E-300 but present on the E-500 are separate Full Auto and Program modes.

In addition to Black and White and Sepia, Olympus has added new filter and tint modes to the Black and White shooting option. Much as you can on the Rebel XT and EOS 20D, you can set modes that emulate color filters used in traditional film-based black and white photography, useful for darkening skies, for example. Filters include Yellow to darken skies, Orange to enhance sunset shots, Red to give dramatic contrast in skies, and Green to improve contrast in skin tones and foliage. Black and white images can also be tinted Blue, Purple, and Green.

Three color settings allow the user to select the type of color output they want, a common strategy among consumer SLR manufacturers. Film and digicam manufacturers have been amping the color on our images for so long that when a digital SLR comes along and gives us true color, we assume something's wrong; the color seems so dull. The human mind remembers colors more vividly than the eye sees them, so film companies like Kodak learned long ago to give our minds what they want. The E-500 does the same. The default setting is Vibrant, but you can set the camera to Natural and Muted if you like. Natural and Muted will be easier to modify later in programs like Photoshop, so experienced computer photo tweakers will want to use these settings, but consumers will probably be more happy with Vibrant mode (we'll see when we test the real deal.