Digital cameras have been improving in quality since their popularity increased a few years ago. Olympus has introduced one of the best digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras I’ve seen, the EVOLT E-500.

The EVOLT E-500 is a 8.0 megapixel camera with a 2.5″ LCD that is bigger than most cameras today. The E-500 also has a dust reduction system and a dual card slot that accepts both CompactFlash and xD memory cards. The E-500 comes with either a 14-45mm lens and a 40-150mm lens for closeups, but the kit we reviewed came with only the 14-45mm lens.

The dust reduction system is a very unique feature, and is making it’s way into most digital SLRs these days. It works by vibrating the image sensor at 35,000 times per second, being unnoticeable to the user, which means you have no specks of dust on your images requiring you to edit them. The downside is that it delays the startup of the camera by almost 2 seconds, not good for when you need that quick shot. Nevertheless, it is a good feature.

The 8.0 megapixel full frame CCD allows you to capture virtually stunning images that will be sure to attract many people to your photos in an instant. The 8.0 megapixels allow you to take images at a whopping 3264 x 2448 pixels at it’s highest resolution. Unfortunately, I was unable to capture and upload sample images as I had some issues with the xD card that Olympus had sent me. However, DCRP has some sample images you can look at that have been taken with this amazing camera.

Some images that were captured had some noise in them and some jagged edges, but these problems could eventually be fixed in post-editing. The burst mode was a bit slower than my own Nikon D50 but if you don’t care for this feature (and beginner users probably won’t) you have nothing to worry about.

The LCD on the back of the camera was large and excellent for previewing photos. The E-500 allows you to zoom in on an image, allowing you to see an image clearly before viewing it on your computer. Speaking of your computer, the E-500 only uses USB 2.0 Full Speed (slower), not USB 2.0 High Speed (faster) to transfer images, so transferring large RAW files could take longer than usual JPG images. Unfortunately, using this nice LCD does use quite a bit of battery life, and you might not want to use it all the time since the battery takes a hefty five hours to fully complete a charge.

Overall, the EVOLT E-500 is a killer digital SLR camera that is great for a beginner who wants to get started with an SLR camera. Note: For more on SLR cameras and their differences, see the Wikipedia page explaining SLR.

Pros

• Truly stunning images.
• Huge LCD compared to other cameras in it’s class.
• Great price point.
• Dual memory cards accepted (CF and xD).

Cons

• Startup is delayed by dust reduction system.
• Battery takes a long time to charge.
• Only uses USB 2.0 Full Speed.
• Burst mode is slower than others.

Final Verdict
4 out of 5 stars.

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