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Back to Full Olympus EVOLT E-500 Review
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	*	8.0-megapixel resolution for 3,264 x 2,448 images.
	*	Interchangeable lens mount fits full range of ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses.
	*	Larger 2.5-inch LCD monitor.
	*	Full range of manual and automatic exposure control.
	*	Accommodates both CompactFlash and xD-Picture Cards.
	*	Expanded exposure options for more flexibility.

Manufacturer Overview

The Olympus EVOLT E-500 is the latest entry in a line of digital SLRs based on the "Four Thirds" standard developed jointly by Olympus and Kodak, first announced in fall of 2002. The first Four Thirds camera was the Olympus E-1 SLR, aimed at the professional market, and was followed up by the E-300, which brought the Four Thirds system down to a price range accessible to amateur and "enthusiast" shooters. The E-300 used the same lenses and sensor format as the original E-1, but offered an impressive eight-megapixel resolution, and shipped with a new ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-45mm lens.

Now, the EVOLT E-500 improves on its predecessor, offering the same eight-megapixel CCD, but expanding its exposure options to include more advanced bracketing and metering modes, a larger 2.5-inch LCD monitor, the ability to accept xD-Picture Cards, and a longer maximum exposure time. Many functions and features are the same as on the E-1 and E-300, including the unique "Supersonic Wave" filter that literally shakes dust off of the sensor's front filter, addressing a common problem with digital SLRs and the wide range of automatic and manual exposure modes. The new E-500 also comes in a dual lens kit package, featuring the ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-45mm and 40-150mm lenses. Read on for a full description of the Olympus E-500's features, operating modes, and a detailed analysis of its performance.

High Points

• 8.0-megapixel (effective) CCD with Supersonic Wave Filter delivering image resolutions as high as 3,264 x 2,448 pixels.
• Digital SLR design and true optical viewfinder.
• 2.5-inch, color, Hyper crystal LCD display for image review.
• Lens mount accommodates full range of Olympus ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses.
• Manual and automatic focus modes, with adjustable AF area and Single-Shot and Continuous settings, and manual focus bracketing.
• Shutter speeds from 1/4,000 to 60 seconds, with a Bulb setting (eight-minute limit).
• Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual exposure modes, plus 15 Scene modes.
• Center-Weighted and Digital ESP metering systems, plus three Spot metering options.
• Auto Bracketing and Sequential Shooting capture modes.
• Adjustable White Balance with 10 settings, including a manual adjustment, Kelvin temperature range, and a bracketing option.
• Variable ISO setting, with ISO equivalents from 100 to 1,600 (800 and 1,600 available when enabled in menu).
• Sharpness, Color, Monochrome, and Graduation image adjustments.
• Adobe RGB and sRGB color space options.
• Built-in pop-up flash with six operating modes, intensity adjustment, and bracketing mode.
• Hot Shoe for attaching external flash units, compatible with Olympus' own line of dedicated flash units for better-integrated exposure control.
• JPEG, uncompressed TIFF, and RAW file formats.
• Images saved on CompactFlash cards, xD-Picture cards, and Microdrives (no card included).
• USB cable for fast connection to a computer. (USB auto-connect for driverless connection to Windows Me, XP and 2000, and Mac OS 8.6 or greater.)
• Video cable for connection to a television set.
• Optional remote control.
• Power from rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack (battery and charger included).
• Software CD with Olympus' Camedia Master utility software (includes QuickTime and USB drivers).
• DPOF (Digital Print Order Format)/PictBridge compatibility and print settings.

Comparison to the E-300

To help readers compare the EVOLT E-500 to its sibling the E-300, as well as the current entry-level competitors from other manufacturers, we've combined an in-depth comparison table:

User Report
by Shawn Barnett

It took only a few shots with the EVOLT E-500 for me to decide that this was a very different camera from the E-300 I reviewed late last year. Though the E-300 had a lot going for it, Olympus had simply tried too hard to make it different. This time they tried hard to make it work well in ways we're accustomed to, and the result is a digital SLR that I'd recommend to anyone. I have enjoyed shooting with it at least as much as my favorite digital SLR cameras, and that is saying something. (Very high praise indeed, considering the number of SLRs I've worked with in the last year or two.) The E-500 is going to make a lot of people very happy.

It was September, 2004 that Olympus announced their first SLR aimed at consumers, the EVOLT E-300. I was glad to see them back in the market with a consumer SLR, and I found that though it was an odd shape that remained difficult to accept, I liked quite a bit about the original EVOLT. It captured stunning images. Some of the images I captured with it are still hanging in my home and office. The original EVOLT E-300 had many unique features, some of which were useful. The pop-up flash could be used simultaneously with an external flash to serve as fill light. Most competing camera designs can't achieve this. But the E-300 was heavy and way off balance. Much of the weight seemed to be left of the lens, and the camera wanted to twist out of the right hand. There was also a critical metering flaw that we found, where a bright object at the center of the frame would trick even the normally excellent Olympus Digital ESP mode into underexposing the image. (For those unfamiliar with the term, Digital ESP takes readings from multiple areas of a frame to make its exposure decision and usually handles bright central objects well, without underexposing everything else; the common term is "matrix metering.")

The E-300 was frustrating. I loved the images, but not the design; and this metering problem made the camera difficult to trust (this has been addressed with a recent firmware fix). Further putting me off were all the claims the company was making about how much smaller the EVOLT was than competing designs. Technically, they were right, and their porroprism finder did flatten the top to enable that cool dual-flash trick. But the E-300 didn't seem smaller; and I've never had a problem with pentaprisms for all these years, so why were porroprisms better? It was a daring move, and no one was surprised that it was Olympus who took the chance. Other chances they've taken in the past have changed photography forever.

Though I am a long-time Olympus fan, I was ambivalent about the E-300. That's why I'm so pleased with the E-500. No more odd designs to overlook, no more unique optics for no apparent reason, no more long, heavy body that forces you into vertical shooting mode by virtue of its sheer weight. The E-500 is light and well-balanced.

True to Olympus tradition, the E-500 is smaller than most others, and tightly built. The Olympus E-500 feels like, looks like, and shoots like a nice camera. The only conclusion I can draw is that it is indeed a very nice camera.

Features

Just like the E-300, the Olympus E-500 has an 8 megapixel sensor, a Supersonic Wave Filter (SSWF) for sensor dust reduction, and access to what Olympus is calling the "largest digital lens lineup" among competing SLR systems. The list of new items includes a 2.5 inch HyperCrystal LCD, dual media card slots (xD and CF), an auto pop-up flash (the E-300's was manual), a 49 point ESP light meter, playback red-eye reduction, and a few more exposure and color options.

If you're interested in a detailed feature-by-feature comparison of the Olympus E500 with a number of its competitors, see the SLR comparison table.

Feel

Since I've said so much about the older E-300's feel, I should start with the E-500's. It has the most balanced feel of any digicam since the Nikon D70 hit the scene two years ago. This is the sort of quality you really can't describe; it has to be felt. It varies depending on the lens attached, of course, but with the 14-45mm kit lens attached, the Olympus E-500 is wonderful to hold and shoot. It weighs 1.86 pounds (846 grams) compared to the E-300's 2.06 pounds (936.8g) with a card, lens, and battery.

The grip isn't terribly deep, but it's wide enough that it offers a good long surface area to wrap your fingers around. The grip is nicely textured with a rubbery finish that is warm to the touch. Unlike the E-300, the Olympus E-500's grip is more conventionally cut, with a contoured trapezoidal shape, whereas the E-300 was a big round curve with a raised ridge for added traction. The butt of the grip rests perfectly in my palm, and the pads of all four fingers find a home on the inside of the grip, if only just.

My index finger rests perfectly on the shutter button, without having to twist and contort. I especially like how easy it is to reach the power switch with that same index finger while maintaining a right handed grip on the camera. This was well planned. This switch actuates much like the switch on the E-300 and the Canon Digital Rebel models, jutting out from underneath the mode dial, but it's far better placed on the Olympus E-500.

Only two dials grace the Olympus E-500 (with the exception of the diopter correction dial). The Mode dial has a look of quality, and the main command dial reminds me of the dial on the back of the EOS 20D: loose enough that its easy to turn, but sure in its detents.

The rest of the controls are buttons, and I have no complaints about their operation or placement. The traditional five left of the LCD serve the right purposes, operating the menu, flash, and playback functions. On the right is a five way nav cluster, an AE/AF Lock button, Drive mode button, AF button, and custom function button. The five way nav has dual functions, including White balance, AF, ISO, Metering mode, and OK button. On top, behind the shutter is the EV button On the front, Olympus has emulated the easier position of the lens release button as seen on competing cameras from Nikon and Canon, instead of the rather distant and small button found on the E-300. This new placement makes it a one-motion operation to press this button and begin rotating the lens.

So the controls are pretty simple. Until you get to the menus. We recorded 276 menu screens on the Olympus E-500, so don't let the simple array of buttons make you think this is a camera with limited capability. Though I haven't explored every feature, I found the menu relatively navigable as Olympus menus go. More than normal, they've used full and sometimes multiple words to describe options, an excellent approach.

Getting back to the physical form of the Olympus E-500 for a moment, the door covering the dual-card slot is worth mention. It closes reasonably well with a plastic hook mechanism, and swings to lock open, much like the E-300's door. Competing models don't generally lock open, but I'd like to see it more often. Inside, the CF card releases with a button, while the xD card ejects with a push. Olympus's inclusion of xD card compatibility makes perfect sense, offering existing Olympus digicam owners the option of using their xD cards in their new digital SLR. Offering CF cards similarly allows E-300 and E-1 owners to continue using their existing stock of cards.

I was also happy to see an orange spring-loaded retaining hook holding the battery in place behind the battery door, so the expensive lithium ion battery doesn't fall free when the door is opened. Shock from a fall can very often kill a camera battery. This retention latch was missing from the E-300.

AF

With the major competition sporting between five and seven AF points at this price range, I was at first a little disappointed that the Olympus E-500 has only three. They're horizontally arranged, and the user can select any one of the three or let the camera choose to focus on the nearest object. One of the three AF dots lights red when an AF point is chosen and focus has been achieved. When shooting most multi-point digital SLRs, I actually lock them to the center point, so the E-500's lack of five to seven AF points is not a major loss.

Auto focus is reasonably fast, and though none of the performance numbers blew us away, they were respectable, and in actual shooting I saw little trouble missing a shot due to sluggishness on the camera's part. The one exception was in very low light, the kind of light only a higher-end camera is going to handle, the E-500 wasn't able to lock focus very well. I had my kids run around the living room after dark to see what the camera could do with the light of a single lamp/TV combination. Even with the camera's AF-assist, which takes the form of a pulsed flash, the camera had trouble picking them out. I tried the same experiment with a Canon EOS 20D, a $1,500 camera, and it locked focus very quickly. It's important to note, though, that the Canon Rebel XT performed about the same as the lower priced E-500 in the same test. Once I sat the kids down (not an easy prospect), the camera focused just fine.

While we're here in the viewfinder, I have to confess that I'm not crazy about the exposure information being clustered on the right side of the viewfinder window. It just seems unnatural to have to look that far off to the right to see what's going on with the camera; perhaps if the camera had a higher eyepoint, but I find myself pressing my glasses way up against the viewfinder to see what's going on.

LCD

When I first sat down to start shooting real life with the E-500, I naturally pointed the camera at my family. We sat around the table taking shots, both flash and natural light, and had a blast. Now, I'm always taking pictures of my family, and my son is always asking, "Me see!" after each shot, so they're pretty used to it; that's why it's notable that we all had so much fun with the Olympus E-500. I think the reason was that big LCD. It wasn't just the 2.5 inch size: colors were vibrant, contrast was excellent, and images were sharp. It was like we had little prints we could see right away, instead of a small, slightly washed out image like we're used to seeing from a great many cameras. It wasn't until after I got back to the promotional materials that I remembered how Olympus reps had boasted about the quality of this LCD. They're calling it a HyperCrystal LCD, and it appears to not only deliver a vibrant image around the breakfast table, with a 160 degree viewing angle, but it also performs well out in direct sunlight. We were impressed.

As I mentioned above, the E-300 had trouble in my testing when a white object was found in the center of the frame. I discovered this while test-shooting my daughter, who was wearing a white shirt under a denim jacket. When her hands were at her side, the shirt was mostly covered, and the camera exposed properly. When she put her hands on her hips, the shirt was more exposed, and the camera dramatically underexposed the image. I was simultaneously shooting with the only 8 megapixel camera we had at the time, the EOS 20D (the Rebel XT hadn't been announced yet), and it did not respond the same way. Olympus's Digital ESP metering mode was behaving more like spot metering mode, reading only the center and basing its exposure on the shirt.

The good news is that I have retested the E-500 with the same daughter in a new denim jacket and white shirt (she's grown in a year), and the E-500 performs far better, responding to the scene nearly identical to an EOS 20D. It's clear that while both cameras take the white shirt into account, they're not overwhelmed by it as was the E-300.

New modes

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.

Lenses

Olympus is proud of the fact that they have the largest selection of digital-specific lenses on the market, and four more have been added at the E-500's announcement. As I mentioned earlier in this review, Olympus often sets trends in photography, and they were apparently right when they said it would be better to deliver more light straight at the sensor instead of continuing to use existing 35mm lenses. Since Olympus's discussion of the topic, most manufacturers have come out with digital-specific lenses to better direct more of the light right to the sensor by tightening the image circle created by the lens.

While Olympus does indeed have more lenses, a great many of them are very expensive, built as they were for the professional using an Olympus E-1. Olympus now says they will have a total of 15 digital-specific Zuiko lenses available come late March 2006.

The kit lens is a 14-45mm, which is equivalent to a 28 - 90mm lens on a 35mm camera, due to the 2x multiplication factor that must be applied. Though they offer a lens that will take you out to a 14mm equivalent, it costs around $2,600, too much for consumers. Another option takes you out to 22mm equivalent (the 11-22mm f/2.8 Wide Zoom), but that's also around $950 SRP. For the record, wide angle is the biggest problem for modern consumer SLRs and is not unique to the Olympus line.

Concurrent with the E-500 announcement, Olympus introduced four new lenses, two that are intended for pros with a price tag to match, and two that are more in line with consumer needs and price points. The 18-180 will probably make a good vacation lens, with a 36-360mm equivalent measurement. It will retail for $499.99. The 35mm f3.5 Macro has a 1:1 magnification ratio, making it good for online auctions and other types of Macro photography. It's expected to be about $229.99. The other two cost two and a half to six times the price of the E-500: the 90-250mm f/2.8 and 35-100mm f/2.0 zoom lenses, with price tags of $2,499.99 and $5,999.99. Most prospective E-500 buyers needn't even bother looking at those, but I suppose it's nice to know that they're there if you need them.

Our review kit, currently available online for the surprising price of $700 to $800, includes two lenses, the 14-45mm and the 40 -150mm, covering from roughly 28mm to 300mm. That's a nice little lightweight kit, perfect for travel, backpacking, safari, whatever you like. Olympus SLRs have long been popular with outdoorsie types, and I think the E-500 will return the Olympus logo to the right seat of the Subaru very soon, right on top of the Patagonia jacket.

Very impressive

The best news is you needn't be anyone in particular to appreciate the quality images and good experience the E-500 provides. It's for anyone interested in capturing life with simplicity. It's also good for those wanting to take their photography further. I can't say how pleased I am to say that this camera should be considered right next to what I believe is the top camera in its class: the Rebel XT. They can take turns edging each other out in one way or another, but I'd feel just fine recommending either camera to just about everyone.

The Olympus E-500 is comfortable to hold, handsome, and works well. It has almost all the features I'd look for in a digital SLR, including a high enough resolution to stave off any feeling of obsolescence for the next year or so, and a number of modes to assist and enhance a user's photography as they learn (or re-learn) the craft. No other manufacturer offers a sensor that cleans itself every time you power it on, and few digital SLRs currently on the market have a screen this big and beautiful.

While it was bold, the physical design of the original EVOLT E-300 didn't do justice to the legitimate technology that lay inside. The Olympus E-500 brings the company back to basics, with a time-tested design whose familiarity combined with good image quality should attract more users. Everything about the Olympus E-500 just seems right.

Design

One of the largest of Olympus' consumer-oriented digicams, the EVOLT E-500 is a true digital SLR, designed to please the serious photographer, but without alienating the novice. Featuring an interchangeable lens mount, a host of exposure controls (including full manual exposure control), and a wide range of 15 preset exposure modes, the E-500 is a capable option for those amateurs looking for a meatier camera, but who aren't willing to shell out the big bucks on a pro level digital SLR. A plastic and aluminum body surrounds the E-500's aluminum die-cast chassis, which weights in at just under a pound (0.95 lb or 435 grams) for just the camera body, without CF card and battery. This is actually a little lighter than the preceding E-300 model, and lighter than any other digital SLR on the market. With the 14-45mm lens, battery and card, the EVOLT's total mass comes to 1.86 pounds (846 grams). Measuring 5.8 x 3.7 x 2.6 inches (129.5 x 94.5 x 66 millimeters), the E-500 is only slightly larger than the Pentax *istD, with an excellent grip and very good balance.

The EVOLT's control layout is similar to the E-300 model, featuring a vertical array of buttons left of the LCD, a mode dial and power switch on top, and a control dial and AE/AF and Focus point selector buttons next to the thumb rest. The large Mode dial on top of the camera accesses the main exposure modes, plus a few of the more commonly used Scene modes, and a wide selection of external controls is useful for changing camera settings without the LCD menu. However, the E-500 does lack the small status display panel used on most d-SLRs to report camera settings. Instead, the camera has a startup screen mode that displays the "Control Panel," a brief, iconic display of the current settings. The optical viewfinder also features a smaller information readout on the right. A truly unique Supersonic Wave Filter prevents dust from accumulating on the CCD while changing lenses, something we'd love to see other camera manufacturers adopt. The E-500 features a 8.0-megapixel (effective) CCD, which delivers a maximum image size of 3,264 x 2,448 pixels. This is enough resolution to print quality images as large as 16x20 inches, or to 11x17 with cropping.

The front of the Olympus E-500 has the lens mount, self-timer LED / IR remote sensor window, and the lens release button. The medium-sized handgrip is covered with a textured, leathery material that helps improve grip.

Visible on the right side of the camera is the memory card compartment, as well as one of the eyelets for attaching the neck strap. The media compartment opens from the rear panel, with a hinged, hard-plastic door that snaps shut securely.

On the opposite side of the camera is the second neck strap eyelet, as well as the connector compartment, which houses the Video Out and USB shared jack. A flexible, rubbery flap protects the compartment.

The Olympus E-500's top panel has just a few controls on it, including the Shutter button, Exposure Compensation button, Power switch, and the Mode and Control dials. Also on the top panel are the pop-up flash unit and external flash hot shoe. A small SSWF (Super Sonic Wave Filter) LED flashes blue whenever the camera is powered on, indicating that the filter is operating.

The majority of the Olympus E-500's controls are on the rear panel, and are clearly and logically laid out. A series of buttons lines the left side of the 2.5-inch LCD monitor, and includes the Flash Release, Playback, Erase, Menu, and Info buttons. The four-way arrow pad serves multiple functions depending on the camera's operating mode, and is adjacent to the right of the display. Starting with the "up" arrow and moving clockwise, the Arrow Pad buttons double as White Balance, AF, ISO, and Metering buttons. A small OK button is in the center of the Arrow Pad. Above the top right corner of the LCD display is the AE/AF Lock button, with the One-Touch WB and AF Area Selector buttons over to the far right. A Drive / Copy / Print button is above the Four-Way Arrow pad, and enables one-touch printing when the camera is connected to a printer. The optical viewfinder eyepiece is surrounded by a rubbery cup that won't scratch eyeglasses when closed, and features a dioptric adjustment dial on its left side to correct the view. (The soft eyecup is necessary, as I often found myself having to press my eyeglasses against it to see the full viewfinder frame.) Also on the rear panel is a small LED below the arrow pad that lights whenever the camera is accessing the memory card (meaning you shouldn't remove the card).

The bottom of the camera holds the battery compartment cover and a metal screw-mount tripod socket. The tripod socket is just far enough from the battery compartment to make battery changes easy when mounted on a tripod, something I always notice given the extensive amount of studio shooting I do. The battery compartment door features a sliding lock to keep it in place, as well as an internal secondary latch that prevents the battery from falling free when the door is open. This latch was missing on the E-300, so we're glad to see it here.

Viewfinder

The Olympus E-500 is a true digital SLR design, meaning that the optical viewfinder presents a live view directly from the lens. The rear panel, 2.5-inch Hyper crystal TFT color LCD screen is just for menu and image review. The optical viewfinder accommodates eyeglass wearers with a diopter correction adjustment and a reasonably high eyepoint, leaving a modest amount of room between your eye and the finder for eyeglass lenses to fit in, although as I mentioned earlier, I generally found myself pressing my own eyeglasses up against the rubber eyecup.

Fixed in the center of the viewfinder display are central autofocus and exposure targets, but an information display lines the right side of the frame area. This (slightly cryptic) display reports basic camera settings, including aperture, shutter speed, focus confirmation, flash mode, white balance, AE lock, exposure compensation, metering mode, battery level, and the current exposure mode.

As mentioned earlier, the Olympus E-500 doesn't have the usual top-panel data readout for displaying camera settings separately from the LCD viewfinder. What it does have is one of the nicest LCD-based camera-status displays I've yet seen. This screen appears in capture mode when you press the Info button at the lower left corner of the camera's rear panel. (You can also program the camera to display it on startup.) It shows current exposure settings, main exposure mode, exposure bias and metering mode, focus mode, drive mode, image size/quality setting, ISO, White Balance and color mode settings. A slightly more detailed display adds color space and white balance compensation options as well.

When using the LCD monitor to review captured images, you can zoom in up to 14x on displayed images by turning the Control dial, and then scroll around the enlarged image using the arrow buttons. This is very handy for small details, or precise framing, and the 14x magnification is enough that you can actually check focus on the LCD display. Another handy feature with the E-500's playback enlargement option is that you can check which portion of the image you've enlarged by pressing the Info button during enlarged playback. The full image is then displayed, with a green box highlighting the enlarged area. There's also an Index display option which shows 4, 9, 16, or 25 images at a time, by rotating the Control dial toward the Index position (left). Furthest left is a calendar display mode that displays the most recently-captured image for each date as a tiny thumbnail on a small calendar.

Pressing the Info button during normal image playback scrolls through a range of information and image display modes. The default display is of the image with the quality, memory card, image number, and filename. One press of the Info button increases the information overlay to include the date and time of capture, and resolution. A second press of the Info button expands the information overlay and overlays an RGB histogram for checking the tonal values. Pressing the button one more time displays the standard image histogram, while another press shows the image with the quality setting, and any blown-out highlights flashing white to black to reveal areas of overexposure. Another press blinks any extreme shadow areas, as with the highlight setting. A final press shows the image without any information at all.

Like some other Olympus digicams, the E-500 also offers the ability to resize your images post-exposure, to create smaller versions more suitable for emailing. An image editing menu option lets you change the color mode to black and white or sepia, also post-capture.

Optics

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The Olympus E-500 is equipped with an interchangeable lens mount that accommodates the full range of Olympus ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses. A lens release button on the left of the lens releases the lens from the mount, and a set of alignment marks on the mount itself helps you line up the lens appropriately. Because the camera is compatible with a range of lenses, focal lengths and aperture ranges will vary with the lens in use.

At the introduction of Olympus's original Four Thirds camera, the E-1, the ZUIKO DIGITAL lens system offered a variety of focal lengths, including 50mm and 300mm lengths, and two zoom lenses (14-54mm and 50-200mm). A 1.4x teleconverter was also available. Since then, Olympus has expanded their lens line considerably, to now include a 11-22mm f/2.8 - 3.5 wide zoom, a 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom, and a 150mm f/2.0 (!) telephoto. All of these early lenses were very much aimed at the professional market, with features, optics, build quality, and prices to match. With the introduction of the E-300 EVOLT, Olympus also brought out a 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens that was quite a bit more affordable. Our E-500 evaluation unit arrived as a dual lens kit, which included two ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses: the 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 and 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5, offered at a very attractive price for the complete package.

Note that the 22.3mm diagonal dimension of the sensor translates into a 1.94x focal-length multiplier relative to 35mm cameras. For the sake of easy math though, Olympus and most reviewers (ourselves included) simply refer to it as a 2x ratio. This means that the focal lengths mentioned above should all be multiplied by two to arrive at the equivalent focal lengths in the 35mm film world. That makes the bundled 14-45mm lens equivalent to 28-90mm lens (using the literal 1.94x multiplier, it's 27.16-87.30mm) and the 40-150mm lens equivalent to 80-300mm (or 77.6-291mm with the 1.94x multiplier).

Olympus has for some time insisted that the three-dimensional structure of CCD sensors demand a radically different lens design for optimum performance. Their E10 and E20 fixed-lens SLRs embodied such a design, in which additional optical elements collimated the light, insuring that light from the subject would strike the CCD surface perpendicularly across its entire surface. By contrast, with conventional lenses, light from the subject strikes the film or sensor plane at an increasingly oblique angle, as you move toward the edges of the image circle. (See the illustration above, courtesy of Olympus.) Depending on the sensor design, this varying angle of incidence can cause problems in one of two ways. If the sensor employs microlenses to concentrate light on each pixel's active area, changes in the angle of incidence can lead to unwanted optical effects due to diffraction by the microlenses themselves. On the other hand, if no microlenses are used, collection efficiency is lower, and the decidedly three-dimensional structure of the CCD's surface can result in some of the light being shadowed from the active silicon surface by surrounding surface structures on the chip. Either case results in imperfect coupling of the light to the sensor elements.

In Olympus' "Digital Specific" lenses, an extra group of optical elements collimates the light (makes all the rays parallel), so it impinges on the CCD at right angles to its surface all across the frame.

Actually, Olympus has done a number of things in the design of their lenses for the Four Thirds system to improve image quality. To call attention to the extent of these design improvements, they've branded them as "ZUIKO DIGITAL (tm)" lenses. (I'm told that Zuiko means "Light of the Gods," presumably in Japanese.) In addition to the special "digital specific" design described above, ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses also incorporate improvements in lens molding and polishing accuracy, multi-coating, centering of the lens elements within the mounting system, increased use of ED glass and aspheric elements, and dual-sided aspheric elements, the latter of which Olympus claims as an industry exclusive. The actual impact of these enhancements remains to be seen (if/as/whenever I manage to find time to test both ZUIKO DIGITAL and third-party optics on an EVOLT or other Four Thirds camera), but the promise is that ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses will have better resolution, color rendering, and flare characteristics than even the best conventional designs. The 14-45mm "kit" lens that's bundled with the EVOLT shows moderate barrel distortion at the wide angle end of its range, but has surprisingly little chromatic aberration and excellent corner sharpness for an inexpensive optic.

Another area in which the Olympus E-500 EVOLTs capabilities exceed the general run of d-SLRs out there has to do with the in-camera lens-correction processing that it's inherited from the E-1. One of the biggest innovations embodied in the ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses is that they also support a greater degree of communication between lens and camera than has heretofore been the case, with some interesting consequences. Olympus claims that part of this increased communication will benefit autofocus speed and exposure determination, although they haven't said how this might work. It does appear though, that ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses pass information about their optical characteristics to the camera body, including information on geometric distortion. In the pro-oriented E-1 SLR, this information can be used to correct light falloff in the corners of the frame, via a menu option called "Shading Compensation." (For those of you unfamiliar with the term "shading," this phenomena is almost universally, if erroneously, referred to as "vignetting.") The E-500 also offers this correction as a menu option. Perhaps more interesting though, is that the data about geometric distortion that's captured by the camera body is written into its RAW files, so the Olympus Master software can correct for such lens defects after the fact, back on a host computer. The result can be very low distortion with relatively inexpensive lenses. (To the best of our knowledge though, only the Olympus ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses offer this capability: Third-party Four Thirds format lenses do not.)

The Olympus E-500 employs a three-point TTL Phase Difference Detection autofocus system, and the three AF points are outlined in black in the viewfinder display. Pressing the AF Area Selection button on the rear panel lets you manually select which of the AF points you'd like to base focus on, or set the AF area to automatic selection (all three AF points active). The AF button on the rear panel lets you select Manual, Single AF, or Continuous AF modes. There's also an option for Single AF + Manual Focus. When manual focus is enabled, you simply turn the focus ring around the outside of the lens to set focus. The focus indicator in the optical viewfinder (a solid green circle) lights to indicate that you've achieved accurate focus. Note that this is not a true mechanical or analog focus, however. Turning the ring simply activates the camera's focus mechanism, actuating the focus motor built into the lens. Single AF mode means that the camera only sets the autofocus when the Shutter button is halfway pressed, while Continuous AF mode continuously adjusts the focus without you having to halfway hold down the shutter release (good for moving subjects). Continuous AF uses what Olympus calls Predictive AF technology, in that the camera anticipates where the subject will move to next and adjusts focus just before it reaches that point. As far as we could tell, the Predictive AF doesn't involve following an active subject from one AF region to another, but rather simply predicts whether a subject under a single AF point is approaching or receding The mode combining Single AF and Manual focus tells the camera to set focus with a half press of the Shutter button, but leaves the manual focus ring active so that you can fine tune the setting before pressing the Shutter button the rest of the way to trip the shutter. It's also interesting to note that the E-500 has added a MF Bracketing mode, which captures either five or seven images at different focus settings, once you've established the initial manual focus.

The Olympus E-500 also lets you tell it whether to adhere to focus- or release-priority. In focus-priority mode, the shutter won't fire unless the subject is properly focused. Conversely, release-priority means that the shutter will fire whenever you tell it to, whether the subject is focused or not. In a nice touch, the E-500 lets you determine select focus or release priority independently for single-shot and continuous shooting modes. (I can imagine myself wanting to insist on focus priority for single shots, but preferring release priority for continuous shooting, to let the camera just take its best shot at tracking a moving subject, perhaps settling for slightly misfocused images, rather than missing the shot entirely.)

An AF illuminator option can be turned on through the camera's Record menu, to help the camera's AF system determine focus in dark shooting conditions. The camera actually uses light from the flash as the AF illuminator, so the flash must be upright and enabled for this option to be available. The E-500 will fire the flash for AF assist even while the flash itself is off; that is, it must still be deployed, but you can still take a long exposure sans flash.

Third-Party Four Thirds-System Lenses
One of the drawbacks to the original E-1 system was the high cost of the Olympus Zuiko Digital-Specific lenses. While of very high quality and not dramatically higher-priced than pro-grade lenses from manufacturers like Nikon and Canon, their cost could put the whole E-1 system out of reach for even well-heeled amateur photographers. (Or pros with limited budgets, for that matter.) For quite a while after the E-1's announcement and retail availability, there was no option in the marketplace for E-1 lenses other than Olympus' own offerings. Olympus is now moving to correct this issue, with the announcement of their own 14-45mm optic that I mentioned above. In Spring of 2004 though, Sigma announced Four Thirds-compatible lenses at CeBit. Sigma's announcement covered three lenses, an 18-50mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom, a 55-200mm f/4-5.6 zoom, and an 18-125mm(!) f/3.5-5.6 zoom. As of this writing (late Fall, 2005), Sigma has announced additional "DC" lenses, including a 10-20mm ultrawide zoom lens, an 18-50mm f/2.8, an 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom, and a 30mm f/1.4 fixed focal length model. (This last is particularly interesting. The 30mm focal length corresponds to 50mm focal length considered "normal" for 35mm film cameras when it's used on most d-SLRs, or a 60mm equivalent on the Olympus E-500. What's significant is that this is the first significantly new optical formulation for a "normal" lens to hit the market in many years, taking advantage of modern lens design and technology. Sigma is well-known for producing optically sharp lenses at very attractive prices, and these Four Thirds models appear to be no exception. With an independent lens manufacturer now making lenses, the Four Thirds system has taken a big step forward toward being a true multi-vendor standard. (All that's missing now is for another manufacturer to produce a Four Thirds camera body.)

Lens Tests!

Using the DxO testing technology that we developed for our lens review site SLRgear.com, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at the optical quality of the two "Kit" lenses that commonly ship with the Olympus E-500. These tests use the DxO Analyzer program from DxO Labs, together with some back-end graphing and presentation software that we wrote in-house. For details of how we conduct these tests, just what they reveal, and equally importantly, what they don't reveal, visit SLRgear.com, and check out the links covering these topics on the right hand side of the home page.

Meanwhile, the paragraphs below describe the results of our evaluation of the E-500's kit lenses. Click on any of the thumbnail images, to view either the full-size graph, or to launch an interactive viewer to see how blur and chromatic aberration vary as you change the focal length and aperture.

We need to make a very important note about the results seen here, before we actually discuss them. The Blur Index graphs are showing a measure of "softness" that's derived from MTF curves measured at multiple points across the image plane. This measure correlates very well with visual perceptions of sharpness, but is also quite susceptible to variations in the sharpening applied to an image. To remove this factor as much as possible in our measurements, we choose the sharpening setting for each camera that produces the most accurate edge profile, that shows the steepest slope as an edge transitions pixel boundaries, but with the least possible overshoot or undershoot on either side of the edge, caused by the sharpening algorithm. In the case of the Olympus E-500, the default sharpening produced a noticeable "halo" around high-contrast edges, and even the low sharpening setting didn't completely remove this artifact. The impact of in-camera sharpening is generally to generate artificially low blur numbers, so we adjusted the raw values from the DxO tests in order to achieve a good correlation with the results over on SLRgear.com. While you can never make direct 1:1 comparisons between results from different digital camera platforms, we feel confident that the normalization factor we've applied to the results form the E-500 result in a high degree of parity between the results shown here and those we've collected on other platforms in the past. (This serves to illustrate quite well the difficulty of making cross-camera comparisons with the DxO data, and the care needed in doing so.)

Olympus Zuiko Digital 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6

Blur Index
Chromatic Aberration	Vignetting