Olympus EVOLT E-500

The Olympus EVOLT E-500 is a serious camera for someone who wants to take proffesional pictures.

Its main features are,

-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.
-Supersonic Wave filter , shakes dust off your cameras lense!

Because there are a large amount of Digital SLR's on the market I found this handy comparrison table forsome of the top cameras Here

I think its important to note that with cameras its not jsut the specifications of the camera, but the feel when you use it. For may the Olympus EVOLT E-300, while a similar camera, felt incredibly off balance to most photographers, as it is weighted over to the left.

The 300 also had problems when white contrasting, or bright images were at the centre of an image, and made images appear much darker than they should have been. I am pleased to announce there has been a firmware fix for this, and the problem does not occur at all in the E-500

Overall I found that the camera produced crisp high quality photos, the fact that they seem to have redesigned the whole camera from the E-300 is a great bonus as it now much more balanced and lightweight, making the camera easier to manouver for a difficult shot. They also have put a lot of effort into the little things,

HyperCrystal LCD - This gives a much more vibrant image than normal LCDs, look out for this on more cameras in the near future!

Repositioning of on/off and shutter buttons/switches - With the E-300 I did have some difficulty in using the camera, I had to twist my finger to an uncomfortable angle to make some shots work, the slight re arrangement on the top of the camera has made a huge difference to the usablity of this device.

Battery Catch - They have attached a small latch onto the battery so it will not slip out when opening the battery cover. This is god news for anyone who has seen an expensive battery die a death when dropped onto a hard floor.