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Evolt E-500

P

primea

Supreme [H]ardness
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Dec 25, 2000
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I have been reading about Digital SLRs ... and I am really tempted with the Evolt E-500 ... anybody here has first hand experience? Most of the review site have the sample reviewed but not the retail product.

I found the 2 lens kit for $833.24 from Yesmicro ...

Might order it before the day is over ...

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1192

Another question ... is there really a big difference between a 40X vs an 80x CompactFlash Card? Is the ~100% price premium worth it?

Thanks
 
How's the Olympus lens system? I've heard the 4/3rds lenses are pretty expensive
 
The kit comes with two lenses ... and the lenses were designed for digital cameras, and more expensive for now ... I am really hoping they'll come down in the future as more of them enters the mainstream ...

Olympus had built their reputation on optics ... so I hope they are good.

I guess I'm still convincing myself since this will easily be a thousand dollar investment ... :D
 
Any reason why you're going with Olympus over Canon or Nikon?
 
The big plus for the Canon's or Nikon's are the availability and use of older lenses .... since I don't have any, that reason does not matter to me.

And I am reading all the specs and review and they are coming out even ... the E-500 is even coming ahead the price being lower on the starter kits ... it being designed to be 100% digital does not hurt ...

Also a lot of good reviews for the E-300, the only complaint, it being weird in design ... since the E-500 is an improvement without the "different" housing, it is a good buy on the 8MP market ...
 
You don't have older lenses, but in general I think Canon or Nikon will have a better current lens selection than Olympus. IIRC, the Four Thirds lenses are pretty expensive too.
 
I just looked over at BHPhotoVideo and they have 17 lenses for Olympus 4/3 systems, and 14 are made by Olympus, 3 by Sigma. They are a little pricey.

An 18-180 costs $500, and I'd assume this would be the general wide to tele lens, like a Nikon 28-200, which costs less. I'm not sure about the optical qualities of Olympus lenses - they could all be like top of class, but I don't have any idea since I've never used an Olympus SLR.

But a 150mm/2.0 lens costs $2200 - I guess the Nikon equivalent would be the DC 105/2.0 or DC 135/2.0, both of which cost less than half. And you'd almost have enough money left from the difference to then buy a Nikon 70-200 with vibration reduction!

I'd prefer to go with Nikon or Canon, since they have a much wider lens selection, and are seemingly more affordable. It's all right if you don't have any lenses for either, it's not like I had any glass for my camera when I bought it.

That's my opinion. And for all the people who same I focused too much on Nikon - well, that's what I shoot and what I know. :p

Anyway, 40x and 80x CF cards might make a difference, depending on the camera. However, I don't think the price difference is twice as much.
 
I guess I am betting that the prices will go down as more lenses becomes available ... but we will see .... somebody has to buy and use new technology for them to become widely available.

Thanks for the info on the compactflash ...
 
Similarly, I went Canon without having any lenses before hand. It was more for their current lens lineup, low noise at high ISO, and fast camera handling. If you're considering this an investment, I'd go with Canon or Nikon. Who knows what the state of 4/3rds will be in 4, 5 years, especially if Nikon and Canon start putting full frame sensors in their prosumer bodies?
 
I think the 150mm/2.0 lens costs $2200 because it is supposed to compete against the 300mm f/2.8 lenses, but offer that at f/2.0. If we look at it that way, it is pretty cheap and offers something that is not currently avaliable on the lens market with autofocus. I only remember someone mentioning having access to a 300mm f/1.8 Nikkor once in these forums...I'd imagine a rare lens like that makes the often-sought ~$3,000-$5,000 Canon 200mm f/1.8L look cheap. So for Olympus to have "300mm" f/2.0 at $2,200 looks to be a steal from that perspective.

If I remember correctly, the Olympus 4/3rds system offers a "2x crop sensor" so we can multiply the 150mm by 2 and get an effective 300mm FoV. They had some interesting marketing going in there with that design choice...and Nikon also offers a 2x "high speed crop" on their D2X.


I'm a fan of having larger lenses to start with so we can have larger pixel sizes and less noise and more pronounced background blur, but I must say that some of their lenses offer effective views that other DSLR manufacturers have not adopted. It may very well be cost effective compared to their output after the "crop", but I still can't imagine spending so much $$$ on a sub 200mm lens even if it *almost looks like* a 300-400mm lens...

I really do wonder with fugu about the future of 4/3rds with Canon showing a consumer market for "full frame" 36x24mm CMOS sensors and Nikon showing support for their APS-C sensors while feeling pressure from Canon's moves...
 
I ordered it from Techonweb for $825 for the 2 lens kit ... hope I did not make a big mistake ... This will be my first dSLR ... although I have experience with 35mm 20 years ago ... but this will be a learning experience ..

I'll keep you all updated on how it work out ...
 
I got the camera ... it's easy to use ... my daughter can use it right away since it has auto focus features ... I'll see what it really do tomorrow ... I'll post pictures ...
 
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