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| Reviewed by Ed Krimen - May 2005 |
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Whether you decide to buy the Olympus Stylus 500, or take photos with another digital camera, be sure to share your digital photos with your own online photo album on Photobird.com. Your photo albums on Photobird.com are easy to make, easy to use, attractive, and fun!
If you're shopping online, consider buying the Olympus Stylus 500 at B&H, the sponsor of this review on Photobird.com. B&H is celebrating over 30 years of quality, service, selection, and price.
Camera Introduction
I was pleasantly surprised with the Olympus Stylus 500 when I opened the box and held it in my hands for the first time. And I'm still quite impressed. These days, Olympus digital cameras don't seem to get as much exposure as other digital cameras, unfortunately, but the Olympus Stylus 500 is one slick camera that gives other cameras in its class a run for their money. It may not be the thinnest camera in its class, but it's definitely got the features and the price to compete.
From the front of the camera, the Olympus Stylus 500 is not too exciting, unfortunately. It's pretty plain looking. The business end of the camera is much more impressive with its huge 2.5" LCD screen and simple-to-use controls. When you turn on the camera -- watch out! Gadget freaks should love this digital camera; Olympus has built a taste of James Bond and Star Trek into this little device. When you turn on the camera, the lens cover slides open elegantly and efficiently -- while the 3x zoom lens extends. It all works so well in one fluid motion that it's entertaining just watching the show, turning the camera on and off again. And we haven't even taken any pictures yet!
The Olympus Stylus 500 box includes the following items:
The 5-megapixel Olympus Stylus 500 digital camera -
On the left, you can see the various photos of the camera, including the front of the camera, both off and on in photos 2 and 3 and the back of the camera in photos 7 and 8. The top of the camera is in photo 4 and the bottom of the camera is in photo 10, with the battery and memory card door open in photo 11.
One lithium-ion battery -
Olympus includes one of their own proprietary lithium-ion batteries with the Stylus 500. For casual shooters, it should easily last at least a day. If you shoot a lot of photos on your trips, you might want to consider purchasing a spare battery. For most users, one battery should be enough though. You can see in photo 11 where the battery is inserted into the camera.
Battery charger -
It's a nice touch that Olympus included a battery charger in the box. The charger charges a battery in about 2 hours, which is pretty good.
Wrist strap -
A good quality wrist strap is included. It doesn't fray when it comes in contact with velcro, which is nice. Fortunately, Olympus ships the wrist strap already attached to the camera; otherwise, I'm sure people would have a very difficult time attaching it. I know I did! (Here's a tip to reattach the wrist strap if you need to remove it: Thread a very thin piece of string or thread through the eye of the wrist strap, and then thread that string through the right side of the camera where the wrist strap connects. Finally, pull the string through the anchor in the camera to pull the wrist strap through.)
32MB xD-Picture Card memory card -
Olympus only includes a 32MB memory card with the camera, but you're definitely going to need more. Get at least a 256MB or a 512MB card. Unfortunately, Olympus has decided to develop and use their own memory card , called xD-Picture Card, even though consumers really don't need another memory card . Because not as many cameras use the xD-Picture Card , you're going to spend a little more on memory, about $15 more than a comparable 512MB secure digital memory card, for example. You can see in photo 11 where the memory card is inserted into the camera, right above the battery.
USB cable -
The USB cable is used to connect the camera to your computer. Be sure your computer has a USB port so that you can transfer your photos to your computer. The right side of the camera, where the USB and A/V cables connect, is shown in photo 6.
A/V cable -
The A/V cable is used to connect your camera to standard RCA jacks so you can view your photos on your television.
CD-ROMs
containing Olympus Master software - The Olympus Master software enables you to transfer, browse, print, and backup your photos. The software is actually very nice and not too difficult to use. As with most computers, you don't need to use the Olympus Master software to transfer your photos from your digital camera to your computer. When you connect the Olympus Stylus 500 to your computer, it appears as another storage device, similar to a hard drive or CD, from which you can transfer your photos.
Quick Start Guide, Basic Manual, and Advanced Manual -
Olympus has focused on ease-of-use with this camera, and their effort even shows in the Quick Start Guide and the manuals, which are well designed and easy to follow. The Quick Start Guide and the Basic Manual are printed and the Advanced Manual is included on a CD. It would have been preferable if the Advanced Manual covered everything that the Quick Start Guide and Basic Manual did; otherwise, I found myself looking in 3 places for answers to some of my questions.
Review criteria
Most people, including casual shooters, will find that the feature set of the Olympus Stylus 500 suits them just fine. Its feature set is pretty good, but it could be more complete. It has a 3x zoom lens, large 2.5" LCD screen, movie mode, voice memo recording, a useful collection of scene modes and more. The only thing really missing are some manual controls. I expect that it should be relatively easy for Olympus to add these manual controls to a camera that already has scene modes and a user interface that seems flexible enough to support some menus for manual controls. Some manual controls would really be nice on this camera and would round out its feature set well.
Olympus provides a set of "scene" modes that are easily accessible by pressing a button on the back of the camera and selecting the desired scene mode from the menu on the LCD. The scene modes provide a wide variety of options, including landscape, landscape and portrait (if you're taking a picture of someone with a mountain range in the background, for example), portrait, indoor, sport, beach and snow, behind glass (for shooting a subject through glass, such as a window), timer, self-portrait, sunset, night scene, night and portrait, cuisine (yes, to take a picture of food), documents, candle, underwater wide, underwater macro, and two shoot and select modes (which take a series of photos in rapid succession). As you can see, the Olympus Stylus 500 covers almost every possible shooting scenario. I suspect that these modes are actually presets for f-stops, shutter speeds, aperture speeds, and other manual features that you'd find on a camera with manual controls. These scene modes might also have some automatic saturation built in; I noticed that when I shot with the sunset mode, even when there wasn't a sunset, the reds in the photo were a bit more more saturated.
Personally, I'd prefer to see manual controls instead of -- or in addition to -- these scene modes, because I want more control over my shots. But, I may not be Olympus's target market for this camera. Olympus is expecting the casual shooter to use this camera, and the casual shooter knows "sunset", "portrait", and "night scene", not f-stop, shutter speed, and aperture speed.
The Olympus Stylus 500 doesn't have a traditional viewfinder and that doesn't bother me. You need to use the large 2.5" LCD screen on this camera to see what you're shooting and that's fine by me. Even when I use a point-and-shoot camera with a viewfinder, I find that I use the LCD anyway because the viewfinder on most cameras doesn't always show the frame of the photo accurately; what you see in the viewfinder is always shifted slightly in one direction. Only the LCD screen truly represents what's going to be saved on your memory card. (At least as much as framing the shot is concerned. Color representation is another issue that even the best LCD screens are going to have difficulty with, when compared to printing or viewing photos on your computer monitor.) It looks like there may be room on the camera for a viewfinder that could pop-up out of the top left of the camera, but that would be unnecessary and wasteful. Most people wouldn't use it anyway.
Overall, the Olympus Stylus 500 has an attractive set of features that will satisfy most consumers.
I'm impressed and relieved that Olympus has invested some time and energy into making this camera easy to use. At least there's one manufacturer out there that spends some time on usability. Other manufacturers should do the same. There's still lots of work to be done, but the effort shows.
For example, the camera only has 6 buttons and controls on it: power button, shutter button, zoom, Quick View (which lets you easily see the last photo taken), mode dial (to choose shooting modes and playback modes), and the "direct" buttons, which are on a multifunction button pad. I found that using the direct buttons was a very easy way to quickly change settings; for example, I could try a different white balance setting, metering type, or exposure compensation. Even though I have big hands and this camera is new to me, I was able to very quickly and easily jump around the menus to change settings -- although, admittedly, I did need to first understand what each of the icons represented. The direct buttons also enable you to easily change scene modes, flash type, macro mode, and timer settings. It's very well designed.
Another thing that really impressed me is that when you choose a scene mode, the Olympus Stylus 500 shows you the graphic representation of that mode along with its title, such as "Landscape and Portrait". After a second or two, the icon and title are minimized and the camera offers a more detailed description of the scene mode. For example, the camera describes that "Landscape and Portrait" is best "for shooting both main subject and background. Vivid reproduction of blues and greens." All of this is displayed right there on the LCD on the back of the camera. I wish more device manufacturers would offer helpful tips like this. I'd like to see this functionality continue to develop further, where the next step might be that the camera offers more advanced shooting suggestions.
The Olympus Stylus 500 is tiny and just the right size for most uses. As you can see in photo 12 on the left, the camera is just a bit shorter than a dollar bill. You can easily fit the Olympus Stylus 500 into a purse or small bag. It will also slide easily into pockets, but it might be a little bulky in smaller pockets.
Olympus seems to have chosen an excellent LCD screen for the Stylus 500. Not only is it big and bright, but it also seems to be very resistant to scratches and smudges. I carried the camera around in my pocket and the LCD screen still looks brand new. Bravo!
Another unique part of the Olympus Stylus 500 is that it is an "all-weather" camera, meaning that it's designed with gaskets around the openings to make it weatherproof and seal out water and moisture when it rains. All cameras should be "all-weather." It shows specific attention to detail by the manufacturer and protects consumers' camera investment in case the camera gets wet accidentally. If you want to take the Olympus Stylus 500 underwater however, you'll need the underwater housing that is available.
I like the Olympus Stylus 500 a lot, especially how easy to use it is, but one area where it seems to fall short is in its overall construction. I expect that the camera will last a long time, but it just doesn't feel as sturdy as it could. I feel like I need to baby it -- but portable devices shouldn't require that level of care. The Olympus Stylus 500 is a tiny digital camera and you're going to want to carry it around in your purse or pocket on a myriad of adventures, but the camera feels like it needs to be handled gently. I'm not sure what it's made out of, but my guess is that Olympus chose a less heavier metal for the Stylus 500 so that it's not so heavy and easier to carry around. The camera definitely does feel very light, lighter than most cameras. Unfortunately, this lighter metal makes the camera feel a bit too fragile for me.
Another problem is that the camera's exterior seems prone to scratches. I only had the camera a couple of weeks and it looks like there's two very small, point-sized scratches on one of the corners of the camera. I suspect that this might be from carrying the camera around in my pocket for a little while. Pocket-sized devices shouldn't scratch that easily, because -- well -- they're pocket-sized so you're going to carry them around in your pocket. I usually take good care of high-tech devices, so if Olympus had realized that this camera was so susceptible to scratches, they should have included a little camera pouch that you can put the camera in to carry it around in. Or, better yet, they should have used a scratch-resistant metal.
As I mentioned in the introduction above, the front of the Olympus Stylus 500 is very plain looking. When the power is on and the lens is extended, it looks better, ready for action. Sitting on a shelf with other digital cameras, the Olympus Stylus 500 might be the last one to be picked up because its looks are uninspiring. Fortunately, from the back, the side most people will see most often, the design is much more attractive. The large 2.5" LCD screen dominates the back of the camera, and rightfully so. In fact, the LCD screen takes up an area of two-thirds of the camera's back! The buttons and mode dial on back are located well, look good, and invite interaction.
The Olympus Stylus 500 is very quick. Press the power button to turn on the camera and you'll have this strong desire to turn it off and then back on again just to see the camera do its thing again. It's really pretty cool, very James Bond-like: the front door slides open and the camera lens extends, all in one, well-designed, well-built, fluid motion. It's difficult to track speeds this quick, but it looks like the camera powers up and is ready to shoot in just over 1 second. It's very fast. Shot to shot time is also fast, but I think it could be faster. There is a delay of a few seconds while the camera writes the photos to the memory card.
The lithium ion battery in the Olympus Stylus 500 seems like it would last a day or two of vacation shooting before it would need to be recharged. I used it for a handful of sessions before the battery ran out and needed to be recharged. Nonetheless, if you take a lot of shots, I recommend having a fully charged spare with you just in case; you don't want to be caught with a dead battery just as you're about to take a photo of a rainbow over the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, Olympus has decided to use its own proprietary battery which costs about $30. It would have been more convenient and less expensive for consumers for Olympus to design the Stylus 500 to use AA batteries, so customers could use readily available and inexpensive rechargeable AA batteries.
To Olympus's credit, they include a separate battery charger in the box with your camera, and the charger only takes about two hours to fully charge the battery.
As you can see in the photos on the left, the photos from the Olympus Stylus 500 are quite acceptable. Even on cloudy days, the colors are saturated and represented well. The white balance setting for "cloudy" definitely helped. Especially in photo 24, there's a good range of blues, greens, and a bit of red that are saturated well. The sunset shots came out nicely and I really like the clarity in the cow and field photos. The range of focus worked out well in photo 21 and spot metering was very helpful to achieve the look of the agapanthus and the background in photo 22.
I was quite impressed with the power of the flash in the Olympus Stylus 500. In photo 32, the camera really lit up the scene thoroughly. Even in other full-room shots that I took, I was amazed at how much the flash on this little camera could light up the room. Even in low light conditions, the camera performs well.
Compared to other digital cameras in its range with similar features, the Olympus Stylus 500 is available for about $80 to $100 less, at around $300 total. The Olympus Stylus 500 is well priced in the mid range of the market, especially considering the camera's very competitive feature set.
If you're shopping online, consider buying the Olympus Stylus 500 at B&H, the sponsor of this review on Photobird.com. B&H is celebrating over 30 years of quality, service, selection, and price.
My Favorite Features:
Very easy-to-use
Large, scratch resistant 2.5" LCD screen
Fast start-up time
Tiny size, fits in your pocket
Excellent quality photos
Multiple scene modes to easily improve the quality of your photos
"All-weather" design
Powerful flash
Included software is easy to use
Competitive price
Areas of Improvement:
More solid construction
More inspiring design
Better scratch resistance for exterior
AA batteries instead of proprietary batteries
Use of a memory card other than xD-Picture Card
Faster shot-to-shot time
The Olympus Stylus 500 should definitely be on your shopping list of possible digital cameras if you're looking for a tiny, easy-to-use 5 megapixel camera with a large LCD screen. The quality of the photos is excellent and the camera starts up very fast. You may need to take a little more care with this camera due to its construction and susceptibility to scratches, but overall, it's a great little camera that you'll be happy to have with you.
Whether you decide to buy the Olympus Stylus 500, or take photos with another digital camera, be sure to share your digital photos with your own online photo album on Photobird.com. Your photo albums on Photobird.com are easy to make, easy to use, attractive, and fun!
Related Links
Photos of the Olympus Stylus 500
Sample photos from the Olympus Stylus 500
Sample photos in their original sizes from the Stylus 500
Olympus Stylus 500 website
Review of the Stylus 500 at Steve's Digicams
Review of the Stylus 500 at Digital Camera Resource Page
Review of the Stylus 500 at Imaging Resource
Photobird's Top 10 Tips for Buying a Digital Camera
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