After disappointing sales of its E-300, Olympus is pinning its hopes on a smarter and more conventional eight megapixel E-500 backed up by three new affordable lenses
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Olympus extends E-System lens range to coincide with E-500 launch and
Olympus announce the E-500
The smart new Olympus E-500 must sell well to make up for the disappointing E-300
Almost exactly one year ago, Olympus launched its E-300 (Evolt branded in the US), the first budget-priced DSLR to sport a sensor equipped with as many as eight million pixels. Today, after a radical rethink, the E-300 is officially replaced by the E-500 (Evolt E-500 in the US), a more conventional eight megapixel DSLR that Olympus hopes will address the issues that prevented the E-300 from selling in quantities that had been expected.
The E-300 (right) was a radical design that failed to capture the public's imagination
The E-500 is smaller, lighter, more conventionally designed and has some evolutionary improvements over the E-300. These include a larger and clearer 2.5 inch LCD monitor screen, improved light metering, better continuous shooting capability, plus a new and cheaper standard kit zoom lens option. An xD Picture Card slot is now incorporated alongside a conventional compact flash slot.
With the more original and more expensive 14-45 (28-90) f/3.5-5.6 kit lens, here in the UK, the E-500 has a projected street price of £620, or about the same as a Canon EOS-350D kit, when it goes on sale next month, compared to £499, which is the current typical discounted price for the outgoing E-300.
Extra-low cost SE kit
Although not confirmed officially, we understand E-500 'SE' body and lens package, featuring the new and cheaper 17.5-45mm (35-90) f/3.5-5.6 kit lens but minus a rechargeable battery (three disposable CR123 lithium batteries are used instead), will be significantly cheaper than the standard E-500 plus 14-45 kit lens. We should have a projected price from Olympus in a few days.
Smallest, lightest, most affordable
That means Olympus are likely to have both the most affordable DSLR on the market and it will also be the smallest and lightest, too, with only Canon offering an alternative in the form of the EOS-350D that offers more than six megapixels.
An added-value twin lens kit will be available covering the 14-150mm (28-300) range
An E-500 twin lens kit, including the 14-45 plus 40-150 (80-300) f/3.5-4.5 tele zoom, has a projected street price of £680, just £60 (approx $100 or 90) more than the single lens kit.
Key to an extra-low cost starter 'SE' kit is the new 17.5-45 (35-90) kit lens
The original 14-45mm 'economy' kit lens wasn't built down to the cost of some other kit lenses on the market, but the new 17.5-45mm lens certainly is. It's noticeably lighter and is the first Four Thirds lens to forsake metal for a plastic lens mount.
The new 17.5-45 kit lens is the first Olympus digital lens to have a plastic lens mount.
Olympus has also revealed two other budget-priced lenses aimed at potential E-500 users; a compact 35mm (70mm) f/3.5 macro, set to be available from the end of the year and a 10x 18-180mm (36-360mm) f/3.5-6.3 zoom, which is also very small for its zoom range and scheduled to be available in the spring of next year.
A new 10x 18-180mm (36-360) telephoto zoom is on its way
On the next page we examine why the E-300 wasn't the hit with the public that Olympus hoped and examine what the prospects are for the E-500.
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The Olympus E-300 and E-500 compared
Nobody at Olympus denies that the E-300 failed in its mission to be a hot-seller in the entry-level DSLR stakes. But the new E-500, which replaces the E-300, cannot fail in this regard if the Olympus-inspired Four Thirds standard is to get back on course and compete effectively with its DSLR rivals.
Its failure to sell well wasn't because the E-300 wasn't capable of taking good pictures, its price was competitive, nor was there a quality control problem. But two fundamental issues dogged the E-300; its unusual design and a perception that it suffered from an image noise problem. The new E500 addresses both of these issues, though one has been tackled more comprehensively than the other.
Design and features
Gone is the weird, if technically interesting, Porro viewfinder system and side-ways mirror. I didn't mind it, but the majority of my colleagues begged to differ and so did most of the public. The E-300 was just too weird in its design. It was also a bit larger and heavier than it probably should have been.
The new E-500 is very conventional and the pentaprism is back. It's also very small and light at the time or writing, the smallest and lightest DSLR body. The E-500 chassis is constructed from ABS plastic rather than alloy, which the E-300 was based on.
As usual, Olympus has ensured that its handling, despite extra small dimensions, hasn't been compromised and there is a good sized gap between the lens mount and the hand grip; an issue that Canon's EOS-350D could improve on to enable more comfortable use by people with larger hands. However, there is no sign of a battery grip on the accessory list.
Talking of batteries, the same BLM-1 lithium ion rechargeable battery as used in the E-300 and E-1 can be used with the E-500 and is supplied in certain kit configurations, along with a charger. However, the cheapest SE kit will not have this battery and charger, instead it is supplied with three CR123A single-use lithium batteries and LBH-1 holder to substitute the BLM-1. You can upgrade to a BLM-1 rechargeable battery and BCM1 or BCM2 charger if required.
The 500D has a much larger 2.5 inch LCD monitor screen, it has a wide viewing angle and almost twice as many pixels as its rivals. The screen, once again, doubles as a camera settings and status display and there is no separate status LCD screen. Image viewing can now be zoomed to 14x. The status display mode can be altered in text size and colour combinations to suit your taste.
A rather cool feature of the E-500 is that you can use a custom function to do a hi-tech meter reading, which actually involves capturing a frame, seeing it on the screen with histogram and highlight warning zones shown, but the image isn't saved to the memory card. Its not quite a live preview option, but it's a good idea.
Exposure metering enhancements
The E-500 features a genuine 2% coverage spot meter mode and the ESP multi-area mode has been improved with the introduction of a new 49-area exposure sensor. Borrowed from an idea first incorporated in the old Olympus OM4 film SLR, a kind of multi spot metering mode that evaluates highlights and shaded areas using a new algorithm has been introduced with the E-500. Exposure checking using the histogram now features separate traces for red green and blue channels. To complement the usual aperture and shutter priority auto modes, plus manual and program auto modes, there are 21 scene-specific auto modes.
Improved continuous shooting
Continuous shooting remains 2.5 frames per second, but the buffer system in the E-500 has been made more flexible so that JPEG shooting can run continuously for more frames at a time than the E-300's four frame limit. No figures are given for the best resolution and lowest compression SHQ image quality mode, but SQ and HQ modes will run continuously until no more card storage memory is left if you use a fast enough card. RAW and TIFF modes remain restricted to four frame bursts at 2.5fps.
Until we get a camera to test, we can only guess what some other highlighted features actually amount to, but tone curve control is mentioned in the specifications, an improved auto white balance system has been implemented, while a familiar sounding three point AF system, with auto and manually selectable illuminated AF points is featured.
An inexpensive 35mm f/3.5 (70mm) macro will be available at the end of the year
Image Quality
This was the second primary area that proved to be the E-300's Achilles heal and not image quality, fundamentally, but in the specific area of image noise. There wasn't any serious criticism of the E-300's colours or image noise performance up to 400 ISO, but you had to trade noise for sharpness, or vice-versa, at ISO 800 or above.
The E-500 has a 'normal' mode ISO range of between 100 and 400, with ISO boost mode enabling access to 800 and 1600, but not 3200. A noise filter mode is available for use with the higher ISO modes, but its effectiveness remains unknown at present.
The E-500 uses the same 8 megapixel full frame transfer (FFT) Four Thirds format CCD image sensor as the E-300. There is no particular comment from Olympus that the underlying electronics have changed much since the E-300, apart from the additional noise filter mode.
Both the original 5MP Olympus E-1 and the E-300 have rated well for dynamic range, probably because of the FFT aspect if the Kodak sensors used. These bury the chip circuitry under the surface of the chip, allowing the entrances to each photosite to be larger in area, so being able to gather more light and so generate more charge per pixel.
Noise potential
But the rival Sony and Canon sensors used by all the other entry level DSLRs manage to deliver significantly better noise performance at high ISO settings. The E-300 tended to deal with noise at the expense of detail retention. Reviewers will be very interested to find out if the E-500 has been improved in this area.
Frankly, for most photographers it's not actually a great practical concern and the E-300 was capable of very good results at lower ISOs. But buyers don't think like that and if a review quite correctly reveals more noise at higher ISO levels, then of course it's going to put people off, regardless of whether they need high ISO performance.
On the other hand, Canon has done a spectacularly good job of taming its CMOS sensor technology, turning a sensor type that was once plagued with noise issues into one of the best performers in terms of noise. Olympus has at least conceded there is a problem, but only some testing will reveal if the remedy has been successful or not.
Preliminary conclusion
There is no doubt that the more conventional physical design of the E-300, with its smaller and lighter dimensions, plus up-to-date features including the large, hi-res, 2.5 inch screen, will endow the E-500 with bucket loads more showroom appeal than the E-300. Olympus must hope that unique established features, like the all-digital and legacy-free Four Thirds digital platform and ultrsonic wave sensor cleaner, which really works, will go up in value.
And the E-500 is not just a re-styled E-300, there is a long list of detail improvements that should make the E-500 easier and more effective to use. Soon we will have on to put through its paces and only then will we know if Olympus will deserve the success with the E-500 that it craves.
On the final page of this article is a side-by-side comparison of all the leading entry-level DSLR contestants.
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Entry-level DSLRs compared
| Model | Konica Minolta Dynax/Maxxum 5D | Canon EOS-350D (Digital Rebel XT) | Nikon D50 | Olympus E-500 | Olympus E-300 (Evolt) | Pentax *istDS
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| Typical price (UK)* | £530 | £570 | £535 | £620 | £479 | £669
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| Typical price (USA)* | $778 | $824.95 | $659.98 | $899*** | $608.95 | $899
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| Typical price (Euros)* | 773.90 | 799 | 699 | 899*** | 759 | 799
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| Megapixels | 6 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 6
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| Kit lens | AF DT 18-70mm (27-105mm equiv) f/3.5-5.6 (D) | EF-S 18-55mm (29-88mm equiv) f/3.5-5.6 | AF-S DX 18-55mm (27-83mm equiv) f/3.5-5.6G ED | Olympus Digital 17.5-45mm (35-90mm equiv) f/3.5-5.6 | Olympus Digital 14-45mm (28-90mm equiv) f/3.5-5.6 | DA 18-55mm (27-83mm equiv) f/3.5-5.6 AL
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| Shutter speed range | Bulb, 30sec-1/4000th sec | Bulb-1/4000th sec | Bulb-1/4000th sec | 8min-1/4000th sec | 8min-1/4000th sec | Bulb-1/4000th sec
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| Flash sync speed | X=1/160th (anti-shake off), 1/125th (anti-shake on) or 1/4000th (FP sync) | X=1/200th sec or 1/4000th (FP sync) | X=1/500th or 1/4000th (FP sync) | X=1/180th or 1/4000th (Super FP) | X=1/180th or 1/4000th (Super FP) | X=1/180th
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| Max continuous shooting speed/frames (JPEG) | 3 frames per second (approx.) 10 frames. Max. 5 frames (RAW), max. 3 frames (RAW+JPEG) | 3fps/14 frames | 2.5fps/until card filled (with high performance card) | HQ/SQ 2.5fps/until card filled (with high performance card) | 2.5fps/4 frames | 2.8fps/8 frames
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| LCD size/resolution | 2.5in/115,000 pixels | 1.8in/115,000 pixels | 2.0in/130,000 pixels | 2.5in/212,250 pixels | 1.8in/134,000 pixels | 2.0in/210,000 pixels
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| Special features | Anti-shake sensor | Photostitch panorama software, E-TTL flash compatibility | i-TTL distance related flash system, compact design, SD card support (no CF), fast power up | Spot metering, supersonic wave sensor cleaner, compact & light design | Porro viewfinder, supersonic wave sensor cleaner | Compact design, SD card support (no CF)
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| Body only dimensions/weight (no battery, card or strap) | 130.5 x 92.5 x 66.5mm/590g | 126.5x94.2x64 mm/485g | 133x102x76mm/540g | 129.5 x 94.5 x 66mm/435g | 146.5 x 85 x 64mm/580g | 125x 92.5x 66mm/505g
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*With kit lens
*** DPNow estimate
Check the latest price or purchase options for the Olympus E-500 via
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| Click on the flag that best relates to your location |
| The EU flag links to Amazon Germany, currently the only European Amazon outlet that supplies electronic goods like cameras priced in Euros. |
| Each Amazon outlet can ship to most countries in the world. |
