Olympus SP-500. Anyone have this camera or have good/bad info on it.

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Ford SportTrac Forum

Help Support Ford SportTrac Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
K

Kevin Palmer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2001
Messages
9,349
Reaction score
2
Location
Madison, OH
Looking to upgrade my present camera and would like one that has changeable lenses. Optical zoom is critical as well. in this case it has a 10x optical which is good as well as a 5X digital zoom which is fine but not too important as far as I am concerned.



Any input would be appreciate, thanks...



[Broken External Image]:

Here are the basic high points.

Bring your subject within view or zoom in tight for a great close-up with the 10x optical/50x total zoom.

A 6 megapixel CCD lets you capture and print stunning pictures, even above 11"x14".

You'll discover bigger is better when you view and share pictures on the large 2.5" LCD.
 
Good reviews at Steve's Digicams. About the only negative thing for me would be lack of a hot shoe for external flash. Built in flash units are so limited. I do like the 10x optical zoom.
 
Thanks Tom..



So far, this is the camera I have narrowed it down to. Just wanted to post here to see if others had anything to say about it as far as the negative side of the house goes...
 
Contractor here has the 7.1 MP version, Dropped it from hand height to a wood floor, Kissed it good by....



What that has to do with what you asked, i have no clue......



Todd Z
 
I have an Olympus E-500 Digital SLR and I love it. Very pleased with picture quality and all of the functions. I guess I can vouch for Olympus on this thread, not the exact camera.
 
Coastie, that looks like a built in lens. If you want the ability to swap lenses, buy an SLR digital camera. Then you'll have any choice of any lens you desire, by any make of camera you like.



Definately order more memory if you buy the camera, 10 mb isn't equal to a roll of film. Have fun shooting, I'm getting my major upgrade camera for Christmas. Can't wait.
 
Coastie, that looks like a built in lens. If you want the ability to swap lenses, buy an SLR digital camera. Then you'll have any choice of any lens you desire, by any make of camera you like.



Definately order more memory if you buy the camera, 10 mb isn't equal to a roll of film. Have fun shooting, I'm getting my major upgrade camera for Christmas. Can't wait.
 
Coastyjoe,



I own this camera and love it. I have an Olympus for five years now and it still works.



SP-500 is a fantastic camera, I use it in the boat and it gets bang'd up a lot. Olympus is great because they use glass lenses, unlike SONY, who only puts glass lenses in their "Carl Zeis" cameras.



10x zoom is a blessing when it comes to getting great depth of field and close up shots you want.



Sometimes in the very low lit settings, it can take a moment to focus, but once it does, it's good.



Video mode sucks.



SLR? Buy a Nikon. D50 is fine for an average photographer and D80 has a bit more modes.



If you have an N-series 35mm Nikon cameras, the lenses are interchangeable.









 
Oh, digital zoom BTW is a gimmick, IMHO. All you're doing is zooming in on the image, no different from a basic editing program on your computer can do. Take the photo with optical zoom, that away you don’t take a chance distorting a once good picture. Save the digital zoom until you get home for Photoshop or such...
 
I am not familiar with the camera, but did notice that it does not have Image Stabilization. That would be a consideration for me with a camera that has a large amount of optical zoom. Camera movement is magnified with optical magnification. IF your picture taking will be mostly from a tripod, then not so big of a deal. If mostly hand-held, then big deal. I researched P&S cameras with large optical zoom, and ended up with the Sony DSC-H5. 12x optical, 7.2mp, Image Stabilization, Zeiss lens, lots of manual control, no hot shoe, but adjustable intensity flash, 3" lcd, and Sony has a great 1.7x teleconverter with high-quality glass that increases zoom to 20x. Got a great deal on it too, as BestBuy mistakenly marked them down by $140 for a couple of days, then realized their mistake and increased the price $100. DSLR's are great, but much more expensive.
 
Well, went a different way after a bit more research. This camera has everything the Olympus has but also has higher mega-pixels, shoots in black and white and image stabilization.



Fujifilm Finepix S5200 5MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Zoom
 
I'm sure you will enjoy the Fuji, but the S5200 is 5MP vs 6MP on the Olympus, and the S5200 doesn't have optical Image Stabilization. However, the high ISO of the Fuji (1600) may allow you to use faster shutter speeds and reduce the effects of camera shake, so depending on how you use it, the lack of IS might not be that big of a deal. Fuji is also known for low noise at higher ISO's, so you can probably crank it up a notch or 2 and not have picture quality suffer. Enjoy.
 
I may have a number wrong. My camera says on it 6.1mp and the manual says it has the stabilization. That said, your correct about the other info on the camera....



Hmmmm
 

Latest posts

Top