Great deal on Olympus E500 twin lens package

nero120 · 9 Jul 2006 at 14:44

Hi guys,

I've recently been looking into getting an entry level DSLR camera. After checking out numerous reviews I thought the Olympus E500 was the one to go for. Although it was quite pricey, I really liked the design and range of functions.

But just today, I went into a well known high street electronics store and saw that they have a DSLR promotional deal on. You can get the Olympus E500 twin lens pack (Zuiko 17.5-45mm F3.5-5.5 and 40-150mm F3.5-4.5) for only £499! That blows away any price I have seen online. You can also get the Nikon D50 for £397.89, but I don't like that one as much.

So, does anyone have any opinions on whether the Olympus would be a good choice at that price?

danza · 9 Jul 2006 at 18:51

It's a system you're buying into....blah blah....Canon has a wider range of lenses.....blah blah blah.....so does Nikon....blah etc....

It depends what you want really. If the camera 'feels' right when compared to the other mainstream makes, then it may well be the camera for you. Just try it and don't get too sucked in by the 'deal'. There's also the 350d at this pricepoint. You won't get 2 lenses with it though for less than £500, but you can get the kit with the 18-55 for ~£480-£490.

brummie · 9 Jul 2006 at 21:32

Olympus has some excellent lens and are the only true digital setup too.
Just remember its a newer system than the rest and they are putting a great collection together. Cheaper 4/3 lens are available from Sigma the same as the rest too.

http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/dslr_6760.htm

I picked the e500 over the D70, 350D & S3 i tried but admittidly its was very close.

gEd · 9 Jul 2006 at 23:10

nero120 said:
But just today, I went into a well known high street electronics store and saw that they have a DSLR promotional deal on. You can get the Olympus E500 twin lens pack (Zuiko 17.5-45mm F3.5-5.5 and 40-150mm F3.5-4.5) for only £499! That blows away any price I have seen online. You can also get the Nikon D50 for £397.89, but I don't like that one as much.

So, does anyone have any opinions on whether the Olympus would be a good choice at that price?

I bought the E500 twin lens kit last nov and I am very pleased with it. I think it is an excellent camera. I think i paid £600 for it.

It's high ISO (>400) performance is not as good as the 350 and the viewfinder is a little on the small side which some people can find a pain.

However the high street deal is different to my setup in a couple of important ways.

1. My kit came with the 14-45mm lens - the hight street one is 17-45. This is an important difference if you plan to take landscape photos. The wider angle lenses are expensive to produce for digital cameras so this accounts for at least some of the higher cost of my kit.

2. check that the high street kit comes with a battery and charger. They were doing a kit that didn;t have these and both are essential.

happy hunting.

brummie · 10 Jul 2006 at 19:40

gEd said:
I bought the E500 twin lens kit last nov and I am very pleased with it. I think it is an excellent camera. I think i paid £600 for it.

It's high ISO (>400) performance is not as good as the 350 and the viewfinder is a little on the small side which some people can find a pain.

However the high street deal is different to my setup in a couple of important ways.

1. My kit came with the 14-45mm lens - the hight street one is 17-45. This is an important difference if you plan to take landscape photos. The wider angle lenses are expensive to produce for digital cameras so this accounts for at least some of the higher cost of my kit.

2. check that the high street kit comes with a battery and charger. They were doing a kit that didn;t have these and both are essential.

happy hunting.

High ISO damned near as good and colours are way better on the e500
17-45 according to olympus is the newer lens and better one. the reason they dont stick the charger and battery in that kit.
All kit lens lower end items but still very good lenses.

even if it doesnt have the battery you can pick a battery and charger up for less than £35. Non genuine but the real deal is pricey.
My two spares are non genuine and very very good.

nero120 · 11 Jul 2006 at 12:42

Decided to go with the standard twin lens kit in the end, so I wouldnt have to mess around with buying extras. Got it for £530 inc delivery.

I was also having a look at the Zuiko 14-54mm lens:

http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/dslr_ZUIKODIGITAL_14-54mm_1_2_8-3_5.htm

According to a lot of online reviews, this is the biz for normal shots and blows the standard 14-45 away! At £400 though its not cheap! Anyone have any experience with this lens.

Cant wait for my new E500 to arrive! Kiss my butt Nikon + Canon!

Edit: One other thing I read about the E500 was that the viewfinder is quite small and that the ME-1 eyecup magnifier is recommended for better viewing. Does anyone have any opinions on this?

http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/dslr_ME-1.htm

brummie · 11 Jul 2006 at 12:46

Good choice

The 14-54 is a 'pro' lens thats why it is better.

Thats the one i want in the near future, well that and the 50-200

nero120 · 11 Jul 2006 at 12:49

brummie said:
Good choice

The 14-54 is a 'pro' lens thats why it is better.

Thats the one i want in the near future

Thanks dude. Would you keep your 14-45 or sell it on? Think they are going for about £100 on ebay.

Heres the only 14-54 going on there at the mo:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Olympus-Zuiko...ryZ30070QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

brummie · 11 Jul 2006 at 12:57

if i bought that i'd be selling the kit lens TBH

127 and 5 days to go

thats gonna rocket lol

nero120 · 11 Jul 2006 at 13:00

brummie said:
if i bought that i'd be selling the kit lens TBH

127 and 5 days to go thats gonna rocket lol

Yep it certainly is! Might as well buy it brand new!

brummie · 11 Jul 2006 at 13:10

nero120 said:
Edit: One other thing I read about the E500 was that the viewfinder is quite small and that the ME-1 eyecup magnifier is recommended for better viewing. Does anyone have any opinions on this?

http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/dslr_ME-1.htm

i have the fuji 5600 (before the oly) and that has a smallish view finder so it wasnt a problem for me.
The bigger viewfinder is nicier but not something that i really required.

See how you get on before you buy. Or Go into a store and see if you can try the ME-1.

nero120 · 11 Jul 2006 at 14:20

Thanks mate, will do!

gEd · 11 Jul 2006 at 14:28

nero120 said:
Decided to go with the standard twin lens kit in the end, so I wouldnt have to mess around with buying extras. Got it for £530 inc delivery.

good decision!

make sure you have some big CF cards lined up for when you start shooting in RAW. 15Mb each....

Incidentally, for reasons that begger belief, Oly only fitted a USB rather than USB2 port to the E500. Not a huge deal but it can take a long time to download lots of RAW images. I may invest in a cheap usb2 card reader one day.

nero120 · 11 Jul 2006 at 15:24

gEd said:
good decision!

make sure you have some big CF cards lined up for when you start shooting in RAW. 15Mb each....

Yeah! Gonna go for a 4GB integral i-pro 100x to start me off.

Incidentally, for reasons that begger belief, Oly only fitted a USB rather than USB2 port to the E500. Not a huge deal but it can take a long time to download lots of RAW images. I may invest in a cheap usb2 card reader one day.

Huh? It says USB 2.0 on the specs page:

http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/dslr_E-500_Specifications.htm

gEd · 11 Jul 2006 at 16:10

nero120 said:
Yeah! Gonna go for a 4GB integral i-pro 100x to start me off.

Huh? It says USB 2.0 on the specs page:

http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/dslr_E-500_Specifications.htm

It says "Full Speed"

USB supports three data rates.

* A Low Speed rate of 1.5 Mbit/s (183 KiB/s) that is mostly used for Human Interface Devices (HID) such as keyboards, mice, and joysticks.
* A Full Speed rate of 12 Mbit/s (1.5 MiB/s). Full Speed was the fastest rate before the USB 2.0 specification and many devices fall back to Full Speed. Full Speed devices divide the USB bandwidth between them in a first-come first-served basis and it is not uncommon to run out of bandwidth with several isochronous devices. All USB Hubs support Full Speed.
* A Hi-Speed rate of 480 Mbit/s (57 MiB/s).

nero120 · 11 Jul 2006 at 16:53

gEd said:
It says "Full Speed"

USB supports three data rates.

* A Low Speed rate of 1.5 Mbit/s (183 KiB/s) that is mostly used for Human Interface Devices (HID) such as keyboards, mice, and joysticks.
* A Full Speed rate of 12 Mbit/s (1.5 MiB/s). Full Speed was the fastest rate before the USB 2.0 specification and many devices fall back to Full Speed. Full Speed devices divide the USB bandwidth between them in a first-come first-served basis and it is not uncommon to run out of bandwidth with several isochronous devices. All USB Hubs support Full Speed.
* A Hi-Speed rate of 480 Mbit/s (57 MiB/s).

Crafty buggers! That is annoying isn't it? I guess it would be better use the card reader for transferring pics to the pc.

gEd · 11 Jul 2006 at 17:43

nero120 said:
Crafty buggers! That is annoying isn't it? I guess it would be better use the card reader for transferring pics to the pc.

I blame the mob who decided on the naming. Clearly "full speed" isn't. In fact I would have said low, high then full in that order.

Anyway, a high speed usb2 card reader will obviously be quicker so if you have one, I'd use it. For downloading JPEG's only, it not a massive deal, I just go and make a brew.

Enjoy the new camera and don;t forget to check out

http://www.fourthirdsphoto.com/

brummie · 11 Jul 2006 at 19:55

the only thing i use the camera usb for is to update the firmware.

the most flash cards cant go at the top usb transfer speed so usb2 is a bit pointless

gEd · 11 Jul 2006 at 22:10

brummie said:
the only thing i use the camera usb for is to update the firmware.

the most flash cards cant go at the top usb transfer speed so usb2 is a bit pointless

ah yes, good point - well spotted!