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?

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

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

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!

nero120 · 11 Jul 2006 at 14:20

Thanks mate, will do!

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

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.