What seems a lifetime ago, back during High School actually I got into 35mm photography. I bought a used Yashica TL Super from a friend’s dad for $5o, a lot of money back in 1977. I loved the camera; it was as if it knew me, as long as I used Fuji film it refused to take a bad picture. I shot pictures of the cheerleaders in school and some great shows of the laser light show at the local planetarium set to Pink Floyd music. I was in my early 20’s when the camera was stolen; this still stings to this day!
I’ve owned a number of cameras since then, none of them fit me quite as well as the old TL did. Being a gadget guy and a geek I went digital in 1998 and have owned a number of point and shoot digitals since then. They’ve been OK cameras, nothing really special.
This changed early in July when for my birthday I decided to treat myself to a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera. I did some research online and decided cameras with 8 megapixel fell within what I was willing to spell. I read several blogs that all suggested looking at cameras with two lenses in the package as they tended to be priced well.
I kept coming across the Olympus EVolt E-500 on line and in blogs, reviews were generally positive to very positive. At $599 for the two lens package I decided to look locally for this camera.
I drove down to where I remembered a local Camera store being, I found a hot tub store there instead, the camera store being long gone. Disappointed I drove over to the local grouping of strip malls, looking for a camera store. When I didn’t find one I pulled into a local electronics chain store parking lot and entered the store. The selection of cameras was abysmal, the sales person knew nothing.
I left the store and as I walked back to my car in the distance I say a sign that appeared to say “Photo”. Driving over that way I discovered a local camera store. The sales guy was great and they had the camera I wanted to see. Overall the sales guy had good things to say about the camera as he compared it to others in the store. In the end I bought it along with a 4GB memory card, a case, filters and the extended warranty.
I’ve had the camera a couple of weeks now and am really enjoying it. It reminds me of the old TL I had 30 years ago. The weight and size really work for me; I’ve read that it’s called ¾ format. The lenses are great, it’s the fastest digital I’ve had for focus and just taking the picture. I’ve read through the manual several times now, each time finding something new to explore. It can be used just like a point and shoot or it can be used fully manual. Every possible combination of the two is available as well.
My only two grips are this, the software that came bundled for my PC was the Olympus Master 1.x version, the interface was clunky and it never recognized the camera when I plugged it into a USB port. I eventually found the newest version of it online; Version 2.x has a much improved user interface and works flawlessly with the camera under Windows Vista.
Free (after rebates) with the camera was a Polaroid P310 4×6 photo printer. Using the same USB cable I use to doc the camera to my PC I simply connect the camera directly to the printer, select the photo and print. It’s not fast but does a great job for a free printer. Of course I haven’t yet priced the ink cartridges however I’ve grown used to the sticker shock each time I buy one for my other printers.
The only downside is that I can’t connect the P310 to my PC and print any of the thousands of other photos I have……… or can I? I set the camera to capture JPG images and shot a couple junk photos. I docked the printer to my computer and browsed to the disk drive the camera maps too on the computer. From the PC I copied a couple old pictures to the same directory as the junk photos on the camera. Using the PC I then deleted the junk photos and renamed the copied photos to the same names the junk photos had.
I undocked the camera and could browse the photos just fine on the LCD. I docked to the printer and printed them without a hitch.
It’s a bit of a kludge but it works adding a little bit more value to the camera and printer.
I’ve read that the printer works fine on power inverters that plug into your cigarette lighter. I’m really looking forward to being able to print out photos real time at the next family reunion I attend at the local park. Should be a lot of fun and should reconfirm my status as the head geek within the family.
Currently I give the camera a 9 on a scale of 1-10, to get a 10 it would have needed to present a bigger image in the eye piece, having older than 45 eyes the bigger the picture the better. Just today I received the ME-1 eyepiece adapter that is supposed to make the image about 20% bigger, once I’ve had some time with it I’ll post an entry on it.
I’m really enjoying the camera and highly recommend to fellow amateur photo hounds that you take a look at it.
