Why did YOU choose Olympus?

This is a link to a current thread in this forum. The photographer is using his E-500. I think his photos show that the E-500 is capable of high quality results:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=22218286

Don't give up on your E-500!

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Cheers,

Jim Pilcher
Colorado, USA

'I'm always happier with the results I get than I am disappointed with the opportunities I missed.' -- Me

well indeed, only if its actually available. and I keep wondering where's the lens to go with it, and I am not asking for OIS 1.2, just a no nonsense std and wide angle ( say 15mm would do fine ) in 2.0

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• Franka -

Excellent kit lenses in my opinion. Also the 14-54 and 50-200 always receive excellent reviews.

2x lens conversion factor. I don't usually need focal lengths under 28mm.

And I never have to worry about changing lenses. I know the sensor will be dust free when I turn it back on.

Kevin D said:

I don't own an Olympus - and respect those who do.

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It's hard to figure why owning a camera brand makes one worthy of respect.

Kevin D358261 said:

So why did you initially buy your Oly dSLR?

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In this order:

Lens selection, Image Quality, and Ergonomics.

Kevin D358261 said:

And what do you use it for?

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Taking photographs . . .

Kevin D358261 said:

I'm seriously considering getting one of the new dSLRs that's coming
out on the 5th.

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You most likely won't regret it. Always try it out first though. Take it for a spin with your memory cards, and try working with the files.

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--
Zach Bellino
'I prefer my lo-mein of the veggie variety.'
--ZJB
'Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.”
-- from 'I Remember, I Remember'
Philip Larkin (1922-1985)

My very first camera was an Oly D200L purchased in 1998--640x480 max resolution with an internal memory (no removable cards). But great colors right out of the camera with minimal tweaking needed. Followed this with my first DSLR--the Oly fixed lens SLR C2500L (eventually bought most of the converter lenses, too). 2.5 MP of great, beautiful colorful images straight from the camera (either TIF or JPG, no RAW file option). When it died in Feb 2004 from too many falls, I purchased another fixed lens DSLR, the Oly E20 & also got most of the converter lenses with the exception of the TCON 300mm. Great colors again, but I got frustrated by the slow write speeds & smallish buffer. So in Nov 2004, I sold the E20 & purchased a demo E1 & 14-54mm lens. I loved it immediately and am now up to 16,000 activations. But the amazing thing throughout all these years & different models is that the slightly oversaturated colors that Oly favors (as do I have) have remained constant. For someone who suffers a bit of color blindness, as I do, I appreciate that for the most part, PP has never involved much color tweaking in any of these cameras and the basic "look" of the jpg image straight from the camera has stayed constant.

Cheers,
HS
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http://hestamm.smugmug.com

...from 28mm to 400mm (35mm speak) with two lenses.

Everything I expected it to be it is and its still going as strong today as it was 3 years ago.

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'The greatest joy there is in life is creating. Splurge on it!' LRH

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carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero

=> Closeup/Macro Galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/magma_photography/root

Near indestructibility, total reliability, excellent customer service, unheralded optical technology. Did I mention the optics? Oh yeah... the optics. And perhaps the lenses are pretty good, too.

I love my Oly system. I love my others as well but Oly has a special place.

--
there are no better companies, only better images.

I'm genuinely interested in why YOU ended up with an Olympus DSLR. Actually, I've been wondering for quite some time about this.... Care to elaborate?
thanx

If I wanted the best technology and expansion options it would have been a no brainer to buy Canon or Nikon especially that Canon Rebel XT, but I was a poor Med Student and wanted the highest resolution and the least upkeep for the lowest price. At the time, the E-300 dual lense kit gave me that. I didn't have to worry about dust, I got 8 Megapixels, and it was one of the cheapest cameras at the time. ($300 cheaper then a Rebel XT)

At twilight, at night, and indoors those Nikon and Canon ISO 800 and 1600 images make me reconsider my decision. Now I have the FL-50 and 35 mm Macro and am too far invested to change. I only hope Olympus only gets bigger and better to the level of Nikon and Canon.

I wanted a body, a good convenient standard zoom roughly equivalent to the 28-105 I was using with film, and a good telephoto zoom with a focal length range matched to the standard zoom, with the body plus standard zoom to start with at $2,000 or less.

Canon and Pentax failed because this was 2003, and their standard zoom options were cramped: the 17-40/4L for the 10D was overpriced and with far too little telephoto range, and the Pentax 16-45/4 was more convenient and less expensive, but still failed to match up well with any available telephoto lens.

So only the E-1 + 14-54/2.8-3.5 and the D100 +17-70/3.5-4.5 made sense.

From there, it was partly the lower barrel distortion of the 14-54, partly the appeal of a greater promise of developing a complete system of lenses adapted specifically to the needs of the format (Nikon DX lenses were still very few in those days, Pentax DA even fewer, and Canon EF-S lenses did not exist at all yet.)

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Larger pixels require either longer exposure times or lenses with larger front elements.

Otherwise all you get is about the same results, but using longer lenses, higher f-stops and higher ISO speeds.

I have now used my E-500 for almost 1½ year and I still think it is just great.

When I bought it, I checked ergonomics on the E-500 and the competition and chose the E-500.

I use the medium grade lenses except for a 40-150mm. The image quality from the system is great. The photographs are to be judged by someone else than me though... LOL

As I am on a budget (got a wife), I also really like that it is possible to get quality lenses at a good price. The next ones on my list is a 50-200mm and then 11-22mm.

I think, I will be shooting with this camera for some more time. Actually I really would like to get one with liveview. Well... that requires more funds.. and I would rather get more lenses than a new body. hmm... maybe in a year from now I will be able to get one of the new PMA bodies cheap. Just a thought....

Kind regards Jørgen
http://www.pbase.com/jchriste

...film shooter for some 7-8 years previously, I anxiously awaited the coming of the KM 7D. This was the end of 2004. While waiting (and waiting and waiting, and waiting), I happened upon this web site. I checked out the various forums. Canon, too many complaints about dust and back/front focus problems. Nikon, some complaints about dust. Sigma, RAW files only with the SD9, and at that time, I was quite intimidated at the prospect of converting potentially hundreds of RAW files after a vacation. Then I came to the Olympus DSLR forums. Nice people, (not to say the majority of folks on the others aren't nice), no dust complaints. minor complaints about slow AF, I like the images I saw posted. BUT, my limit to spend was $1000 usd. That left me with the Canon DRebel, and the Nikon D70. The E300 hadn't come out yet. SOOOOO, I went to the ONLY local camera shop who carried Oly, handled an E-1 and was hooked. Slow AF? yeah right, no worse than my Minolta 600si. The ergonomics and feel of the camera were...perfect. Still, I couldn't justify spending a total of around $2000 usd. $1000 was my limit. So, I checked out the DRebel. cheap feel, LOUSY, LOUSY grip. I liked the D70, though with the lens, it would be around $1200-1300 usd. I waited for the E300. Finally got it in Feb of 2005 and fell in love with from day one. Note: I now also have a Nion D50 and like it very much also, but it's not my E300. The colors straight from the cameras are perfect for my tastes, very much like Kodak Royal Gold film I previously shot. It's a great camera, very much underappreciated IMO.
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shinndigg
http://www.pbase.com/shinndigg

I used the C8080 for two years and really liked it. When I was saving up for a dSLR, I educated myself on what I'd want and what I'd need. I looked at a lot of the entry level options provided by Nikon & Canon and except for the 300D and the D50 nothing really impressed me from them over the options Olympus had. But, then I saw the images the E-1 had to offer and the stats showed that other camera manufacturers were just now catching up to what Oly produced in 2003. Only difference is that the E-1 had superior build quality, weathersealing, ZD glass, etc.

I chewed on the idea for a year and bought the E1 and originally thought that the 5MP would be limiting for large prints and or web prints. Boy was I wrong! I do portraits, landscapes, and event photography. I love my E-1 and wouldn't trade it for the world... well... maybe the new pro E series camera... and some fast glass
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TANK
http://www.myspace.com/servantoflove

...another factor was that , like Nick, I dare to be different. I wouldn't be content just getting what everyone else gets.That factored into the equation as well.

Whenever I'm on vacation, people look at my camera funny, and frequently ask, 'Who makes that camera?'. But, it's always easy to spot another Oly user. "I ran into a few when I went out west last year, and here in Ohio, from time to time. --
shinndigg
http://www.pbase.com/shinndigg

After reading this thread I realised that my first digicam was an Olympus, the C4000. I got that one because it was on sale. Had lots of fun with it. Love the AA batteries, lots of features and very good image quality (4mp 1/1.8", none of the noise problems of current digicams).

The C4000 made me switch to digital much sooner than I thought. I got a Konica Minolta A2 to use for a couple of years until the budget dslr market would have developed a little more (more models, cheaper, more lenses).

I'm willing to consider any brand/system, but at the moment I doubt I would choose Olympus. There is no IS in their system, meaning you have to switch to higher ISO sooner, and that is the weak point of the 4/3 sensors. I'm also missing a (consumer) lens like a 14-100.

If Oly were to offer IS in the body of a compact dslr like the E400, I would give them a look. Maybe I don't need low noise ISO 1600 that much. Don't know how the viewfinder of the E400 is. The very small one in the E500 is a deal breaker for me.

mathiasf said:

I'm genuinely interested in why YOU ended up with an Olympus DSLR.
Actually, I've been wondering for quite some time about this....
Care to elaborate?
thanx

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By accident. I always had Minoltas in film days; first SRT-102 and then maxxum xi (I believe this was the name - it is somewhere in the basement). I was mostly photographing events with people, hardly experimenting. After coming from America and not holding camera in hands for quite many years I started feeling I was missing something, especially living in a place like Vienna. Just about two years ago one of my colleague let me borrow his wife's Oly c-5060, and I sort of fell for it. I liked the compactness and versatility of the digital and an ease of sharing snapshots with friends back in the States especially. I made some homework, printed out pages of specs and comparisons but still could not decide which camera to buy. The salesman was packing D70 when I came across C-8080. This is how silly it gets at times - don't we get these kinds of posts almost every week in this forum - which camera to buy? I called off D70 and walked out with C-8080. These was my learning curve;

http://www.pbase.com/sngreen/italy_2005

http://www.pbase.com/sngreen/london_2005

Really snapshots, as I look at it now. It was a good camera, but awfully slow and unreliable in focus. The camera would confirm focus but the images would come out blurry, or it would simply not focus at all. I already had FL-36 and then came across a good steal for 14-54. So the next camera was pretty much mindless process - as soon as E-500 came out I went ahead an bought it. Entry level was about the right place to continue. I shot plenty of shots with D70 and for weeks with borrowed from good friend digital rebel - they are all fine cameras and I can see no reason why Olympus folks get so defensive about their brand. I think I am getting ready for something different, but I (like everybody else) am very curious what the next surprise from Olympus will be.

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• Sergey

Latest
http://www.pbase.com/sngreen/20070225

James Pilcher said:

sngreen said:

Bootstrap said:

No camera I've ever used has matched the quality and flexibility of
the Olympus offerings.

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I suppose Olympus was the only dSLR you ever used?
How could then others not match?

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Your posts always put a smile on my face. Your comments are
insightful, informative, and relevant. Thanks for contributing...

Oh, it's Sergey? I thought I was replying to Higuma. Never mind.

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Cheers,

Jim Pilcher
Colorado, USA

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Really? You mean you bought 2 E-1s for this;
http://jpilcher.smugmug.com ?

No wonder you are confused.

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• Sergey

Latest
http://www.pbase.com/sngreen/20070225

Love my E-300........been very impressed with the features and image quality.

Jimmy Lai said:

I noticed over 50% of the repliers buy Olympus because of the good
price, there are very few offer of other opinions about the camera,
picture quality etc. Most of the repliers who are very happy about
their camera are E1 MODEL OWNERS, but the E1 IS AN OLD CAMERA, it
almost 4 years old technology. I have not see that many favourable
remarks about other models. I have read many CAMERA MAGAZINES
reviews compare Olympus to CANON, NIKON, SONY and PENTAX, Olympus
consistently has a lower marks than the others. I don't own any
other DSLR, I can only judged from the PROFESSIONAL INDEPENDENT
opinions. I personally own ( about 4 months) an E500 because of
the price like 50% of the repliers here. I am not happy with the
quality of the pictures, I would appreciate anyboby own the E500 (
NOT THE E1 MODEL) express their views but so far, I am not
convinced.

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JHaagsma said:

If Oly were to offer IS in the body of a compact dslr like the
E400, I would give them a look. Maybe I don't need low noise ISO
1600 that much. Don't know how the viewfinder of the E400 is. The
very small one in the E500 is a deal breaker for me.

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You might want to check back after the announcements next week