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Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5

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Photo of the Day

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
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Photo of the Day

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

Photo of the Day

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

CCD Resurgence, Preserving The Cult

A look at a low-cost vintage digital SLR camera and lens kit for CCD enthusiasts.

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If there is a call for a camera and lens kit that CCD digital SLR camera enthusiasts would want to keep longer in their collection, rather than letting it go when they are looking for a change or upgrade to the camera and lens they are using, my nomination for such a setup will have to be an Olympus (Evolt) E-500, a Four/Thirds System digital SLR camera introduced in 2005, and an Olympus Zuiko Digital 40-150mm 1:3.5-4.5 telephoto zoom lens, introduced in 2004. This low-cost setup will not cost you an arm or a leg, and is a pleasure to use.

The Olympus (Evolt) E-500, a re-find in the resurgence of interest for the unique image characteristics, is a 10MP CCD Kodak KAF-8300CE Four/Thirds entry-level digital SLR camera designed to provide professional-quality features at an accessible price point. The camera, with a sensor's performance that is particularly noteworthy for its generation, is compact and lightweight, praised for its solid build quality and ergonomic design, and image quality equated with excellent sharpness, color reproduction, and tonality.

The camera features a 2.5-inch LCD screen with 215,000 dots, with an active control panel that allows for quick access to most camera settings without diving into the menu system, a 49-zone metering system with Digital ESP, center-weighted, and spot metering modes, and a basic autofocus system with three focus points. ISO range is from 100 to 400 as standard, with extended settings up to 1600, shutter speed range is from 1/4000 to 60 seconds with a Bulb, and flash sync speed is 1/180 second. In burst mode, the E-500 can capture approximately 2.5 frames per second for up to five frames in Super High Quality JPEG mode.

The Olympus Zuiko Digital 40-150mm 1:3.5-4.5, a very affordable Four/Thirds mount option for vintage enthusiasts looking to add basic telephoto capabilities to their kit, is a versatile lens that offers an equivalent focal length of 80-300mm in 35mm terms on the 2x crop sensor E-500. The lens is suitable for photography genres including portraits, sports, landscapes, and wildlife, and has also been a popular choice among Olympus DSLR users for many years.

The 13 elements in 10 groups lens, which offers impressive sharpness across most of its focal length range, more so when stopped couple of f-stops down, has an aperture range from 1:3.5-4.5 to 1:22, 7 diaphragm blades, is 107mm x 77mm in size, weighs 425 grams, has a minimum focusing distance of 1.5 meters, and takes 58mm filters. Though designed for smaller Four Thirds sensor cameras, this metal mount lens is comparatively large and heavier than some APS-C lenses as found on the market. What it does, however, is provide a positive feel when attached to the camera.

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5

Using the camera and lens combination is easy and convenient. The E-500 has the standard PASM (Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual) exposure modes, an additional 15 scene modes, three color (Vivid, Natural, Muted), and two monochrome modes (Black & White, Sepia) that can be customized for contrast, saturation, and sharpness. The lens, though slightly bulky, works well in good lighting conditions, delivers fast autofocus performance, produces sharp, high-contrast images with signature Olympus colors and pleasing background blur, particularly with subjects at longer focal lengths.

Note: CCDs, known for producing images with a distinct color profile that many describe as more natural, vibrant, and film-like, with a smooth highlight roll-off, were the gold standard for camera sensors from the early 80s till the late 2000s. While they have been largely displaced by the CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) variety in consumer digital cameras, CCDs are still valued for certain specialized applications, including Optical Microscopy, Space Photography, and Near-Infrared Imaging.

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

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Photo of the Day

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

Photo of the Day

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

Photo of the Day

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

Photo of the Day

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

Olympus Evolt E-500, Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5

CCD Resurgence: First impression images with the Olympus E-500, the DSLR camera with the 8MP Kodak KAF-8300CE CCD imaging chip.

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Managed at last, recently, to strike an item off my GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) list, an 8MP CCD Olympus E-500 (Olympus EVOLT E-500 in the US), a very affordable consumer-oriented Four/Third digital SLR camera system introduced by Olympus in 2005. The camera is fitted with the much-talked-about Kodak KAF-8300CE CCD sensor and was launched as an update to the E-300 introduced in 2004.

Unlike the E-300, which also has the Kodak 4/3 Type CCD sensor, a flat top, and fitted with an unusual Optical Porro Finder, the compact E-500 is back to a traditional SLR built with a pentamirror viewfinder, and a hump on top of the camera which houses the camera's built-in flash, hot shoe, and viewfinder eyepiece.

While the camera I acquired was almost still brand-new, spick, and span all around, and had only 1787 shutter counts to its credit, it was untested and was offered as a low-cost buy due to a dead battery. All it needed was a fully charged replacement battery to get the E-500 humming and running perfectly.

Being closer to old-school AF 35mm SLR film cameras than current mega-electronically controlled DSLRs, the camera is well endowed with the functionalities to get you up and running in no time, almost without the hassle of referring to the instruction manual to comprehend the dials and function buttons that are fitted to the camera.

The E-500 is also fitted with a 2.5-inch 215,250 dot LCD, dual (CF and xD) card slots, a manual ISO speed range from 100 to 1600 (100 to 400 on Auto), a shutter speed range from 60 - 1/4000 second, and Bulb (up to 8 mins) in Manual mode (1 - 1/4000 sec in AE mode), and saves image in RAW and JPEG file formats./

Exposure selections include Program AE (with shift), Aperture priority AE, Shutter priority AE, Manual, Creative Modes with Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Sports, and Night Scene + Portrait, and a further selection of 15 different Scene modes.

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 40-150mm 1:3.5~4.5

These quick test images were shot with the 3.8x zoom Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 lens (80-300mm in full-frame equivalent), the second lens that ships as part of the two-lens kits with the E-500. Constructed with multicoated 13 elements in 10 groups, and a sturdy metal mount, the lens is quite hefty in the hand and weighs 425 grams.

Fairly usable for everything from portraits to sports scenes, the lens does pretty well across most of its focal length range, but is rather soft at its widest as you go from 100 to 150mm. Looking forward now to more shoots, other lenses, and the ubiquitous manual focus legacy lenses, which are abound.

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