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

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day

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

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day

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

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day

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

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

CCD Resurgence: Crops and close-ups with the classic 8MP CCD Olympus E-500 mounted with an Olympus Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5, a kit lens first introduced for Olympus E-500 and E-300 DSLRs in 2004.

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The Olympus Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5, a highly regarded Four Thirds system, is a compact, lightweight, and affordable vintage telephoto lens praised for its high sharpness and bright f/3.5-4.5 aperture. The lens, which often outperforms its kit lens reputation, is equivalent to an 80-300mm zoom on a full-frame camera.

The lens is often highlighted for its smooth zoom action and good performance for portraits or distant subjects in good lighting conditions, although autofocus can hunt in low-contrast situations.

The Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 was first introduced in 2004 and is commonly bundled with the E-500 and E-300 models. The lens works natively with Olympus DSLR cameras like the Olympus E-1, E-3, E-30, E-300, E-330, E-400, E-410, E-420, E-450, E-500, E-510, E-520, E-620, and can be used on Micro Four Thirds cameras via an adapter.

Construction is of 13 elements in 10 groups, with multi-coating to reduce flare and ghosting, 7 aperture blades, a minimum focus distance of 1.5 meters, measures 77mm in diameter x 107mm in length, takes 58mm filters, comes with a hood, and weighs 425 grams.

The lens features a metal mount with rubberized rings, is not weather-sealed, and comes with a front element that rotates during focus. Manual focus is a long 470-degree throw, which could be used to advantage for crops and close-up shots, and colors, typical of Olympus Zuiko glass, are true-to-life with strong contrast.

Though not without its faults, the lightweight build feels solid and durable; the zoom and focus rings are smooth, with no zoom creep. The lens excels in field use for telephoto reach, like capturing sunflowers or portraits with creamy bokeh at longer focal lengths.

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

For vintage CCD enthusiasts, the Olympus E-500 is a highly regarded, lightweight 8MP sensor DSLR from 2005. The DSLR is highly acknowledged for producing vibrant, film-like colors, having an excellent quality body with a standout feature for maintaining image quality - a built-in Supersonic Wave Filter, which shakes dust off the sensor every time the camera is turned on.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 17.5-45mm f/3.5-5.6

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 17.5-45mm f/3.5-5.6

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 17.5-45mm f/3.5-5.6

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 17.5-45mm f/3.5-5.6

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Zuiko Digital 17.5-45mm f/3.5-5.6, Not Too Often Seen

CCD Resurgence: Images with a vintage Four Thirds Zuiko Digital 17.5-45mm f/3.5-5.6, the compact standard zoom lens, Olympus E-500 SE Kits, a lightweight at 210 grams, and focuses down to 0.28m.

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Aside from a product announcement post on DPR and a few mentions on the Net, not much is really known of the 2005 Four Thirds Zuiko Digital 17.5-45mm f/3.5-5.6, a compact standard zoom lens that was available only as a kit lens with the Olympus E-500 SE Kit.

The lens was not available for purchase as a standalone, which is why it has remained almost anonymous and not looked at by reviewers or other enthusiasts.

A lengthy review and kudos for the lens on Biofos, however, bring to light that the 'kit lenses' do not necessarily mean that it is just a 'will-do' add-on product.

The Olympus E-500 SE DSLR kit, incidentally, is a special edition bundle for the 8MP digital SLR camera, released in 2005. Unlike standard kits, which would normally include a rechargeable battery pack, the SE (Special Edition) is supplied with a battery holder and three CR-123A batteries.

The Zuiko Digital 17.5-45mm f/3.5-5.6 is a 7-element in 7 groups lens with aspherical elements and a 7-blade diaphragm, accepts 52mm filter sizes, weighs 210 grams, and comes with an astounding and extraordinary closest focusing distance of 0.28 meters across its entire zoom range.

Fitted to the E-500, the lens is equivalent to a 35-90mm focal length on a 35mm film camera, a perfect go-to lens solution for a lightweight everyday use and travel-friendly digital SLR camera kit, casuals and close-ups, as well as the ubiquitous street scene, where the versatility of the 35-90mm zoom lenses is normally put to the test.

At 35mm equivalent, the wide end, where image distortion may be apparent, the lens is best for environmental and contextual shots. At 40 to 45mm equivalent, the 'sweet spot' for photography, which balances the wide-angle view of a 35mm with the tighter perspective of a 50mm for a 'human eye' field of view, the lens is ideal for street, documentary, and travel photography. At 50mm equivalent, of course, the lens is ideal for general use photography.

The 60mm equivalent will take you to the realm of food and still-life photography, natural portraits, and macro-like subjects like insects and flowers, while the 70mm equivalent sets the sights for tight portraits with compressed backgrounds, landscape and cityscape details, bokeh creatives, as well as not being too wide or too close. Portraits with flattering compression, with subject-background separation, and product photography are ideal at 80mm to 90mm equivalent, the long end of the lens.

Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 17.5-45mm f/3.5-5.6

The Olympus E-500 (Olympus EVOLT E-500 in the US), a well-regarded 8MP CCD consumer-oriented Four Thirds digital SLR camera system, was introduced by Olympus in 2005. The camera, fitted with the much-talked-about Kodak KAF-8300CE CCD sensor, updates the E-300, which is also fitted with the same sensor, and comes with the Supersonic Wave Filter (SSWF) system, first seen on the Olympus E-1 in 2003.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

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

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day

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

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day

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

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day

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

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CCD Resurgence, Preserving The Cult

CCD Resurgence: The Olympus E-500, and the Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4, the perfect lightweight, 80-300mm equivalent zoom kit for CCD enthusiasts.

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If there is a call for a camera kit that CCD digital SLR camera enthusiasts would want to keep longer than most, my nomination will have to be an Olympus (Evolt) E-500, a Four/Thirds System digital SLR camera introduced in 2005, mounted with 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 E-500 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.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

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

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day

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

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day

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

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day

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

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

CCD Resurgence: The Olympus E-500, and the Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5, for an excellent telephoto kit for outdoor portraits, nature, and sports.

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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 is 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 abundant.