if the local camera shop can sell my nikon n90 SLR film camera, i plan to replace it w/ the olympus stylus 500. anyone here familiar w/ it? thanks...slowhike

i have a older version, the stylus 410. i would have to say the main reason i got it was b/c of the all weather-protection feature. while this may not mean it is waterproof, it does mean it is highly dirt proof. i keep it in a alosak to keep it dry.

i just had an 8x10 picture printed from my jmt hike, and it looked as good as any film camera. it turned out a lot better than i thought.

it is great on battery life. i made it to califonia, along the jmt and back taking 1200 pictures and using 4 batteries. i did not take the charger. i turned off all the sounds and the lcd screen. turning off the sounds did fool a lot of people that took my picture. since there was no fake shutter sound, they did not know if it took or not. i do not like that i have to turn the lcd screen of every time i turn the camera on.

as far as the other photo details, a profesional i am not. i use the landscape and landscape/portrait modes when outdoors. the only thing is that it gets reset back to the auto mode when the shutter is closed. my cannon elf had a dial to turn, so it would stay in that mode when the camera was turned off.

also, when you want to switch back from the super-macro setting. you have to turn the camera off and turn it back on.


hope this helps.

Edited by jerm409 on 11/30/2005 23:00:54 MST.

thanks jeremy. good information. it`s good to get an idea how long a paticular camera will function before a battery change. that could be amusing watching people`s reaction when they take a picture, expecting to hear the camera do something:~) good point about turning off unnessasary sounds, etc. ...tim/slowhike

I to have the Stylus 410 D (digital). It does have some quirks, but I've found that you can get in and out of Super-macro mode without turning on and off the camera. You can also turn on and off the LCD screen without restarting the camera.

I really like the macro and super-macro modes for flowers and other closeup shots.

I can't tell a 5x7 enlargement apart between my film (35mm) SLR and the Olympus. At 8x10 I can see some digital artifacts.

Battery life is pretty good, I usually switch over to a second battery about a 5 days into a trip. I do turn off the LCD (except for the macro modes) and all sounds. It does make it harder to hand to other people to get a portrait of yourself.

It's a camera I can pretty much leave in my pants pocket or outside mesh backpack pocket and not worry about it, yet it's quickly available when needed.

-adam

"You can also turn on and off the LCD screen without restarting the camera."

i was refering to the fact that everytime the camera i turned off, when it is turned it back on, i have to turn the LCD screen off again. i'd rather just leave it off, and turn it on when i need it. if there is way to do this, let me know.

as far as the macro function, it is simple button on back of camera. it is the super-macro that has a quark. i go into menu, turn on the super-macro, whick takes great pictures if i can hold my hand still enough. then when i go back into menu and turn it off, the camera stays zoomed. so i would say that it really turns it only half off. i then half to zoom back out to return to normal.

thanks

> i was refering to the fact that everytime the camera i turned off, when it is turned it back on, i have to turn the LCD screen off again. i'd rather just leave it off, and turn it on when i need it. if there is way to do this, let me know.

I believe you need to change the "All Reset" value. Mode Menu -> Setup -> All Reset (make sure it's set to OFF).

I believe this will all the camera to remember which program mode it was last in as well.

The full manuals for the 410 are
available online. Pages 33-35 cover the ALL RESET function.

> super-macro that has a quark

Yah, one of my complaints about the interface is that you can easily toggle between regular and macro mode with 1 button, but you need to go into the menus to turn on or off the super-macro setting.

Hope that helps,
-adam

>I believe you need to change the "All Reset" value. Mode Menu -> Setup -> All Reset (make sure it's set to OFF).

worked perfectly. thanks so much. anybody have anything to say about the olympus digital slr's???

Edited by jerm409 on 12/03/2005 23:13:03 MST.

up-date... i just picked up the stylus 720 today! it`s thier newest in that line. water-proof (to 10') & shock resistant. i`ll reportback later.
...tim

Jeremy, since Tim has his 720, I will reply to your question. Several fellow workers have the 300 and a couple have the E1, so apart from my tests I have seen many pictures from these two and the 500 as well. They are definitely underrated compared to the equivalent Canons and Nikons. We sell all of the other digital SLR brands ,including Pentax and Sigma, and the fact that more staff members use Olympus than the other brands says something. This is not including the guys that do professional work and use full frame Canons or high end Nikons.
For most shots, if you cannot get a decent result with the Olympus DSLR, don't blame the camera...
As usual, my advice here is : if it feels right, it will be right.
Franco