Aug 24, 2006 01:53 PM
3172 Views
My purchase of this camera started with a choice of 3 cameras. 2 SLRs EOS350D, Olympus E500 and Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ30. It was a decision spread over a month with hours of searching on net for reviews, comparisons and window shopping in over 10 showrooms.
So why these three cameras.
Well, I had an Olympus C770 UZ and I would say that it was one of the best electronic purchase in my life. Never had I been disappointed with that camera and Olympus got the positive feedback for that one. Panasonic was in consideration because it was the closest to an SLR without the hassle of changing lenses and so on. The third was Rebel XT or 350D. This was there because of the good ratings this product had recieved on nearly all of the camera sites that I had been to in last one year.
To narrow my choices, I started categorizing the camera on different groups of features and prices etc.
Looks and Ease of Use
I would have to say E500 blasts away 350D when it comes to ease of use and looks. This camera is really small and even for someone like me who doesnt have giant hands (I cannot palm a basketball but can palm a volleyball) it is difficult to hold this camera without noticing the small size. The same goes for its small 1.8" LCD. E500 on the on the other hand, fits perfectly, looks real great and has an amazing 2.5" LCD with really good quality. Lumix was in middle on both ease of use and had 2" LCD
Quality of Pictures
This was the place where canon made the best impression. I did a one to one comparison of photographs taken by 350D and E500 on several websites and came only to the conclusion that canon is better in all scenarios. Also, I was very satisfied with my Olympus C770 UZ and the only reason for upgrade was the noise that it had at high ISO levels. E500 had markedly more noise than canon and for Lumix, the biggest drawback again was his ISO noise levels. That verymuch took Lumix out of the race though I still am a fan of its looks and its Leica lens.
Features
There was not much of a fight here again. Olympus is renowned for their feature packed products and their innovative capabilities. E500 is no different, the biggest feature being the dust repelling sensor that cleans itself automatically. Its hypercrystal LCD is no different either.
Price
All over the world, E500 was cheaper than 350D by about US$100 but in Australia where I purchased the kit, E500 was coming out to be about 150 AU$ more than canon. This probably was the reason that swayed my decision in favor of canon.
Anyways, once I bought it, I started playing with the camera. Now comes the actual review of what I found.
Well, I still am saying that this camera is too small to be a DSLR. It looks decent but the moment you hold it, your fingers start feeling cramped. I can easily say that this alone could be a reason to put many people off this camera.
The 1.8 inch LCD is second problem with this camera. This LCD is pretty small and also not of that good quality that some of Olympus cameras feature that it is practically useless for review. Some canon fans might find this shocking but I have only one thing to say to them that just take a look at LCD of E500 once.
Apart from these two issues, I think there is all positives only in this camera. I have taken snaps at ISO 800 and found them to be pretty useful in fullscreen mode also of my Laptop. ISO 400 snaps of city night lights is having virtually no noise at all. Image quality is probably the trump card for this camera. To add to that, the Kit lens that comes for $100 is amazing (for that price). You cannot get a 100$ lens that gives you better performance and frankly, suffices for most amateur needs. It does become soft at the edges but so will some other counterparts of its that costs several times more. Canon though could have done a better job with the construction quality as that looks really flimsy.
Another good point of this camera is that it is true capture priority camera. It doesnt matter where in menu you are, the moment you half press the button to capture image, the camera goes into image capture mode.
The autofocus system is arranged in a 7 point cross and works decent in light. It did had some issues when I turned off the light in my room and AF-assist beam can be used only when flash is up. This makes it somewhat impossible to have a slow shutter shot of a room with auto focus.
The battery life I would say is amazing for this camera. I took over four hundred snaps without it even showing low battery. I had to go out an take a large set of pics so I recharged it but again, I have taken about 350 snaps and am waiting for the battery to discharge for the first time.
All in all I would say, this camera might not provide you what a Nikon could but then it can easily beat all cameras in its price range (even Nikon models in the same range).
While writing this review, Canon has announced EOS 400D or Rebel XTi. This new model it seems have been made to just remove the drawbacks of 350D only. It has a 2.5" LCD (God we wanted that), looks better (although I haven't hold one in hand). It also features a sensor dust removal system (Finally someone other than Olympus woke to this problem). Best of all, it is just 100$ more than 350D and packs 10 Megapixel against 8 of 350D
All in all, though this is an excellent camera, really good quality and decent features for price, I would suggest all to wait for 400D as that one can easily justify the extra 100$
