The E-500 turns out to be a
more important power consumer than many other digital SLR
cameras, and this is probably due to the design of the camera's
interface. While the interface is quite well organized, and
easy to navigate and understand, most camera settings require
the use of the large 2.5-inch LCD monitor. The Control
Panel screen display, for example, called up by pressing
the OK button at the centre of the Arrow pad, makes
it easy to change every critical camera setting on the fly.
However, the fact that these changes are accomplished using
the monitor appears to have an impact on the E-500's autonomy,
and the battery needs to be recharged more often than is the
case with cameras that have smaller LCD monitors, or those
that provide a secondary liquid crystal display.
The menu system of the E-500 is organized logically. The
first and second sections mostly contain photographic settings
and options. The third section is given over to the Playback
mode, and the fourth to options that provide camera-customizing
tools. The fifth and final section on the menu is the Setup
menu, and it contains the most basic, and generally the least
often accessed settings:
Date and Time: serves to set the time and date
on the E-500.
CF/xD: selects the card to use first when both
types of memory card are present in the camera.
File Name: to select whether image files names
are numbered consecutively, or restart at 1 when the card
is formatted or a new card is used.
Edit File name: allows renaming file names to make
them easier to identify.
Monitor Brightness: serves to adjust the brightness
of the monitor over a range of ±7 increments.
Language sets the language for the interface: English,
French, Spanish, or Portuguese.
Video Out: selects either NTSC or PAL output.
Warning Tone: On or Off. Decides whether or not
the camera beeps during operation.
Rec View: Decides whether or not an image is displayed
on the LCD monitor immediately post capture (Off, or 1 through
20 seconds in 1 second increments).
Sleep Timer: sets the delay after which the camera
goes to sleep if it is inactive (Off, 1, 3, 5, or 10 minutes).
4h Timer: Off or 4 hour. The camera turns itself
off if it is not used for 4 hours.
Button Timer specifies the amount of time needed
to make a selection or adjust a setting: 3 or 5 seconds,
or Hold (menu or option remains on-screen until set).
Screen: On or Off. Decides whether or not the Control
Panel is displayed immediately after start-up.
Control Panel Colour: Colour 1 or Colour 2. Changes
the Control Panel colour.
Priority Set: Yes or No. Serves to customize the
cursor position (Yes or No) as the initial position for
the ALL ERASE, ERASE, and FORMAT screens.
USB Mode: serves to set the USB protocol before-hand,
which avoids having to select it when the camera is plugged
into a computer or printer:
Auto: lets the user choose the mode to use
every time a USB cable is plugged into the E-500.
Storage: is for a Mass Storage connection,
allowing the E-500 to be recognized as a removable hard
disk by a computer.
Control: is to control the camera from a computer
using the optional Olympus Studio software.
Easy: sets the camera to communicate with a
PictBridge compliant printer, making it possible to
print images directly to the printer without a computer.
Custom: can be used when connecting the camera
to a PictBridge compliant printer, making it possible
to set the number of prints to make, select the type
of printing paper, and adjust other settings.
Colour Space selects the colour space for image
files: sRGB or Adobe sRGB.
Shading Compensation: On or Off. Automatically
compensates for vignetting by brightening the edges of photos
captured with very wide angle lenses.
Pixel Mapping: checks, detects, and corrects any
problems with the CCD and/or the image processor. Olympus
recommends using this function once a year.
Cleaning Mode: allows access to the CCD so it can
be dusted using a commercially available dust blower.
Firmware displays the version of the firmware currently
running on the camera and the lens:
: 1.0.
Lens: 1.0.
The E-500 is supplied with a printed manual that covers all
aspects of the camera's operations. With some minor exceptions,
the manual's information is generally clear and easy to understand.
Software
In North America the Olympus
Evolt E-500 is retailed with a single CD-ROM, which contains
Olympus Master for Windows and Macintosh, and with
English, French and Spanish versions.
Olympus Master starts by displaying a Main Menu window
that provides accesses to sections of the software that handle
Image Transfer, Browsing, Backup of Images, Online Printing,
At Home Printing, and Creating and Sharing.
The Olympus Master Browser window (shown at right) starts
out by presenting directories or folders in the left pane
of the programs window, and thumbnails of the photos from
the currently selected folder in the right-side pane.
The thumbnail size can be varied using a slider at the bottom
of the window and, when an image is selected, the program
displays the image's shooting data in another window pane
on the far right side.
Olympus Master is able to open Olympus
RAW files produced by the E-500 and can save them as BMP,
TIFF or JPEG (with different levels of compression).
Editing of RAW files is also possible, and photos can be adjusted
for exposure compensation, colour temperature, gray point, contrast,
sharpness, and saturation.
This version of Olympus Master
can be upgraded to a more powerful version called Olympus
Master Plus, for a cost of $19.99 US (purchased directly from
Olympus' web site).
This upgrade adds capabilities to Olympus Master itself,
and allows for the creation of VCDs and DVDs using a separate
program from Pixela called ImageMixer VCDDVD2, which,
while it is installed concurrently with Olympus Master, does
not function until Olympus Master is upgraded to Olympus Master
Plus.
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Interface & Software
