A good beginner camera but with limited low-light capabilities

Author's Rating:

Pros: Wide-angle (28mm), cheap, manual controls, good picture quality, big 2" LCD, excellent macro mode.

Cons: poor low-light capabilities, cheap build, long flash recycle time, no burst or continuous mode.

The Bottom Line: 
Overall, it's a good camera if you can find it at a low price. The only real negative is its low-light capabilities. Manual controls are a good thing.

Author's Review
I got this camera in December 2004 for a very good price (180$ US).

The one feature this camera had over all the cameras in this category is its wide-angle capability (28mm). The downside is that you don’t have much tele power (only 91mm at 3.2x). Usually cameras in this price range begin a 35mm or even 38mm (Sony). This is great for landscape pictures and also for indoor shoots. Alas the big problem indoor is its inability to focus in low-light, even with some incandescent light open. Taking pictures in this environment become really a challenge. Not only you have to struggle with the AF problem, but also with the darkness of the LCD in low-light, fortunately there is always the inaccurate viewfinder. The other problem is the long flash recycles time. Before I learn to read the LCD indications, I failed many shots due to the flash not triggering. This flash is not very powerful either because a lot of pictures show the people correctly exposed but the background is very dark. I’m not saying it’s impossible to take good pictures at night indoor, but you will miss a lot of shots as I do. The 2 seconds max. shutter limitation add to the overall impression that this camera is screaming “I don’t want to take pictures at night”.

Outdoor, it’s a much more pleasing camera. Beside the LCD that is difficult to see in bright light (even with the brightness set to the maximum), there is no really difficulties. This camera is reasonably fast when you are ready to shoot and a bit slow between shots.

The manual controls are useful and rarely available for a compact camera in this price range. You have the usual Programmed auto, Shutter priority, Aperture priority and Manual modes. You also have the control on ISO speeds and exposure compensation. The manual focus is even present which is very rare indeed even on more expansive camera. Unfortunately it’s quite useless as you cannot see a zoomed picture of what you’re focusing. Let me explain here. On a 2” LCD a lot of unfocused pictures will look good because the resolution of the screen is something like 320x240 while your pictures are 2300x1700. To make an accurate manual focusing, we should see the center frame of that 2300x1700 in the LCD. That’s not the case with the E500 so you will not be able to tell if you focus correctly or not. What a pity! Apart from that, the manual controls will let the beginner to learn the photography basis. Fill-flash is available but alas no burst mode.

The quality of the pictures is quite good but you’ll want quickly to quit the Auto mode to get the best from this camera. Colors are a bit oversaturated, I prefer more natural look.

The handling is good for a compact camera due to the place used for AA batteries. I like the AA as they are cheap and always available. But the plastics used feel cheap. On the pictures the E500 look like it has some metal parts on the body but it’s not the case. The shutter button feels flimsy. One idiotic design is the placement and shape of the power button. It’s too close and too similar to the shutter button. More than once you will push the power button instead of the shutter! That happened to my wife while on a trip. It was the first time she used the camera. She forgot to open the pop-up flash too… Fortunately it’s numeric, so you just click the delete button and you have not wasted any money.

There is a movie mode also on this camera but it’s very limited. It’s only 320x240 at 10fps max. and for 60 sec. max. I don’t really care as I own a real camcorder.

The macro mode has 2 modes, normal and super. This one is excellent and let you to come as close as 1 inch from your subject. With the 4 mega pixels you can see details you wouldn’t be able to see with your own eyes. At that distance though expect to use external lightning as auto focusing will not work well.

Overall, it’s a good camera if you can find it at a low price. The only real negative is its low-light capabilities. Good for a beginner that will sooner or later want a more substantial camera.