[cheetaprowlerDH]

well i finally came across a killer deal and bought myself a camera after 16 years of not actually owning one...
of all the pictures i have taken before last Monday, none of them had been taken with a camera that i can call my own...

anyways, i bought an Olympus E-500 that i found on Craigslist for $300... it has a 40-150mm 1:35.-4.5 Zuiko lens, which is kinda slow and far-focused(4.9' minimum) for what i want to shoot, but hey for $300 i cant ask for anything better!
here she is!

and here are some pics i have taken with it so far...

^^ironically, that kid snaked me earlier that day... but i couldnt resist testing out my new camera!
maybe i could sell it to him that would be classic:biggrin:

i'm super stoked, the camera ceases to amaze me. its funny because i never expected to buy a digital SLR because of the price, i was just looking at the higher end point-and-shoots, but then i found this baby for cheaper than even those! so i'm super stoked that i have a camera that will allow me to work on all aspects of photography...

now i just need to get my fork fixed and then i can take this thing out and get some riding shots! cant wait to see what else it offers... i think i have it all figured out, but then i fing something new to tweak and understand... this thing hasnt been out of my hands for more than 30 minutes since Monday:biggrin:

 

[dan wask]

I'd move to flickr for photo hosting, photobucket kills your resolution and photo quality.

 

[cheetaprowlerDH]

yeah but with 4+ megabyte files coming off this camera, a free account on Flickr goes by pretty fast every month...

but i do have one!
only a few shots on there are from the new camera... i tagged them with its name:
My Flickr

 

[Transcend]

erm resize the shots before you upload to flickr. You can get decent quality at 250k.

 

[cheetaprowlerDH]

i'll figure something out... im probably going to buy an account because i would like to have my shots organized by genre... only being allowed 3 different sets just isnt enough...

 

[CBJ]

Nice find and pictures looks good. I wouldn't mind cheapo SLR like that.

 

[binary visions]

Nice. I really liked the build quality of the Olympus cameras, and the Zuiko lenses are pretty damn nice, especially the pro ones. I think it was DPReview that said the 50mm macro was about the highest resolution lenses they'd ever seen.

Only thing that kept me from buying one was high ISO noise. For $300, though, that's dirt cheap.

 

[narlus]

i'll figure something out... im probably going to buy an account because i would like to have my shots organized by genre... only being allowed 3 different sets just isnt enough...

if you want to save $5 for a zenfolio account, use my referral code:
QEX-2XZ-76X

i've been a happy customer for ~17 months now.

Nice. I really liked the build quality of the Olympus cameras, and the Zuiko lenses are pretty damn nice, especially the pro ones. I think it was DPReview that said the 50mm macro was about the highest resolution lenses they'd ever seen.

Only thing that kept me from buying one was high ISO noise. For $300, though, that's dirt cheap.

a 2x crop factor is kinda weird to deal with, and the lens lineup is pretty narrow, and very expensive.

 

[binary visions]

a 2x crop factor is kinda weird to deal with, and the lens lineup is pretty narrow, and very expensive.

Yeah, but the majority of what I like shooting is macro & wildlife, where 2x crop factor is generally either desirable or at least not a hindrance.

I used a couple of the Oly cameras casually. Lots of trade-offs but for a casual shooter they pack a pretty nice package in there. Most people don't know what to do with a real wide angle and are generally more limited by the long end anyway, plus in-body stabilization, plus a compact body... not bad.

 

[robdamanii]

Nice shots. I love my E500 as well. You can find a 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 on fleabay for about 375 clams.

I particularly love my 50-200mm 2.8-3.5, and I'd really love to get an 8mm fisheye.

 

[cheetaprowlerDH]

Nice. I really liked the build quality of the Olympus cameras, and the Zuiko lenses are pretty damn nice, especially the pro ones. I think it was DPReview that said the 50mm macro was about the highest resolution lenses they'd ever seen.

Only thing that kept me from buying one was high ISO noise.

yeah i was super stoked when i saw and held it for the first time... its a really sturdy, pretty heavy camera with good looking and feeling angles and a huge screen!

i love the lens, even though it is slow and far focused, i've come to work around those limitations already! i'm looking at a 2x teleconverter for it and then further down the line i would like to buy one a shorter 17-55 or so lens... hopefully i can find one that is pretty fast but cheap!

the ISO noise is pretty heavy on 400 and up, but once i turned on the noise reduction, i was amazed at how much it did! on its highest setting of ISO 1600, the picture is about as noisy as ISO 500 without noise reduction... its noticable once you get the pic blown up to maybe 12x14 or larger, but until then its nothing too bad... it does its job especially well in long exposures like the ones i have of the harbor and my street, those were both 60" exp. on ISO 100. without NR those would have had many very noticable spots of solid noise...
main bummer for me is that sequence shooting is not possible with noise reduction on, so i guess i just have to shoot during the bright of the day! but thats no big deal so far, because i dont know how to launch a 30' kicker in darkness

the color settings and basic picture settings are awesome, they are all very noticably different from eachother... i have messed around with a Canon 30D and tried to set it up to be as vivid in color and sharp as my camera and i just couldnt do it, its settings only did a little to the picture... but hey, thats what editing systems are for right:biggrin:

a variety of lens choices isnt really that big of an issue for me right now because as usual i am flat broke and need to have something on my bike fixed before i do anything else... but as long as i have a short to medium zoom like a 17-40 or 55mm and a longer almost telephoto zoom lens like the 40-150mm i have right now, i'm stoked...

i'm getting a 2GB CF memory card sometime next weeks, so that should allow me to get my shots faster... im using a typical 1GB XD card right now and it can only process a sequence of 4 or 5 shots at a time, so i'm limited...

but overall i'm super stoked! the battery lasts just about all day and the camera is really fun and easy to shoot with. it has a really wide variety of settings and is very, very malleable to each shot, so i'm definitley happy that i finally have my own equipment!
my friends are all stoked too because they know that i have been doing photography for years and they have seen the action shots that i take with super cheap point-and-shoots, so theyre all amped that i have my own "expensive professional" equipment and would be more than stoked to cruise and get shots of them shredding something...

 

[cheetaprowlerDH]

if you want to save $5 for a zenfolio account, use my referral code:
QEX-2XZ-76X

zenfolio...
i'll have to check that out as well, thanks!