E-500 Field test

Spent some of my time this weekend playing around with my new Olympus E500 toy and trying to get accustomed with its controls and settings. I think I’m getting a hang of it as some of its controls and menus are somewhat similar to C750. Still I think I have to adjust to its more detailed white balance settings and focusing. Below are some field test samples. No post-processing done, just resizing, watermark and web compression.

One thing I enjoy from the E500 is its 14-45mm Zuiko Kit Lens which is a 28-90mm equivalent on a 35mm camera standard. It’s a nice wide angle lens and focusing is quite fast as well. The dome shot in Araneta’s Gateway has was shot in full wide angle (28mm), Aperture Priority at f3.5, shutter at 1/10sec handheld, Auto White Balance and an ISO of 100.

Testing the camera outdoors and especially to get that pretty good blue sky I took a shot of a building in Makati in front of the Ayala Museum. One thing about Olympus picture colors I noticed especially in my C750 is that their colors are more lifelike, what you see it what you get. It’s muted which is a turn off to some people considering most people like more saturated and bright colors which I think Canon got it right. Well It was a welcome to know that E500 has some color settings like Vivid, Natural, Muted, Sepia and Monochrome. The Vivid setting somehow gets close to that Canon blue sky colors without any filters since it somehow increases the saturation and sharpness of the picture. The Ayala shot was done in Vivid Colors, Aperture Priority at F9, Shutter speed of 1/160, focal length of 32mm, Auto WB and an ISO of 100.

Now to test on how it captures details and indoor white balance, I decided to take some shot of old wine boxes at home. Ok, I think the Auto White Balance is a bit tricky here. I like the white balance of C750 better or maybe I’m just not used to it’s settings. I took some shots on different WB settings just to get myself accustomed to what they call Kelvin temperatures. Good thing there’s the RAW format which I can actually play around the white Balance in case I’m not satisfied with the pic. The details captured on the boxes was sharp and well done though I noticed some minor softness on the edges. The Wine Boxes shot was done handheld at 1/8 seconds shutter speed, aperture priority of F4.4, Auto WB and 100 ISO.

For a Macro test, I took a 2.5 inch height “doggy” figurine.Trying to get a Macro shot with a non-macro lens can be a bit tricky. But I can be a stubborn fellow if I wanted to and after numerous shots trying to take a shot on various distance and focal length I think I got a decent one at that. I’m impressed though again on the focusing speed, but only 3 AF points?! I took this Macro with aperture priority of f4.8 at 66mm focal length, shutter at 1/15 sec handheld, WB is at 6000k and an ISO of 100.

More indoor shots of objects for Macro using this Native container I bought at Bontoc Mountain province. It’s a larger object so it’s much easier to compose, nice DOF, but I think there was a bit blur on the detail since I only have this on handheld. Same setting as before.

Now this is more on capturing detail shots especially on printed materials. Used different Notes and Coins. I used shutter priority this time around and I had some problems at first since the images were a bit dark, I realized not much light was coming through even if the aperture was already on its widest opening. To get the light right I added +0.7 Exposure Compensation. I’m quite satisfied with the details captured on the notes when seen 100 percent its size. Settings on this shot is 1/40 sec shutter handheld, aperture f4.3, focal length of 52mm, Auto WB, 100 ISO and a +0.7 Exposure Compensation.

Tested some night shots in Araneta. Trying to get a decent Photo at night without a tripod is a challenge. I even have to lean by a wall or a lamp post just to get steady. Anyhow, the NightMode itself got some very decent shots. At ISO 400, the noise is much better compared to my C750. I’m also impressed with the control of flash. Even with the flash popped-up I can set the flash not to fire, instead it will act as a strobe and will help in focusing. Like the shot above, since the aperture is set to its widest, there were some DOF on the pic, but the main subject at the front is sharp since the strobe focused in that area. Shot this in Night+Portrait Mode, with shutter of 1/4sec handheld, aperture of f3.5, focal length of 28mm, WB of 5300k and an ISO 100.

Well that’s just about it for now. I think I’m getting a hang of my Toy and take advantage of all its features.