Olympus Stylus 500 Digital Camera Review

Model Design / Appearance (7.5)
The Stylus 500 looks something like a featureless satin silver bar of soap with a large round impression on the front leading to the lens. The lens is concealed behind a sliding cover that is slightly recessed and a bit off-center – very similar to the Stylus Verve. When extended, the lens moves out in a series of concentric circles. The lens design expresses a majority of the camera’s design character. 

The right side of the camera has a slight, gentle slop to the edge, with the top featuring a more pronounced bevel that runs along the left side and bottom. The general styling of the Olympus Stylus 500 is minimalist with clean lines used throughout the body. The flash, smack in the top-center of the front of the camera, has a long flat oval shape and sits to the left of the self-timer lamp – just a wee black dot.

With an expansive 2.5-inch LCD consuming nearly the entire back face of the camera, the rear of the Olympus Stylus 500 seems to resemble a drive-in movie screen projected onto the side of a house.

The Stylus series of digital cameras is built to take a few splashes in the rain – but not a dip in the tub – with aluminum alloy all-weather housings. The Olympus 500 certainly doesn’t have the flair of the Stylus Verve, but it is designed with the rubber gaskets and solid construction of its cousin with far more attractive internal elements.

Size / Portability (7.0)
At 3.9 x 2.2 x 1.2 inches, the Stylus 500 is not small enough to fit into the current “ultra slim” or “ultra compact” categories, but it is also not huge for a point-and shoot digital camera. The camera may be slightly too large to fit into most pants pockets, though it should slip into a spacious handbag or roomy jacket pocket with ease. Again, the size is akin to a bar of soap and fills out a larger hand. The Olympus Stylus 500 has a recessed wrist strap loop to aid in portability, but stringing it through will require some patience on the part of the user.

Handling Ability (6.0)
While the smooth, satin finish of the Olympus Stylus 500 is pleasing to touch, the surface is void of texture and offers little to no grip. Sweaty-palmed users might find their Stylus 500 slipping during prolonged use, although the camera’s relatively substantial size and weight does apply some additional stability during shooting. There is a tiny ridge on the front of the Olympus Stylus 500 that is supposed to act as a finger grip, but in practice, it doesn’t work at all. It is more decorative than functional, being far too small and smooth to really have any effect.

Additionally, the camera’s zoom rocker is very narrow and a larger thumb will completely cover it. There is no separation between the wide and telephoto sides of the switch, so users may have to sneak a peek at their finger to register the correct direction and placement on the zoom. The four-way navigational dial is also difficult to utilize. The four directions are not separated, so sometimes the menus scroll in directions you didn’t intend.

Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size (6.5)
The Olympus Stylus 500 has a mode dial on that back that is so tiny, it resembles the old “bottle cap” candy in size and shape. The dial is recessed and very small, but fortunately sits along the right side of the back of the body and is slightly exposed on the right edge to allow a thumb or finger to manipulate it. The mode dial is also notched like a dime on its sides, so it is easy to grip and turn. Since there are only four functions on the small dial, its size ultimately shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

On the back on the camera body, due to the sheer size of the LCD screen, the controls have been crammed together. Also, the buttons are consequently smaller than might have been preferred and may create problems for those with chubby fingers (or those who ate too much salty ham and now have hands that look like catchers’ mitts – if you’re a “Kids in the Hall” fan); a less clustered grouping would have significantly helped handling and made essential functions easier to discern and access.

Unfortunately for users of the Stylus 500, that same four-way navigational dial that is slightly undersized is also a bit finicky. Sometimes it doesn’t register the direction you think you pressed; this can be enough to drive a photographer crazy and quickly make you reconsider your purchase. Overall, the buttons are small and some annoyances may emerge from the smooth-surfaced zoom toggle and the finicky four-way navigational dial.

Menu (7.0)
As with most Olympus digital cameras, the Stylus 500 has a matrix-like initial menu screen that appears when the OK/Menu button is pressed. Four menu options appear onscreen with yellow arrows to show which way to press for certain functions. In the recording mode, users can scroll up to adjust the exposure compensation, right for the main mode menu, down to adjust white balance, and left to change the image size. Icons are used for the exposure compensation and image size options; most users should catch on to the common exposure compensation symbol, but non-Olympus users may be confused by the image size icon.

The mode menu is where users will spend most of their time. In the recording mode, the menu has three tabs vertically aligned along the left of the screen: Camera, Card, and Setup. In the Camera tab, the following menu options are available: Metering, Drive, ISO, Digital Zoom, AF Mode, Microphone, Panorama, 2 in 1, and Histogram. Most of the options are text; however, the metering, microphone, and histogram functions are depicted as icons. The 2 in 1 option is a bit mysterious, although I discovered that this activates the ability to take two pictures consecutively and merge them into a single image file on the camera - the effect is more like merging negatives during printing than it is like a double exposure, but will give a similar appearance.

In the Card section of the menu, only a Format function is offered. The Setup menu provides many more options: All Reset, Language, PW ON Setup, Color, Volume, Shutter Sound, Rec. View, File Name, Pixel Mapping, LCD Brightness, Time, and Video Out. Once again, the listed options are a mix of text and graphics. The Language, Volume, LCD Brightness, and Time options are all represented by icons, but are all easy to understand.

The Stylus 500's movie mode has a similar setup to the still recording mode, except its Metering, ISO, and Digital Zoom options are truncated. There is no live view of ISO selections; the only live views available are Exposure Compensation and White Balance.

The camera's matrix menu options change when in Playback mode. The top setting has a playback icon and represents the slide show option. The right side lets the user enter the mode menu. The bottom erases individual frames and scrolling left files the picture into an on-camera album. The playback mode's menu has four tabs at its side: Play, Edit, Card, and Setup. The Play menu is made up almost entirely of icons that are fairly easy to recognize: Protect, Rotate, Print, Microphone, Info, and Histogram. The Edit tab houses the picture effects and other features: Soft Focus, Fisheye, Black & White, Sepia, Resize, and Crop. The Card tab adds only an Erase All option and the Setup menu is the same as it is in the recording mode.

Overall, the menus are fairly intuitive; it is always clear which direction the user should scroll for certain options. The only hindrance to the menu is the physical button - the four-way navigational dial. Sometimes it does not register the direction that the user meant to press it in, which can get very annoying very fast. It should also be noted that each time the camera is powered on, image size on the camera defaults to its second largest setting - a pain when you want to shoot in full resolution.

Ease of Use (6.0)
The Olympus Stylus 500 has some pros and some cons in the ease of use department. The large 2.5-inch LCD screen makes viewing subjects and menus easy on the eyes. The scene menu, containing textual explanations and sample images, makes choosing from the long list far less difficult. A few live views in the exposure compensation and white balance menus help less informed users as well.

The Stylus 500 is designed for point-and-shooters, so it should pass this test with flying colors. It does have many automatic features that are easy to use and a host of automatically-oriented modes and settings, but there are also a few things that hinder the usability of this model. The physical buttons are one hindrance. Most are too small, such as the Quick View button. The four-way navigational dial doesn't always register where you want it to go, which can be annoying and forces attention away from the shot and onto the controls. Also, the few manual controls that exist are buried within menus that are mostly labeled with icons, which will require deciphering or some time spent studying the manual.

Most modes are fairly intuitive; however, it took a substantial amount of time to figure out how to use the album feature on the camera. And once figured out, I concluded that it takes way too many clicks and scrolls to really be easy to use. It was more frustrating than anything. This camera doesn't impress me with its ease of use, but a good sitting with the advanced manual (on CD-ROM only, so boot up the computer) will certainly help.