Olympus Stylus 500 Digital Camera Review

Auto Mode (7.5)
The Olympus Stylus 500 was built for point-and-shoot users and it has plenty of automatic scene modes to prove it. The Program Auto mode is the closest thing to purely automatic as this camera gets, which is strange because it's also the closest thing to manual control too. Hmmm. Here's the catch. The Program Auto mode has the most access to functions such as white balance, flash mode, ISO rating, and other features, so it has the most manual control. However, it is the only mode on the camera that doesn't have a specific purpose (i.e. all of the other modes are scenes for specific situations like photographing food and landscapes). Therefore, if users want a quick catch-all mode, it's likely to be Program Auto. Luckily, the Stylus 500 has the memory of a goldfish. It forgets all of its previous settings when it is turned off and on again. So when users boot up the little camera, its default is the Program Auto mode with automatic ISO and automatic white balance. This will be a blessing to some users and a curse to others.

Movie Mode (5.5)
Like many other cameras in its class, the Olympus Stylus 500 can record movies with sound and play them back. The Stylus 500 can save movies either at 320 x 240 and 160 x 120, both at 15 fps. You can record one minute and 23 seconds worth of video on the Stylus 500's packaged card. There is digital zoom in the playback mode that will allow you to magnify and inspect the funky lights on that flying saucer you recorded hovering outside your trailer window last night. However, the digital zoom on the Stylus 500's movie mode is honestly horrible (as it is with all cameras); you can't tell if things are in focus as you zoom out and looking through the LCD. Also the limited 15 frame per second recording rate won’t help legitimize the UFO story as the recorded motion will look choppy and jarring.

Additionally, the sound captured with the Olympus Stylus 500's movie mode is insultingly bad. The mic, located at the bottom front of the camera, picks up ambient room sounds, but also captures the charming click of the zoom switch being pressed. So you’ll need an attuned ear to catch your baby's first words, muted by the click, click, click of the zoom switch.

The Olympus Stylus 500's movie playback can be paused by pressing the ok/menu button, allowing frame-by-frame inspection of the short video clip. Forward and reverse is controlled by the left and right on the main control button. Volume is also controlled by that same button; the up and down arrows can manipulate the sound levels. Overall, the Stylus 500's movie mode offer users the fortunate opportunity to capture video clips with their digital still camera, but as far as quality goes, it is extremely compromised.

Drive / Burst Mode (3.5)
This burst mode doesn’t do much bursting, as it can only shoot 1.5 frames per second for 5 frames. This is somewhat average for a compact digital camera, but I do expect a bit more from a model that retails for $349.99. The burst mode can be found in the mode menu under the Drive option; it is available in most modes (obviously not the Night Scene and Candle and such).

Playback Mode (7.5)
There are multiple ways to get at images captured on the Stylus 500 for review. The most intuitive way is through the Playback option on the mode dial. Another way is with the Quick View button, which instantly enters playback mode from the other modes.

One drawback of the Stylus 500 is the lack of a dedicated trash function or "delete all" button. What this means is that each picture has to be deleted one at a time with the quick option on the main playback menu – or you have to dig deep for the Erase All function. This is unfortunate because deleting pictures is a pain on the Stylus 500 as it is.

Deleting photos in playback is accomplished either by reviewing a single photo on the LCD or by right clicking the left side of the zoom button which brings up thumbnails of all the pictures you've just taken; you can then scroll across and pick the one you want to delete by highlighting it and pressing OK. The deletion process involves users pressing the OK/Menu button and scrolling down to the Erase button on the LCD. From there you will have choices of Yes on the top and No on the bottom of the LCD. A click up or down on the navigational dial and then a click of OK expunges the lackluster image.

Pictures can be viewed in index displays of 4, 9, 16, or 25 photo thumbnails in the Stylus 500. Photos can also be magnified in review by using the Stylus 500's 8x function. Other review functions on the Stylus 500 include slide show, rotation, calendar, album, and histogram. Photographs can also be saved into 12 multi-page albums, though not easily. Up, down, left, right, press ok, then you get the photo into the album. In reality, it’s much easier to do it than read how to do it, but once again albums will be stored in the Stylus 500's memory card since it possesses no internal memory. Without consulting the manual, getting pictures into the Stylus 500's albums isn't very easy, but you can figure it out eventually.

Quietly tucked into the Stylus 500's functions is a calendar playback view that pops up when you click the left side of the zoom switch in playback mode. This produces a calendar which has a thumbnail of a photo taken on that date. The Olympus Stylus 500 is a gem when it comes to playing movies back. Movies can be reviewed normally, reversed, or frame by frame. The audio also plays back, although it is not very good quality in the first place. However, fast forwarding and rewinding through the footage is pretty enjoyable on this model.

Custom Image Presets (8.5)
The available custom image presets stand as the core of the Olympus Stylus 500. The Stylus 500 has a long list of scene modes, available when the top of the four-way dial is pressed (it is also labeled "Scene"): Landscape, Landscape + Portrait, Portrait, Indoor, Sport, Beach & Snow, Behind Glass, Self-Portrait + Self-Timer, Self Portrait, Sunset, Night Scene, Night + Portrait, Cuisine, Documents, Candle, Underwater Wide, Underwater Macro, Shoot & Select 1 and 2. This selection definitely goes beyond the basics of portrait and landscape scene modes. It even gets specific enough to include a mode for taking pictures of food and one for taking pictures of schools of fish.

The scene mode menu is one of the more visually interesting screens on this Olympus digital camera. The Stylus 500 displays text and a sample image with each mode. For example, when users highlight the Sunset mode, the following text appears with an image of a setting sun: "For shooting setting/rising sun. Vivid reproduction of reds and yellows." Most of the scene mode titles are self-explanatory – except for the Shoot & Select modes. I found that these two modes take a series of up to four pictures, then let users instantly select one picture to save. Isn’t this the beauty of digital cameras anyway? To take lots of images and delete the unwanted ones instantly? Olympus felt it necessary to include this as a preset mode – or two. The first mode takes pictures at a more rapid clip than the second. Once four pictures are taken, they appear on the LCD screen, where users are directed to choose one to save. Unfortunately, users cannot save more than one.

As with all compact cameras’ preset modes, there are a few quirks. The flash cannot be used in the Behind Glass mode. This is for obvious reasons. However, the Indoor and Candle modes can only shoot at image sizes up to 1280 x 960 – with no justification given (though I presume it’s to minimize the visibility of noise which is present from the higher ISO setting that’s needed).