I'd been thinking about the E-500, as my D-620L is really long in the tooth,
and the basic E-500 two-lens kit is a great deal, especially with the $100
rebate. While waiting for my car to be repaired on Thursday, I wandered into
Circuit City, was waited on by a very knowledgable young woman (I'm old
enough to be her grandfather), and talked myself into it, along with an
FL-36 flash. (Getting two-year financing with no interest was probably the
deciding factor.)
I expected to like the camera, but when I had chance to play with it, I was
wildly impressed. The sensor is a bit on the small side, and the lenses are
huge (58mm filter threads!), but the rest is terrific. Except...
Except for the wretched, utter-garbage user manuals. There are dozens of
legitimate issues and questions they don't answer. Which is hardly new for
Japanese manuals -- they've been doing this for decades -- but given the
complexity -- er, the richness of the E-500's photographic environment --
there is no way any serious user is going to get the most out of this
instrument without spending a huge amount of time experimenting to see
exactly how it behaves, and how certain features work. (I"m talking hours
and hours, not minutes.)
Here are several examples, one trivial, several profound. Trivial: Neither
of the manuals (camera/flash) tells you that shutting off the camera also
shuts off the flash. Significant: Does Super FP mode correctly balance the
fill with the main light? (It's not clear.) And what, exactly, happens when
you select Auto ISO? Not a word that I can find.
Here's a question I haven't found the answer to, yet: The default ISO is
"Auto". If you change it, then switch to a different shooting mode, the ISO
switches back to Auto, even when you return to mode where you changed it. I
assume there's some parameter that forces the ISO to either stay put, or be
remembered for each mode, but I haven't found it, yet.
I've already updated the firmware for the camera body. The process was
slightly clunkier than it "should" have been, but it worked.
The E-500 manual is simply the worst I've seen for any Japanese product --
99% trees, 1% forest. It's garbage, and I'm calling Olympus America this
morning to chew out their glutei maximi. It's outrageous and inexcusable.
PS: My "williams" e-mail address will expire at the end of July. It's not
clear to me where I should go to change the mailing address. Could someone
please point me in the right direction? Thanks.
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