New toy….

I did in fact buy a camera yesterday after work – after reading numerous review sites, and talking for an hour with the sales rep at Dunn and Rundle, I ended up with the Olympus Evolt 500 which is the camera I was looking at back in the fall. It feels good in my hand, does all the right things, and came with two good quality lenses and a good price. When you get right down to it, within a certain range of technology, most products are very similar and you just basically learn to use which features you end up with. Things I liked about the Evolt, besides the fact that it feels right in my hand, included the dust-removal technology on the sensor, the fact that the Olympus cameras are for some technical reason better for infrared photography, and has a good sized screen on it for settings and reviewing shots. The viewfinder is easy to look through, and every site I looked at, including the user-review sites, all highly-recommended this camera as well-priced and good for new SLR users (that’s me!)

It doesn’t have the same range of lens options as the Canon models, however, I find it pretty unlikely I’m going to need anything beyond the standard 20 lenses that are available for this camera (like really, I need macro lenses and some filters and that’s about it). Perhaps also a drawback is that secondhand-lenses for the camera won’t be so readily available because Olympus isn’t as widely used as Canon or Nikon. The photo quality is excellent though, and the two lenses it comes with are a plenty-good starting place. I would like to get more memory and more battery power because my intention is to use this for outdoor and travel photography mostly which means far away from a computer/recharging station. I did purchase a mid-range tripod and some lens protecting filters, and this will make a sizable hole in my savings account… but oh well, at least I didn’t buy it on credit!

So I’m going to Lynn Valley this Saturday to do a short hike (I think just the 4 km to the old mill site and back) and take pictures to see what I can make this baby do (I’ve got 7 days to return it and I want to see if it is right for me before then). Anyone want to join in? Let me know.