This is my latest addition to my digital camera range an Olympus E-500 DSLR. It replaces my old manual camera a Miranda MS-1 which was an old 35mm single lens reflex camera.

One of the main bug bears with the old SLR's was not being able to preview the pictures you had taken, it was only when a 36 exposure film was developed that you found you only had a couple of decent pictures which could work out quite expensive.

Most digital cameras have an instant playback feature so any "rubbish" pictures that are found can be deleted at source, this means you get maximum good pictures on your memory card for no extra cost.
Olympus have taken the SLR camera and replaced the film with a CCD sensor to capture the images, they have also introduced the digital "Four Thirds" system lenses for the camera.

Most manufacturers have built their cameras to fit existing lenses where as Olympus have gone the other way and developed their lenses to fit the camera. The new lenses use the new "Four Thirds" fit and is to be adopted by five major manufacturers in the future. This sounds like a good idea but as it is relatively new it means the lenses are rather expensive. It also means the image sensor is half the usual size to a full frame 35mm sensor so you could argue that both methods have good and bad points.

Most of the images used in the design of this web site have been captured using the Olympus E-500, this page being an obvious exception as some images are of the Olympus E-500, in these cases I used the Fujifilm Finepix F420 camera that also features on this site.

My intentions for this camera was to be able to take portrait, scenic and close up pictures, the two supplied lenses were quite sufficient for the portrait and scenic shots but I found close up photography with these lenses struggled to focus due to being to near the subject matter.

My solution was to buy a close up macro lens that could take 1:1 ratio pictures, it was not the most expensive of the macro lenses available and so far it has performed well. The inherent problem that came with this lens is that I could now do with a ring flash in bad light situations, these are very expensive and out of my price range so I have been trying some "home made" solutions using bright white LED's so far with not much success!

The lens in question is a Zuiko Digital 18 - 180mm Zoom Lens which gives an optical 10 times zoom with a reasonable minimum focal distance of 0.45 Meters. This is far superior to the 40 - 150mm lens which has a minimum focal distance of 1.5 Meters!
Another advantage is that it virtually covers the range of two existing lenses so does away with the need to change lenses out in the field and is also less to carry about. To see some pictures taken with the new lens and other lenses check out the latest entries on the Flickr web site.

The other main purchase was a Crystal Vision DSLR Pro High Definition Wide Converter lens, this screws on to the front of the Zuiko Digital 18 - 180mm Zoom Lens changing the zoom range to 9 - 90mm handy for wide angle pictures the result is an almost "Fish eye lens" effect.
The Crystal Vision lens comprises of two elements, when split a macro lens adapter can be screwed onto the Zuiko Digital 18 - 180mm Zoom Lens, (or any digital lens with a 62mm thread fit) enabling close up pictures to be taken, here is a comparison example...

Picture taken using the Zuiko Digital 18 - 180mm 1:3.5 - 6.3 Zoom Lens at full zoom as close as the auto focus would allow. (Front of lens to subject measured at 232mm with a tape measure).

The same picture taken using the Zuiko Digital 18 - 180mm 1:3.5 - 6.3 Zoom Lens at full zoom as close as the auto focus would allow this time with the Macro adapter lens screwed on. (Front of lens to subject measured at 58mm with a tape measure).

So in conclusion with this test I ascertained that by using the Macro adapter I can get closer by a factor of approximately 4 times magnification, (232mm divided by 58mm = 4x).
One of the pitfalls with this screw on lens idea is that it will only suit a lens that houses a 62mm thread fitting, so in that respect it is quite limited. That said I have been pleased with the pictures I have taken so far therefore it was a worthwhile investment.

February 20th 2008: After a lot of deliberation I decided to buy the Olympus RM-1 Remote control so as to be able to operate the camera from a distance and also to eliminate camera shake from pressing the shutter button. The only downfall that I have found so far is that the remote infra red sensor is on the front of the camera so you need to be in front to operate it. I have experimented operating the remote from behind the camera using mirrors with some success but with limited range, needs a bit more thought!

Olympus RM-1 Remote Control.