The pro-level E-1 SLR was the first Four Thirds camera from any manufacturer, and good though it is, its 5-megapixel resolution was always going to be a perceived drawback.

The E-300 followed, with an 8-megapixel sensor and a decent entry-level price point. Despite a tastier CCD, the oddball design and slightly plastic construction didn't win a great deal of fans.

Olympus has obviously been listening to our gripes, with the E-500 looking like the camera the E-300 should have been all along. With more of a resemblance to the E-1 and a 'proper' digital SLR design, it also comes packed with clever photographic features.

Real photography

The camera's RAW mode takes large files at 13-14Mb and takes a lengthy 12 seconds after you've taken a RAW photo before the camera is ready to shoot again. This is just too long if you need to take quality, fleeting shots.

This is a camera where you're going to have to rely on 'right-first-time' shooting in JPEG mode to get the best results, and there's loads of features to help you do this.

There are many parameters for adjusting the image tone, and it makes as much sense to sort these out when you take the shot, as it does to shoot RAW and then toil endlessly over the parameters back on your computer. The E-500 is about getting your hands dirty.

Let's start with the exposure system. You get the Olympus 49-point Digital ESP metering mode for point-and-shoot photography, Centre-weighted metering and a Spot metering mode. But the Spot mode has two extra variants - 'HI' and 'SH'. In the HI mode, the camera pegs the metered area as a brilliant white highlight, while in the SH mode it sets it to come out as a dense black.

In effect, you choose an area which you want to reproduce as a brilliant white or dense black, set the relevant Spot mode, position the spot metering point over that area then lock the exposure, reframe and shoot.

If you want to retain some shadow or highlight detail in these areas, you'll need to apply a degree of exposure compensation first. For example, to just retain detail in a bright sky, you might set the EV compensation to -0.3EV or -0.7EV before using the HI mode and taking a spot reading from the sky.