Olympus Stylus Digital 500 Review

Typical playback image with minimal information enabled.

Typical playback image with the Info option enabled which displays the image quality (SHQ), image size (2560x1920), exposure compensation (0.0), white balance (Auto), ISO speed (100), date and time of capture and the folder name and file number on the bottom.

Press the wide angle zoom button to enter the Index playback mode. Depending on the menu setting, the index is 4, 9, 16 or 25 images per page.

Pressing the wide angle zoom control once more brings up the calendar display. This shows you captured images and when they were taken.

The playback image can be magnified in seven steps from 2.0x to 8.0x in 1.0x increments, you can then scroll around the image using the 4-way selector. Press the telephoto zoom button to enlarge and the wide angle button to shrink.

The Play mode menu has four sections; Play, Edit, Card and Setup.

PLAY

Protect - Protect against deletion, On or Off

Rotate - Rotate portrait mode pictures 90° clockwise or counter clockwise

DPOF - Print Order Format, set current image or all images for printing

Record sound - allows you to attach sound memos to your capture still images

Info - Controls the amount of overlay information displayed with images

Histogram - Enables and disables the live histogram

Soft Focus - Decreases the sharpness of pictures

Fisheye - Makes images look like they were taken with a Fish Eye lens

Black&White - Turn color image into B&W

Sepia - Turn color image into Sepia tone

Resize - Makes the file size smaller and saves it as a new picture

Trim - Crop and create smaller 640x480 or 320x240 image

Card Setup - Erase ALL or Format the xD-Picture Card

All Reset - If OFF then current settings are remembered from power off to power on. If ON then all settings are reset to default.

Menu Language - Japanese, English, French, German

PW ON Setup - Select power up screen animation and sound level

Color - Allows you to change the menu system's color scheme (Normal, Blue, Green, Pink)

Camera Sounds - Adjust the sound levels (Off, Low, High)

Shutter Sound - Select shutter sound theme

Rec View - View image immediately after capture on LCD

File Name - Select between Reset and Auto

Pixel Mapping - Map out bad pixels

Monitor Brightness - Adjust LCD backlight

Set Clock - Set time and or date

Video Out - Video out signal - NTSC or PAL format

Index View - Choose 4, 9, 16, or 25 images per page

Movie clips can be played back on the camera's LCD or a television set via the supplied Audio/Video cable. Thanks to the built in all-weather microphone and speaker, audio is also played back. While playing you can use the 4-way selector to adjust volume, fast-foward and rewind the movie.

The Index option is located under the Edit tab of the Movie Playback menu and grabs nine frames from the movie clip and saves them as a new 1024x768 still image.