On the top of the E-500, you'll find a standard hotshoe and the pop-up flash, which is activated either automatically or by pressing the small round button just to the top left of the display screen.

One feature you will not find on the E-500 is an extra top-mounted display screen. If you aren't use to having one in the first place, this will not be an issue, but for those of us accustomed to having pertinent information continuously displayed on a secondary screen, this omission is a bit of a letdown. Looking at the top of the camera, however, you can see there is no room for a top display, and any plan to include one must have been sacrificed for a smaller, lighter body design.

The E-500's menu is fairly easy to navigate, and though not as intuitive as some, it gives you access to all the options you might expect. One thing we really liked is the camera's playback mode, which allowed us to review the images with color histograms. Before even downloading our photos, we were able to see the range of dark and light areas in our photos, and identify potentially unwanted camera highlighting effects.

The camera's viewfinder, unfortunately, seems a bit too small. Although the viewfinder shows 95% of the frame (pretty standard for a camera in this class), the way it is constructed makes it seem like you looking down a long, dark hallway. For many people this may be a non-issue, but if you are near-sighted, you may have to wear your glasses in order to see the shooting info. displayed on the right side.

The Olympus E-500 is compatible with a wide variety of Olympus Zuiko Digital lenses using the Three Fourths system standard. The standard kit includes the 14mm-to-45mm (28mm to 90mm, 35mm-film-camera equivalent) wide-angle lens. You can also get a two-lens kit for about $100, and this includes the 40mm-to-150mm (80mm to 300mm equivalent) telephoto lens. The standard wide-angle lens is a great lens to get started with, and is highly recommended.