The Olympus Stylus 500 is the latest 5.0 megapixel camera with jump 2.5-inch HyperCrystal LCD screen. Designed to be compact and durable, with an all-weather metal body that uses rubber gaskets to keep moisture out, Olympus has created an excellent pocket sized camera with great features for only $399.

The HyperCrystal LCD is super bright and crisp, even in bright light and has a 160 degree wide-view radius. Battery life performance must be affected when having such a powerful bright LCD screen. The Stylus 500 uses a new image sensor called TruePic TURBO, this applies micro-smoothing to each image, which delivers clearer and more color-accurate photos capable of making 11 x 14-inch or larger prints.

Extra memory can be added via the xD picture card slot (it ships with 32MB), the lens is a 35 to 105mm, f3.1 – f5.2 with 3x digital and 4x optical zoom, it measures 3.9″ (W) x 2.2″ (H) x 1.2″ (D) and unfortunately will not be available until after Christmas (January 2005).