Olympus Reviews

I replace my old Olympus 450 with this camera. I loved the old camera but it did not have all the features that I wanted. The new camera is great. It takes great pictures out of the box. If you spend the time to get to know all the features it takes even better pictures. I love being able to customize the settings. The zoom is the best feature of the camera. Allows you to get very close to your subject. Battery life is great but I would buy an extra battery because it does not give much warning when it is going.

Other than a cheap point and shoot camera, this is the first real camera that I have owned. I decided to go with a digital camera that way I would practice my photography skills without wasting a whole lot of money on film. Overall, I have been very impressed with this camera. I recently got back from a trip to London and everyone was very impressed with the pictures that I got. For the beginner, you can set the camera on Auto Mode on and get great shots. For the more advanced photographer, the camera offers enough creative control over things such as aperature and shutter speed. I experimented with the camera in the Sport Mode and was able to freeze an acrobat in the middle of a flip. This camera is not for a professional, but for the beginner to an intermediately advanced photographer, it makes a great camera. My only real complaint with the camera is shooting pictures at night or extremely low light situations is somewhat difficult. I recommend using a tripod or some other way to stabilize it for best results. It is possible that there is something that I haven't figured out yet since I feel like I am still learning a lot about this camera. Other than this though, I highly recommend this camera to anyone looking for a solid, reliable camera that takes excellent photos.

I just got this camera. I love it. It takes excellent pictures and is easy to use.

Strengths: Very compact & light, quick startup (slower with bigger XD Media cards), lots of great features (like continuous shooting mode and red-eye reduction), long battery life.
Weaknesses: Weak flash, red-eye reduction not available in continuous shooting mode, slow startup with big XD Media cards.
Summary: This is overall a great camera (see list of main strengths above). My biggest complaint is that the flash is pretty weak, and cannot be brightened in "auto" mode. However, if you switch the camera to one of the manual modes, you have more control over the brightness of the flash -- but I've found that increasing the brightness washes out the subjects too much. So you're stuck between a rock & a hard place. The perfect flash I ever used was on a Nikon Coolpix 995 camera, but that camera is big & bulky & slow compared to this camera. So if you're going to be doing a lot of daylight shooting or outdoor shooting that doesn't require heavy use of a flash, this camera is for you. If you're doing a lot of nighttime or indoor shooting (like me), you'll be hard-pressed to get rid of this spritely little camera that's chock-full of features, and instead you'll find yourself turning on lots of overhead lights to flood more light into the room.

I have this camera for 2 months.
Good quality photos. Easy to use.
No digital zoom in auto mode.
I can't buy extra battery LI-12B

Simply love it, I purchased this camera about a month ago this is my 2nd olympus the 1st lasting for 5 years (and still going strong) but just a 1.3 megapixel only good for 4 x 6 prints My wife & I wanted a camera capable of larger prints. We have had 8 x 10s printed from the camera and they are excellent. We were told you could get a 20 x 30 print if we wanted. Some may have trouble with the controls but this is not just a "point and shoot camera" it has all of the bells & whistles that photo buffs demand, but also an Auto mode and the camera will do all the work.

I love everything about this camera except I must say to use a tripod. This camera is just awful if you have a shaky hand. You can't take any "real time" shots.

I just received this camera a couple of days ago and it is better than I imagined. I'm not an expert in digital photography, but I got into 35mm photography back in the '70s. This camera does everything an SLR camera can do and more. Aperture preferred - shutter preferred - spot metering - film speed - exposure bracketing - macro mode - flash control - remote control.... I could go on and on. You've got a dozen picture resolution choices, you can make short movies, you can hook the camera up to the TV and view the pictures, and the quality is sensational. I use the USB cable to upload to my MAC IBook (forget Windows). With my Epson inkjet printer and glossy photo paper I get 8x10s that look better than 35mm glossy enlargements. This is what 35mm photographers used to dream about. I installed the 64MB smart media card and it provides plenty of memory. Do your own due diligence, but this camera does it all.

This is the Digital Camera you must have if you want outstanding photo quality. You can't tell the difference between prints from this camera and that of a good 35MM SLR. It's amazing. Be aware that this camera is only USB compatable if your PC has Windows98 and not the upgrade. Windows 95 users will need to purchase a floppy disc adapter for the smart media card in order to download pictures to a PC. A Serial Port Cable also works with Windows95. I had a Sony FD-91 Mavaca Digital before I bought this Olympus and the C-3030 has the Mavaca beat hands down. So if you want a digital camera that gives you by far the best print quality around then the expensive C-3030 digital is the one for you.

I hesitated about buying this camera because many people expressed disappointment about not having an LCD viewfinder (it is an SLR, so you look through a normal optical viewfinder - but you are also seeing directly through the lens). Now that I have had it for almost a year, I would say not having the LCD viewfinder is a great advantage! There are two reasons for this: 1-battery life. The backlighting for those LCD screens really suck out the batteries quickly. When you have the camera on and waiting for just the right moment, that battery is continually draining. I've never counted, but I think I average over 100 daylight pictures between battery recharges (the flash reduces that). 2-you can't see the LCD screens in most lighting conditions anyway. The C2500 gives you an immediate 1 or 2 second preview of the picture after you take it. If I am shooting outside in daylight that LCD preview image is very hard to see. I would hate to actually try to compose a photo in that mode. I've briefly used a couple of other digi-cams, and there is no way I'd go back now. The LCD screens (even when you can see them) have poor resolution, so it is really hard to tell things like how good the focus is - with the viewfinder I can easily tell how well the autofocus did, and whether I should try again.

This camera is awesome. It has all the features of a manual optical camera, and automatic mode for point and shoot photography. The LCD is crystal clear (though you can't use it as a viewfinder because of the direct optics) and its shoots very quickly, about 1 picture per second. It can only shoot 5 shots quickly, then you have to wait 10-15 seconds for it to write. The flash is really bright, and it also has a bright LED on the front which it uses in the dark, almost like a laser scope, which is really fun to play around with. The resolution is amazing, and it also holds a smartmedia and a compact flash card simultaneously for extra storage. The telephoto Lens that comes with the Outfit works really well too, though I don't often use it, and the remote controll is really useful for self pictures and things like that. The one problem i have is it's hard to hold the camera still, and i find i get much better pictures if i rest it on something. Im sure this will change with practice, of a tripod. It doesnt have a lot of features the 3030 has, like movie and long burst and audio though. In short, if youre looking for a camera to just shoot pictures with, get the 3030, it's better for that. If youre looking to do some serious photography, this is the camera for you.

If you can get past the price for this baby online, than I would recommend you buy. This is a real nice 35mm type digital camera.

Plenty of settings from f-stop to zoom to format to size. Remote is real handy if you feel like being in the picture for a change, instead of someone saying where are you in this photo.

Zoom lens, Macro lens and plenty of filters. Shop around though you can get it cheaper.

I just opened the camera package last night, and within acouple of hours I was experimenting with most of the features of thecamera. When people talk of digital cameras they love to talk numbers, but who cares? It's what you can do with it that matters. I took a picture of a dark hallway with the flourecent bathroom lights on, and it looked like something out of The Shining. It was dark and foggy outside, but with the aperture full open, ISO 400, and the shutter open for 8 seconds I was able to take pictures of the buildings and night lights. The camera is so light I didn't have to use a stand (at 8 seconds you have to be as steady as a sharpshooter, though... be sure to hold our breath). Using the flash, with the spot metering and the aperture closed I was able to take a crisp, detailed picture of our dog in the midst of the night, doing dog things. With the multiple picture thing I took 5 pictures of my friend in a row waving his arms, and the sequence of where his arm is going is clear when viewing the 9 pictures at one time from the LCD. I'm also going to throw out my slow ... scanner, which I was using for sending faxes. I took a picture of a page from Webster's collegiate dictionary, and it was readable from the LCD!

Make no mistake, this is not a replacement for an analog camera. The casing and the interface feel like a cheap digital camera. I think, however, that in many ways this is better than an analog camera. You can do the things that are possible with an analog camera (except maybe for star trails), but with greater simplicity. And you get instant feedback.

If you are a journalist, claims investigator, or web publisher, and you have some basic knowledge of analog photography (...), this is definitely the camera for you. I recommend you get the ATA adapter so you won't have to mess with stupid cables or limited software.

Gotta go take some more pictures....

I love this this camera. The pictures quality is excellent. The ease of use is 5 star. It comes with 32Meg flash, it's good for 50 pictures. Has easy dial for auto, semi-auto and manual modes. I took 50 pictures first day I got it. All 50 were excellent quality, compare to my "old" sony PC1 digital video recorder. Down load to my portable is easy with compact flash, if you don't forget to put 2 batteries included with compact flash. Camera also comes with batteries, and recharger.

Overall excellent, 5Star I am very happy with it.

If your into computers and you'd like to integrate your photography into your computer world this is definitely the camera for you. If you already know how to use a 35mm SLR you'll find learning how to use most of this camera fairly easy. It has an auto mode that makes it possible for anybody to use and it has some manual modes that I've not yet totally conquered. It has enough pixels to blow your mind most of the time. You can't buy a monitor big enough to view the shots in SHQ mode all at one time with your browser.

You can change pixel density on the fly. You change the effective film speed in steps of 100, 200 and 400 ASA. You can vary your exposure plus or minus 2 fstops in 1/3 fstop increments. You can focus down to 0.8 inches and set it at infinity. You can get 150 or 200 shots out of a set of batteries. You can put on a slide show into a standard TV set right from your camera. You can take great remote control shots without even touching the camera or a cable. You can view your pictures on sight and zoom in to see quite good detail right on the camera. The controls are easy to use and and very ergonomically designed. You can delete pictures. You can transfer pictures from a smart media card to a compact flash card for extra storage. You can run off of AC power (I never do). The built flash works okay but the red eye feature sucks. You can use averaging or spot meter mode for exposure calculation.

It's really nice to have a laptop computer with a PCMCIA card in it. When you fill up a smart media card you can stick it into the PCMCIA card and the computer see's it as an extra drive on your machine with all of your JPEG files readily accessible. I normally put my laptop on my network and drag and drop all of the files on to a CD Burner in Adaptec mode. I've used the serial port adaptor but it's very slow and anybody who spent this much money for the camera probably wont tolerate such bad performance for long.

Don't spend all of your money buying this camera. Buy 3 sets of batteries. (3 hour charge time) and the PCMCIA card adapter (much faster and hot plugable). Get a CD Burner for your computer. I have a friend that has an HP for his laptop...He doesn't like. I have an HP and a Sony for two of my desktops and I like them both. I've had the camera for about 3 months now and I've taken about 2000 shots with it. I'm on my second CD. One day at work I spent the whole day taking pictures of old photographs on the wall to send to a guy at a trade show.

The CAMEDIA software is simple but very useful. It's good at renaming your shots in batch mode and it has a good browser mode for previewing new shots. The Adobe Photo deluxe is tolerable but slow. I've purchased Print Shot Pro and I like it a lot more. It's also good to have Image Robot and Smart Media Center as well (all from Jasc software). Smart Media Center has a feature that creates a HTML environment that allows you to create photo albums viewable totally by your browser. It's great for sending photo CD's to your friends and family. If you want to see some photos I've made go to http://www.studioavenue.com and search on for the album named "Singing Youth of Denver at Dahlia Street".

A lot of people have asked me the price of the camera and I've told them. However, the real price involves a lot more. You need to have some computer power available to you. You need to not be afraid of the technology. Installing a PCMCIA card is easy for me but my father would not have done it. This camera will force most people who purchase it to learn some new things and if they do so willingly then they will enjoy the experience. If you must see your pictures on paper (I don't) then be prepared for some additional cost. Your average printer will not do that great of a job.

I've been waiting for a digital camera of this performance for a couple of years and it's been worth the wait. I suspect that in five years everyone will have a camera like this. This is the perfect camera for a CEO. You can take useable pictures of anything and view them anyware with your laptop.

I've now had the Olympus C2020 for three weeks, and I having a ball with it. The color is great, and the resolution is outstanding. I just added a SanDisk Imagemate, USB Version to manage the images from the camera. It's a nice addition. Just remove the SmartMedia card, insert into Imagemate, open and the images are there. Don't need to use the serial cable, or waste battery time. Didn't get the AC adapter, and I don't feel I need it. I would also recommend an additional 16MB or 32MB card for the camera. The 8MB that comes with the camera is too small for most of my needs. Battery life has been reasonable, but it does requires that I not use the LCD screen all the time. I just turn it on when needed, or to review my images. Love the quality of the images. I'd recommend it to anyone.

I searched the web extensively for digital camera reviews and comparisons trying to make the best possible purchase and value in a digital camera amidst a jungle of opportunities. The results? Well, I purchased the Olympus C2020 Digital Zoom Camera and from the time I received it have been very happy. Even with minimal manual reading, my 14yr. old son started taking great pictures right out of the box. It probably has many more features than the average individual will ever fully utilize, but they're there for almost every possible concievable photo opportunity. It's a digital camera whose results rival some of the best from conventional film cameras. I waited to buy a digital camera until the technology, which Olympus is now using, would produce a quality comparable, if not better than most 35mm SLR film cameras. I use this camera for both recreation and business. In business, I have a need to email product photo images overseas.

If you're a point and shoot buff or looking for high tech manipulation, you'll find great satisfaction in the Olympus C2020. I really wanted something compact for travel and outdoor adventure, (a big attraction to this camera in contrast to others), but don't let it's nice small size fool you, it's cram packed with advanced technology. Under a mulititude of lighting situations the results were consistantly top quality. I would, however, recommend purchasing the software application, ThumbsPlus 4.0 for Windows by Cerious Software. It's the best of all the basic photo manipulation and archiving software I've found, a must for all the photos you'll end up taking. It's reasonably priced, easy to use, and full featured for even the most discriminating photo professional.

This was my first digital camera, not long after release, but after much research. It has been EXTREMELY reliable under adverse conditions of hiking and high altitude as well as desert photography (there's dust when you don't know it)and European travel. (Customs agents are cruel to cameras in the UK.) It's far more logical to use than the 2 Olympus digitals that I've bought since and than my "N" brand digital SLR. THIS CAMERA IS A KEEPER!!

This lens is an add-on to the camera... i m pretty sure it will fit the IS-30 model tooo becuase the C-160 and C-210 which are similar to this lens are/can be used for the IS-30... So check it out a local camera store if it will work w/ IS-20/30..
Amazon says that this lens is 180mm lens.....
AFAIK this lens is an add on to MANY olympus cameras and a few other cameras(most 52 mm cameras)... it increase the zoom of ur camera by upto 1.6x so if u hav a camera w/ 110 zoom it increase it to 180(110 x 1.6).
Olympus up to my knowledge has always been reliable .... so go for it if u can find a good price.

I've owned several Nikon film cameras over the years and a couple of years ago decided to try digital. My first digital camera was (and I still use and enjoy) a Olympus 2020. It is a true 'point and shoot' and takes fine pictures.

The 8080 I've been using for about three months. It takes excellent pictures and the 8mp resolution lets you crop and enlarge far beyond what my 2020 could. This is not, however, a 'point and shoot' camera for most pictures. If you enjoy the more technical approach to photography you might enjoy this camera.

It's good points have been well covered by other reviewers... read them as I agree with most of them. What I find less than ideal are the 'power zoom'... manual zoom would have been a much better choice for battery life (which I have found disappointing) as well as speed of zooming and tight control of zoom. Power zoom seems a great waste to me.

There is no reasonable warning of end of battery life. When the warning sounds you better be nearly finished for the day because you are going to need either an electrical outlet and several hours of charging or a very expensive back-up battery ($80). I like the 2020's four AA rechargables better.

The electronic viewfinder is over crowded with so much "information" that it detracts from composing your picture. . The brightness is adjustable but that's a pain and under many lighing conditions the electronic viewfinder is too dark and needs adjusting. My 2020 is better in this respect.

The lack of a seperate LCD to display much of the information that crowds the viewfinder is regretable. Of all my personal dislikes the view finder tops my list.

The lens hood fits poorly... it is so loose it flops around and seems about to fall off. I can't help but wonder how well the two converter lenses fit as I expect they use the same mounting.

The menu system is not easy to use in my opinion. It is very "powerful"... you can adjust just about anything you can imagine with the menus. But that takes lots of time and the learning curve is steep. The included printed manual is not a lot of use... the one on the CD is better but not very convient when you are out in the world without your PC.

To sum up... this IS an excellent camera and it does take bueatiful pictures. But it doesn't rate among the top because of the things mentioned above. I also think a digital SLR such as the Nikon D70 or Canon Rebel should be carefully considered before deciding on the 8080. Try out as many as you can before you invest your grand. My 8080 is currently back at the Olympus Service Center for a view finder problem not included in my above comments. I'll go back to my C 2020 and to be honest I'm not going to be too disappointed. That says a lot.

This is my third digital camera. My first was a canon powershot g3-- A camera I would still be using if it hadn't developed a problem with storing images to CF cards and downloading them to the computer. My 2nd camera is a Canon s100 point and shoot. Just so that you can understand the view point of this review, I will let you know that I consider myself an amature with intentions of improvement. If you are a pro photographer or even an advance amature, this review won't offer you much.

That being said, if your aspirations are like mine, this camera is an excellent choice. I explored most of the major online sites prior to making my choice: Steve's Digicams, DPR, etc. All those sites gave the camera high marks.

What I liked most about this camera was the image quality. It had the least noise, and least chromatic abberation and distortion of any of the 8 megapixel cameras in nearly all the reviews. Since what I wanted most at the end of it all were excellent photos, this was enough for me to make my choice. And if you aren't happy with the shots straight from the camera, you can tweak every thing from sharpness to saturation to achieve the results you want.

Other features that I liked included the wide array of image size, and shooting options available. I felt that this camera could certainly grow with my skill level for years to come.

Many have complained about the placement of the power button. I haven't had any probs with it. I have not accidentally turned it off or on even once.

Now what I would change if I could:
Oh I wish the LCD were a swivel display. I have grown accustom to this with my canon.

The flash does not automatically pop up when you need it.

The EVF is taking some getting used to. I am still wary of weather or not what I am seeing actually represents actually color, lighting etc...

The menu system could use some revision. I am sure it will take me a while to learn to use the camera to its best capacity simply because the menu system is not intuitive. You actually need to read the manual and the one on the CD to work out the ends and outs of the camera.

The camera defaults to the xD card if you have a both and xD and a CF card in place. This has caused me some problems. You will be less frustrated if you only have one or the other installed.

I like this camera more and more every time I use it. I researched my choice exaustively and none of the other 8 megapixels currently available even tempt me when I look at the whole picture. I don't think this camera will dissappoint you .

After some extensive research on 8-megapixel digital cameras, I decided on the Olympus C-8080 for several reasons. I'll highlight a few of them below.

* The magnesium cased Olympus C-8080 has a quality feel to it in my hands. It feels solid. This camera won't creak or flex when handled like some of the others I tried.

* The Olympus C-8080 power up time is extremely fast which is important for catching those special moments. It has one of the fastest power up times of any 8-megapixel camera.

* The C-8080 has one of the best lenses available in its class with just the right balance of range and speed... The lens is rather large for good light gathering ability. It's also very sharp. At 5x and 28mm - 140mm (35mm equivalent) range, some might lean more toward a camera with a broader optical range sacrificing speed and quality. For me, it's about quality not quantity! I find that I often use 28mm indoors where space is limited or for those wide outdoor scenic shots. And 140mm is usually sufficient for most of my 'telephoto' needs. You can also purchase optional adapters for wider angle or more zoom if you find it necessary.

* Battery life on this camera is top notch... it's one of the longest lasting and far superior to most other 8-megapixel cameras. Although I own 2 batteries for my Olympus C-8080, I have yet to need more than one for an entire day of shooting. My findings pretty much mirror what the professional reviewers have tested with regard to long battery life on the Olympus C-8080. I have yet to see my 'low battery' indicator come on!

I should also mention that I wear eye glasses which is a problem for me with some viewfinders. Not so with the Olympus C-8080. The ring surrounding the viewfinder is rubberized and when I place the lens from my eye glasses up against the view finder, I can see the entire frame clearly and comfortably. The viewfinder also has a diopter adjustment to compensate for less than perfect vision.

Some people have commented that the controls on the Olympus are a bit confusing. The camera is very versatile with many features and I've gotten used to the controls. Also, the power on/off button is located fairly close to the shutter release button but I got used to this within just a few minutes. It really isn't a problem. Unless you're seriously lacking in manual dexterity, you'll get used to it very quickly.

Also, don't skimp on the memory card. I have a 512MB xD card in the camera and keep a blank 256MB card in my pocket in case I fill up the first card before getting a chance to download all the images to my PC. I might just get a 512MB CompactFlash card as well since the camera has a slot for both xD and CF style memory cards.

To quote another reviewer, the Olympus C-8080 is the one to get!

This is one of the greatest cameras you can buy for under $1000 excluding proffesional SLR cameras. When someone goes to a store like Best Buy and looks around for a digital camera I always see people unsure of their product choice as if they don't necessarily know what they are getting and end up with a camera that doesn't hold up to there expectations. However the olympus c-770 will hold up to your expectations and possibly even go beyond your expectations. You may look at the price and think "wow $600? I'm not willing to pay that much for a camera when I can just buy one for $400 or less!(Lets just say the Sony Cyber Shot)." Anyone who thinks that is wrong. If you compare the two cameras you will see a significant price difference and quality difference. The SCS(Sony Cyber Shot) which represents most inexpensive cameras may have alot of the megapixels youve been told about which is good but when you consider other factors contributing to the camera 5 or so mega pixels won't seem a good enough reason to buy it instead of the olympus. A few factors that play its part in a good digital camaera are these few things. Mega pixels(SCS's best version has more than the olympus's c-770[OC])Then you need to consider the type of memory card( SCS has a regular type of memory card and the OC has an XD picture card which increases the storage space significantly and causes the pictures taken to be saved more effeitiently which leads to a better picture(although not noticable until you print the picture at a large size.) Then you consider the zoom(SCS has 4 opticle zoom and 3 digital zoom that comes out to a maximum of 12 zoom, the OC has 10 opticle zoom and 4 digital zoom.) As you can see the OC has much more zoom which is something really important. A more complex thing is the type of picture format which is also very important. Sony's can't reach TIFF format when the OC can. This is very important to the picture. Then comes the focusing. OC is much faster at this and can achieve certain points of focus in even the worst of conditions. After considering all of these things the OC in result can 80% of the time achieve a much better picture. Other things to consider that the OC is better at is it's ease of use, manual controlls, variety of options "including night seen' which alows you to take pictures in any condition, extended flash for more light, looks, reliability, endurance, weight, metal body, the 4 megapixels and finally the ablity to adapt to your skills as you get more and more advanced. BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURE ABOUT THIS CAMERA IS THE ABILITY TO TAKE MOVIES! WITH SOUND! I am totaly amazed about these movies. It films in MPEG4 which films with the quality you watch T.V in! Also the sound reciever works fine. Over all I highly recomend this camera! Ignore the price. It's well worth it! "I compared it to the sony cyber shot since that camera is the best a cheap camera can get, I used it to represent all cheap cameras with the SCS's same abilitys or less.Thankyou for reading my review.