I've been taking photos seriously for about 6 years now. Live rock band photos, family photos, scenery, etc. This is my first digital camera coming from an SLR and an automatic. The manuals were easy to follow and within 2 hours i was taking photos with the A/S/M setting choosing my aperture. Other settings are easy to find as well, using the automatic setting, setting the zoom, and a million other features that are easily accessible within a couple hours of owning the camera. Spot metering is simple with the one touch AEL button. THe macro setting is great for close up photos with lots of detail. Very easy to choose standard quality or high quality images. Too much to list! Downloading to the computer is a snap with the USB cable. A GREAT CAMERA!! For beginners and seasoned alike.
Strengths:
10X Optical Zoom (for an under $450 camera this is a find!), easy easy to use after reading the manual, simple to download photos, one touch picture preview, many settings to experiment with including the one that takes 5 photos of the same focused picture but with a different aperture each time, VERY lightweight, pop-up flash, flash intensity setting.
Weaknesses:
The viewfinder is much darker than the photos end up being without the flash, takes a bit to get used to.
I bough this camera because of its great zoom. The megapixel count is enough for me, if I want large enlargements I bring my 35mm SLR loaded with a ISO50 dias film, no digital competes with that.
The camera is sturdy, has a great size when used to SLR. I attached the CLA4 lens-adapter and put on a UV filter for lens protection, and also have a polarizer filter for it. The features are unmatched in the pricerange and the picture quality is GREAT!!!! Crisp, sharp, well exposed, detailed and with great colors. It takes some time to get used to the EVF, but I like it more and more. The EVF could be better for night shots though.
People complains about sharpness when using 10x zoom. Well for that zoom range a tripod is needed to ensure good shots, and thats NOT the camera's fault. When such large zooms is used the shakes are enlarged as well as the picture. Thats why big professional zooms have tripod mounts on the lenses directly.
As for the purple fringe i have yet to expirience that. It's probably caused by overexposure. In the digital world it's better to underexposiure and then correct in photoshop, rather than overexposiure which is uncorrectable.
This camera is a winner!
Strengths:
All the feautures (Specially the manual and bracketing)
Great zoom
Size
Menu system
Good AF-system
Quite low shutter delay for a digital
Weaknesses:
Tripod mount not in the center of the lens.
EVF in low light
Too much CCD noise with ISO higher than 100
The Olympus C-700UZ is a very compact, yet powerful camera. With the F2.8 lense and ISO selections from 100 to 800 you have great versitality. The 10X optical zoom is excellent.
I purchased the camera to get started in digital photography and wanted acamera that would do what I needed and be easy enough for my wife and daughters to use when I move up. It is fully automatic and allows for you to shoot right from the box, then you can go back and read the manual to get more technical with it. Withour using the monitor alot I was able to shoot about 300 pictures using the batterys that came with the camera and recharable batterys and have not had to recharge the batterys yet.
The 8mb card that came with the camera was quickly filled and the extra 64mb card (128 pictures) was easy to fill at a graduation I was at. Taking action shots will require some ajustment in my timing. There is a lag time from the time you click til the camera takes the picture, but with the ablity to delete pictures you do not like you are not using up film "playing with it". It has a camera feel to it and the settings that you would most foten change are easy to locate without going through a menu and hunting for it. It has many of the features of my Minolta STsi SLR.
Strengths:
Easy to use yet powerful camera. Light weight but feels like a camera and acts like a camera. Very good quality 8 x 10 prints Good cropped prints enlarged to 8 x 10.
Weaknesses:
2.1 mega Pixels. View finder takes some getting used to.
Sample Images
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