An oldie but (mostly) a goodie (Olympus Camedia C-2)

Member Name: davidbuttery

Product:	Olympus Camedia C-2
Date:	24/10/09 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Surprisingly good photo quality, reliable, robust

Disadvantages: Obsolete memory card format, no optical zoom

The Olympus Camedia C-2 dates from 2002. In this field, that makes it quite a dinosaur: you wouldn't be altogether surprised to see a starting handle included in the list of accessories. It certainly has its drawbacks, not least an obsolete and increasingly expensive memory card format, but a little to my surprise I have discovered that this very cheap impulse buy (from eBay for a tenner) is still really quite a capable little thing.

I suppose "little" isn't entirely accurate: the C-2 isn't particularly tiny. However, it's nicely compact, and personally I find it a very comfortable size to hold. It is a little heavier than most newer cameras, despite the lack of an optical zoom lens (more on this in a minute) and the fact that it takes just two AA batteries. It's hard to tell where the extra weight comes from, therefore, but the extra heft can be reassuring in that you get the impression of a solidly constructed item. It should, however, be noted that the use of only two batteries (four was common in those days) makes battery life less than brilliant, so carrying a couple of spares is a good idea.

I rather like the design of the C-2, which I find pleasant and almost elegant. Like most Olympus digital cameras of this vintage, the lens is hidden by a sliding panel, as is the flash. The panel acts both as a lens cover and as the power switch: when you slide the panel right across until it clicks, the camera comes to life, and when you slide it back power is cut again. I think this is a good arrangement, especially on a non-zoom camera such as this where there is no risk of the slider knocking the side of the lens.

Around the back of the camera are the usual control buttons, which are okay but a little too small.. There is quite a lot of blank space here, which makes the 1.5-inch LCD seem a bit of a waste, but given that this was a budget model on its release - which at that time meant £200! - it's hard to criticise it too much for that. There is also an optical viewfinder, which is actually large enough to be useful: not something you tend to see on cameras nowadays! The memory card door is on one side of the camera, along with the wrist strap eyelet; on the other side is the USB socket. The C-2 uses USB 1.1, which is fairly slow, but not unbearably so. I'd still recommend the use of a card reader, though.

The most important part of any camera is the lens, and thankfully Olympus provided a good one on the C-2. Despite its remarkably small size, the lens is quite fast (f/2.8) and the autofocus is accurate and responsive, although it is rather noisy: this is not a camera that will be much use if you need silent operation. The lack of an optical zoom does inevitably limit the C-2's flexibility, but it also makes the camera very robust; I've happily bumped it around in a coat pocket without a case. I have been pleasantly surprised by the photo quality: of course it's not up to 2009 standards, but it's vivid and colourful, and resolution is noticeably better than even many 3mp cameras of its era. The very edges of photos are a little fuzzy, but the centre of the frame is sharp. On the highest quality setting (SHQ) you can store about 90 photos on a 128MB memory card.

As befits an entry-level camera, there are not a huge number of options available beyond the usual white balance and exposure compensation options, but there are a couple worth mentioning as less common in this class. For example, you can set contrast and sharpening levels, something even some much newer and costlier cameras do not allow. There is also the option to employ spot metering, whereby the camera calculates the required exposure level specifically from the centre of the image, rather than by averaging it out over the whole frame; this is very useful for stopping bright sunshine making a silhouette of the foreground. I shouldn't bother too much about the movie mode: videos are tiny, low-quality and generally a waste of time.

The single biggest drawback of the C-2 is in the memory cards it uses - and as it has no internal memory, you can't do anything without a card. The format employed is SmartMedia, one of the earliest commercially successful types. These cards are larger and thinner than the now-ubiquitous SD cards, and require a little more care in their inserting into and removing from the camera, which may stop this camera from being a good choice as a young child's first, a shame as otherwise it would be perfect in that role. For adults, though, of much more concern is that SmartMedia is well and truly obsolete. Cards are not hard to find second-hand - eBay is full of them - but they are becoming expensive: a 128MB card, the highest capacity made, tends to sell for £15-20, which may well be more expensive than the camera itself! If at all possible, buy a camera with at least a 16MB card bundled.

If the C-2 used a memory card format that was still current, I would recommend it (as a very cheap second-hand model) without too much hesitation. It really is a remarkably good camera for its vintage, so long as you bear that 2mp resolution in mind and don't expect it to perform miracles, especially in difficult lighting. However, I can't overlook the problems that SmartMedia brings, and while they are not by any means insurmountable, they do prevent my recommending the C-2 whole-heartedly for those who want a completely no-fuss, no-frills camera. Worth a look, but go in with your eyes open.

Summary: Maybe not right for a main camera, but not a bad backup one

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