Like it? I gave up 35mm!! (Olympus Camedia C-2100 Ultra Zoom)

Member Name: mole42

Product:	Olympus Camedia C-2100 Ultra Zoom
Date:	18/06/01 (161 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, Excellent picture quality, Good battery life

Disadvantages: Poor flash, Expensive in UK

This has to be the best camera I've ever bought. It's easy to use in "point & shoot" mode and it has manual anything and everything so you can be as creative as you need to be. Image quality is first-rate, the zoom lens is terrific, it's fast and easy to use.

I wanted a digital version of my Olympus OM-1 35mm camera, one that would look and feel like a real camera, and I figured that a camera made by a camera company would be better than one made by an electronics company. After a lot of research I decided to stay with Olympus, a brand I have used for 20 years, and I finally decided that the hugely versatile zoom lens on the 2100 was the thing. I love this camera!

The bad points first - the on-board flash is a bit small and none too effective, and the external flash connector is an Olympus proprietary one - they want huge amounts of money for a connector. The lens casing feels like the plastic it is, and I wish they'd used some metal for this part. And the price in the UK is ridiculous - I saved £300 buying it for US$ in America.

But the good points - well, the picture quality is outstanding even in JPEG and uncompressed TIFF is even better. It's just so good! The automatic mode is very well set up and takes good pictures even when you don't have time to think. The lens is just excellent - 38mm to 380mm (35mm equivalent) optical, but the 2.7x digital zoom is so seamless and so good that you effectively have a 38mm to 1026mm lens in your hands. And that takes some beating!!

Overall, if you want a good zoom lens on a digital camera, or if you just want a good digital camera, you won't be unhappy with this one.

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