Olympus C700 - Superb piece of kit! (Olympus Camedia C-700 Ultra Zoom)

Name: ThomasA

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Product:	Olympus Camedia C-700 Ultra Zoom
Date:	14/05/02 (368 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: huge optical zoom, Lots of shooting modes, SLR viewfinder

Disadvantages: Supplied with small memory card, Supplied with nonrechargable batteries, Viewfinder image quality occasionally lacking

I have only had this camera for a week, so these are my first impressions:

Brief summary of spec:
2.1 megapixel (1600x1200) resolution
10x *Optical* zoom
SLR-style digital viewfinder, and screen
Auto, semi, programmed and manual modes
JPEG, TIFF & Quicktime movie file output
Pop-up flash
"Storage Class" USB interface
Supplied with 8Mb Smartmedia card

The most important area to talk about in a camera review is image quality. The pictures I have taken so far have just been to test the camera. I have found the resolution to be excellent when it or I get the settings right, and the auto settings to determine "film speed" and white balance usually better than me. However, almost all the shots so far have been improved by fiddling with the colours in various ways in Photoshop.

While not bad looking, the camera is more functional than stylish to behold. Its metal and plastic body feels well put together, but not very rugged. I would worry about taking this camera into the desert. Fortunately however I dont tend to visit deserts very often.

With a 2.1 megapixel CCD, this isnt cutting edge resolution, but having seen the output, I am confident it will be sufficient for up to A4 printing; and how many times have you ever had a conventional photograph blown up that big anyway?

The unique selling point of the C700 is its 10x optical zoom, equivalent to a 38-380mm lens on a 35mm camera. This would be an impressive lens anyway, but the fact that it is crammed into a pretty compact camera is a remarkable feat of optical engineering - someone at Olympus can have a gold star from me!

The viewfinder is not optical but digital, like that of a camcorder, which means you see what the lens is seeing, just like an SLR camera, so your photo will be as you composed it. However, its resolution is adequate rather than good, and it can sometimes seem to be too bright or have poor colour
tones. The main screen on the back of the camera on the other hand, while quite small, is very sharp & clear and has excellent colour reproduction. This can be turned off to save the batteries, and all the menu functions are then displayed in the digital viewfinder.

The camera has a comprehensive range of shooting modes: auto, semi, programmed and full manual. There is also a movie mode with 2 resolutions. Sound may be recorded both with movies and still pictures.

Changing the settings in the various modes is relatively simple once you are used to the menu system, and pleasingly, enough buttons are provided to have all the shooting-related controls at ones fingertips without having to resort to ploughing through menus.

Transfering files to the computer is simple and fast due to the USB interface. The camera is instantly recognised as a removable drive with windows 2000, XP, and also 98 (after driver is installed). Usefully this means you can use the camera as a portable hard disc, to take files of any kind to other computers.

The camera is supplied with a miserly 8Mb smartmedia card. Luckily when I bought mine, Dixons had lost it, so I got them to drop the price, and then ordered a 64Mb card on the net for almost the same money.

Also scrimping on the box contents were the batteries - non-rechargable ones. And no mains adaptor either. I seperately purchased 4 AA NiMh rechargables, which are lasting well.

The supplied software seems reasonable - a rudimentary editing suite integrated with quite a useful-looking database to store, catagorize and thumbnail images, movies and sounds. It appeared that the software could be used to set up various camera features, but failed to connect to the camera. A call to the free technical support line quickly revealed that only the older serial interface cameras could do this.

I bought my C700 in Dixons. The original price was £448, but with a generous 30% discount offer
(last one in the shop) and a further reduction because they lost the memory card, I paid only £302! But then I spent £16 on the memory card and £11 on the batteries. All in an I would say superb value for money, especially at that price!

To conclude, I have not yet used my C700 enough to gain a reliable impression of its capabilities, but I am initially very impressed by its lens and the flexibility and control offered by the many shooting modes.

Summary: