Great camera for a low budget (Olympus Camedia C-160)

Name: jord121290

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Product:	Olympus Camedia C-160
Date:	29.08.05 (117 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great price, easy to use, plenty of features

Disadvantages: Poor zoom

The Olympus Camedia C-160 digital camera is the perfect camera for someone who is new to digital photography and looking for a low-cost and easy to use camera.

The C-160 is packed full of features and options. There are different scene modes (like night mode, portrait mode and landscape mode as well as some more) which all help improve the quality and professionalism of your photos.
There are also different light settings for taking pictures in bright sunlight, cloudy conditions and indoors, again, helping to make the quality of your pictures that little bit better.
The menu where these options can be found is very easy to navigate using the buttons on the camera.

The camera has two ways in which you can position the image you want to take, one is by using the LCD display on the back of the camera, this is my favourable way of taking pictures, there is also a view-finder for people who prefer to take their pictures the traditional way.

There are different quality options for photos: 640x480 pixels, 1024x768 pixels and two 2048x1536 pixel options (high quality and super quality). The higher the amount of pixels, the better and larger the picture, but the higher the number of pixels the less photos you can take.
The camera takes 3.2 Megapixel photos which although isn't great quality, it's enough for most people's basic needs.

There is a Macro mode on the camera for taking close-ups and I was really impressed with the cameras ability to take close-up photos, you can get very close to an object whilst still retaining a fair amount of detail.

The C-160 comes with a 16MB XD card which suits me fine, but you can also buy higher capacity cards from Olympus or Fujifilm (these companies are the joint manufacturers and designers of XD cards).

The camera has multiple flash options including on/off, auto flash or red-eye reduction which uses a number of quick flashes before the main flash to prepare the eyes and therefore reduce red-eye on photos.
There's also a timer function so you have time to position the camera and then get in the photo.

The camera's zoom function is the one thing I found lets it down, it only has a 2.5x digital zoom. There are two problems with this, one is that 2.5x isn't a lot, so you have to be very close to what ever you want to take a picturee of in order to get any detail, secondly, digital zoom means that each time you zoom in a bit more, the picture quality is worsened, because really all the camera is doing is inlarging the image, it would have been much better if this camera came with optical zoom, which would mean no deterioration in picture quality.

The camera can also film short movies in Quicktime Motion JPEG mode, though with the supplied 16MB card these can only be about 15 seconds max. The camera can't record sound either, so it certainly isn't for people who really want to make movies, a digital camcorder is what you need for that purpose.

The C-160 has a panorama function which can be used in conjuction with the supplied Olympus Camedia Master software to create basic panorama images, I found this function a bit tricky to use though, and it takes a bit of getting used to.

The camera connects to your computer via a USB cable which is supplied with it. You can then use the Camedia Master software to easily transfer images and videos from the camera, you can then perform basic editing and printing functions.
The camera is also PictBridge compatible which means that if you have a compatible printer you can print straight from the camera without needing to bother with your computer, although you can't do any editing then, except for changing the image to black and white or make it look like a really old picture (with the browned effect).

The camera also comes with two AA batteries so you can get using it straight away, but AA batteries are used up very quickly by the camera, so you'll probably find yourself needing to buy a CR-V3 battery for around £10, these batteries are designed for cameras and last over 10 times longer, the flash also charges much quicker with these batteries.
A wrist strap is also included with the camera so you can carry it easily.

There is an optional power adapteravailable for the camera so you can use it direct from the mains, but I have had a lot of trouble trying to find this cable in the UK.

This camera is great for the price and with it's ease of use is perfect for beginners.

Summary: Great for people just getting started in digital photography

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