| Product: |
Olympus Camedia C-310 Zoom |
| Date: |
28/12/05 (212 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Excellent Quality Pictures
Disadvantages: Battery Life
I received the camera as a Christmas present, having already owned an Olympus 1.3 Megapixel camera and being very pleased with it I really wanted an optical zoom.
I have to say that I am extremely pleased with the camera.
The most important thing for any digital camera is the quality of the photo's. They are very impressive, clear with good detail. The 3.2 Megapixels really helps.
The 3x optical zoom works a treat. I always found with my old camera that it took wide shots and I couldn't do anything about it. This is the feature I really wanted most and I'm not dissaponted.
Memory
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You only get a 16MB sd Card which stores about 20 pictures, I bought a 512MB card for about £30 on the internet and can store plenty of photos even at super high quality. I've gotten a bit snap happy now. I took it on my holiday to Egypt and got over 300 high quality pictures. Definately worth the investment.
Recording Videos
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You can also take quicktime movies and for a digital camera these are very good, a bit like watching silent movies when you play them back. If you are indoors when taking movies then it's best to get as much light as you can otherwise they can turn out a bit dark. Quicktime is a video format, you will need apple's Quicktime viewer to be able to play them on your computer.
Taking Pictures At Night
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One other feature that my old Olympus camera didn't have is a night mode. You can take good quality night shots, but you need to keep the camera totally still due to the long shutter speed used. I use this mode quite a lot.
The Interface
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The menu system is quite easy to use, it takes a little while to get used to where the options you need are. Having said that once you've used it for a bit they become second nature.
One button I use a lot is the Quick View one. When you have just taken a picture it stays on the display for a couple of seconds. This isn't really long enought to get a good look, this option toggles between the last picture you have taken and the view finder. Magic.
You can change the type of picture you want, for example landscape, portrait, self portrait etc. However, I have found that the automatic option, P, always seems to get good results.
On small annoyance, I can't find a way (If there is one) to set the default picture quality. I'd like to set it to SHQ (Super High Quality) all the time, at the moment every time I use it I have to change it.
I noticed another reviewer has commented that it can be a bit slow when taking a picture, there can be a delay, but I've not found this to be a problem and after all that's the beauty of digital cameras, you can delete bad shots
My Tips
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A tip for taking good picture with this camera is just before taking it to press the take picture button slightly until you feel resistance and hold it there for a couple of seconds, the camera can then adjust to the lighting conditions to get the best results. Then just squeeze a little more to take the picture.
Another tip is that I've found if you use the view finder rather than using the display you do not see all of the picture that is being taken. I use the view finder if the battery is getting low and I've turned the monitor off.
I invested in an Olympus leather case for £10 from Dixons, it's got a handy little pocket on the front to store any additional memory cards you have. I wish that they provided one with the camera. It's worth getting one as even though it is quite sturdy I wouldn't like to drop it too much.
Batteries and Battery Life
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It's worth investing in some rechargable batteries as the battery life is not excellent, however it only takes two AA batteries, my old Olmypus camera took four, this makes it a bit lighter. You can also turn off the monitor to save life. I believe battery life is short on most digital cameras.
Conclusion
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I would definitely recommend this camera, and the Olympus brand. When I look to upgrade I will almost certainly be having another Olympus camera.
Price : £115 when purchased, although you can probably pick it up much cheaper now.
Summary: A Great Camera At A Great Price
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