I waited and waited...and held out to the digital revolution for as long as I could. Having been a 35mm SLR user for 16 years, I wasn't in any rush to go out and spend a small fortune on a digital compact! but alas...I did some homework and decided the digital imaging technology could no longer be ignored. after some months of agonising, I plumped for the olympus C-750 (but could just as well have gone for the panasonic Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10).

I have used Olympus cameras in recent years - OM10, OM20, OM4, Trip-35 etc. Canon have been so keen to offer the rich-man-poor-man option of "professional L series lenses" (out of any one's price range) and "consumer lenses" (cheap and nasty). Olympus simply gave quality products without any discrimination and to this day, any of their 25 year old Zuiko lenses would easily match one of Canon's image stabilised L series electronic marvels for image quality. My only regret is that I used Canon EOS cameras for 12 years before I discovered 1970's olympus cameras! Anyway, back to the C-750.

I went for the C-750 as it seemed to get good reviews and had the sort of features I wanted. I put the camera through its paces, trying out all the various options, different settings, apertures, shutter speeds, even new fangled things like contrast and white balance etc. as can be expected from olympus - the instructions are excellent! the camera is very user-friendly and you get the hang of it in a very short time. Blissfully, the battery life long and zoom response, shutter lag etc are all satisfactory.

As for image quality - if you simply use the "P" or "Auto" modes, then the images, even when set on HQ still have that "digital" look about them
. But as soon as you switch to manual mode ("A/S/M") and start underexposing by about 0.3-0.5 stops while keeping shutter speeds above 1/60, you get a much more natural look. I prefer to get the look right at the photography stage, rather than to tinker about afterwards. No amount of post-photo enhancing at the computer is as good as getting the exposure just right WHILE taking the photo. The lens copes well accross the entire zoom range (pity the range isn't numbered) and all the way from f2.8 to f8. Lens is very sharp at telephoto end. Wide end is OK, but not fantastic. Colour reproduction could be better - but, its as good as it gets on a 4 MP compact.