Attractive - Easy to use - Good quality (Olympus FE-340)

Member Name: fantiquitous

Product:	Olympus FE-340
Date:	10/04/09 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Attractive, easy to use, good quality, small, good optical zoom, image stabilisation, video

Disadvantages: Some settings are not saved when you switch modes or turn off

This camera has a lot of good points. It's small, attractive, very easy to use, and it's also pretty fast / responsive. Overall, I'm delighted with it. (And I'm generally hard to please). I chose this camera over newer models. And I am glad I did. I wouldn't swap it. As I don't think this camera will require upgrading for a long time. It has a few flaws which i will mention at the bottom, but it's such a good alround camera, it keeps all five stars.

The camera has 8 megapixels. I find this perfectly adequate for average use. I don't even need it this high. It is adjustable in the menu, and i have it set to 5.

5x optical zoom, which works really well and is nice and easy to use. It's not a fiddly button you have to look at while you use. It's a little nub around the camera's button you push left or right, and it zooms in/out gradually. As well as the image a bar will be displayed on the LCD screen to show how far you have zoomed. This bar also has a line at the end, to show where the digital zoom begins (I always stay clear of this, as it reduces the quality of the image, and is simply not worth using).

The FE340 does not look cheap and plasticy. It has a stylish metal body, with a high quality finish. A very nice looking camera. Everything is laid out in a very simple and user-friendly way. It comes in a range of colours (silver, black, blue, red or pink), with mine being red.

The camera is quite quick to start up and take pictures. It does not leave you waiting around, so you are unlikely to miss your shot. I've never encountered a loading or processing screen. The only thing that might delay you is if you need to turn the flash off.

It's a pretty quiet camera. So I don't feel embarrassed walking around a church or quiet area. You'll know when you've taken a picture, but there is no stupid fake camera noise. The camera does come with some such sounds, but these are easily turned off in the menu. This is a setting that will stay set, so it's not an annoyance.

Very easy to review and delete pictures. There is a review button and a delete button, so you don't have to flick through menus. Then there is a camera button, enabling you to quickly switch back to taking pictures.

The 340 has two macro (or close up) modes; which are excellent and really handy for smaller subjects such as flowers, and even insects. I was very pleased with the quality and detail of the small subjects.

This camera has a lot of features. There may be more than you need. But everything is laid out so well; they do not get in the way of those who just want a really simple camera. You just select what you want on the easy to use dial. I usually stick to 'auto' for general use, and the shakey hand mode for tougher subjects (shakey hand mode is what i call the image stabilisation mode, as it's image is a hand).

The image stabilisation is a very practical and handy feature. It's a setting you simply choose on the dial of your camera. It's useful both if the subject is likely to blur, or if the camera holder themselves is a little unsteady handed. My boyfriend keeps it on this setting all the time. His photos often turn out blurred with his Kodak.

I was really impressed with both the audio and visual quality of the video/movies. I am able to play back my videos clearly when displaying at full screen on my computer. I think it does well to keep background noise low - though high winds can be annoying; but even then I think it copes well. However, in order to take videos of a decent length, you will have to alter the settings for a lower frame rate. But this is easy to alter in the menu, and once they are changed, they will stay changed, so this is not really a problem. (Without switching you will only be able to take a few seconds of video on a 1gb card, but when the option is switched, you can take almost 20 minutes).

The 'scene' option has a sub menu providing a number of potential selections. There are 18 scene modes for best results in different situations. Including behind glass, smile, candle, indoor, sport, night, sunset, and fireworks.

The remaining photo options are face detection and panoramic. I rarely switch the dials to anything other than auto, hand or video. Since I always seem to get nice pictures, I see no reason to fiddle with the other options.

Another option on the dial, is the built in guide. I have not needed to use it, but it tells you what settings are best to use for different scenarios.

There is a timer which is very simple and non fiddly to set up, as it has its own button. It is a shame you cannot select the amount of time. But I have always found it to be adequate.

LCD screen size is quite large, quite bright, and shows images in good quality. Both the LCD and the camera itself cope well in low light. I am often surprised at how much light it manages to obtain, often making things brighter and clearer than they are to my own eyes.

The camera accepts an xD picture card, this is however the only type it will accept.

The rechargeable li-ion battery has a decent life. It's also nice and small, therefore easy to carry a spare.

I find the camera to be an ideal size. It's big enough for the screen, buttons and functions to be well visible, and easy to use. Yet still small enough to fit in your pocket. It's nice and slim. As a rough measurement the camera is less than 4inches long, just over 2 inches high, and about 3/4 of an inch deep. The screen has a 2.7" diagonal measurement.

There is no annoying lens cap to get on or off, as with many modern cameras, it has it's own built in.

Photo format is JPEG, and the video files appear as WMV on my computer. A one gig card will take 500 photos at 8 megapixels on the normal setting.


My complaints:

The LCD screen cannot easily be turned off to save power while taking photos, I find this a little annoying, as I feel I am draining the battery by leaving it on, or constantly turning it on and off. Although the batteries do have a good life, I would still appreciate the option. There is also no viewfinder.

Some settings, such as flash, are not saved when you switch the camera off, or so much as switch modes. I have not yet found a way to alter this. I find this the most annoying thing about the camera. I rarely need the flash, as the camera copes so well with low light. So feel it does is waste precious moments - even if it is very simple to turn off. It can also be very annoying to find you have forgotten to turn off the flash - especially if in a church, art gallery, or when photographing animals.

Summary: The ideal compact camera.

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