My, How Quickly We Are Obsolete
Written: Apr 27 '01
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Pros: Point and shoot, some nice quality 1.3 megapixels
Cons: people blurry, no zoom, awkward menu functions, slow download and processing between photos, bad software
The Bottom Line: Not a lousy camera but has many annoying quirks, and is obsolete at only 1.3 megapix. Will not replace your film camera.
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| piyo's Full Review: Olympus Camedia D-360L Digital Camera |
You must begin your camera shopping expedition by answering one question: what do you plan to do with this digital camera?
(a) Take occasional pictures of the new baby to send to my friends by e-mail or to post on my webpage.
(b) Replace your old film-based camera.
If you answered closer to option (a), then this camera's level is right for you. The Olympus Camedia D-360L takes nice 1.3 megapixel quality photos, which translated means that were you to print them in a photo-quality printer, even 5x7's would still come out nice (assuming that you use the super-high-quality setting!). 4x6's come out excellent with the right printer, but since the right printer would cost you around $300, I would limit the use of these digital pics to the online world. At the price range (around $300), it is a reliable digital camera for the user who wants to construct a solid webpage or sell their wares on E-Bay.
Warning: it is significantly better for nature/objects/animals than for people. The detail of people's faces, skin tone, etc. can vary from excellent, good, to downright lousy - due to unascertainable variables in lighting or whatnot.
That being said, the other downsides to this camera are subtle but insidiously vexing. First, to set any function (even one as simple as the flash) you have to scroll along a menu by pressing one button. If you scroll too fast and miss it by pressing one too many times, you have to start from the beginning - tres annoying, since you're usually in a rush to catch a great shot of your Uncle Marvin getting creamed with a pie. Second, the rechargable NiHM batteries die out in less than one hour on, so you are always anxious about turning your camera off after each shot. It takes many hours to fully recharge them (the charger, by the way, is an extra $50 or so). The A/C adapter of course only works indoors and is an additional $50 or so. My, how this adds up. Third, the camera doesn't zoom. In fact you will be looking through the viewfinder and you think your shot is quite detailed when in fact the result will come off quite far away.
Fourth, downloading through the camera is SO slow. To download a 32MB card holding 73 super-high-quality pics takes at least 45 minutes! That's almost one hour! (If you didn't have an A/C adapter, your camera's batteries would die in midstream!). I finally purchased a USB drive for the Smartmedia cards the camera uses (add another $50 to the tab). Fifth, it takes a few seconds to record each pic, and meanwhile Uncle Marv is proceeding to strip down to his glow-in-the-dark jammies, but alas, you missed it because the camera wasn't ready.
Sixth, the software that comes with the Olympus (Camedia Master) tends to crash on an almost daily basis. Sometimes, thrice a day, usually because I renamed a file with it. It's also very limited in what it can do to fix up your pic so I use Adobe.
By the way, if you answered (b), then you absolutely do NOT get this camera - you must set your sights at 2 megapixels or more at least!! This camera is way too obsolete to hang with the newer technology.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 300
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Epinions.com ID:
piyo
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Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
"Buy it! Buy it! Buy it!" ~ The motto of a 22-year-old shopaholic!
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