After my parents and brother had success in making the transition from film to digital photography with Olympus products, I purchased a C-700. It was a daunting change for a lifelong user of 35-mm SLR cameras, but within a couple of weeks I was glad I made the change.

The C-700 is (at the time of this review) two years from the state of the art in digital cameras. This has its up sides as it is a very popular model and the price had dropped by half since its introduction. The down side is that with it's 2-megapixil resolution, you will look with envy at the sharpness of some of the enlargements from your friend's 4 or 5 megapixil digital cameras.

The features that (originally) set the C-700 apart are its 10x optical zoom, small size, and the thru-the-lens viewfinder. It was the first 10x optical zoom digital camera This mattered to me as a former 35-mm SLR user, because it is like having a 300mm zoom lens that projects less than 3" from the camera. Other cameras (including the C-700) have digital zoom capabilities, but you are cutting the resolution of your photo in half with a 2x zoom photo, by 75% with a 4x zoom photo etc. Give me the C-700 over a 4-megapixil camera with a 3x maximum optical zoom anyday.

Mine still has a sticker that says it is the "world's smallest optical 10-x digital camera", but I am sure that title has since passed to another model

The camera has proven durable on numerous international vacations, backpacking trips, etc. It uses inexpensive SmartMedia and cards AA-batterys. It eats batteries fast (as do all digital cameras with motorized zoon lenses), thus I would advise also buying a couple sets of NI-MH batteries and a charger.

In bright sunlight, the rear color LCD and (also color) thru-the-lens (TTL) displays are hard to see...true optical TTL shutter displays will set you back a lot mose $$$. One cool feature is an adjustable diopter for the TTL display for thise with less than perfect vision. The auto focus works well most of the time (sometimes not in dim light or hazy zoom shots) with several options, including spot focus.

The USB 1.1 connection is slower that the USB 2.0 connections which now standard on new computers. The camera comes with a 16mb smart media card which is joke with 128mb cards selling for less than $50. But, don't throw it away as Olympus Smart Media Cards are required for the panoramic photos feature.

Two years in, this is a good camera. The same camera with 4 megapixil resolution, would be one of the best anywhere.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 420
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts