Great Camera for those who wish to learn a little about photography and advanced users
Written: Oct 19 '03 (Updated Aug 28 '05)
Product Rating:
Ease of Use:
Durability:
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Photo Quality:
Shutter Lag
Pros: Great pictures, easy to use and because it’s digital you will snap away!
Cons: 3X zoom somewhat limiting, possible to turn on with cap on, not great..you learn.
The Bottom Line: Would buy again...EXCEPT see caution. I don’t miss the 10X zoom too much and this camera allows me to have taken some shots that look like pro quality.
oman9's Full Review: Olympus Camedia C-5050 Zoom Digital Camera
A word of caution...Update August 2005...
This has been a great camera and the review of the camera's performance stands...HOWEVER, there has been a significant number of C5050Z's out there which died after between approx. 24 and 30 months. Seems to be speculation over a capacitor or battery or something that gives out in this timeframe rendering the camera useless. Many have reported sending the camera in for work on the CCD or some board in there, however the instances of failure in this consistent timeframe are not acceptable. I'll leave the star ratings as originally done (except for durability), however please be aware of this failure. MSN has a good 5050 support group and this problem has been detailed there. Strange thing is I loved this camera, but now it is useless unless I get it fixed. Be wary of spending hundreds of dollars on a C5050 (especially a used one on Ebay) if it only has up to a 36 month life before requiring a $200 or more repair. Below is my original review...again, sad such a good unit has a pervasive failure rate as detailed on the forums listed above.
I’ll start this review by telling you that this is from an amateur (at best) and will be written from that perspective. I’ll leave the technical specs, etc. to others who are better suited to communicate that type of information.
I have two young children and this was my primary reason in researching and eventually getting a new camera. I am the kind of person who does a fair amount of research for most if not all of my purchases and this purchase was no exception. I have owned a point and shoot Fuji camera for many years and it served me well. Some friends have touted the benefits of going digital for quite some time and I’ve held off purchasing because I’m the kind of person who doesn’t need to get the “latest and greatest”.
As I stated above I wanted to get a better camera primarily to captur
e some shots of my children as they grow up. A major benefit attributed to digital cameras, and I’ve heard this over and over again, is “When you have a digital camera you take so many more pictures!” Let me tell you, this is very true. With a regular film camera, you take shoot a roll of 24 exposures and maybe you’re real pleased with 3 or 4 of them. The other 20+ pictures you paid good money for film and developing don’t seem to be worth the cost. I would hesitate to just shoot away because of the perceived lack of value in the majority of the pictures I would get. That hesitation is gone with a digital camera and you end up with many more quality shots at the end of the day because you aren’t concerned about shooting away! I know this isn’t germaine to a review of this unit but is an important aspect in deciding to get a digital camera.
Now on to the Olympus C5050Z…..what a great camera!!! As mentioned before I was a point and shoot person for many years. I never considered myself an avid photographer whatsoever. In addition to getting a camera to record my children I decided that I would get a camera I could grow into and add photography as a hobby. This is the perfect choice if the preceding sentence describes you as well. I purchased this camera in June 2003 and have now taken hundreds (if not thousands) of shots of my family and scenery both here at home and on vacations. I have obtained some really great shots and have begun a collection of photos I will treasure the rest of my life.
I would say that for a few weeks before my final decision and for a few weeks afterwards I spent a combined total of maybe 40 hours reading photography sites (some of that time was finding sites in the first place, so here’s a link (be sure to cut and paste these links to your browser) which provides a gateway to many good sites… "http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1008&message=4536807" ) learning about such things as sharpness, saturation, contrast, aperture settings (good link discussing this is "http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&message=2081983" , shutter speeds, flash intensity, ISO settings, macrophotography, etc. If this sounds a bit daunting to you, don’t let it. Although I have a basic understanding of most of these items, I usually change very little with my C5050 since I’ve learned about what those items are and have set my camera to my likings. One really nice feature with this camera is the “My Mode” option. With this feature you can program a variety of settings within a “Mode” and there are 8 modes you can set to your fancy depending on shooting requirements. Remember, I was a point and shooter and for the most part I still am. I have set all 8 modes mostly based on recommendations of Steve Wrotniak http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/c5050/c5050-rev.html. Of those 8 “My Mode” settings, I find myself in Mode 1 about 98% of the time. I leave the camera in that “My Mode” 1 and occasionally make minor adjustments from there (maybe a slow flash instead of auto flash to mitigate the reflection of the flash back at me in the picture…did that a bit this past week).
My research led me to a final two choices of the C5050Z and the C740/750 UZ, both by Olympus. The main reason I ended up with the C5050Z was the general consensus feeling that the lens on the C5050Z (and probably some other components) provided the C5050Z with an edge in picture quality, including skin tones, etc. With the perceived edge in picture quality going towards the C5050Z, that’s the way I went. I really liked the 10X optical zoom of the C740/750 which would allow you to bring a subject closer, but picture quality won the day. Maybe someday I will get C750UZ as well….I read on www.dpreview.com (a great site to read the user forums and see examples of pictures taken with different digital cameras) a husband (photographer) and wife (golfer) were discussing their respective hobbies. The wife complained to her husband, who had just purchased a C750UZ, that he shouldn’t need another camera since he already had two. He replied to her “How many golf clubs do you have?”. She replied back, “I have one set”. His response…”Maybe you call it a set, but I believe you have 14 clubs, each does something different….Same with my cameras, they each do something different!”. I thought that was kind of funny and also true. You have to decide what you are going to do with your camera before you can make the best decision. If you want to primarily take shots of your kids playing soccer, you may need that 10X optical zoom.
Bottom line…I love this camera. I did read another reviewer who mentioned something about this being overkill. Again, if you have no interest in learning a little about photography, go with a lower end camera. As long as you’re not going to print larger pictures (say greater than 5 X 7) you should be fine with a 3 megapixel camera. This camera is a 5 megapixel camera which reminds me of another point. I was reading a discussion about picture quality choices within the camera. Basically you have RAW, TIFF, SHQ and HQ in order of descending quality. The first few generate large file sizes for each picture and I believe are intended for greater post production processing (digital darkroom stuff with programs like Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Microsoft Digital ImagePro) and are probably for more advanced users. I stick with SHQ for my shots. I initially shot in HQ to allow more pictures on my XD Card and Compact Flash Card (these items are reusable digital film and act like hard drives when you hook them up to your computer. The main difference, aside from file size, is quality of captured image. The larger file size you allow the camera to take, the less detail the camera omits to comply with that file size. The better the detail, the better a larger size print will look. His point was you never know when you will get that great shot and why take the chance? I was trying to get as many pictures to fit on my cards. The reality is that with my 256 megabyte cards I can fit plenty (about 70 on each) in SHQ mode and will still be able to, if I choose, print an 8 X 11, 11 X 14 or even a 20 X 30 sized print in great quality.
I mentioned above about the XD card and Compact Flash card. This camera has two bays into which you can simultaneously have two different cards of different type. I ended up choosing a 256 XD card I bought from Best Buy for $89 after rebate and a Transcend 256 Compact Flash card I purchased, no hassle, from www.newegg.com Each card holds about 70 pictures on each and I have them in the camera at the same time, so I’ve got 140 shots I can save….remember I can take probably 200 – 300 to get to 140 saved shots because I take the same shot over a few times and save only the shot I like. 140 saved shots is almost 6 rolls of 24 exposure film and keeping in mind I take many more shots than 140 that I eventually save it’s like 10+ rolls of film in my camera at once! I’ve never come close to getting to 140 shots saved before I download to my computer anyway, so for me the 256 meg cards (times two of them) is more than I need.
Another great feature of this camera (and this is not true of all Olympus cameras or other manufacturers for that matter) is that it will take standard AA batteries versus proprietary batteries. Proprietary batteries means that when you are on the road on vacation and you’re batteries go dead and you didn’t bring your charger you’re in a bit of trouble. With the C5050Z you can just buy 4 standard AA batteries or CR-V3 batteries (two of those) and you are back in business. I keep two CR-V3s in my bag (see bag discussion below) and I’m safe! By the way, battery life with the provided rechargeable Lithium Ion 1700 batteries is adequate. I can probably take about 100 shots with the LCD screen on (which I recommend because the viewfinder will not produce the final shot because of parallax error, particularly on subjects close to the camera…the LCD screen is the way the final shot looks on the computer or printed out…). The camera comes with a battery charger for those Lithium Ion batteries and takes about 9 hours to charge them up. You will also receive a remote control for this camera which I have yet to use. The camera does come with a 32M XD card, but I highly recommend you purchase larger capacity cards right away…see above discussion for what I did.
Next I’ll mention that you should purchase a card reader. The best I’ve found out there for my purposes is the Lexar Media 6 in 1 reader….It can handle many types of “digital film” including my XD and Compact Flash cards and is USB 2.0 which means transfer speed is pretty quick. I bought mine from Dell, cost $32….link is http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=A0107419&c=us&l=en&cs=19&category_id=4325&page=external
Because you are considering purchasing a digital camera I’ll discuss securing your images for a bit. If you don’t already have a backup external (or internal) hard drive, get one. If you transfer your precious images to your computer and that hard drive crashes, guess what? You are in big trouble. Back up to the external hard drive regularly. In addition, I recommend purchasing space at an internet site such as www.imageevent.com which I’ve used and have really enjoyed. Other sites include www.pbase.com and a host of others. In addition to providing another backup of your photos in case of disaster (what if you’re house burned down taking out your computer and your external drive, heaven forbid) you now have a way to easily share your photos. Cost is about $25 a year for my deal at ImageEvent and is for 1,500 images (a bunch in my book) for that one year.
I also needed to buy a case for the camera. One which was recommended to me and I eventually went with is the LowePro D Res 25 AW. This fits the camera nice and snug and has room for extra batteries and a little pocket for extra XD cards, etc. I bought it for $26 at Ritz Photo….Here’s the link…www.lowepro.com/pages/series/dres/dres25.html
You have probably figured out by now that the cost of your digital camera is just the start. New digital media (XD, Compact Flash, etc.), card reader, camera case, etc. requires an extra few hundred dollars or so. Well worth it since the pictures I’ve taken are…..yep, priceless!
Bottom line is that I would buy this camera again in a heart beat. I did hear that the C5060Z is just being released so be sure to check that out and see if the enhancements make sense for you.
If you are looking for more of a point and shoot camera in October 2004 I purchased an Olympus D580Z which I've used for a few weeks now and also love. More compact than the C5050Z with a lens shield that is more convenient than a cap (although that hitting that shield by mistake can inadvertently turn the camera off). I bought this because my wife didn't feel comfortable with all the features/functions of the more complex C5050Z.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 659 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
5.0 megapixel sensor creates 2500 x 2000 images for high-resolution prints up to poster size 3x optical plus 3.3x digital (10x total) autofocus zoom l...More at Amazon Marketplace
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