(Update - June 2005) This camera has proven to be very solid. I'm still using it. It's gotten some pretty heavy use and hasn't skipped a beat in the area of reliability. The photos continue to impress me (despite it's relatively low resolution in today's digicam market). The lens cap that I was so wary of in the original review has long since been lost but the lens seems to have held up quite well. The only problem I have to report is that I have a couple of burned out pixels that show up in my photos. These can be easily edited out, however.

Overall, if my experience with this model is typical, I'd have to say that a new Olympus camera should be an investment that you won't regret. Most people won't use a digital camera as often or as heavily as I do and it's held up nicely.


Original Review


Well, much to my dismay, my old Kodak DC-3400 Zoom finally gave up it’s ghost. Actually, that’s a little inaccurate. The camera wasn’t that old but it did have some mileage on it (About 3,000 pictures). About a week ago, the thing simply stopped working properly. It's really rather curious that both of my previous digital cameras mysteriously stopped working about a year after I bought them. My cameras do take a little abuse and I do use them quite frequently but I really tend to be pretty gentle when handling any piece of electronic equipment. Kind of a shame because I really did like that camera. I figured I was due for an upgrade anyway, and with my tax return on it’s way, I went ahead and took the plunge. I shopped around quite extensively and did a lot of research on the net. I also asked our favorite Epinions camera guy to recommend a camera to suit my needs. He recommended an Olympus (I’m pretty sure it was this model, It’s been a while). By the way, I appreciate the advice Howard, as you’ll see, I’m pretty well satisfied with this purchase. Also, for those of you that are trying to make a decision on a digital camera, there are some fantastic web sites out there dedicated to digital cameras and reviews, complete with sample pictures. Along with Epinions and Howard’s advice, these web sites were enormously helpful in narrowing down my choices. I was prepared to spend anywhere up to about $900.

I was a bit unprepared for the prices when I went to actually buy a camera. The better cameras are very expensive. I had actually planned on making a digital SLR my next digital camera, but I also expected my Kodak to last a lot longer then it did too. Truly affordable SLR type digital cameras are still a few years in the future. I suppose I can wait. Prices will certainly eventually come down and new developments and features will make them even better than the expensive models of today.

At any rate, given that I’m not really planning on making any prints exceeding 8x10, I really didn’t see the point in forking out the extra cash for anything over three Megapixels. Four Megapixel cameras are still quite pricey and not really worth the added expense unless you’re going to be doing some serious enlargements. What I was interested in getting was a camera with good quality optics, a sturdy construction and a decent amount of manual options for focus and exposure.

Although I was prepared to spend a lot more than I eventually spent, I really did want to keep my target price between three hundred and six hundred dollars. If you’ve been shopping for digital cameras lately, I don’t have to tell you that the pickings for cameras in my price range, which meet all of my criteria are few and far in between. Although the shelves are brimming with digicams at most superstores, the Olympus Camedia C-3000z caught my eye fairly quickly, with it’s very reasonable price and outstanding features. I narrowed my choices down to just two. One was a Kodak (I can’t for the life of me remember the model number now but it was a 3 MP and was about $350). On the one hand, I had the Olympus, with a solid reputation and some pretty advanced features for a camera in it’s price range, and on the other, there was the Kodak, which is basically a point and shoot camera with very few options for controlling your photos. Within a few moments, I was sold on the Olympus for $499 plus tax.

Despite it’s fairly innocent appearance, this camera is loaded with features. Far too many for me to go into in too much detail. The first thing you’ll see when you open the box is the instruction booklet. If you don’t feel at least a little intimidated when you see this instruction booklet, you’re a better photographer than I. This thing is over 200 pages! Included in the packet with the instruction booklet is the 8MB SmartMedia card (That’s right, SmartMedia. Apparently, Olympus likes to do things their own way. No Compact Flash Cards here). Also in this packet, you’ll find one of the neatest features of this camera, a tiny remote control! Yep, you can actually use this thing instead of the self timer and choose when you want to trip the shutter release. No more rushing to get into the picture. You’ll have to excuse me if I seem just a tad too excited about this but up until a few years ago, even my TV didn’t have a remote control! I’m easily amused with nifty little features like this.

The Olympus comes packaged with the Camedia Master 2.0 (This is an update. I had originally listed this as the 5.0 version of this software. Sorry bout that) software. This camera was intended to be used primarily with USB (I can’t imagine why anyone would use a serial connection for a 3 MP camera anyway, unless they had to). At any rate, a serial cable is not supplied. You’ll have to purchase one if you need to use a serial connection. Installation of the software was pretty straightforward. No real surprises until I launched the software (After rebooting of course) and attempted to download my pictures. I suddenly got a “Can’t connect to the camera” error message. Apparently, the CD Rom does come with the USB driver for the camera but for some reason, the driver was not installed with the software. It took me a while but I finally figured it out. I suppose it’s possible that I skipped a crucial step during the installation process in my haste to see my first pictures. This brings me to an important point. I know we all hate to read the instructions when we have our new toy sitting there beckoning for us to play with it but this is one toy that you really should read at least the basic instructions for. Unless you’re a camera guru, you probably won’t get half of the settings right for good quality results. Of particular importance are the steps for setting resolution and compression. Of equal importance are the steps for controlling exposure. These are critical to getting quality results with this camera. Otherwise, you may end up returning the thing, thinking you’ve bought a dud.

Now a few words about the SmartMedia card. At the camera’s highest resolution of 2048 x 1536, using the TIFF uncompressed mode (which you’ll definitely want to use if you plan on getting really good quality 8 X 10 prints), this tiny 8MB card will not hold even a single image! That’s really inexcusable for a camera that costs nearly twice as much as an entry level 35mm SLR. A word of advice. If you’re planning on purchasing this camera, plan on spending at least an additional $30 for a 32MB card. The included 8MB card will only hold 32 pictures at 1024 X 768 at the highest compression setting. Obviously, if you want to use the camera’s highest resolution of 2048 X 1536, even in Jpeg format, this card will only hold 4 pictures!

Going on down my list of gripes (albeit small ones), the small hinged door which covers the USB, Serial and power ports feels especially flimsy. If anything is going to break on this camera, it’ll probably be that door. My next complaint (Actually it’s two complaints about one area of the camera) concerns the lens cap. First, the cap has no tether to keep it from getting lost when you remove it. That’s a really minor gripe I know but I bet those little caps would be hard to replace. Also, the cap snaps into place fairly snugly. This may seem like a good idea, since you don’t want to lose it. However, if you forget to remove the cap before you turn the camera on, it will obstruct the lens, which will attempt to slide out, regardless of whether the cap is on or not. This may seem like a stupid mistake but it’s very easy to forget to take the cap off. This could damage the motor or the focusing mechanism. Definitely not a desirable thing! Also, even when you put the camera into the playback mode to download the pictures to your PC, the lens comes sliding on out as if you’re ready to take pictures. Why? This is a waste of battery power (considering that an AC adapter is not included). You can purchase an AC adapter at stores like Circuit City for about $30 but Olympus recommends that you only use their adapter. I’m betting that it costs significantly more than thirty dollars. The camera does come with two Lithium (These are not Lithium Ion rechargeables!) battery packs that last an incredibly long time. Luckily, the camera will also accept AA rechargeables and I happen to have two sets of these and a charger from my previous camera.

While we're on the subject of batteries, don't even bother purchasing alkaline AA batteries for use in any digital camera. Digital cameras are high drain devices and demand higher capacity batteries. A digital camera will consume a set of alkaline batteries in minutes. The best batteries to use for digital cameras are Nickel-Metal Hydride (or NiMH for short) rechargeables. A set of 1800mAh NiMH batteries will last a very long time in this camera. They're relatively inexpensive and aren't plagued with the memory effect that made the older Nicd rechargeables such a pain in the butt. A decent rapid charger and a couple of sets of NiMH rechargeables will add about 50 to 60 dollars to the purchase of the camera but it's well worth it in the long run.

This camera seems to be pretty efficient in terms of battery consumption. Much more so than my previous Kodak. I haven’t kept track of how many pictures I’ve taken on a single charge but if you don’t run around with the LCD screen on all the time, they’ll last a good while. Speaking of the LCD, you’ll need it quite frequently to make adjustments to the camera’s controls. Most of the controls are buried in a labyrinth of menus. The menu system isn’t really that complicated but some of the
settings can be a bit confusing if you’ve not read the instructions or if you’re rushing to get that prize photo. The LCD itself is pretty clear and bright and doesn’t wash out as easily as some I’ve seen on other cameras. The face of the LCD is raised and glossy, which is much easier to clean smudges off of than the earlier matte surfaces were. Unfortunately, it’ll probably scratch easier as well.

On the positive side of things, this camera feels pretty sturdy and well balanced. The right-handed grip fits nicely into your hand and facilitates steady shots. The viewfinder isn’t really that accurate but that’s pretty common on point and shoot cameras. This one is a little less accurate than most though. The camera isn’t overly large. It will fit nicely into a large coat pocket. I have no complaints at all about the size or weight of the camera.

So, how do the pictures look?

Well, with me being a novice in the world of digital photography, I still have some things to learn about the various settings and exposure controls. I will say that the shots I’ve taken so far have been very clear and detailed (Particularly macro shots). The only thing that bothers me is that the reds seem a little too saturated. So much so that anything that’s deep red in the picture tends to lose detail. However, I can’t be certain that this is the camera’s fault. *Update: Well, I've pretty much played around with every possible control and still the problem remains. It's mostly in shadow detail on any object that is darkly colored. All of the other colors look fantastic! Rich and detailed. Flesh tones in particular look very good. The white balance seems to be very accurate even in it’s auto mode (Sadly, there is no full manual control for white balance, only presets). When I had the old Kodak, I had to correct the colors on virtually every picture that I took. With the Olympus, if the color balance needs any adjustment at all, it’s very slight.

At the lens's widest angle setting, there is a pretty pronounced barrel distortion. This is really only noticeable if you're shooting pictures of objects with straight lines, such as buildings. Zooming in just a bit seems to help if you are in a position where you can move back a little. I have to confess I didn't expect to see this much distortion in a $500 camera. My previous Kodak had much less barrel distortion. In general, wide angle shots with this camera are not nearly as impressive as macro or zoom shots. This has long been the tradeoff of zoom lenses though. Rarely do you get a camera that performs equally as well at both wide angle and telephoto settings. One end of the zoom is nearly always better. This one seems to have problems focusing at it's widest setting.

My first pictures with the Camedia were quite disappointing (Because I didn‘t read the instructions). They were taken indoors in relatively low light with the flash. The results were dark and grainy pictures with inaccurate colors. However, after I read them and tinkered around with it a bit, I was really surprised by the improvement in my resulting photos. Surpassing some other cams in this price range, the Olympus actually has both Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority modes, allowing you better control over depth of field and exposure. If my previous experience with Kodak is any indication of their newer models, I don’t think you’ll find that on a $400 Kodak. Some of Sony’s cameras have more advanced features such as these but Sony cameras command a premium price and IMO are not worth the premium. I’ve been disappointed with every Sony digicam that I’ve tried.

This camera also gives you the option of manual focus, which is one of the options I really wanted. However, it's not easy to use because all you have to rely on when you're attempting to focus is the low resolution LCD and some reference numbers for preset distances. An image may seem to be in focus on the LCD and actually be very fuzzy when viewed at full resolution. I tried many shots using the manual focus and was not able to achieve a perfect focus. The autofocs was more accurate and much less time consuming.

The Olympus also gives you the option of stitching together three individual pictures to create a single panoramic photo. The manual states however that this will only work with Olympus brand SmartMedia cards. I personally haven't tried it but I suppose it could be a nice feature if you want to do that.

There are at least a couple of features left that I haven’t mentioned. First is the 3X optical zoom (Which is the only zoom as far as I’m concerned). This should be adequate for most purposes but an additional lens adapter and zoom extension lens can be purchased from Olympus. The Digital Zoom isn’t really worth discussing since I doubt anyone serious enough about their pictures to pay $500 would use it. The other feature is the Movie Mode. This is one feature I could take or leave. The videos are very low resolution 320 X 240 max. I suppose it’d be a nifty feature if you’re into that sort of thing but a camcorder would yield far better results.

Although this is a somewhat older model and it’s not the latest, greatest four Megapixel, this Olympus is still a great deal for serious enthusiasts and snapshooters. I will warn you that if you’re one that doesn’t like to fiddle with a lot of controls, this may not be the camera for you. There are other 3MP cams on the market that are much more user-friendly for folks who like P&S cameras.

In conclusion- I’m quite pleased with this camera. aside from my little nitpicks, I can’t really say I would expect anything more from a DC in this price range. Having seen the results from this thing, I can finally say that the future looks pretty good for digital photography. I can only imagine what that same five hundred dollars will buy three or four years from now.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 499
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts