Olympus Camedia C-5060 Wide Zoom Digital Camera

Pros: Pro features, 4X wide-angle zoom, dual memory card slots, 5 megapixels
Cons: no ISO 50 sensitivity setting, minor noise, and major red-eye problems,

Olympus’ new C5060 is an update of the very popular five-megapixel C5050 prosumer digicam. Olympus’ product development folks wisely retained most of what made the C5050 a runaway success and added a newly designed 4X wide-angle zoom, a much ...

Pros: Great photo quality, dual media support, very bright flash, strong & long battery life.
Cons: USB 1.1 data transfer, lens exposed for data transfers, slow manual focus, redeye issues.

I've owned my Olympus C-5060 for a few weeks now. I am by no means an expert, but I do know what I like and I do not like. A lot of reviews have been written extolling the great virtues of this camera. They've all been dead-on as well. However, there are ...

Pros: Phenomenal pictures, built like a tank, advanced features, flip around LCD, remote, neck strap
Cons: Not as small as some cameras, no automatic lens cover

I bought this camera for a four month trip to Italy, and I know that I made the best possible choice. I consistently got absolutely the best pictures of my friends. The camera has all the automatic features, so if you want it just for that, then you ...

Pros: Small size, good price, nice zoom range, loaded with features, great quality pictures
Cons: Focus in manual mode is awkward

I spent many hours and much angst deciding what digital camera I would buy to replace the one my wife dropped. I come from a long history of SLR usage including Konica and Nikon formats. I have also owned an Olympus Stylus point-and-shoot for many ...

Pros: Great photos, strong body, lots of features, battery time.
Cons: Lots of features, slow focus, battery price. Two repairs in one year for same problem.

I am writing this review as a layman. I don’t have any real photography experience but I know what I like and what I don’t like. I also like gadgets. After reading all of the review about this camera, I decided to purchase one for myself. The ...

Pros: Wide angle zoom, long battery life, robust construction, hot shoe, custom controls, decent video
Cons: A tad heavy, not intuitive for non-technical users, lousy lens cover

We bought this camera two years ago and have used it almost daily and travel with it and it still looks almost mint. Very impressed with its durability, optics, and color rendering. Occasionally disappointed with a random white dot or two appearing in ...

Pros: Titanium, slr style body! Wide angle lens! Hot shoe! Multiple card formats!!! Feature-Rich. LOADS-'O-OPTIONS!
Cons: Greater learning curve for some functions; tweaking necessary for very-dim-light/night shots-possible noise issues. LOADS-'O-OPTIONS!

This camera was a gift~ the best gift I have ever received! I am not a "pro" when it comes to cameras; in fact I've never had much patience for them, especially the old film ones. Yet, this is so sweet. You put in the flash card, set the mode, and take ...

Pros: Excellent features most or all can be found Olympus C 5050 Zoom.
Cons: Proprietary batteries. Extra battery C5060 cost $119.99 vs $11.99 for four AA rechargeable w/C5050.

Most disappointed with the choice that Olympus made to go with proprietary batteries in most of their new C series digital cameras. Love their cameras and matter of fact have bought three C-5050 zooms this year for myself and family. However, there is ...

Pros: quality construction, assortment of features, multiple ways to activate the same feature, picture quality
Cons: 4X optical zoom isn't enough for me sometimes and you can't change lenses

I purchased the Olympus Camedia 5060 digital camera 12 months ago. I agonized for a long time because I have used 35 mm SLR cameras for decades and wasn't sure that I would like shooting digital. I was really afraid that the quality of the pictures ...

Pros: Photo quality superb! Super macro is stupendous!! Love it!
Cons: Olympus cheaped out with a 32 mb card - crappy for a hi-res Camera.

I bought this camera after reviewing the Nikon Coolpix 5700 and Canon PowerShot G5 and decided to go with Olympus (I have 2 others, plus a Kodak) for a 5+ megapixel camera, because the features and battery life in reviews were awesome and they didn't lie. This camera is just wonderful - the pictures are stupendous!! I have an old HP 970Cse colour printer and mismatched Epson paper and still got gorgeous pix, so decided to splurge on a Canon photo printer, the i900D and with Canon paper, the photos from this Olympus C5060 are outstanding, so much so that the 3 local labs didn't know it was a digital camera printed on a home printer.

I am up to 300 photos in RAW format and the battery is still going strong, but I do recommend getting a 2nd one (just in case).

Pros: The battery life is the biggest plus. Excellent quality pictures when enlarged.
Cons: Problems with the mode dial is my biggest complaint.

I love this camera but as others have reviewed I too had problems with the mode dial, twice. Once while out of the country and the camera was new so no one knew what the problems were. I lost priceless pictures and will never forget it.
I did my research and decided on this camera after months of reading and talking with camera people. I still believe it is a great camera but I do think it should be recalled until the mode dial problem is fixed.

Pros: Versatile, feature-full and easy to use after reading the manual. Good transition from manual SLR.
Cons: The "Mode Dial" fails on this camera and that renders all other features inaccessible.

This is a wonderful camera. I loved having all the choices for shutter speed, manual focus, macro or super macro and so much more.

However, my camera developed the "dreaded mode dial failure" as it is referred to in the Olympus Yahoo! group. Nothing works on it now, although it will still take grainy pictures.

From the outside, you cannot even tell the camera has ever been used because I took very good care of it. And my camera went from working one day, to not working when I got it out of its case a month later.

From searching on the Internet, I discovered this flaw has appeared in many of these cameras, and so far Olympus has not recalled them, as they should. A good article about it is here:

http://www.wrotniak.com/photo/c5050/c5060-dial.html

Pros: Long battery life. Feels solid. Lots of options through buttons and the quick-dial.
Cons: Zoom control is imprecise. Lens is too slow. Button/dial failure is a common problem. Recall!

It's a beautiful, tight piece of machinery — but come on — how dare they use a lens that is f4.8 at 110mm?

My Olympus e100rs starts at 38mm and is still at f2.8 when it's close to 300mm, so I know Oly can do better.

Update: I gave the 5060 to two "average" camera users (using "P" mode) to shoot some school concert pics for me while I ran the video cam. Very disappointing. There was wide angle edge distortion on the acceptable exposures. Others were badly out of focus and telephoto pics terribly underexposed because of the "welding-goggle" f4.8 lens at full telephoto. (I told them to stay wide but they didn't listen...)

Out of 50-60 shots, 20 were immediately trashed and I had a lot of work to do to tweak most of the rest.

Above, with ISO 400 and flash on, no further than 20 feet away.

Update #2: The camera is collecting dust, as it is past warranty and has suffered its second button/dial failure. Come on, Olympus: come clean on a recall of this lemon. (This is where an extended warranty would have been worth $thousands!)

Pros: Dynamic, easy to use, nice pictures
Cons: Mode dial defect causing me head and heartaches

While this camera was nice for the first couple of months I had it, it has a well-documented manufacturer's defect that Olympus has yet to accept. I had to send it back TWICE for repair and, despite the fact that it was returned to me still broken, they now want me to pay them $244.65 to fix it. What? Is this a joke?

I created a website in honor of Olympus' behavior - See www.OLYMPUSCHEATEDME.com. You should check it out for the full story. If you have a similar story, please let me know.

Pros: Great versatility. Ability to crop pictures in the camera. Gorgeous photos.
Cons: Haven't run across any yet.

I did tons of research when I decided to switch from film to digital, and www.metapixel.net raved about the quality of photographs with this camera. I have not been disappointed.

I'm not comparing this to other digital cameras, never having used one, but to my broken old Pentax film camera. I'm not a pro and mostly use the automatic features of my new C-5060, but love the flexibility, options, and versatility of this camera. I've been having a blast using it. For an amateur who wants to learn to take pics like a pro, it's a great tool.

The body is heavier than some but I like it's solid heft and durable feel. The rugged black body and ergonomic rubber grip are big pluses as well. The camera fits my large female hands perfectly, and would probably be comfortable for most men, too. You can operate most controls very efficiently with your right thumb.

I really love this camera and recommend it highly to other aspiring photographers like myself.