March 30, 2005

Olympus has just introduced several new digital cameras, two of which we’ve tried out: Olympus C-5500 Sport Zoom and Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom. Let’s look:

The pictures from both cameras showed excellent color, sharpness and saturation. And in addition to fully automatic shooting, both cameras offer aperture or shutter-preferred or manual operation. A welcome feature in both is virtually instant shutter response. Both cameras have histogram displays that are useful in judging exposure in unusual scenes, slide show playback with TV output, Quicktime 30fps movie mode with sound and direct computer or compatible printer connection via USB. A cool feature of both cameras is the Panorama mode, which allows a series of overlapping pictures to be stitched together using the included Olympus Master photo editing software. Both cameras feature editing functions that include cropping, re-sizing or red-eye reduction. Other details for each camera:

The Olympus C-5500 Sport Zoom (Olympus, $300 street) is silver and bronze, features 5.1 megapixels, 5X optical zoom, 4X digital zoom, and an f2.8 all-glass lens that retracts behind a protective shutter when the camera is off. Zoom range is 38mm to 190mm (35mm equivalent), which gets you in close to any action, including sports. The macro mode lets you focus as close as 0.8 inches! Pictures can be composed via the optical viewfinder or the slightly larger than average 2.0 inch LCD screen.

The camera boots in about two seconds, and you can fire off individual shots every two seconds because you don’t have to wait for the picture to be completely written to the memory card before you take the next picture. The camera uses x-D memory cards and is powered by four AA alkaline or lithium batteries or optional AC adapter.

The flash pops up manually, but the camera indicates when it’s needed. The mode dial offers 13 shooting modes, including menu selected scene presets for 10 different shooting situations such as Portrait, Landscape, Candle Light, Fireworks, Sunset, Sports, Beach and Snow and others--and it remembers four of your customized presets. A simplified control system places all the buttons on the back of the camera (except power) making them easy to identify and use.

The Olympus C-5500 Sport Zoom feels solid but is not quite pocket-sized weighing eight ounces. The camera is point and shoot ready out of the box but has enough control features to keep novice digital photographers learning as they go.

The Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom (Olympus, $600 street) features 7.1 megapixels and a rugged black magnesium body designed for advanced amateurs and professionals alike. The 27mm - 110mm (35mm equivalent) all-glass f2.8 lens lets you include more of the scene at the wide setting. Optional add-on lenses extend the range from 19mm to 330mm (35mm equivalent). Zoom is 4X optical and 5X digital for a total of 20X, and we liked the quality of pictures even at the full 20x zoom.

Compose your pictures with the optical viewfinder or the 1.8 inch LCD display, which swivels 180 x 270 degrees so you can shoot high or low and even take a self portrait. The LCD is semi-transmissive to improve visibility in bright light. There’s a small top LCD panel showing limited information if you’re shooting with the display panel closed. Pictures are stored on either a Compact Flash, Microdrive or x-D memory card. Compact Flash/Microdrive or x-D cards can be in the camera at the same time, and you can copy from one to the other. It took some time to get used to the 21 control buttons (many with dual functions), scattered on the camera’s top, side and back. A control wheel eases changing some camera settings.

Capture modes include JPEG, Exif2.2, TIFF and RAW. In addition to the standard AF (auto focus), other focus modes include Target AF with 143 zones for focusing on subjects off center, continuous AF, predictive AF (useful for subjects moving toward or away from you) and manual. Unique to the C-7070 are underwater scene settings for wide and macro in addition to ten other preset scene settings and four custom settings that can be stored in the camera. Optional underwater case is available.

A flash hot shoe is designed for use with Olympus FL series flashes but will accept any compatible external flash. The camera controls and balances the flash(s), and a slave flash mode is available for triggering external slave flashes. The camera is powered by a rechargeable Li-Ion battery or an optional AC adapter.

The Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom is a hefty camera with a solid professional feel and weighs just under a pound. Although the camera is point and shoot out of the box, its wealth of features should satisfy even the most advanced digital photographer.

For additional details on either of these excellent cameras, go to www.olympus.com.

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