If you're from the point-and-shoot school of photography, the Olympus C-3030 Zoom (AU$2399) is not the camera for you. Its extensive settings, menus, and icons can be baffling. But technophiles will love the Olympus C-3030 Zoom because it has just about every conceivable feature and produces fantastic images.
Except for its all-black case and a built-in microphone above the lens, the Olympus C-3030 Zoom is almost identical in appearance to its predecessor, the 2.1-megapixel Olympus C-2020 Zoom. The Olympus C-3030 Zoom is a small, compact device that's easy to handle. You can shoot it one-handed without taking your eye from the viewfinder. The zoom lens lever is attached to the shutter button, and your thumb rests comfortably on the four-way navigation switch. The Olympus C-3030 Zoom's optical viewfinder displays only about 80 percent of the subject, and although it has an adjustable dioptre, it remains out of focus when the camera is turned off. The memory compartment is conveniently located on the right side and allows users to swap SmartMedia cards in seconds (it comes with a 16mb SmartMedia card).
The Olympus C-3030 Zoom can save images in 15 different resolution and compression settingsââ,¬"far more than any other digital camera. Its manual focus override is exceptionally easy to use, and video capture (up to 191 seconds) is smooth and sharp. Just about every feature is here: easy-to-use manual focus, panorama mode, six different internal flash modes, external flash connector, shutter or aperture priority, black-and-white and sepia modes, an Irda window, time exposures up to 16 seconds, user selectable iso equivalencies, zoomable playback, and so on. It also ships with a wireless remote control.
In burst mode, the Olympus C-3030 Zoom's large 32mb built-in buffer lets it shoot up to 3.5 full-resolution frames per second. In our tests, we found that the camera boots up quickly and recycles in about three seconds. We've never seen better pictures from an under $2500 digital camera. The images, both indoors and out, are sharp and lively, with bang-on accurate colours. Even the smallest details are crisp, with a full dynamic range from highlights to shadows.
All this digital imaging power comes at a price: complexity. For instance, when you select a/s/m (aperture/shutter/manual), the Olympus C-3030 Zoom gives you a dozen menusââ,¬"many with perplexing icons and abbreviations. Instead of picking a general compression setting (low, medium, high), the Olympus C-3030 Zoom makes you pick from five different tiff settings and two sq1 and sq2 settings. One last gripe: the unit comes with neither rechargeable batteries nor an ac adaptor.
At this level, image quality and features count for more than ease of use. For that reason, despite its complexity, the Olympus C-3030 Zoom shares our Editors' Choice among 3-megapixel digital cameras. Trust us, this is one camera you won't outgrow anytime soon.
Olympus C-3030 Zoom
Price: AU$2399
Rating: 5 Star
Company: R.Gunz (Photographic) www.olympus.com
Ph: 02 9935 6600; Fax: 02 9935 6622;
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