I received this Digital Camera as a gift for christmas in 2000. At first I was very excited. I have wanted a digital camera for some time, but have been unable to justify the expense. My good friend and room mate had purchased several of the older Olympus 300 series cameras for lab and field use. He had said good things about them and I trusted his opinion.

  • The specifications
    • Purchase price - $499.00 US
    • 2.1 megapixel CCD
    • 1600x1200 resolution
    • 3x optical zoom
      • -f2.8-4.4 aspherical glass zoom
      • -35-105mm (35mm equivalent)
    • Automatic white balance with 4 preset manual settings
    • Autofocus with 2 quick focus settings
    • digital ESP matrix meter or spot meter
    • +/- 2 step exposure compensation (1/2 step increments)
    • programmed AE
    • 1.8" TFT color LCD
    • 6 mode built in flash:
      • -automatic flash in backlight or low light
      • -"red-eye" reducing flash
      • -fill in flash
      • -slow syncro flash
      • -slow syncro + "red-eye" reduction
      • -flash off
    • shutter speeds from 1/2 second to 1/1000 sec
  • The pros
    • Really nice pictures. Crisp, clear and large.
    • excellent autofocus, color balance and contrast.
    • Compact frame allows you to store camera practically anywhere, it even fits in my pants pocket.
    • Uses SmartMedia cards, and can put 40 high quality images on one (included) 8mb card.
    • Will record quick time movies up to the capacity of installed storage. (about 15 sec's for 8mb)
    • NTSC video output
    • Clearly labeled buttons, and easy to understand interface.
    • Ships with 1 8mb storage card, one set of extremely long lasting Olypus batteries and all nessasary cables.
  • The cons
    • No USB! Serial only!
    • Does not ship with external power adaptor. DC power adaptor must be purchased seperately for $60
    • Does not install as a TWAIN32 device.
    • Included software for transferring files from camera, is less than intuitive and hasn't worked yet.
    • No audio pickup, or microphone jack.
    • "red-eye" reduction flash makes doggy eyes glow bright green.
  • Conclusion
    • This is a good camera despite some shortcomings. I was infuriated when I discovered that this camera did not use USB. It's obvious to me that Olympus simply slapped some new lenses and software in their older camera body. Serial peripherial connections are dead and Olympus should have known better, especially when you consider the price tag. I purchased a Smart Media USB drive for $30 from Good Guys and haven't bothered to try and use the included software or hardware since my initial failures to transfer files from the camera to my PC.

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