photophile

Opinion: Should have written a review years a go! Oh well, better late than never :-)

Plus points:

1. Lens alone is worth its weight in gold.
2. At base ISO, SHQ, JPEG image quality is to die for. Simply superb!
3. SuperMacro mode probably as good as it ever got in any compact
4. Tilt LCD
5. Fast to switch on/off.

Negatives:

1. Slow to focus in low light. Slow to re-focus if subject moves.
2. Slow RAW write-to-card time (12-14 seconds)
3. Noise above ISO-200
4. Maximum sensitivity ISO-400

Opinion: Purchased this camera as an every day carry-around alternative to the bulkier SLR (E500) & slightly less bulky advanced compact (C-750). I paid 229 Euros (1st Aug 2008), which included a 1GB xD card and a quality leather case. Not such a bad deal.

The camera is fast and responsive. Its possible to take the first picture less than 2 seconds from switching on! The menu and controls are user friendly and very intuitive. Build quality is very good (metal construction).

Autofocus is fairly quick, even in low light.

Noise is well controlled up to ISO-800. Even shots at ISO-1600 retain detail. Any noise in shadows is easily removed by noiseware.

Image satlibisation is very effective. I can take a sharp shot, hand held at shutter speeds as low as 1/5 second.

The shadow enhancement feature is surprisingly good - and useful. Face detection seems to work quite well too.

There in no aperture or shutter priority. ISO is the only manually changeable parameter. However, there is a live histogram and even live exposure compensation feature to help you out!

Battery life is average. Turn off sounds and other non-essential 'bells and whistles' to prolong function. Low battery symbol gives you plenty of warning to have the spare ready.

Auto White Balance is excellent. Colours are fairly good. Lens shows very little barrel distorsion at wide angle. 5 x optical zoom is handy. SuperMacro mode is excellent. Overall Image Quality is good to very good (for this class of camera). Plenty of scene modes. Use them to get optimal results.

My overall Conclusion: A very good ultra-compact performer which in the right hands is capable of getting good results. More than adequate for those occasions when you don't want to lug larger equipment around. And more fun to use too! Image stablisation and usable high ISO gives several stops of advantage.

Opinion: With 12 years of SLR photography under my belt, the C-750 was my first foray into digital cameras. Why Olympus ? Because I already used two of their true legends in the amateur circuit - the OM10 and Trip-35. Now, I must say I was apprehensive about the whole move to digital. But was I in for a surprise! Olympus lived up to their ideal - that of provding "no-nonsense" quality cameras and optics at sensible prices. Anyway, back to the C-750. I have owned it for almost a year and have since then put it through its paces, taking it all over Europe (I travel a lot), using macro, the various flash options, zoom, wide, day, night in fact - the full gamut of manual and automatic options bla bla bla - you get the idea.

On the whole, optics are superb (ED glass!)
I prefer to use the A or M mode rather than P or any of the presets. Outdoors in sunlight you need to underexpose by -0.3 to get better contrast.
Good metal body construction.
Massive zoom, can take good moon pictures.
Colour pretty impressive and sharpness as good as it gets all things considered.
Long battery life. Plenty of warning before they run out.