Olympus C-4000 Zoom

Opinion: I purchased the C-4000Z this evening. My previous camera was a Canon G1 and I'm a heavy user of a beat and aging Kodak DC215. My mainstay is a Nikon 6006 and Fuji Velvia film, which is tough competition.
The image quality of this camera is NOT a great improvement over the obsolete megapixel Kodak. There a lots of jaggies in the images. color is fair. Incredible barreling in the pictures, far, far worse than the old beater Kodak!! Surprising, some of the sample images supplied with the software are poor and full of jaggies!!
(The)Interface with Adobe Photoshop is poor. It sees the camera as an extra drive. The interface is complicated and dumping a bad image is not easy;as a matter of fact, after several hours of struggling I still haven't figured it out yet, AND I have been trying to read the instructions. Overall I'm a bit disappointed. Tomorrow it goes back and I will pay the expensive restocking fee.

Opinion: I have had Olympus C-4000Z for about a week. It replaced my one and half year old Canon Powershot A2. Overall, the C-4000 is a well built camera. It is loaded with features that can only be found on more expensive pro cameras. The user interface (menu system) is a little hard to get to it. But after 2-3 hours of learning, I love the interface. I especially like the way the camera communicates with a PC (standard USB link). You do not need any driver if you run Windows 2000 or XP. The computer recognizes it as a removable mass storage device. If you have Adobe Photoshop, go to file and open instead of import. You can view pictures from within the Windows Explorer without the "stupid" downloading step. The file transfer speed is amazingly fast. It takes less than 15 seconds to copy/paste or to cut/paste 10 SHQ pictures from the camera to a PC harddrive. The picture quality is superb. The image is very sharp with well balanced colors. Auto focus works well even in low light conditions. The real time histogram is a nice feature. The 1.8" LCD is probably the best one I have ever seen. To my surprise, the super macro feature actually works extremely well. Initially, I thought it was a marketing crap. It appears that Olympus may have fixed the lens cap problem. The camera will beep you if you turn on the camera with the lens cap on. Overall, for less than $400, the Olympus C-4000Z is highly recommended.

Check out this professional review article:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/C40/C40A.HTM

Update 1: Also bought a Tiffen lens adapter set (41 --> 43 + 46 mm) and a Tiffen filter set (UV + Circular Polarizer filters) for $30 from Circuit City. Both work great with the C-4000. This solved the lens cap problem. Bought a Maha battery charge and set (1800 mAh NiMH) from thomas-distributing.com for $40.

Update 2: You can buy an Olympus Zoom Lens Adapter Tube CLA-1 for $15.21 at buy.com. It costs $29.99 if you buy from Olympus USA directly. The Tiffen UV filters (43 mm) work with the Olympus CLA-1 adapter. You do need a step up ring (43 -> 46 mm) because CLA-1 is a little too short. Energizer just released its new 1850 mAh NiMH AA battery this week. It comes with an 1 hour quick charger and an AC adapter. You can buy it for $39.99 at any Best Buy retail store.

Update 3: If you buy a 41 -> 43 mm len adapter, you should consider to buy a 43 mm Olympus lens cap ($10). The original 41 mm lens cap will work on a 43 mm lens filter, but it falls off easily.

Update 4: If you are looking for a camera bag for the C-4000 with a lens adapter, Lowepro Nova Mini is the best. Period. Don't waste your time experimenting other camera bags. Go to:
http://www.lowepro.com/pages/series/nova/nv_mini.htm

Update 5: The C-4000 works beautifully with Olympus A-200 teleconverter. You can buy it from B&H for $85. You also need a CLA-1 adapter and a 43mm to 49mm step up ring.

Update 6: Just finished a series hot/dead pixel test at 1/30, 1, 2, 3, 4, 16 sec and ISO 100, 400 settings. The results were excellent. No hot or dead pixel at all. This camera is perfect. The build quality of the C-4000 model is first rated.

Opinion: I've been using this camera for about a week now and I must say that I am very pleased, the images look great, and the color is much richer than from my old Canon PowerShot S20. I just love being able to set the shuttertime and aperture, and the SuperMacro is just killer! Getting focus at a distance of 2cm from the lens opens up a whole new world for photography. I bought 8 1800mAh batterys and a charger, and I can go around taking pictures with the LCD on for many hours before needing to change batterys. For me the batterys hold for about one day of photography.

Opinion: I have used several digital cameras and this one exceeded my expectations. Print quality on an HP printer is excellent using HP paper. I have never taken pictures this good. The LCD is of such quality you can preview your pictures easily and decide quickly if you need a second take. Thanks Olympus for helping me to enjoy picture taking.