Olympus C-60 Zoom

Opinion: Yes, this ain't the Digital Rebel or the D70. But it produces very usable images and is easy to keep at hand.
I seem to get more use out of these P&Shoots than the old camera bag with my L lenses etc. In photoshop I can sharpen if needed. I'm impressed.

Opinion: Hi, I've just bought my C-60 a few days ago. So far I've been very impressed. As I travel a lot and frequently take a camera to a party or dinner, being compact and light (ie pocket sized) is a must. An SLR or heavier camera can sometimes take a better picture but that doesn't do you much good if you leave it at home.

It seemed the best camera in this size. The two others I was considering were the Canon S50 (while the experts all agree it takes a great pic it is bigger, much heavier and looked a bit dated) and the Canon Powershop S500 (IXUS500 in Australia). The C-60 is 6mp where the other two are 5mp. The (IXUS500 propably would have been the go if it had have had manual settings (apperture, shutter etc).

The picture quality is good, though like any camera if it is running in a manual mode it takes a bit of time to get to know it's obscurities. The lighting filters seem to work well too for indoor use.

If you want to get serious you can take an 18Mb Tiff file and control your loss, cropping, touchups etc in photoshop.

So basically what I like was the way there is so much manual control, and 6mp packed into a small, lightweight camera. Really sensible body shape too.

Weren't many reviews on this camera when I bought mine. Hope this is helpful. Feel free to contact me windsurfing_stew@yahoo.com.au if you want to know more.

--- ADDITIONAL COMMENTS 3 WEEKS AFTER PURCHASE ---
Wow, as this is a new camera I have had a lot of questions by email. Also after a few weeks of running round like mad taking snaps with different settings I feel I have a much better understanding of it.

I have continued to like my camera all the more with one exception - being noise in dim environments. I guess this is because so many sensors are packed into such a small area. This is prevalent in most digitals but the automatic-mode tends to let it sneak in early. By noise I mean when you zoom up close in a graphics program (ie to the pixel level) on a photo, say of a face, instead of it being a smooth transition of colour it looks a bit speckeled like acne. Not much of an issue unless you are blowing it up really big or cropping out a very small area - however this is why we have 6MP isn't it? Anyhow I've done a lot of testing and have found that this can be overcome in the most part by one of the two following methods-
1) Take photos in dim environments at 1600x1200. The noise is reduce to practically zero. This will still be well and truely enough detail for emails or print outs.
2) Turn the NR noise reduction option on (it is off by default). Also turn to P-mode and force the ISO to 100 or preferably 60. Both of these will keep the shutter open longer, but in most cases this should be fine if it is not an action shot.

As another note in testing, the difference in visual quality between high and normal quality for images seems insignificant for most usage. What this means is that 'normal quality' pics should be fine for the majority of your photos - eg HQ rather than SHQ. I'd only say this as normal quality has much smaller files size (about a third) so it is worth considering if you don't have huge card or are travelling for long periods without docking.

Other reviews I've read have said they found the battery life very short and the lens cover annoying. Neither of these have posed even the slightest problem for me.

All round I'd say it is a good small compact camera with great features. To get the most out of it, get to learn when it gets noisy and how to work around it.

windsurfing_stew@yahoo.com.au if you have any questions!

Opinion: I finillay found a hi res digital camera to take quick pictures when it is not practical to carry my bulky professional camera and lenses. This camera is excellent for taking high quality pictures and has all the features required for home or semi professional use.

Opinion: Excellent high end pocket camera with lots of options to control the settings. Small and compact, well constructed, all metal, no plastic. Wish you could plug the camera in to charge the battery.