Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom

Opinion: I chose not to rate this camera when i first bought it october '05. For some reasons i missed the batch that sold at 350 $ and had to buy mine with 500$ (still better than 700 the original price). But prices aside one year and almost a half later with about 6000 pics taken i guess i can review it.
Even though it's no longer in production Olympus C cameras are always a great great value for money even used. It's very well built and the image quality is great. I also had to choose between the G6 with a faster lens and the Oly with wider angle. Wide angle won.
I find the raw files extremely large for 7 Mpix about 10 Mb(converting to dng helps a bit 7Mb vs 10) but otherwise there's fairly little to criticize. Feature wise there's really nothing i miss. Low light performance is on a par with other digicams (slow)as is high iso performance(neatimage or similar is a must for iso 400) if anyone needs better, dslr is the way to go(olympus have also some nice dslrs :) ). I have the hoya 40.5 mm circular polarizer which i find great (no adapters).
Someone said it's built like a tank, he's right, i dropped it from half a meter on hard concrete it it's still working as good as ever.
If DSLRS wouldn't have progressed as much as they did lately i guess the rating would have been 5.0 down the line also true if i would have written the review in say december 2005.
EDIT: Forgot to say that you can use quite without troubles when it rains/snows, used it on many occasions last time two days ago, i shot the riders of the Tour de France leaving for the time trial in Albi, and had no problem what so ever.

Opinion: I chose the C7070 over the Canon G6. Both brands use the same SONY sensor but I prefer the way Oly render its images. The 27mm WA lens is also a big plus as I mainly shoot landscape. Other features that tipped the balance in Oly's favor: magnesium body, ergonomics, hi-res/hi-contrast LCD, longer battery life, pixel-mapping, 4 custom modes, live histogram, threaded lens barrel (for filters), lower noise at ISO 200+ and bargain pricing ($340). The menu system isn't as straight forward as the G6's but it's simple once learned. Although IQ straight out of the camera is excellent and comparable to the competition, I'm spoiled by Zeiss glass (my film cameras) that I find myself frequently editing with Adobe PS to make my pix sharper, more saturated and contrasty.

Other than that, I'm happy with other aspects like RAW, flash accuracy, hot-shoe for external flash and especially the tank-like construction. Speaking of which, I recently went camping and in the dark I tripped over a 20" tall metal fire-ring. I fell with the C7070 in my hand, slamming hard against the ground. It was in a Lowepro case but I expected it to be damaged in some way, cosmetically or functionally. Absolutely nothing of the kind! Wish I could say the same about my shin, which is still healing after 7 weeks.

Nagging issues... slight shutter lag and hunting AF in low-light situations, which seem to be a problem for most digicams in this segment. The optical VF covers only 82% of the actual image so shots where precise framing is a must requires the use of the LCD. Panoramic function works on with Olympus xD Card.

Opinion: Bought the C-7070 as a pocket camera to take with me while traveling, crosscountry skiing or mountainbiking when it is not really possible to lug the heavy gear (Nikon D2X and 2.8 lenses...).
I really like the ergonomics and the wide angle zoom. The image quality (there is even a RAW mode!) is quite surprising from such a tiny sensor (if you use ISO 80). The battery is very longlasting. For sure, I'd wish a more accurate viewfinder,with some information, and better focus in low light, but what can you expect for that price?

Opinion: Olympus C7070 is a perfect camera for more then amateur photographers. It presents a lot of manual features, much more then other cameras for similiar money.
C7070 comes with great wide zoom lens 35mm equiv of 27mm to 110mm, it is great feature for me.
Camera is very very handy and looks professional, magnesium-alloy body and black colour. It is a heavy camera, more then 500g with batt, but it is not a problem, I like heavy cameras, they are more stable.
C7070 produces hi-res 7.1mpix images, good sharpness, good colors, images are very nice they look like taken by slr camera sometimes.
For keen photgrapher like me C7070 is a perfect camera, and what I like most:
-advanced features and controls,
-excellent image quality [7mpix images],
-wide zoom,
-magensium black body,
-lcd monitor with fast refresh rate
-superb super-macro
-fast AF

I would like to buy olympus E500 next, and with experience with C7070 I know that olympus provides a satisfactory quality of products.

regards igorax

Opinion: Excellent definiton of details, excellent ergonomy, excellent macro mode pictures, full of bright and colors!!!
On other modes, absolutely dead pictures (see the grass at 8080 gallery ,image n 9), or at amazon.com, images 11 12 13 14.Thats what i get too!!!
If i want a beatiful picture i must edit all of them.
Still i like the camara.

Opinion: I have had my 7070 some months now, and have been very impressed; great lens. I now have an E-500 DSLR as well, which I find not quite so good ergonomically, and does not feel quite so solid. The two cameras use the same battery, flashgun, and remote control, which is very convenient. The 7070 will remain as my 'take everywhere' camera.
Contrary to what a previous reviewer wrote, the camera has full manual control of shutter speed and aperture (using direct buttons), and focussing. Macro is good down to 3cm, which ought to be enough.
I can not understand why Olympus have now discontinued the 7070! Perhaps it was too expensive to build in Japan....
I would recommend anyone to buy one whilst they are still available.

Opinion: Excellent quality camera, natural photos image, fast start-up and accurate focussing,..... etc, highly recommended to all new hands.

Opinion: Excellent quality camera, natural photos image, fast start-up and accurate focussing,..... etc, highly recommended to all new hands.

Opinion: Excellent quality camera, natural photos image, fast start-up and accurate focussing,..... etc, highly recommended to all new hands.