Olympus D-535 Zoom (C-370 Zoom)

Opinion: I bought this for my wife just over a year ago as a P&S handbag camera. It does everything expected of it, I am particular impressed by it's indoor no-flash shots. We recently visited the Vatican Museum, her shots were far better quality than mine taken with a fujiS304 compact.

Example: f/2.9, 1/2 s, hand-held rested on handrail
http://www.nrtoone.com/images/vatican_sm.jpg

Opinion: * Can't believe Olympus have cameras like this on the market
* Lost our honeymoon photos - camera froze halfway through taking a photo and they could not be recovered by Olympus (even bought genuine Olympus XD card, was very expensive)
* At best can take @ 15 photos on a set of fully charged NiMh 2100mA batteries
* Takes a long time to focus and take photos
* Originally had a D540, Olympus gave us this as exchange but it has been just as bad
* Have solved problem by buying a Canon

Opinion: I have been usingit for 6 months now. Generally it takes a clear picture but noticed that taken when the light is going down or it's under artificial light that the picture can be very grainy. I know someone who has the exact same camera but the pictures in low light seem very clear. I don't know if the consistency changes between cameras??? All in all though I find it is nice and handy. The battery life for me seems fine I use 2500 mah rechargable batteries although if you are using flash you can expect to take 15 ish photos.

Opinion: I have now purchased this camera both for my business and my girlfriend. I am a beginner at cameras so I used this website's info as a crutch. I initially purchased it for the cameras extremely small focal range in macro mode. It excels at this. At work I took close up pictures (1inch - 3 inches) of connectors to show quality on a daily basis. I don't think there were many other cameras that could do better. At work I was taking a small amount of pictures and we used rechargeable batteries, so the internal memory and battery time was suitable as the camera never left our lab.

I was pleased enough with this camera to get one for my girlfriend for her birthday. The price of $130 for a small camera that takes a nice pic was appealing. It takes really nice pictures for her too, esp for the price. She has 2 gripes with it though. Battery life is horrible (it was at work too although it didn't matter there) and the camera was SLOW SLOW SLOW in cold weather, meaning the # of pictures per minute was slow. She would take the camera skiing. I imagine cold weather affects the voltage of the batteries or something.

Opinion: Really love this little camera.
Photos taken were pretty impressive. Crisp and clean. Easy to operate & great for a first digital camera.

Opinion: A compra desta máquina foi feita baseada nas repostagens encontrada neste site sobre a mesma e dento do especificado, esta máquina é uma ótima opção.

Opinion: Good first camera.

Opinion: I purchased two of these cameras (based mainly on the price/megapixel equation and the balance of features) for my children for Christmas. I have some experience with digital cameras, in particular a Canon A70 purchased for the family last Christmas, and an older Nikon Coolpix 995 which has been used as a camera in my business for some years. I also use a Nikon F3hp film camera regularly, mainly for work commitments.

The bottom line here is that you get what you pay for. Both Olympus cameras will be returned today. One was faulty, with the battery compartment door not being able to be closed. Closer investigation showed that this was a very flimsy construction, with tiny, fragile plastic tabs holding the door in place. On one of the cameras, one of these tabs had broken off.

Not a promising start, but we managed to get the door closed with sticky tape and the kids used the cameras for half a day, taking about 12 photos at high resolution before the internal memory was full. By this time, the low battery warning was showing. This surprised me greatly, as our Canon can be used for days on end without any exhaustion of the batteries. Admittedly it takes four, not two AA batteries, but the battery life is a factor of at least 8 greater than the Olympus. This is the case whether using high quality rechargeables or alkaline cells. This means you would need to take at least one, probably two extra sets of batteries with you for a days snap shooting. Annoying.

The photos from the Olympus were also disappointing. The colours had a pinkish cast and looked 'gritty'. This led me to take two photos on the highest resolution setting of the same scene (both requiring flash), one on the Canon A70, the other on the Olympus. A comparison of the images was as chalk to cheese. The Canon's colour was correct, the Olympus with a pink cast. The Canon file size was around 1.3 MB, the Olympus 2.3 MB. The Olympus image looked gritty, with a harsh overall effect (I can't describe it better than this). The image included fruit, a drawing, timber and metal surfaces. When the image was enlarged the fruit (oranges) showed irregular red blobs, which I assume to be noise, on the Olympus which were entirely absent on the Canon. The outline of the edges of metal objects was broken up on the Olympus, smooth on the Canon. The wood surfaces had irregular patches of brown on the Olympus, but remained looking like wood on the Canon, even when enlarged to a high degree. I guess these differences come down to the quality of the sensor.

When I take into account the requirement for expensive XD cards for the Olympus (no card is supplied in the box) and the generally poor construction, I would have to say the Canon represents much better value, even though it is 40% more expensive. It also has a range of manual controls, sound in the movie mode (it also yeilds much larger movie image) which more than justify the extra cost. The Canon also has a much more solid construction, with quite a bit of metal detailing to the casing and buttons, where the Olympus' chrome elements appear to be a foiled plastic.

For Olympus, I suggest that having a camera of this standard on the market is doing them no favours at all. I intend to change my F3 for a digital SLR in the near future and, unfair as it is, my experience with the the D-535 (C-370) would lead me to stick to Canon and perhaps Nikon in a purchase at this level as well.

Opinion: After six months I've found some problems with macro. Sometimes it can't (or doesn't want) to focus on the centre of the picture.
Energy consumption is still huge compared to Fujifilm Finepix S5000.
Lack of viefinder creates problems in sunny days and low light coonditions.
But still worths for money.