Olympus SP-350

Opinion: I agree with the review that comments on the slowness of the SP 350. That is my only issue. If the shutter lag could be equal that of a dSLR, I would not be looking at them. I have grandsons who move quickly, and this camera does not keep up. Photos, however, are exceptional, especially from RAW. It it a keeper in my book, but not for action photos.

Opinion: I'll start off saying this camera is slow. It starts up very fast, but after that it's slow. Slow to write to the card, slow to flip through pictures. But other than that this is an amazing camera. It offers everything you could want as far as feature set. Seriously, it's incredible how much was crammed into a rather small camera. It's ergonomics are very good for such a small camera too (unlike those candy bar shaped cams out there). Honestly, if this camera were faster in operation it would be perfect. I am not exagerating. I have a DSLR and 3 other digicams so I am familiar with such gadgets. And this camera is a gem that has been mostly ignored. It does have it's faults, but a well-made camera that takes very nice photos (in RAW mode I'd say stunning photos) is always in demand.

Opinion: I have had this little gem for about 3 months now, buying it at a knock down price on eBay as a refurb (but it actually was a brand new camera).

It was bought as a short term stop gap purely for flash wotk while I changed my DSLR, so that I could continue to use my Olympus FL-50 flash for interior shots. A rather unlikely combination as the flash dominates the camera, but it works very well in practice and is surprisingly easy to handle once you get the idae of gripping the flash as well as the camera.

Both inside and outside shots are surprisingly good, provided there is plenty of light for the outside shots. There is no way this camera gets anyway neary the Fuji F10/F11/F30 (or most other cameras for that matter) for low light use!

I shoot mainly raw with it. It's a little bit slow in this mode but I can put up with that as it suits my style of photography. The advantage is that I can adjust things like white balance in post processing. If shooting jpegs I set the resolution to 5 mpix as this seems to give lower noise and chromatic abberations (I read this as a tip in a review and it seems to work).

The camera came with the latest firmware already installed, but if yours does not have this I suggest you do this as amongst other things it improves use with standard rechargeable AA batteries. I actuallly use rechargeable CR-V3s and find battery life surprisingly good.

The things I love about this camera are:

* Probably uniquely for a pocketable camera it has a hotshoe for an external flash.

* It is a carry anywhere camera. I slip it in a pocket or carry it in a belt pouch.

* It takes very good to excellent photos although watch out for a little softness particularly in wide angle shots.

* I can use raw mode, which is my preference unless I am simply snapping. This gets round the occasional white balance, noise and underexposure problems typical with such a small sensor.

* It handles superbly. It fits in the hand like a mini-DSLR and all external controls are in just the right place.

* Battery life is good with rechargeable CR-V3s (but not I understand with rechargeable AAs even with the latest firmware)

* You can pick it up at the moment for around £100, which I think is amazing value for a back up to a DSLR.

Opinion: Only reason I Wanted to write this comment because I am very happy with this, my 5th small digital camera. I wanted a small camera with a SLR features. This is the only camera currently in the market with RAW image capturing capabilities. The camera is not very expensive (around GBP 145 including set of 4 rechargeable AA batteries & High Speed 1GB RAM). The amount of features and functions built in this camera almost to a digital SLR standard. Hence comparing to the price to value ratio this is an excellent camera. Olympus certainly has pushed the limit for a small compact camera. Slight drawback is no Image stabilisation; instead they have included a very useful Nose Reduction (NR) which is very good. The NR function takes extra 2-3 seconds to process the RAW image.
* Little effort great RAW images almost like Digital SLR quality.
* Lots of built in function if you are interested in capturing Jpeg images.
* Fair amount of freedom to make manual adjustments and settings

Opinion: As a cheap point-and-shoot it is OK, but don't expect too much of the manual modes.

Opinion: I got this cam at bestbuy for $229 with $50 rebate and free shipping so its the best value for a 8mp cam.

The video allows zooming and stabilization too which is unheard of for this price. The customization is outstanding and the menu system is great. With the 1.3 firmware update rechargable batteries give you all you need in one sitting and if you have a spare set you are golden. With 1GB card you can take all the pix/vids you want and it has that neat panoramic feature too.

Overall I don't think you can get a better cost/benefit cam now.

Opinion: Mon 7 ème appareil et premier Olympus.
J'ai commencé avec un 2 mp et depuis j'ai shooté 50000 photos ! alors j'ai un peu d'expérience sur les modèles et les marques !
J'ai acheté aussi le convertisseur 0.7 ainsi qu'une bague 34/37 et un filtre UV 37mm. lls se vissent.
La prise en main complète est assez fastidieuse car chaque mode est paramétrable ! mais c'est bien pour qui ne fonctionne pas en auto !
Il est ainsi possible de gérer la qualité de la prise de vue pour un usage écran scr, lcd ou papier , car la gestion du contraste est éfficiente !
Il est souvent utile de compléter le shoot par une correction logiciel , donc il faut bien anticiper les résultats de la prise de vue !
Maintenant je vous conseille l'usage de Picasa pour la gestion de vos photos et pas Olympus master !
Picasa peut gerer la correction en temps réèl sans modifier l'original !
la fonction panorama est sophistiqué mais les résultats ne sont pas parfait avec plus de 3 prises ( meilleur chez Pentax ) alors que les cartes sont soient disant typées !
Bien utile l'usage de vrais piles photos CRV3 surtout en voyage et par temps froid, l'autonomie est alors excélente
L'autonomie est très bonne avec des batteries CRV3 rechargeables ( uniross ) pour un prix identique à une pile !
Mode macro fiable comme toujours chez Olympus.
les compléments optiques se vissent et n'ont pas de bayonette comme il est parfois décrit !
Un rapport qualité prix parfait pour les passionnés. Il y a même une griffe externe flash bien utile avec les compléments optiques bouchants !
Vous pouvez m'écrire pour avoir un exemple de photo en retour qui vous permet de faire votre opinion...
pour voir quelques panoramas ( autostitch ) suivre :
panoramontagnes.free.fr
....

Opinion: Good thing, update FW to v.1.3 and dont worry

Opinion: I think we need to call this camera by what it truly is; an enigma in a realm of copycat point and shoot cameras out there.

When I began my quest to replace my Canon S70 (which I LOST at the beach) I found that I had two must-have parameters; RAW format and full manual controls. That’s actually why I chose not to buy the S80…no RAW. Since I S80 costs around $500 I rationalized that I could actually purchase TWO cameras if I wanted if they came in under the $500.00 budget.

Like the SP-350; I too am an enigma of sorts in the Digital Cameras community. I want everything but don’t realty want to spend too much or commit yet to a DSLR with 4 or more lenses that I have to lug around with me like some photo-dork. And by the way, having owned a film SLR in the 80’s and shot and spent days in darkrooms over the years – I’ve been there done that already with my old SLR film camera – I truly feel that is no longer necessary in this new Digital Era.

Another vegetable that is tossed into my salad is that I own Adobe Photoshop CS2 with Camera RAW. I also recommend the freeware “RawShooter Essentials” that is freely available online – this software supports the Olympus SP-350 RAW format beautifully and is SUCH a great tool for those of us who can’t give up our old darkroom manipulative ways. If you’re anything like me but don’t own CS2 just buy the SP-350 and download Rawshooter and you’ll be in heaven…have fun, I know you will.

So…all that said. Let’s get down to the SP-350. I would say for some people it may well be a lousy camera that is just plain wrong for them. I really don’t see a huge market for it. I mean – who really needs the hotshoe, control, RAW format, and insane level of control this camera gives? Just people like me – and we’re maybe less than 5% of the DCAM community, right? That’s why I realty consider the SP-350 kind of a gift in this baby-shooting, no control, foolproof market. With the SP-350 you can REALLY screw up your photos if you don’t know what you’re doing….I bet they HATE it back at their service department, haha!

If you want a plain old point and shoot stop reading my banter now and don’t buy this Camera. Do what you’re supposed to do and buy a Canon A620…you’ll be happier with that.

I’m also kind of stubborn. I bought one of these online but it had a bad pixel on the CCD which showed in all my photos. I actually exchanged it for a new one because I really have faith in the features and control this thing offers. Got the new one last week…it is PERFECT for me….perfect. Love it to death.

If there is a feature on this camera you don’t like READ THE ADVANCED MANUAL. In all likelihood you can just program it to the MyMode Button and move on with your photo taking in full bliss!

One of the cons with this thing is XD. Why did they use XD? I don’t have time to care…I bought the tricked out 1Gig FASTEST Olympus card online for $60 total with delivery. Is that too much to spend?! Nope – but it is a little slow. Again – for me – not shooting baby photos and little league all day – I don’t really care if it takes a few seconds to process the beautiful 8MP RAW 11meg photos it shoots. I can fire off 90 of them on my1Gig card at a pop….for a photo dork like me (at heart) that’s kind of like having a little film SLR with 3+ rolls of film per day to fire off…GREAT.

Also – the batteries thing is a serious concern. But…again…for me – I just charge up 4 NiCad rechargeable (good ones from Japan which I already owned) and all is well. Before I updated to the 1.3 firmware (just DO IT if you buy this thing and go on) it WAS pretty bad. Now? I shot photos on my kayaking/fishing trip here all day last weekend with my Girlfriend (whilst also messing around with the camera of course!) and shot off my obligatory 90 shots until the card was full with not even so much as a battery low warning indicator showing itself! Never even had to go to the second set of AA’s… That works for me. BUT – this thing’s battery algorithms ARE goofy and sort of unpredictable. If you need something that shoots 350 shots on rechargeable with flash shots (one set) then get a Canon.

I just want to mention briefly now why I also bought the FujiFilm 5200. The 5200 merges well into my madness with DCam’s. It uses the same XD card and the same rechargeable that the SP-350 uses. It’s everything the SP-350 is (RAW, FULL CONJTROL) plus it’s got a 10X lens and it’s really a better more traditional camera all around. Shoots FAST and is very sharp in detail. And I don’t have to carry a bag of lenses around. I use the 5200 when I KNOW that I’m going out to shoot photos. I take the SP-350 when I want to have fun but still have the awesome power and control to take some great photos if the opportunity should arise.

Oh – the total costs I paid for my entire arrangement: SP350: $267 - $50 mail in rebate, Fuji5200 $265, XD 1 Fastest 1 Gig Card $60, batteries I already owned but you could buy them with a charger for about $30. That’s $542 out of pocket in my case.

Hope this helps and I hope this reaches some of the lost souls of the Dcam audience like me….if there are any others like me out there.