Top of camera controls
 Top
of the camera is (front) the zoom lever (wide push left, tele
pull right) which surrounds the shutter release button.
The zoom operated quickly (faster
than other digicams) which can be an advantage in some circumstances
and an annoyance in others (you tend to find yourself hunting
back and forth trying to frame the image perfectly because
it's zooming too quickly). A progressively quicker zoom action
or something proportional to the amount you're moving the
lever would have been better. In playback mode the zoom lever
acts as thumbnail mode (W) and zoom in to image (T).
Below this is the main mode dial
and power button, the mode dial switches the camera between
SETUP/ext connection mode,
Display (playback), Program,
Aperture Priority or
Shutter Priority.
Note the first ergonomic niggle
here is that when you first start using the camera (or if
you let someone else use it for the first time) you'll tend
to accidentally press the power button instead of the shutter
release, the two really should be more distinctive. That said
all the top controls have a quality feel and a stiff notchyness
to them (feels like a real camera!).
Note the lens only extends if
the camera is powered-up in P, A or S and only retracts when
powered off.
Rear of camera controls
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On the rear of the camera are the remaining control
buttons, just four, the LCD on/off button, menu
button, jog wheel and OK button. At this point
I must say I had a real problem with the jog wheel,
it's too sloppy and too easy to accidentally push
left or right when moving up or down a menu thus
changing a camera option, often without realizing
it. Anything would have been better than this.
Their functions are described below.
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I personally am in favor of putting controls
such as flash mode, macro mode, manual focus, ISO etc. on
the "outside" of the camera, having to go into the
menu each time to change options became a bit of a bind. Especially
flash and macro modes. Too few buttons, sorry Olympus.
Record mode (P, A and S)
Screens below are captured from the LCD output.
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Program mode (P)
Pressing the menu button displays
the on screen camera settings menu, this menu
uses icons to represent camera settings, you use
the jog dial to move up and down and push the
jog dial left and right to change options.
All of these menu options are described on the
next page.
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Program mode (P)
When leaving the record menu a
brief display of current settings is flashed up
on the LCD, in this case flash-off, sunlight white
balance and HQ quality mode
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Program mode (P)
In Program record mode (P) the
only setting you can alter directly (by using
the jog dial left and right) is exposure compensation
(shown in this shot as 0.0).
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Program mode (P)
After half-pressing the shutter
release the camera locks auto focus and calculates
the exposure which is displayed in the space where
the dashes were. In this case F2.8 @ 1/100s.
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Aperture Priority mode
(A)
In this shot we have selected the
aperture F4.5 (by using the jog dial up and down).
The C2000Z does offer a good range of apertures
all the way from F2.0/F2.8 to F11 giving the us
good creative control over aperture (and therefore
depth of field). Half-press the shutter release
and the camera AF locks and calculates the correct
exposure (shutter speed), if it's out of the cameras
range the whole top line flashes in red.
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Shutter Priority mode
(S)
In this shot we have selected the
shutter speed 1/15s, the camera stops you going
below 1/2s unless you hold the OK button at the
same time. Half-press the shutter release and
the camera AF locks and calculates the correct
exposure (aperture), if it's out of the cameras
range the whole top line flashes in red.
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Play mode
Switching to Play mode instantly reviews the
last shot taken, you then have various options as described
below (all other functions are within the menu described on
the next page).
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Turning to play mode after record mode (assuming
"INFO" is switched on) the last shot
taken is displayed overlaid with exposure information,
this overlay disappears after about three seconds.
Battery status, DPOF info,
Quality
Aperture, Shutter speed, Exposure comp.
White balance mode
ISO sensitivity
Date / Time
Folder / Filename
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Pulling the zoom lever towards T (tele) zooms into
the currently displayed image, you have four possible
zoom levels available: 1.5x, 2.0x, 2.5x and 3.0x.
Use the jog dial to scroll around the image whilst
zoomed in.
Pushing the zoom lever towards W (wide) resets
the view to 1.0x
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Pushing
the zoom lever towards W (wide) enters thumbnail view
mode (either four, nine or sixteen thumbnails per
page configurable through the setup menu). |
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Here we've protected two images by simply moving
the selector (green border) over the image and
pressing the shutter release button. This is a
toggle, that means that it is used to set or clear
the protection.
Protected image files cannot be deleted until they
are unprotected and have the read-only bit set
on the file system on the SmartMedia card.
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Pressing the OK button (print mark) with an image
selected allows you to select the number of copies
of a particular image you want printing (used
with compatible printers or software).
Note this operates exactly the same way in normal
view mode.
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Pressing
the 
display / delete button displays this confirmation
question, pressing OK deletes the current image. |
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Here's
an example of 16 thumbnails view instead of the default
9, you can change this setting in the SETUP menu (described
on the next page). |
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Pressing
the 
menu button enters the playback menu, default action
is to start a slideshow, all options are described
on the next page. |
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