(C2040Z) Smartmedia card question and hot pixel problem

Hi,

Let me start by saying this is the first time I've posted to this forum, I've been reading it to gather information about whether or not to buy the Olympus Camedia 2040 Zoom - and I have

I have a few small question thats I wasn't able to get a clear answer to reading the archives of this forum.

• Right now it's difficult to get a well priced 128mb SM card here in The Netherlands (around 90 euros cheapest), I was wondering - what are possible advantages of buying two 64mb cards ?
• I have a rather bright green pixel in the lower left corner of my pictures shot using a shutterspeed > 1/+-30 sec. Is it worth the trouble and risk of not getting it back fixed to send it in for repair ? I've been reading about bad experiences in sending the camera back for repair...
• When shooting flash pictures in a rather badly lit room, the camera often has trouble getting a focus lock. Is there any trick to make sure more pictures turn out properly focussed ?

To conclude I'd like to invite you guys to take a look at (and give suggestions/tips about) a few of my galleries I put online at : http://www.jelmer.cc .

Thanks,

Jelmer Feenstra

The 128MB cards have very little advantage over 2-64MB cards.

1. 1-128MB card take up half the space (of course 2 cards don't take up much space anyway)
2. 1-128MB card doesn't need to be swapped as often.

3. The 128MB card has much better capacity for transfering files from one computer to the next.

If 2-64MB cards are a lot cheaper than 1-128MB card, I'd definitely get the 2-64MB cards.

can't help you with the rest.

Jelmer Feenstra said:

Hi,

Let me start by saying this is the first time I've posted to this
forum, I've been reading it to gather information about whether or
not to buy the Olympus Camedia 2040 Zoom - and I have

I have a few small question thats I wasn't able to get a clear
answer to reading the archives of this forum.

• Right now it's difficult to get a well priced 128mb SM card here

in The Netherlands (around 90 euros cheapest), I was wondering -
what are possible advantages of buying two 64mb cards ?

• I have a rather bright green pixel in the lower left corner of my

pictures shot using a shutterspeed > 1/+-30 sec. Is it worth the
trouble and risk of not getting it back fixed to send it in for
repair ? I've been reading about bad experiences in sending the
camera back for repair...

• When shooting flash pictures in a rather badly lit room, the

camera often has trouble getting a focus lock. Is there any trick
to make sure more pictures turn out properly focussed ?

To conclude I'd like to invite you guys to take a look at (and give
suggestions/tips about) a few of my galleries I put online at :
http://www.jelmer.cc .

Thanks,

Jelmer Feenstra

Click to expand...

The cheapest place I've found to buy 64 or 128mb cards is http://www.newegg.com but I don't know if they ship overseas or not. I have 1 64mb and 1 128 mb card and keep the 128 in my camera all the time.

--Digital Cameras, Ultralights & RC Planes http://www.angelfire.com/ar/thecameranutjwb/MSGT Jimmie Burton USAF (RETIRED)Oly 2100UZ B300, C-180, C-210, TCON-14 & +1+2+4 Closup lensEpson 750Z & Tiffen 2X with adapters for above lensKodak 215 (Wifes)

Hi Jelmer,

I hope your having fun with your new camera. I am in the UK and I find the best value for money cards are 64mb at the moment, arround £20 (30 euros) I would advise you to wait awhile before buying a 128mb card, they will come down in price yet.

Your flash problem is cured by using manual focus, at short focal lengths your camera has a good depth of field so distance setting is not to critical as long as your not to close to your subject.

I had a quick look at your galleries and I can see your experimenting with lots of different subjects with your new toy. This is the best way to learn and i'm sure you will get lots of helpful advise from this forum in the future. My first digital is the 2040 (2 months old) I have had no problem with indoor focus but I think you may be refering to your candlelite shot.

Read up on the pixel problem before you return your camera, there's lots of posts about this topic on the forum.

Ray Logan
--RAY L.

Hello,
I have C-2040Z too.

1. I did the "hot" pixel test on mine camera and it does have them too. I can see them at the exposures 4 seconds and longer. There are about 3 .. 6 of them at 4 sec. It is acceptable for me. I think majority of cameras have this problem. C-2040 does not have a noise reduction system but you can do the same thing as C-700 does to reduce noise:

Take the second shot with the same exposure length, as your main shot, but with closed aperture and then subtract two images. It should get rid of "hot" pixels.

2. I have not had any problems with poor focus using flash. It always works for me. Make sure you use "iESP" focus and not the point focus mode. This helps to get more consistent focus in different situations.

3. I have 3 SM memory cards: 8MB, 64MB I paid $55 USD 2 month ago and 128MB I got month ago for $50 USD. So, just wait a month and they'll get cheaper.

Hope this help.

Sergey

Ray Logan said:

I hope your having fun with your new camera. I am in the UK and I
find the best value for money cards are 64mb at the moment, arround
£20 (30 euros) I would advise you to wait awhile before buying a
128mb card, they will come down in price yet.

Click to expand...

Right, well I think I'm just going to wait just a little longer to see what the prices here in the Netherlands do... Thanks for the advice though.

Ray Logan said:

Your flash problem is cured by using manual focus, at short focal
lengths your camera has a good depth of field so distance setting
is not to critical as long as your not to close to your subject.
I had a quick look at your galleries and I can see your
experimenting with lots of different subjects with your new toy.
This is the best way to learn and i'm sure you will get lots of
helpful advise from this forum in the future. My first digital is
the 2040 (2 months old) I have had no problem with indoor focus but
I think you may be refering to your candlelite shot.

Click to expand...

No, I'm talking about for example a party (little light) where I'm taking a picture of some friends posing for the camera. Is it wise to set the manual focus to, let's say, 2 meters and take the shots with that setting ?

Ray Logan said:

Read up on the pixel problem before you return your camera, there's
lots of posts about this topic on the forum.

Click to expand...

Yes I read quite a few of them. I concluded it's mostly a matter of personal tastre whether or not to return the camera because of a disturbing hotpixel. However I was asking because I have doubts with regard to the camera getting fixed when I send it back. I got a bit scared by the E-100 (I believe) owner that had it sent in for repair three times, leaving him without his camera for quite few weeks :/

Jelmer--Olympus Camedia 2040 Zoom (see http://www.jelmer.cc )

gurevise said:

1. I did the "hot" pixel test on mine camera and it does have them
too. I can see them at the exposures 4 seconds and longer. There
are about 3 .. 6 of them at 4 sec. It is acceptable for me. I think

Click to expand...

That seems acceptable to me. I'm only bothered because it already appears in shots with shutterspeeds around 1/30 of a second. Luckily it is very easy to fix up that fantastic picture with a hotpixel on it using some image manipulation program.

gurevise said:

majority of cameras have this problem. C-2040 does not have a noise
reduction system but you can do the same thing as C-700 does to
reduce noise:
Take the second shot with the same exposure length, as your main
shot, but with closed aperture and then subtract two images. It
should get rid of "hot" pixels.

Click to expand...

I haven't tried this technique before - interesting approach. It seems to me though that I would have to make two pictures in quick succession of each other to make this technique work, right ?

gurevise said:

2. I have not had any problems with poor focus using flash. It
always works for me. Make sure you use "iESP" focus and not the
point focus mode. This helps to get more consistent focus in
different situations.

Click to expand...

I might be wrong here, but as far as I know there is no iESP focus mode on the 2040Z (at least no options to change the focus mode).

gurevise said:

3. I have 3 SM memory cards: 8MB, 64MB I paid $55 USD 2 month ago
and 128MB I got month ago for $50 USD. So, just wait a month and
they'll get cheaper.

Click to expand...

I think I'll do just that, thanks for your reply !

Jelmer--Olympus Camedia 2040 Zoom (see http://www.jelmer.cc )

Jelmer,
C-2040 has "iESP focus" as standard default focus mode. See this link:

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_product.asp?p=16&bc=2&product=660

So, if you have not changed it something else that's what it is.

Thanks

Sergey

Jelmer Feenstra said:

No, I'm talking about for example a party (little light) where I'm
taking a picture of some friends posing for the camera. Is it wise
to set the manual focus to, let's say, 2 meters and take the shots
with that setting ?

Click to expand...

Hi again Jelmer

This might be a good option, the added benefit will be you will loose the lag between depressing the shutter release and taking the pic.as the camera does not autofocus, thus capturing 'the moment' .But your best pics will be the ones where they are not posing.

Its hard to say what the best preset distance would be, I think you wuold need to experiment, but this will not be hard to do. Preset your distance and take some pics at various distances from a specific object, repeat for various preset distances, this should give you a feel for the depth of field available, but do some reading on the effect of aperture settings and distances on various focal lengths first.

I hope this does not sound to much like one of your lecturers at college but sometimes a little planning ahead can make all the difference.

What I really would like to know is how do you find the time to party and take pics. with all the studying you must be doing? ;-)

Ray Logan

--RAY L.