I'm still fond of Olympus since my first was their excellent C-8080WZ, but one thing that put me off was its overly complex, poorly designed menu system, and from what I've read in reviews and user comments, their m4/3 cameras are still stuck with that menu system albatross.
Ah, still got mine! An expensive, unfinished jewel.
That camera almost killed the company, due to its excellent, very expensive, features were class leading by far, led to the slow sales, not helped a bit by the faults with it far outweighed the good points.
It would, on the other hand, be a perfect staring point for a modern version, with a more sensible saving time for RAW images (on a good day 2 fpm — not per second, per minute), a better ISO range (ISO 140 was the upper practical limit for good results), a bigger LCD (it could be tilted like the best, but its size was around 1.5"). Used very slow xD cards, another Olympus idea, or very expensive CF. And it was allergic to backlighting, the viewfinder and the LCD were unusable in those conditions, both totally washed out in lilac rivers from top to bottom.
It had many good points, though: It is still the only one hand camera I've come across (the left was not needed for photography), had quite comprehensive set of features, including an ability to take very good panoramas.
it had a very good macro function (impressive IQ), a very good 5X zoom, very fast optics, even with today's standard. Wobbly lens, but excellent optically.
Its WB wasn't that good, but when used with a flash (the built-in or external), wow!, and you could buy a professional style UW housing for it, I did, that wasn't bad, either.
Bought mine after seeing the rave reviews here at DPReview, and on my first trip to the US with my wife it died on the second day, and had to be sent to Schweiz for an upgrade!! Got it back some months later. Not malfunctioned again, happy to say.
Oddly, DPReview's own review is missing on the site, their supplied link is pointing into a black hole, evidently (no error messages, nothing)!
The C-8080's 8MB sensor was huge for its day, but a maximum ISO of 400 was bit weak, even then. Up to ISO 140 it was OK, and today you could probably save a ISO 200 image.
The body, by the way, has an excellent grip, and is made out of magnesium. And the battery is very big, similar in configuration, and size, to the Nikon battery in the V1!
If i was a forensic photographer it would do well even today (a modern powerful Olympus flash works excellent on the camera), as you controlled everything with your right hand, even most menu settings were accessible with one hand.
The menu system is not the best, but far better than Sony's NEX menu system!
I mostly use mine for passport style shots, and an occasional macro.
The model before it, the C-7070, saved Olympus bacon, and was produced for many years after the C-8080WZ had totally disappeared from the market.
Oh, time flies, G'Night!
