Yana Skaler
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I’ve had this grunty little workhorse for over a year and have exploited it extensively around half the world under various conditions. I come from an SLR background, so I lowered my expectations for image quality and control. I really just wanted an all weather camera I could carry on me at all times, go swimming with, use in the moshpit or take photos/movies with off the back of a motorbike.
Over the years I have used an array of cameras by different manufacturers, so I didn’t bother reading the manual and still found the menu easy to use. Though I agree that the semantics are ill considered. It takes too long to change functions/modes, and as a consequence, I missed many a great shot.
I carefully followed care instructions and always cleaned and inspected the camera after use in salt water, etc. I did come across some leakage both in the battery and USB compartments. As soon as the warranty expired, I found that none of the lower buttons work, which means it takes longer to scroll between modes, and the timer, the menu and the delete function are inaccessible. I hate to think how much it will cost me to fix it.
Considering the weight of the camera and its intended underwater use, it should come with an adjustable strap to prevent it from slipping off your wrist. A floater isn’t ideal, as buoyancy is something you try to avoid when shooting under water. I made a special elastic wrist band to tether the camera to.
The flash is very hot at short range, but useless for anything more than a metre and a half away. I found that the best way to counteract the first problem is to stand further away and zoom in on the subject.
I don’t regret buying this camera, and will pay to repair it. Hopefully, once I can afford the latest incarnation, Olympus will have the problems resolved.
Problems:
• The image quality is average, usually due to soft focus and chromatic aberration from low exposure range.
• Slow focus and very slow and unreliable focus in low light, the latter often resulting in out of focus images
• Image stabilization useless – the automatic ridiculously high ISO creates the worst noise I’ve ever seen
• Tiny buttons – nearly impossible to operate when wearing bulky gloves. Who DOES NOT wear gloves in sub-freezing temperatures for which the camera is designed?
• Movie mode cumbersome to get to – it should be a separate, easily accessible mode outside of scene presets. It’s impossible to quickly switch between normal shooting mode and movie mode when wearing gloves on [the back of] a motorbike
• Having to use a separate button to scroll through macro/flash modes is unnecessary and very frustrating
• Consistent over-exposure by one stop (at least) means that you have to meter off the lightest spot in the frame
• No manual functions – can be frustrating not having the aperture and shutter speed control. This shortcoming would be less obvious if the scene modes were less noisy and thus – an option
• LCD screen very hard to see in direct sunlight
• Writing to card is slow, especially with flash enabled
• In play mode, when playing back video, there is no option to fast forward to the next one until the current one is finished
• Location of lens is an issue – easy to get your finger in the shot, especially when wearing big gloves OR getting someone to take a photo of YOU.
• Battery takes too long to recharge – I had to invest in several additional batteries to compensate for that
Over the years I have used an array of cameras by different manufacturers, so I didn’t bother reading the manual and still found the menu easy to use. Though I agree that the semantics are ill considered. It takes too long to change functions/modes, and as a consequence, I missed many a great shot.
I carefully followed care instructions and always cleaned and inspected the camera after use in salt water, etc. I did come across some leakage both in the battery and USB compartments. As soon as the warranty expired, I found that none of the lower buttons work, which means it takes longer to scroll between modes, and the timer, the menu and the delete function are inaccessible. I hate to think how much it will cost me to fix it.
Considering the weight of the camera and its intended underwater use, it should come with an adjustable strap to prevent it from slipping off your wrist. A floater isn’t ideal, as buoyancy is something you try to avoid when shooting under water. I made a special elastic wrist band to tether the camera to.
The flash is very hot at short range, but useless for anything more than a metre and a half away. I found that the best way to counteract the first problem is to stand further away and zoom in on the subject.
I don’t regret buying this camera, and will pay to repair it. Hopefully, once I can afford the latest incarnation, Olympus will have the problems resolved.
Problems:
• The image quality is average, usually due to soft focus and chromatic aberration from low exposure range.
• Slow focus and very slow and unreliable focus in low light, the latter often resulting in out of focus images
• Image stabilization useless – the automatic ridiculously high ISO creates the worst noise I’ve ever seen
• Tiny buttons – nearly impossible to operate when wearing bulky gloves. Who DOES NOT wear gloves in sub-freezing temperatures for which the camera is designed?
• Movie mode cumbersome to get to – it should be a separate, easily accessible mode outside of scene presets. It’s impossible to quickly switch between normal shooting mode and movie mode when wearing gloves on [the back of] a motorbike
• Having to use a separate button to scroll through macro/flash modes is unnecessary and very frustrating
• Consistent over-exposure by one stop (at least) means that you have to meter off the lightest spot in the frame
• No manual functions – can be frustrating not having the aperture and shutter speed control. This shortcoming would be less obvious if the scene modes were less noisy and thus – an option
• LCD screen very hard to see in direct sunlight
• Writing to card is slow, especially with flash enabled
• In play mode, when playing back video, there is no option to fast forward to the next one until the current one is finished
• Location of lens is an issue – easy to get your finger in the shot, especially when wearing big gloves OR getting someone to take a photo of YOU.
• Battery takes too long to recharge – I had to invest in several additional batteries to compensate for that