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.
Problems:
There are not many problems but here goes:
* The menu options are not the most intuitive and tend to have a mind of their own, resetting unexpectedly. I have used a long line of Olympus cameras (this is my sixth Olympus pocket camera) so have come to understand the menus pretty well, but it still catches me out at times).
* It's a little bit slow to focus and to write to the XD card (I use the latest HD cards), but in truth I do not find this too much of a problem for my style of shooting. Shutter lag seems very good although I have seen reviews that complain about this.
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.
Problems:
There are not many problems but here goes:
* The menu options are not the most intuitive and tend to have a mind of their own, resetting unexpectedly. I have used a long line of Olympus cameras (this is my sixth Olympus pocket camera) so have come to understand the menus pretty well, but it still catches me out at times).
* It's a little bit slow to focus and to write to the XD card (I use the latest HD cards), but in truth I do not find this too much of a problem for my style of shooting. Shutter lag seems very good although I have seen reviews that complain about this.