Rating: Summary: Simply the best, at a GREAT PRICE! Review: Without a doubt, the D-460 Zoom is the finest 'Point & Shoot' camera I've ever owned, print or digital. It's everything other reviewers (whom I read carefully before buying...) say and more. Yea, compact size. Yea, feature packed. Yea, yea. But those PICTURES!!! I've never seen such clarity! Even in max zoom mode this camera continues to astonish me. I've printed out pictures of my grandson on photo inkjet paper to pass out to friends and relatives, and they think I'm lying when I tell them it's an inkjet print from a digital camera. I like that. A lot. True, you're going to NEED the optional AC adapter, but only for uploading to your computer.. standard alkaline batteries work just fine and last a long time for picture taking. And I've seen the difference between the 460 and ANY of the Sony junk.. no comparison. Olympus wins on picture quality hands-down. No contest. That Macro feature for close-ups... what a hoot! It's great! Professional quality! You gotta get this camera if you're thinking digital. Really.
Rating: Summary: A Definite Winner-- BUY this camera! Review: After reading every review we could find, last year we ventured for the first time into the digital photographic world purchasing the Olympus 340-R digital camera. We were definitely not disappointed. The D460 is this year's model improving the 340-R by adding a 3x optical zoom in addition to the 2x digital zoom. For the price you will not match the features and quality of this camera. After just a few days the camera accompanied us to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and Seoul, S. Korea, while we nervously left our Canon SLR at home. The camera performed marvelously. We found the optional 16MB flash memory card more than adequate for our needs, as we easily downloaded photos each day into our laptop. An 8MB card comes standard. We were amazed at the quality of photos even in low light settings. We took shots at our conference including a multimedia presentation where surprisingly the projected image on the screen was readable! While staying in the countryside in a traditional Mongolian "ger" (tent), we shot an incredible photo of the predawn sky-- even the morning stars are clearly distinguishable! Arriving home we were completely satisfied with the photos shot at the low resolution setting when printed out on our HP Deskjet 895 using an Epson photographic paper. I doubt that most people would be able to tell the difference between the prints and a standard developed snapshot. The enclosed Olympus and Adobe software is easy to use and functional for most home use. You will absolutely love the Quickstitch utility that simply creates oversized and panorama shots! One of the only weaknesses we found a little frustrating was the variance between the optical viewfinder and the digital one. If you frame... say, a head and shoulders shot in the optical viewfinder, you will discover that digitally the camera sees a much broader area. Olympus should do a little better job calibrating the two viewfinders. Apart from that, you will want to invest in the NiMH charger and at least 8 batteries-- shop around for the best price. Also, picking up a 3.5 inch floppy adapter for the flash memory card will be a big time saver. You simply pull out the flash memory card, slip it into the adapter, and then slide the floppy into any computer. You'll save time and frustration over having cords laying all around your table, plus a significant download time. One last item-- Do you think a 16MB memory card will be too small for your needs? You can purchase up to a 32MB smart media card which will give you more than 400 shots at 800x600!
Rating: Summary: Good Review: Had mine for 3 years now and still works excellent.I ve used it in the woods a lot,broke the front sliding cover off,but still works good without it.Takes excellent photos .A lot of fine tuners on this puppy.
Rating: Summary: Don't get it without USB reader Review: A USB smartmedia reader should be mandatory, not optional with this camera. If not, you'll waste too much time downloading images. For example, an 8MB clip full of images (about 17 at Super High Quality mode) takes about 10 minutes to download via my PowerMac's serial port. Download times thru a PC serial port are about the same. Contrast this to about 20 seconds with a ZiO USB smartmedia reader. I bought this camera about 6 months ago for ... from another vendor. And that was WITHOUT a card reader. ... current deal offers much better value. Another flaw in this model is its "guillotine" sliding cover feature. While the design looks elegant, it's also quite easy to bash the lens with the sliding cover (you need to push the cover halfway to trigger the lens retraction into the body). Also note that this camera doesn't come with an AC adapter (that's "optional"), so you'd also drain your batteries if you download pix via serial port. Did I mention that a USB smartmedia reader should be mandatory with this camera? On the plus side, this camera does takes great pictures, has a wider aperture (f2.8) than most cameras in this range, and also a great panorama feature with stitching software. There's also exposure compensation and ISO selection (125, 250, 500). I rate it a bit under 4 stars.
Rating: Summary: Looking for a good digital camera? This is the one. Review: This is one of the best, for your money, digital cameras. I have been very pleased with the overall performance of this camera. You will never want to use a film camera again! Knowing what your pictures look like while you can still retake them is great! The LCD screen is usually enough to see what your picture will look like or you can view your pictures on the TV. Included is a NTSC video output cable to plug the camera into the "video in" on your TV or VCR. You really notice the excellent quality of the image that way, as well as a great way to share your pictures with everyone in the room. It comes with batteries, Mac/WIN serial cable, 8MB memory card, & software. Everything you need to open the box and start clicking. The instructions included are easy to follow. The software is limited on the editing it will do, however I have found that I don't really want to edit most pictures, because they turn out fine. The 8MB SmartMedia card included is adequate. I purchased a 64MB card and don't regret it! You can take around 730 pictures on SQ-high quality, 250 pictures on HQ and 150 pictures on SHQ. More than enough for a trip where you aren't able to upload pictures to your computer and clear your memory card. The downside, it eats batteries like all digital cameras. Purchase the Olympus battery charger and TWO sets of batteries for it. That way you are always covered with a spare set charged. Remember your printer will determine the quality your prints are going to be. A regular inkjet (like the Lexmark 3200) just doesn't have the quality that one like the HP Photosmart P1000 does. I can print an 8x10 picture (SHQ) on the HP that is photo quality. Pick up a camera case too because it doesn't come with one. Hint: You really don't have to buy anything extra to make this a great purchase. The rechargeable batteries, 64MB card, and camera case are not absolutely necessary to enjoy this camera. Just stuff that I found after using it for a year makes it a little bit nicer.
Rating: Summary: Olympus 460 - Great ! Review: This little camera is my first experience with digital photography and it is great. It fitted in with my requirements, it was under $500, it has an optical zoom and a standard "compact" camera format. I originally intended to use this as our "quick shot" camera, but is soon displaced my 35mm SLR. Things I like. The battery life is really good if you don't use the electronic view finder (I don't). It can quickly take a shot and get it right, and the fill in flash works well. The optical zoom and macro facilities are very useful. The photo quality is very good. I cannot pick the difference between my 35 mm. and the Olympus 460 on a standard 6 by 4 photograph Things I don't like. The serial down load to my PC is very slow; the standard 4 mb card is too small, the software for editing the photo's is pretty rudimentary and the lens retract can get tangled up in the front cover it your not careful. You will need to buy a camera case for it and a larger memory card is pretty useful. I do all my editing with a different software package. Would I buy it again?. You bet!!
Rating: Summary: Pleasing Prints! Review: Consideration #1 - Why did I choose the Olympus over other "computer" brands? Because the Olympus line of digital cameras in general beats out any other line of cameras out there as far as picture quality, and the D460 is no exception. It is always a rule of thumb to buy cameras from a real camera company, if only because the optics will always be top notch. Once you have taken pictures with a computer brand camera, and seen the prints, then switched to an Olympus or Nikon etc... you will definitely see the difference in quality. Consideration #2 - Why did I choose the D460 over a Nikon? The main factors were price and battery life. The Nikon cameras take to sucking your batteries dry given even moderate use of the LCD, whereas the 400 series of Olympus cameras are quite the road warriors when it comes to batteries. Now remember that this camera does not come with rechargeable batteries (it includes high-powered NiMH one time use batts) you should plan on spending the extra $30-50 on a set of rechargeable and a charger. Other Points of Consideration - Also plan on getting another smart media card if you are going to take more than a few pictures in one use, because the included card (8mb SmartMedia) only holds 16 SHQ quality pictures, (the format with the best compromise between space and quality) SHQ mode uses a JPEG compression to make file size smaller. Adding a 16MB smartmedia card will get you 32 pictures at that compression, and a 32mb card will get you 64 pictures, and so on... Also remember that you can readily exchange between cards when one gets full, so you don't loose the functionality of that original 8mb card that comes with the camera if you get another one. You can just take it out when it's full and stick in your new one. (just keep them in their case, and don't loose the little things, because boy are they expensive!) Verdict - Overall, this a really a great buy and will serve you well while on vacation, or at your kid's soccer game. If you want to make your pictures bigger than 8x10, however, you might want to upgrade to the D490. If not, have fun with this great camera!
Rating: Summary: Technology gone far beyond Review: I bought this camera back in 2000 off the internet from www.buy.com. I've since then taken thousands and thousands of pictures with it. Its a wonderful camera but as of times today it is becoming extremely dated. Some of its features have been improved upon in recent years. I have a friend that has an Olympus C-5050 and viewed some of his photos that were taken. The rich color and detail compared to my old camera can be easily seen. The time when digital pictures will meet or exceed the detail on 35mm is almost here! I bought this old camera for 2.5X the price it is today so that goes to show what 3 years can do to prices. But the picture you want to take probably won't wait that long. I would recommend the Olympus line of cameras to anyone! They are a strong performer and reliable too! Take a look at www.consumerreports.com (requires subscription) and see for yourself! My old camera had beer spilled on it and it still takes the best of photos today. For those that want it all check out the new "E-1" model that will soon hit the market. Its bound to set the standard in digital cameras.
Rating: Summary: Customer Service for this camera is lees than desirable Review: While the camera is performing great! There were some accessories that did not work with the camera. I tried repeatedly to contact Olympus and received the runaround on numerous occasions. I will not buy an Olympus product again. Customer service and support is the focal point of any good business. The marketers at Olympus obviously missed that day of instruction when they were going through customer support training.
Rating: Summary: Don't Buy Olympus Review: I purchased this camera about one year ago, and already am having problems with it. First, it won't take any photos in very bright light--the photos come out horribly bleached out and grainy. So, that means no outdoor photos at all. It used to take wonderful close up shots, indoors only, with the flash, but now, on the closest settings, they are blurry. I have tried repeatedly to get Olympus to stand behind their camera and repair it, they refuse, it is almost impossible to get ANY kind of response from their Customer Service people, if you don't believe me, check out other websites where complaints against Olympus are rampant. Save your money and get a camera with a good company name and customer service department behind it.
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