Rating: Summary: NOTHING BUT WOW! Review: The Olympus D-460 Zoom camera is just the ticket to a vacation you haven't even taken yet! I bought one last Wednesday...It came Friday...not the 4 to 7 stated business days. I have yet to even take it out of my hands! Talk about "Bang for the buck!". You get all that and more! The best quality of pictures, that I have ever seen for a camera at its price. No, it does not come with a carrying case...Shame on Olympus. Big deal! Buy it...you'll fall in love with photography for under $400.00! Super camera!
Rating: Summary: The digital camera that made me take the plunge - finally Review: I'm primarily a 35mm and subminiature photographer and was waiting until digital resolution and price met at a nice point. The D-460 did it for me.First, a couple of warnings: 1) Batteries - Although Amazon lists 4 AA alkalines as the power source, don't count on it. The two included Olympus lithium batteries (which are each the same size as a pair of AAs) are a special high output chemistry. You will be VERY unhappy if you take the camera to an event and only have one set of alkalines. Digital cameras use a lot of juice, especially when you download and when you use the LCD screen. The consumer problem is that the Olympus batteries (CR-V3, or p/n LB-01E) are VERY hard to find. I've not seen any in camera or electronics stores, although you can purchase them for $14 ea directly from Olympus -- and Olympus says you should be able to buy them from several internet vendors, but the only one on their list that even showed the batteries was B&H, and they didn't have any in stock (@ $10 ea.). The next best thing is use rechageable NiMh cells. You can spend a hunk of money and buy the Olympus cell/recharger set, or can hunt around electronics stores and buy something for about half the price -- make sure you get AA cells in the 1400 to 1500 mAh range. 2) Price - The normal street price for this camera is now $399. 3) Downloading Photos - Although you can use the included serial cable, you'll also use a lot more batteries. If you have a USB port on your computer, you should consider getting getting a SmartMedia external drive. They're inexpensive and fast and easy to use. But to the good stuff. Side-by-side tests against my office's Sony Mavica's give the Olympus the edge at the same 640 x 480 resolution. When you go to the higher 1280 x 960 resolution, I think you'll be pleased with the results. The optical finder makes it much easier to take snapshots, especially in bright sunlight, where LCD only cameras leave you wondering what you're shooting at. The 3:1 zoom ratio is comfortable, and you can do accurate closeups using the LCD screen for a viewfinder. If you go ahead and buy the SmartMedia external drive, you should consider getting an additional 8MB (one comes with the camera) or 16MB card. I think that for many applications, including some professional use, you will find this to be a good performing camera at a good price. (The only reason I gave it a 4-star rating is because of the so-so availability of the lithium batteries, and the fact that it took a little more digging than expected to figure out what was really going on with those things.)
Rating: Summary: PC/Mac connectivity Review: Everything about his camera is good, not least of all the best lens cover available which is important in a camera that gets bounced around. However, be sure to check the documentation (which in earlier versions has been inadequate) and whether this model provides USB connectivity (earlier versions did not and required a reader and adaptor).
Rating: Summary: Awesome camera for the $$$ Review: This is my second digital camera, replacing a Casio QV-700. The picture quality seems excellent and I was amazed at how vivid the colors turn out with this camera. I have taken about a hundred pictures with the camera so far and all but a few turned out excellent, and the ones that didn't were my fault. One big advantage this camera has over my Casio is that the LCD monitor has it's own power switch, so you can leave it off while taking pictures and it saves on battery power. There are several settings such as ISO, white balance, etc that can be manually adjusted for better picture quality or left on automatic if you rather not mess with them (like myself). The on-screen menus are pretty user friendly after you read the manual. With the included 8MB Smartmedia card, you can record from 2-122 photos, depending on which of the 5 quality settings you choose. In the 1280x960 resolution mode, you can take 36 pics in High Quality mode (default), 18 in Super High Quality, or 2 pics in Super High Quality-TIFF (uncompressed). In the 640x480 resolution mode, you can take 32 pics in High Quality mode or 122 in Normal mode. Picking up a 16, 32, or 64 MB card will greatly increase your capacity. I plan on getting a 32 MB card myself, which will reportedly hold 146 pics in 1280x960 High Quality mode (or up to 489 pics in 640x480 normal mode). The 3x zoom was better than expected. There are a few things about the camera that I don't care for, such as the main power switch. Instead of having an actual switch, you have to open the lens barrier, which isn't a problem, however when you go to turn the camera off, you have to close the lens barrier part way, then wait for the lens to retract, then close the cover completely. Also, you must manually flip up the flash. Although there are a few minor things I wish were different, don't pass up this camera!
Rating: Summary: Nice camera: convenient, easy to use, great photos Review: I'm glad I got this camera. I've been debating for a long time whether to get a digital camera. I use a variety of digital cameras at work and know how useful they are. This one had the price that I wanted to pay and the performance of $1000+ cameras from a couple of years ago. The colors look great. The software is a breeze to use. The quality of the camera seems to be very good so far. I would have scored this camera 5 out of 5 if it came with a case and a USB connector. It is slow to download with the serial cable. I still haven't been able to take any good photos at night: firework displays, city lights, full moon, etc. I'm planning on purchasing a case, a 32 MB Flash Card and a USB Reader.
Rating: Summary: I was pleasantly surprised. Review: This camera exceeded my expectations. It is my third digital camera.(I have two other Sony's.) I like the portability of this camera vs. the larger Sonys. This will travel on my bicycle when I would have let the others behind. The picture quality is quite excellent, and when I take the time to adjust the white balance the results are enhanced...
Rating: Summary: Nice and Easy Review: I have never used a digital camera before but was able to take the Olympus D460 Zoom out of the box and start taking pictures, viewing them and downloading them onto our computer in a very short time. The pictures are excellent and the camera is extremely easy to use.
Rating: Summary: Great images, easy to use; accessory advice Review: This camera takes excellent pictures, and once you take the time to orient yourself to the controls, it is very easy to use. I shopped around and got a good price on the D460 (less than $499) and am very, very happy. The batteries have also lasted longer than I expected. I've taken pictures out doors and indoors with and without flash. The flash has several settings, much like a good SLR camera, but the camera can also adapt to low-light without flash and keep the warm tones. A feature not often mentioned is the fact that the camera includes a cable to hook it up to your TV and view pictures at a large size, give a slide show to friends-- or even take pictures while using the tv screen as a viewer. Surprisingly fun to do. I followed another reviewer's recommendations and bought rechargeable AA NiMH batteries and charger (the maha 1550s in a combo kit) at Thomas Distributing for a good price. The Olympus tech support people told me just to make sure you buy batteries with at least 1450 mAH--higher is better for juicing those downloads. They do not recommend using any AC adapter other than the olympus one because it might damage the camera (and I assume it might violate your warranty), but other sources report that the one sold at thomas distributing is fine. One more thing--if you buy another card, get the Olympus brand if you intend to use the panorama feature--apparently other cards don't support this. The only reason I give this camera 4 out of 5 stars is that it doesn't connect to USB; the cable supports serial ports and mac adb ports, but doesn't have a usb connection. This means you have to buy a USB reader if you have a hot new computer, although you might want to do this anyway.
Rating: Summary: Sleek, durable point-and-shoot camera Review: I purchased the Olympus D460 Zoom from amazon.com about two months ago. It does everything it says it does. The panorama function works great with the included software. The camera includes some batteries, which, curiously enough, were not even rechargeable. But they did last quite a long time. Luckily, the design of the camera makes it rather durable. I was shocked when I saw my new camera headed for the pavement as it slipped out of my hand, but relieved when I found it had survived with only a few scratches on the lens cover. The camera still works fine. The D460 does not seem to handle night landscape shots very well without a tripod, nor motion shots in low light unless you use the flash. Everything else works fine. It seems to have an autopilot for non photographers like me.
Rating: Summary: My First Digital Photos Review: This is my first experience with digital photograpy. I am a novice in this area, actually in photography in any manner. I did alot of research (not knowing the meaning of pixels etc)and found this got the best comments. Now I know why. It is SO easy! The pictures are terrific. I had my pictures taken, downloaded and shared online and on printed materials within one day of getting it. The batteries (which everyone seemed to gripe about) are still the originals. It's just so easy to do. I absolutely recommend this as the pictures are of high quality. I used it at my sisters wedding, printed a picture and framed it. The printing of the pic was a test but came out so good it now is framed and nobody would know the difference. (It was printed on ordinary office paper!) The only drawback to this camera is the lens cover which you need to push halfway over to retract the lens. You just need to be gentle. Otherwise, it's a fab camera. I still don't know what a pixel is!
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