Rating: Summary: Good pictures, Good size, Great memory, Battery hog! Review: First off, buy several rechargeable batteries when you get this camera! As soon as I got mine, we played around with it off-n-on for no more than 3 or 4 hours before the brand-new alkaline batteries were useless. Flashes and the built-in monitor really suck 'em dry.Now, besides that, the Olympus D-360L is my first digital camera. Now I'm not really great at taking pictures, so I put most of the settings on "auto" and hope that I can Photoshop them into looking better later on. The picture quality is good overall, but if you want any sort of details captured, you'll have to use the largest pixel size available, and zoom in, too. So forget about trying to get those great concert shots from 25 rows back. Most of my work is on the internet, so it's great for web publishing, but I doubt that these pics would look that great if they were printed out -- but I haven't really tried yet, either. The compact design is quite good, so I can't believe some other reviewer here said that his fell apart after a week. I know I've carried mine around in my rough-n-tumble book bag for weeks on end, and it hardly has a scratch on it. If you want to change the camera's settings, there's a lot of button pushing to change the shutter, white-balance, and image file size options. My friends have gotten quite tired of posing and waiting for me to switch around to larger sizes, or to zoom in, or to take the picture over again because I flashed when I didn't want to. And there's a slight delay between when I've pushed the button and when the camera takes the pic. "Capturing the moment" often takes a couple mintues to prepare. Also, the pictures I've taken often look fantastic on the LCD monitor, but are fuzzy when I download them. Downloading is a snap ... sort of. Just install the software once, then hook the cable up to your serial port and ... wait. It takes several minutes to download multiple pictures. Heck, it even takes a while just to view all the thumbnails in the editor. The editing software included is okay, but it's no Photoshop. The very first weekend I had it, I went to a crazy drunken club party and took lots of pictures of people dancing around in an altered haze. Surprisingly, most of the photos came out great -- very fun and colorful -- except when the flash goes off, people often have red eye (which is fixable through adjustments) or if they are close to the camera the flash washed them out like white ghosts. And if I didn't use the flash, then they came out smeared because the shutter was open too long since it was compensating for the missing light. It definitely takes some learned skill to get great shots on the fly. In comparison, though, for the price you pay here, you are getting a really good deal with this handy little device. The low-light photos are a bit grainy but quite bright considering a normal camera would show the same situation as nothing but black. I haven't yet figured out how to get it to take pictures so that it looks darkly lit on purpose; it always seems to automatically compensate. Also, the multi-photo "panoramic" option and the "action sequence" modes are fun to play with, but not necessarily going to be useful to me in the long run. On one 8mb card, you can fit about 16 big files, but tons of little photos. And remember, rechargeables, rechargeables, rechargeables!
Rating: Summary: The best deal you'll find Review: This camera does a lot of things for only 300 dead presidents. It has thousands of options, great image quality, and, of course, it's digital! Now you can take all those embarrassing photos of yourself without being afraid of the CVS guy laughing at you. If you lower the image quality you can take 122 pictures on the ultra-small disk provided. However, the quality is really, really bad (640x480 highly-distorted JPEG). But on good quality you can take 36, which is enough for one session (you can delete the images from the camera after you download them to your hard drive.) There's a super-high quality option which makes TIFFs, but I never use it. A few drawbacks: the graphics-editing program that comes with the camera SUCKS. If you plan to do major photo-editing you should get ahold of Paint Shop Pro (jasc.com) or Adobe Photoshop (adobe.com). Another problem is that the batteries run out very fast. It uses four AA batteries every time, which last me about two weeks. If you want to save on battery life, try not to use the LCD screen and instead take pictures the "normal" way. Also, try not to view the photos on the camera and instead download them to your computer first and view them from the hard drive. Despite these problems, it's the best deal you can find for so little money. Unless you can afford to spend 800 bucks on something better, this is definitely the way to go. Anything cheaper probably sucks.
Rating: Summary: Tens of thousands of pictures and still going strong! Review: We are an EBAY Powerseller bookstore and I have run our auctions for two years. I have taken thousands of pictures EACH WEEK with this camera and it is a true workhorse. It is my personal camera as well. So I tend to hook-up and unhook-up this camera daily - and I've experienced zero problems. I download pictures at a high speed using a ZIO card reader and it's always flawless. I use an iMac at home and a normal PC at work - and it works great with both. I use a 64mb Viking Components SmartMedia card and it can hold 292 high quality, under 350k pictures. We actually have a different company's 5.0 mp camera at work - and it is imposible to learn and use. We gave up. But you can learn this camera in under a minute and you'll be taking great pictures instantly. We're on eBay under the seller name bookman21century - see for yourself. This camera has been dropped numerous times, kicked around, loaded and unloaded daily - it has literally gone through the fires of Mt. Doom - and yet is still performs brilliantly. Sure the battery life is poor, but we use a power cord at work at that works great. And sure these newer cameras have many more mega-pixels - but this camera at 1.3 has worked so fine that it's all we need, or will need, for our home and business. So, I'd recommend this for any high-volume auction user. You open the shutter, aim, and press the button. I will always, always, always stick to Olympus for its ease of use, its durable quality, its toughness, and its adaptability. If you are taking 10,000 or 100,000 pictures - this workhorse is more than up to the task!
Rating: Summary: This camera rocks! Review: The D360L camera is very easy to use and takes awesome pictures under almost any conditions. The resolution and features are truly incredible for a camera in this price range. The software installs easily and has good help information to guide you through the image editing process. The camera comes loaded with many nice features. About the only thing lacking is an optical zoom. I'm a frugal consumer and decided that the added cost of an optical zoom wasn't justified for my intended use of the camera. Most features have been covered in other reviews but one nice feature that I haven't seen mentioned much is the video out jack and cable (included) that allows you to view your photos on a television. My parents are in their 80's and don't have excellent vision, so the television connector lets me share photos with them without them having to peer at the tiny LCD screen. Accessories add a substantial amount to the cost of your camera outfit. Expect to pay an extra $100 to $250 above and beyond the camera price for them. I bought a SanDisk SmartMedia 32MB memory card, a DigiPower Solutions 12X rechargeable power pack, and a SanDisk SmartMedia USB external drive for downloading onto my PC. The only problem I encountered was with the Sandisk SmartMedia USB external drive. The install software had trouble locating a device driver, but I was able to locate the correct driver at the Sandisk web site and get things working properly. I have not had any experience with Olympus support, since everything works great. The bottom line is that this camera offers fantastic value for the money you spend on it. You really can't go wrong buying this camera. It rocks!
Rating: Summary: Need more stars! Review: I didn't buy this camera from AMAZON but the price was the same. This camera is great for the everyday use. If you are a casual picture taker like myself (Family functions, kids etc.), then this camera is for you. It feels like a real camera not a cheap plastic one like some other Digital camera's feel (FUJI 1300). It comes with a 8MB smartmedia card with can take 36 High Quality pictures (which look great) it can take about 18 Super High Quality (breath taking), and about 60+ regular quality (eh...so so). Smartmedia is very cheap ($80 for about 32MB card). You can directly connect to your TV via the provide NTSC cable to view your pictures on your TV. There is only 2 drawbacks. It sucks batteries (if you use the LCD screen alot). I have taken about 200 pictures on a set of batteries and still going. The other drawback is the cable to transfer the images to your computer. It is a RS232 Serial cable. It takes about 10 mins. to transfer about 36 pictures. But you can always get the Viking tranfer system to cut that down. I am not a photographer but I feel this camera is great bargain for someone that isn't looking to be the next National Geographic photographer!
Rating: Summary: An outstanding value for the money Review: I did quite a bit of research before deciding on the Olympus D-360L. All of the consumer reviews I read on various Web Sites were overwhelmingly positive. The high resolution and standard features are typically found on cameras that are more than twice the price. I have had the camera for about 3 months and have takes over 1,000 images. I am 100% satisfied that I made the right choice. I am not ready to get rid of my 35mm and assorted lenses, but this camera is great fun especially for close-ups and snapshot type images. I have heard people say that battery life is a problem, the Olympus does better than most. I found that setting the images to medium quality setting (which produces high quality images), using the AC adapter for downloads and not making too much use of the video viewfinder that I can go to over 100 images per set of 4 AA batteries. If you are new to the digital market or are dissatisfied with your current brand, I would highly recommend the Olympus 360
Rating: Summary: For the price - its mindblowingly awesome ! Review: I had been searching the digital camera market for months trying to figure out which camera to buy within usd 400 when i came across the Olympus-D360L. I had been reading the customer reviews for several days on Amazon, and was very much prepared for the short battery life, only 30 good quality photos with a 8 mb smartmedia card etc. BUT, was i surprised ! Not only does a set of 4 AA batteries (good quality, i.e. Duracell or Sony) last for the entire 8 MB shoot, but it also allows for a full / unrestricted use of the flash. To make matters even more impressive, you can take as much as 122 pictures (standard setup) and the quality of these photos is amazing. Only if you download these photos and zoom in 2-3 times into the photo will you feel the 'mosaic', but for ordinary folks like you and me, we dont need to zoom in that much, and standard photos itself is extremely good. Furthermore, if you view the photos on TV the clarity is even more amazing. One thing though ... viewing 'portrait' pictures on TV is a strain on the neck and the camera does not have any builtin feature which could switch 'portrait' pictures to 'landscape'. For usd 299 .. this camera is a steal !
Rating: Summary: OVER 35,000 PHOTOS Review: I'VE USED THIS CAMERA FOR EXTENSIVE ONLINE AUCTIONS, WITH OVER 65,000 PHOTOS TAKEN IN NEARLY 3 YEARS...LET'S SEE YOU GET THAT MANY PHOTOS OUT OF AN EXPENSIVE 35MM NIKON FILM CAMERA BEFORE IT CRAPS THE BED..IF THIS THING EVER BREAKS DOWN, THEY SHOULD CARVE AN IMAGE OF IT ON MT.RUSHMORE, AND PUT THE THING IN THE SMITHSONIAN....
Rating: Summary: ...like a Civic... Review: Got my tough little D-360 a year and a half ago and have ended up using it one way or another nearly every day. I'm moving on now to a mega-mega-pix Olympus, but I won't be retiring this utilitarian tool completely; it'll be the "guest camera" and the loaner. Great machine for the money. It all kind of feels like garaging the Civic for the new NS-X. Anyway, the camera shows good versatility and intuitive functionality, once the modest menus are mastered.
Rating: Summary: D360L good for beginners Review: I've purchased three of these for family- all beginners with the digitals. Everyone still has (and uses) their camera. They are compact and light. Great for emailing pictures.Use the "high quality" HQ setting for the ones you want to print. Prints look good, but a good printer helps. Be sure to browse the manual, but once you brush up, it's easy and fun.
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