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Olympus Camedia  C-3020 3MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

Olympus Camedia C-3020 3MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

List Price: $599.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Exceeds expectations
Review: Out of the box, the C-3020 works and does all the things it should very well. I have had mine for only a few weeks and continue to discover new things, but in the meantime you can use it as a 'point and shoot' camera as you learn. I was looking for a camera built by a camera company with good optics and an understanding of the needs of the beginner as well as the serious amateur. They have done a good job.

With 3.2 megapixels available, the quality of the finished photo can be excellent. I made a sharp 8 x 10 enlargement of our very hairy dog and every hair is sharply in focus and visible on the print. The built-in flash is surprisingly good. Exposures with available light are more than adequate. The almost overwhelming variety of controls will take a while to learn and require referral to the manual, but many will not be used reqularly anyway. The printed manual is inadequate, but the manual on the CD included is excellent.

The camera does not have 'video out' or sound, but if you don't feel you need those features, you can save $200 as compared to models which include them.

All in all, I could give this camera five stars, but nothing is perfect. First accessory needed, a battery charger and rechargeable batteries. Why doesn't the manufacturer include them? Olympus does include Adobe Photoshop Elements which is an excellent program and will cost nearly $100 if bought separately. If you buy a C-3020, I predict you will like it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ok so they added a string to the lens cap, but ....
Review: Be warned...when Olympus replaced the 3000 with the 3020 they left out some key features. The 3020 has no video out, no audio on the video, and no external flash. the 3000 had all these features plus everything else the 3020 has...minus the new sports, night, portrait quick buttons that are on the 3020 ..and a string that attaches to the lens cap...but its not exactly an even trade off....I was lucky enough to trade my 3020 in for a 3000 and im now a happy camper. But If you dont care about the features I mentioned then you should be satisfied with the 3020 because it does take great shots.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: This is a crowded field.
Review: Mid-range digicams are all over the place, and selecting one over another may be as much a question of personal taste as one of true competitive advantages. Having said that, I have always been an Olympus fan, and my satisfaction with them dates back many years. This model has 3+ meg resolution to allow for great enlargements, a capable a 3:1 optical zoom, very good optics and a nice flash. The battery arrangement is okay (AAs), and connectivity to your PC is through a nice USB (at least until you get a separate card reader). At this price point however, I might be more tempted to get the Minolta S304 and pick up a better zoom lens.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow
Review: I bought the Olympus C-3020 digital camera and a hp photosmart 1215 printer from Amazon about a week ago and I just printed my first 4x6 inch photo on hp premium plus glossy paper, and my reaction is WOW. The photo, to my eye, is indistinguishable to a photo taken with a standard 35mm camera.

The camera is very easy to use in point-and-shoot mode, and as the previous reviewer noted it offers enough manual controls for non-professional but technical buyers like myself to delve into.

The Adobe Photoshop digital editing software that comes with the camera is one of the top-of-the-line digital editing software packages available. Beyond basic cropping, red eye removal and toning of the picture, Photoshop gives you the ability to texturize your photo as a water-color, pencil, chalk drawing (as well as dozen's of other special special effects).

The Olympus CAMEDIA Master 2.5 software is pretty useless beyond browsing the camera's pictures, and -get this-, it does not even list the C3020 as a supported camera. The software mostly works. It will recognize your C3020 as a disk drive once the camera is connected to your PC (I connected it to Win98 and Win2000 machines). But don't click on the "My Camera" icon as it'll give an error msg and the manual states that this feature will not work.

Previous reviewer was right on the mark with his/her comments (items 1-4), all true!

When all is said and done this is a great camera that comes with some awesome software (Photoshop). Bottom line is it produces great photo's, is easy to use, has a good feature set...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great picture quality, solid value.
Review: I've had my c-3020z for about three weeks now and really like it. As a beginning digitial photographer I was interested in a reasonably-priced 3.x MP camera that could take great point-and-shoot photos, but also offered enough manual control to take advantage of as my experience grows. I was also interested in a camera I could purchase a reasonably priced underwater housing for to take diving. The 3020 delivered on all points. I've found the image quality excellent, with sharp detail and accurate color. I take quite a bit of macro animal shots and I've found the detail it captures impressive, even if I blow it up on my PC. The menus are pretty intuitive as well once you learn what is where. I'm still learning when and how to use the manual modes; there are a few to choose from and I'm still figuring out how to take advantage of all this control. Having had a digital camera before, I didn't mess around with alkalines or memory and bought some rechargable NiMh batteries and a 128mb card. I've been pleasantly surprised to find that this camera doesn't chew through batteries nearly as badly as my Kodak did, and a 128mb card is nicely capacious. I can't wait to take it diving.

I've had no problems per se, but to be fair, here's what I don't appreciate about this camera:

1. The manual that comes with it is pretty poor. I'm going to get a photograpy book to help learn more about the manual capabilities and how/when to use them.

2. Construction is ok, but the design, quality & feel pales compared to the nice metal Sonys. Plastic back and buttons are not too sexy.

3. Why can't Olympus get the [...] lens cap right!? Since the cap catches on the inside of the barrel, if you leave it on when you powerup, you will hear nasty gear sounds as the lens trys to push off the lens cap. People have criticized this design for quite a while in other Oly c-class reviews. Olympus--this is inexcusable.

4. Macro capability is ok, but limited to about 8". For really close up work, I'm going to probably have to get a macro lens kit.

Overall, this is a nice, powerful camera which takes fantastic pictures for a very reasonable price.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the best camera
Review: The best camera is the Olympus Camedia C-3020 Digital Camera. The rating on the Internet was the lowest of the three cameras I picked. This camera has the most memory, the best zoom feature and an auto focus; it also has the highest prise. This camera also connects to the Mac and the PC.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: What? No Video Out Mode?!!
Review: I was so excited when the Olympus 3020 was finally available in my area. It was my choice as the perfect camera for a novice but eager to learn digital photographer. But, I will not purchase a camera until after I have a chance to do a "touchy feely" on it to see if it feels right to me, and if it is appropriate for one who is left eyed. Anyway, in this instance, I had gone from Press Release on the Olympus web site onward, and I was ready to buy immediately! Until I read the box and noticed that there was no video out mode! I had looked at the specs previously and just didn't notice the ommission. I couldn't believe it! From the store, I called Olympus and confirmed this fact. Perhaps they will add it on later, but now I am back on my search for the right camera for me and my family. I just can't buy this one and lose the chance to show the Grandparents 'TV slide shows' of my soon to be 2 year old on the tube... Although the camera probably would have earned 5 stars if it had the darned output jack, I can only give it a 3, as this mode is important to me. Thanks for listening.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Basic Digital Camera
Review: I have owned this camera for approx. 18 month and I still love it. It is one of the easiest digital cameras to get to know and use. From the first day I got it I had it out of the box and shooting right away. It's that simple. The only negative factor of the camera is the lack of a Hot Shoe Flash option. The C3020Z has several flash options for various lighting conditions; however, I have grown in my photography and require more advanced lighting options. As a starter camera this is a perfect introduction to digital photography. It has certainly helped me to expand in my Digital skills and knowledge, but as I move towards being a Professional Amateur I have out grown this model. That's my $0.02.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love, love, love it!
Review: I have owned my camera now for several years and still love it.
My only wish would be that it would have a better zoom range.

My favorite features include:

Fill in flash
no flash
sepia tone
black and white tone

I use these features on a daily basis.

I find it is great that I can immediatly view my photo taken for a few seconds without changing the mode, it really helps.

I have used this camera everywhere you can imagine.

It is not the smallest of camera's but I can fit it in a fanny pack or belt bag when on a trip.

The lens cap snaps on and does fall off with even just a little nudge but it does come with a small thin cord to attach it to your camera strap.

The batteries used are 4 AA, they will last longer if you don't constantly do a "slide show" or use the lcd screen as a view finder. Use the actual view finder and limit viewing and you will be surprised by how much you can use them. I do use rechargables as I like to take photos all the time and it saves me lots of money.

It does come with a small memory card, but I used a 128mb from the start. I can now take about 169 pictures are high resolution.

My photos come out great! Many of my friends and family ask me to take their photos now.....all because of the great shots.

There are many, many features with this camera that I haven't even touched upon but check out the Olympus website for more info.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Worked Great for 16 month Beware of the Lens Motor
Review: A few of the problems we've had with this complicated camera:
1. The instruction booklet on disk is almost useless to use. Who carries a computer around when they're trying to figure out their camera? We finally printed out the tome-->300 pages, but found it marginally useful and poorly organized.
2. The menu buttons on the camera stopped working properly after 5 months (required pushing with a pencil with just the right pressure and angle) --unfortunately we didn't get it sent in for repair within the one year warranty.
3. Now at 16 months into ownership the camera is not useable because the zoom lens stopped working--after one too many times grinding against the lens cap that we forgot to remove before turning on the camera. This is a result of very poor design--inadvertant pressure can turn the camera on at any time and the lens cap prevents the zoom from expanding--instead it 'grinds' against the lens cap.
4. We've researched repair and find that Olympus will charge between $214-$260 to fix this 16 month old camera.

When it works, it's a decent camera. Nice pictures. But for the reasons above, I don't recommend this camera to anyone.


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