Olympus Camedia D-380 2MP Digital Camera

Rating:
Summary: This is a FABULOUS camera
Review: I just recently received this camera and let me tell you, it is a FABULOUS camera for a beginner like me. All the other reviews I've read has helped me alot in choosing this camera. I didn't want to spend a lot and I didn't and I also didn't have to give up on quality either. Yes, the optical zoom part might be a factor later but, hey this camera does the job for me.

Rating:
Summary: Impressed
Review: I was pleasantly surprised about the clarity of the pictures, even when printed at an 8X10 format. I took a photo of the dog, and you can practically see every single hair of his fur on the large print-out. Close-up (Macro) photos turned out to be excellent. I must add, though, that I am not using the photo editing software that came with the camera. So I cannot really judge its performance. I am using Microsofts "Picture It" software instead. It has far more features than the Olympus software - even though it is terribly slow - and it does a great job for its low price tag.
Ni-MH batteries and charger are a must for this and any other digital camera. Otherwise one would use up regular batteries by the sackload.

Rating:
Summary: Great camera-Poor software
Review: I just got this camera a couple of days ago. The picture quality is wonderful. The camera is easy to use, takes great pictures and has a ton of options that makes it fun to use.
The problem is the software included for loading your pictures onto your computer. The Camedia Master software lets you load your pictures from your camera to this program but IT DOES NOT LET YOU SEND PICTURES THROUGH EMAIL OR EVEN TRANSFER THEM TO A DISK. I spent hours trying to do this, thinking I was just doing something wrong. In the end, I wasn't. You have to buy the upgrade to Cameia Master Pro in order to do this. I think this was pretty much false advertisement on Olympus's part...

Rating:
Summary: This camera ROCKS!
Review: I just got my new digital camera yesterday. It's the first one I ever owned and it couldn't be simpler! I was taking pictures within 5 minutes of opening the box. I had the software installed, the pictures downloaded, cropped and edited in 30-60 mins (I wasn't keeping track of time because I was having SO MUCH FUN with the camera) with no problems whatsoever: the editing software that comes with it is really easy to use, I found the instructions simple and the camera's controls intuitive. I researched cameras a lot before deciding on this one and I couldn't be more pleased. I am an average home computer user and a VERY novice photographer, but I thought the first pictures out of this camera were great. You can see them all at [URL] if you want to check out the quality for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Easy as 1-2-3
Review: Actually, just bought it, just got it, and it took me less than 20 minutes to be best buddies with it... Takes great pictures, as I knew an Olympus camera would, that's why I went for Olympus. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, and I got lucky on an Amazon sale. Great buy, great pictures, easy to use software, can't tell about the batteries cause I didn't have time to evaluate how fast consuming this camera is. What I know is that I heard that digital cameras were so hard to deal with that you ended up leaving them behind, and this is as fast as regular cameras plus you get to fix, erase, modify the pictures in a cinch.

Rating:
Summary: First Impressions
Review: After three years of wanting and drooling, I finally bought a digital camera. Now of course, I had my doubts and worries, so I held my breath with each click I made which led me to purchase the Olympus Camedia D-380. My fears subsided when I began to test the features of this camera when I received it the next day. This is a great beginner's camera. At the highest resolution (1600x1208), you can take 5 photos. At the lowest resolution (640x480), you can take up to 47 photos, although it's not the best quality. By default, the setting is at 1600x1200, which allows for 16 photos. I use 1024x768 which gives me 29 photos. Keep in mind that these number of photos are on an 8MB memory card. A higher card will produce more clicks for your buck. For the most part, I didn't need the instruction booklet to guide me through the steps. I find it simple to operate, and mainly used the booklet to understand what the icons represented. There was very little which I couldn't figure out where I used the booklet to understand. This camera is simple to operate. This is my first camera of any kind, and I found it worth my money. The first thing I noticed was how light this camera was. It felt like a toy, but it's functions proved otherwise. The four AA batteries will add some weight to the camera, but not by much. After every photo, the image will freeze for less than a second in the LCD screen. You can view your photos through the thumbnails offered, and delete those which you don't want, saving space and meory for those good photos. The Olympus Camedia D-380 can also record mini movies (without sound of course). The more difficult aspect I found was the application which comes with this Camera, but the problems where easily worked through. Over all, I found this camera to meet my needs. I'd recommend it to anyone first starting out.

Rating:
Summary: Half my kingdom (or 1 more star) for a real zoom lens.
Review: The D-380 is another of the Olympus line of clam shell cameras dating back to the old (non-digital) Stylus models of the mid-80s; this one is an update of the successful D-370. The design is tried and true and I like it for its compactness and its ability to protect the lens from those with a penchant for losing lens caps. The D-380 offers adequate resolution at 2 megapixels. As I have stated in numerous reviews of other digicams, resolution much beyond 2 megapixels is worse than useless for most applications, it is costly. It not only costs money in the sense that it raises the initial price of the camera, but operationally, it requires greater battery use, usually involves longer lag times between shots, takes much longer to download to a PC and especially prolongs both phases of e-mailing photos (your uploading the file and your recipient opening it). These latter issues are, in my opinion, the most important, as the real purpose of digital cameras is their neat integration into the world of personal computing. [note: For those folks whose needs are enlarging photos beyond 8" x 10", higher resolution is required] The downside of the D-380 is the lack of an optical zoom. Digital zooms are in no way the equals of optical zooms. What these digizooms do is enlarge the center of the image captured by the zoom's stated power. In this case, using the full 5:1 zoom will take the central 20% of the image and stretch it to fill the entire frame. Unfortunately, this degrades the image by an equivalent percentage of pixels. Therefore, a 2 megapixel image digitally zoomed 5X begets an image with a resolution of only 400,000 megapixels. The result is a grainy picture suitable only for emailing or website posting, but not for any sort of printing or enlarging.
Aside from the zoom issue, the camera is a winner. Its ability to operate off readily available AA alkalines (though it will accept rechargeables and these make more sense in may ways), its easily expandable memory (it uses SmartMedia, not quite as good as CompactFlash cards, but close enough) and its adequate number of user-controllable settings all combine to make this a very serviceable camera at a very attractive price.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Camera
Review: This turned out to be an excellent camera. I was a bit scared of the Olympus brand, whether the pictures would come out good, and if the cables were going to fit. None of this were problems. It takes great pictures. I like how one has the option to use either alkeline or lcd batteries. The only small problem is finding a 6.5 volt dc adapter to use the camera at home, which I cannot find. I'm beggining to doubt whether it exists at all. Oh well, if you buy it you will be pleased. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Hey...it's easy and it works!
Review: Just got this camera on May 31, 2002, there were not many reviews so I vowed I would respond when I had made a quick review of the product. Here goes:
Camara came with the non-lithum batteries, but I have used the ones in the box now off and on for two days. It was very intimidating with all the multiple books included, but mostly that's because they duplicate each book for each language. It took me about an hour to feel comfortable shooting the camera, but I took several pictures in the first 10 min.
Camera feels solid, light and comfortable. The LCD menu is intimidating and I think I will still have to do more research, but it looks promising for advance features. The panarama works with the card that comes with it, so use it for just those shots, cause it won't work on any other smart media cards like the free one that was given with the promotion. I went out and took two dozen pictures of my chickens on the free media card and never got to the end.
The quality of the pictures are excellent, especially for web design or email. Printing I haven't done on the good quality paper but appears that it could successfully accomplish that also.
Overall I found the auto light and point and shoot ability with this camera great...even went outside at dusk and took great shots. The software is fair, but I fell back on JASC Paint Shop. The connection was exactly like connecting an external USB external hard drive and works the same so you can drag and drop things to whatever location you prefer.
If I come across any downs for this camera I will write an additional review. But my conclusion is...
This is a great camera for my needs and most needs and is awfully fun to work. Excellent for the price...and if it last for a good long while I will be tickled to death.

Rating:
Summary: Great for beginners
Review: After a lot of comparing I decided to purchase the D-380. I must say that I am very happy with it. Although the zoom is not all that great, and some of the pictures come out blurry, it is a great buy. I have a habit of loosing things so I needed a camera that was cheap but nice. Also the software that comes with the camera is kind of iffy but the free ofoto software works great. I recommend this camera to someone who is buying their first digital camera or just need a camera for occasional use. I am in college and it is perfect for me. But i am definetly going to upgrade when i purchase my next camera. Great Graduation Gift.