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Summary: I LOVE MY NEW CAMERA. GREAT INVESTMENT......
Review: I just bought my D490 so I can take pictures and send them to my parents and friends. This was definately money well spent. The camera is user friendly, just point & shoot. It has a great zoom and it's very light. I love it and highly recommend it.
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Summary: No experience necessary
Review: Very happy with this camera! Took great photos without any previous digital camera experience. My first photos at company event were better than those from other more expensive cameras...and results are improving as I utilize more of the camera's functions. Highly recommend Olympus P330 printer as well --no flexibility with print size, but excellent color rendition.
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Summary: Warning to Windows ME users
Review: I have not used this camera, rather the D360L. However, when I upgraded to Windows ME (to take advantage of "My Pictures" and the built-in digital camera stuff), my camera wouldn't work. It wasn't in the driver list, so I contacted Olympus.This was my response (read - "doesn't work - we're not doing anything abount it") "The newer Olympus digital camera models -- D360L, D400Z, D450Z, D460Z, D490Z, C2000Z, C2020Z, C211Z, C2500L, C3000Z, C3030Z, and the C21 -- are not designed to use twain drivers, plug-ins, or the mini-apps to communicate with the computer. The Olympus Camedia utility software communicates with these camera models to download (copy) your picture files into a folder on your computer harddrive where they can be accessed by any software program that can use jpeg or tiff formatted graphic files. Only the following Olympus digital cameras are twain compliant: D200L, D220L, D300L, D320L, D340L, D340R, D500L, D600L, and D620L. Only the D200L and the D300L can not communicate using Camedia. "
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Summary: So easy to use!
Review: My camera just arrived 2 days ago. It's the first digital camera I've used and it's wonderful! It's easy to work and the pictures are beautiful. Worth the investment.
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Summary: Totally Worth Your Money!
Review: AOL is advertising two digital cameras. One of them costs[more than] $200 and with barely any memory and 640x480 resolution! They are also advertising another camera with 2mb space and 240x480 resolution!
Now, if you are looking for a digital camera in order to create GOOD pictures, then I'll give you some pointers:
1)It should have optical zoom
2)It should come with AT LEAST 8mb of storage space
3)Smartmedia is more convenient than compact flash
4)Sony cameras that require memory sticks are NOT GOOD (they could easily change their memory format soon, and they are the only company with memory sticks)
5)It should have about 1084x1280 resolution or more in order for it to come out good
6)Always remember that you can always buy more memory for your camera, so don't worry about that too much (the memory does cost a lot, however)
7)Go to activebuyersguide.com for their opinion (that's what I did)
8)Most importantly, if you don't find anything better, GET THIS AWESOME CAMERA!
Good Luck!
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Summary: Great Camera.
Review: I almost took a point off because this camera doesn't have a USB port, but I found a SanDisk USB card reader locally for $40. Amazon didn't sell this reader at the time I write this. The card reader is a necessity, a full 16MB card will take about 20 seconds to transfer with the reader, using the serial port you can go have lunch or something while it downloads. NiMH batteries are also a necessity, for the price of a few lithium batteries you can get 8 NiMH batteries and a charger, that way you can always have a set charged up. Image quality is excellent. I was looking at the C3030 and couldn't see spending that much for a few extra features and another million pixels. Unless you plan on printing out 8x10 prints the extra resolution isn't needed, use the extra money on accessories. Printing the D490 HQ images at 3x5 inches they look as good as 35mm prints. I have run several tests shooting the same image using all the modes of the camera and found the best mode to use is normal HQ, under certain conditions SHQ will give you better color reproduction and slightly sharper edges. The SHQ-TIFF mode images are huge and I have yet to see any difference between it and SHQ mode, even in macro mode with a complex object the images look the same. As for the soft setting and the digital zoom, you are better off taking a normal HQ image and using software on the computer to soften or resize. The QuickTime movie feature is fun to play with, kinda like having an old 8mm movie camera. I like the fact that you have to raise the flash manually, if you don't want to use the flash you know it's off when it's down. That's better than having to find a button and look at a display to tell if you've turned it off. The size, price, and image quality make this a great camera to have.
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Summary: Fantastic! Best Price/Performance Tradeoff Out There!
Review: I upgraded from the Olympus D460Zoom to the D490Zoom. The D460 is a fine camera - I was generally very pleased with it. But having owned the D460Zoom for six months, I found two major faults. First, the "boot-up time" (how quickly after you turn the camera on that it is ready to shoot) and the lack of "burst" shooting (the ability to take one shot quickly after another). These two faults lead to frustration when trying to take any type of action photos with the D460. You see the action emerging, but the camera is still booting up; you take a shot, but the action gets better and you want to take another but the D460 says "not yet" because it is still writing the first photo to the media. Infuriating. The D490 addresses each of these problems beautifully. Boot up time is about 20% faster. Timing both of my cameras side-by-side, the D490 is faster (1.1 seconds versus 1.3 seconds, in five trials using the same 32Mb media cards). More important than boot up time is burst shooting. The D490 has a RAM buffer that allows you to take about 1 shot per second in the "HQ" mode (2.1 megapixels with JPEG compression). The D460 requires about 2.5 seconds between shoots in the same "HQ" mode (but the resolution is 1.3 megapixels). Also nifty if you are using the TFT screen to take shots, there is a "gas gauge" showing you how full the memory buffer is as you are shooting. I simply can't express how happy these faster response time made me, especially at this price. I was so unhappy with the D460's sluggishness that I was about to buy the $900 Olympus C3030. Similar to the C3030, the D490 also can take QuickTime movies (though much shorter ones). Another nice D490 feature is that you can erase all photos off a card while the card is still in the camera, instead of having to do the erasing on your computer (I often forget to erase after downloading to the computer, put the media card back in and find it still full when I want to take more pictures). While the D490 lacks the C3030's B&W options it does have the two more important features - the QuickTime movies and the burst shooting (both admittedly not as good as the C3030, but likely good enough for most of us). Beyond the $400 saving, the D490 still retains a much smaller footprint; it can easily slip into a pants or shirt pocket. As for the enhancement from 1.3 to 2.1 megapixels (D460 vs D490), I can't really tell much difference. I took two identical shots both "HQ" mode, printed them 4x6 on my HP970Cxi; they look the same. Currently the D490 is about $100 more than the D460. I would say the "burst" shooting alone is easily worth the extra money. Go and get one! Shoot happy!
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Summary: D-490 camedia
Review: After purchasing the D490, I found this camera extremely easy to operate and to be the best digital camera for this price, that not only takes still shots, but also MPEG movies. Depending on the quality of picture you require, you can store hundreds of picture on the 32mb smartcard, which I purchased in addition to the 8mb card included in the package. 60 second MPEG movies can be recorded and played back with ease. There is an abundance of flash, editing and viewing features on the camera. The D490 is lightweight (in fact, most of the weight is the batteries) and easy to use, although on the downside, I find that the manually operated shutter closing mechanism to be slightly awkward as the lens has to retract fully before the shutter can close completely. Also, the flash has to be opened manually, and I found it to be a bit fragile, and was always worried that I might just pull it off accidentally.
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Summary: great camera
Review: I have owned my camera for 2 years and had nothing but trouble with it. Once the warranty expired (of course), I had strange problems with the batteries! They would only operate if they were warm! Very odd. And, just as others have posted, the camera suddenly "died" on me about a month ago. Not worth the money to fix it, I just purchased a new camera. NOT an Olympus!
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Summary: Great starting digital camera
Review: I have had a love affair with the Olympus D490 now for 2 years. And up until very recently, I would have sung nothing but praises for this camera. (In spite of the stupidity of having to manually open and close cover to turn camera on/off and/or view pictures) We got along great, we went everywhere together, I had decided that this camera was the love of my life...UNTIL...tragedy struck. This damn bastard camera just up and gave out one day. No warning, no "dear john letter" no nothing...just abandonment and betrayal. And things were going so well for us too! How was I to know that complete heartbreak was right around the corner?
I don't know if I can ever trust or love another camera again. And if I do, you can bet it's not going to be an Olympus. For the 400.00+ I spent on this baby 2 years ago (and yeah, i know the prices have come way down)..I would have expected this thing to last longer than it has. In closing...enjoy your D490 while you can...but know in your heart that your joy is fleeting, and that like all good things in life...the joy comes to an end and leaves you miserable and alone (cameraless). Merry Freaking Christmas.
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