Rating: 
Summary: A GREAT DIGITAL INTRO CAMERA
Review: I HAVE HAD SUCH FUN WITH THIS CAMERA. AFTER TWO YEARS I AM STILL FINDING NEW FEATURES, YET I WAS ABLE TO TAKE GREAT PICTURES IMMEDIATLEY. THE 2.1 MEGAPIXELS ALLOWS FOR EXTENSIVE CROPPING AND ENLARGING EVEN IN HQ MODE.WITH TIFF MODE YOU CAN TAKE VERY DETAILED PHOTOS OF ART OR NATURE SUBJECTS. THE 3X OPTICAL ZOOM DISTINGUISHES THE D-490 IN IT'S PRICE RANGE (OF COURSE NOW I WANT THE 10X C-2100). DIGITAL ZOOM IS IRRELEVANT. UNLESS THEY HAVE CHANGED THE SERIAL PORT THING YOU WILL NEED A FLASHPATH CARD READER. ALSO SOME OTHER EDITING PROGRAM THAN THAT PROVIDED IN THE BOX; I USE MY SCANNER PROGRAM, BUT PHOTOSHOP LE OR OTHERS WOULD WORK AS WELL. I NEVER KNEW I LOVED PHOTOGRAPHY UNTIL I GOT THIS CAMERA
Rating: 
Summary: Good but has problems.
Review: Great pictures, but following problems were encountered.Very short battery life.
Software problems (tech help was very good but still took 1/2 hour to fix).
Oddly designed lens door causes lens to jam while camera powers down. In summery, this is what I would call a Microsoft type product, When working, and when the software is not crashing, it will satisfy and take great pictures for its roughly ($) price tag.
Rating: 
Summary: rugged, automatic, my constant companion
Review: I am an avid amateur photographer and bicyclist. After many years using an Olympus OM-1 SLR, I wanted a light camera to put in my backpack and I wanted freedom from processing of film. My only hesitation was the loss of lens interchangability that was a feature of the SLR. Now, after a year of constant use, I am sorry I didn't make the move to this digital camera earlier. It has been riding with me daily and is always ready to pop out and shoot. The case is getting a little scratched but I've taken care to protect the LCD viewing surface, though I find the optical viewfinder is fine for almost all my photos, with the exception of close up shots (macros). I've dropped the camera a foot onto a carpeted floor with no ill effects. Very occasionally it will refuse to operate but I've found the difficulty is with either weak batteries or poor battery contact, both of which are easily remedied. The lithium cells supplied seem to work forever but are not rechargeable. Alkaline batteries will not work in chilly (less than 50 degree) temperatures. The best batteries I've found for price vs. performance are nickel metal hydride rechargeables. The camera uses lots of current, so if you take many shots in a short time, especially if the flash and LCD screen are used, the batteries will become warm. As a long time 35mm film user I was concerned about color quality and sharpness. No need to worry. Picture quality is outstanding and excellent 8x10 prints are easily obtained with the standard "HQ" setting that has some compression and allows 16 shots with a 8MB memory card. This setting also produces excellent photos for PC wallpaper when reduced from the 1600x1200 native size to 1024x768 for PC's. The Camedia software that comes with the camera is adequate but if you do lots of photo work I'd recommend a graphics program for ease of picture manipulation and titling. Light sensitivity is amazing and nighttime shots without flash (tripod required) produce excellent results when the sensitivity is set to ISO 400. The flip up flash is great because you can be sure the flash will not go off simply by leaving it folded down. Sunrise/sunset shots come out very well on full automatic. The ability to use "spot" light metering will turn a dark subject against a light background into a very nice picture and fill flash is always available to help. Auto white balance makes adjusting for inside or outside light a memory. For almost all situations this camera really is point and shoot and I've caught many scenes that would have left me fumbling with my old manual SLR and lenses. I couldn't be more pleased with the D490. It's one of the best purchases I've ever made.
Rating:
Summary: impressive little machine
Review: I use this camera to no end; as far as ease of use or general quality is concerned, i've never used anything better. I will admit that i'm a stickler for macro, so it's wide-angle exclusivity is a bit of a drag, and it doesn't handle motion or low-light situations... at all (major blurriness issues). so really this camera's usefulness is determined by what you plan to do with it. it's small, lightweight, and the design is infinitely user-friendly, so in as far as snapshot photography is concerned, it's more or less ideal. for the hardcore digital photo junkie, it's simply not going to be adequate, but this camera really was not designed with that kind of use in mind. i just set mine to standard quality and shoot my 150 pictures to the 16mb card, and am pleased. as far as image quality, i find it's color fidelity is very nice, and even when not fully in focus, the images are always... pretty. so yes, all-around good-time camera, but really not so geek-oriented as what i might use for other purposes.
Rating:
Summary: First timer
Review: After reading reviews of this camera and many others I decided that this was the one would be my first digital camera. After one year of owning this camera, I would have to say that overall, I not really to disappointed with it. It definitly has some flaws, such as with the door, which sometimes doesn't want to close right, and batteries are used up quicker than what I read they would.It does not take very good pictures of motion shots at all. They are usually blurry or seem out of focus. It does not take as good pics outdoors as it does indoors but still acceptable. Indoors with the flash, I have found that it takes excellent pictures, which most people take with these type cameras anyway. Also, if you really want to take advantage of this camera, get one of the 32 or 64 MB cards and a flash memory reader for your computer. The software that comes with it isn't that good either so if you don't already have a decent editing program you might want to get one like Adobe Photo Deluxe or something similar.I still have not found out what the limit of this camera is and hopefully by next year can give a better review.
Rating:
Summary: 3 out of 4 purchased broke down
Review: I, too, was thrilled with my purchase when I got it, and I studied carefully many Amazon reviews before doing so last year. I then bought three for family members and friends last Christmas. Since that time, my camera and two others (perhaps even the other one, I have not asked) have broken down and needed repair - quite embarassing to have to face my gift recipients. They ALL simply froze up, and one is still at the factory after two months.
The durability of this camera is greatly suspect, and the customer service and responsiveness of the Olympus factory is deplorable. My suggestion to you is to keep looking - I wish I had.
Rating:
Summary: Great point and shoot!
Review: This camera is a great point and shoot camera. It's great for closeups, colors come out great. Sometimes the pictures come out a little dark but that can be overcome by use of the flash. I've seen the results of other cameras in the same price range and I don't think they come close. I wish it had a 10x zoom but that would make it bulkier. It comes with 8MB smartmedia card, I bought a 64MB smartmedia for 50 bucks which gives me about 120 high res. jpeg pictures. CONS: It doesn't come with an AC adapter, rechargeable batteries and USB interface. I don't like is having to remember to manually pop up the flash. Another thing is that I get some of red eyes even though it has red eye reduction.
Rating:
Summary: Great Portrait and Aerial shots
Review: My wife uses the Olympus D-490 in her real estate business taking home interior and exterior pictures for brochures and presentations, and I use the D-490 for aerial photos from a hot air balloon. It's easy to review, edit and download the pictures, but I would buy an extra 32 or 64 bit memory card. Of course we also use it for everday family photos and it compares with any camera we have ever owned. I'm buying another to replace one that got stolen.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for a While - Then Froze Up
Review: Camera took great pictures! Fell in love with it - until the day it froze up - Olympus suggested new batteries, resetting the camera, and nothing. You will also have to invest in a USB Reader to expedite working with the pictures. Have sent it out for service, but noticed a lot of retailers no longer sell this model (hmmmmmmmmm). Will get this one back - but may invest in a new, other model camera soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Good camera. Terrible service.
Review: This Olympus digital camera has a warranty that says ANY impact makes the invalidates the warranty. That includes setting the camera down on a table or desktop. In essence, no warranty. Check the warranty before you buy ANY Olympus. I dropped mine 2 feet to a carpeted floor. It stopped working. They sent me a bill to fix the camera and said they would not honor the warranty because it was 'dropped'. Sure I dropped it, but I would think the product would be a bit more resilient than that. It takes very little to damage the insides of this camera. It took months to fix (and then there are ongoing problems and lots of arrogance on their phone support). This is not the camera to rely on for a vacation... or anything for that matter. Look at Fuji, Nikon... anything but Olympus. They left a bad beer taste in my mouth. .
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