Rating: 
Summary: The best digital camera I've ever used.
Review: I've been using this camera to send digital photos to my freinds and relatives since April of 2003. I love it and would not use anything else. In my opinion a good digital camera is all about three things: image quality, ease of use, and size. The Olympus D-560 scores big in all three areas.The image quality is great. This particular camera seems to do an exceptional job of adjusting to whatever lighting conditions I'm shooting in. I often compare photos I've taken with those taken by freinds or relatives using other digital cameras during vacations or special events and mine come out better. The camera is insanely easy to use. Just point and shoot, no need to select modes or make any adjustments, it makes most of the adjustments for you. However, if you want more control the camera does allow you to fiddle around with various specialized modes. So far I have found such modes unnecessary. The physical size of the camera unit itself is just about perfect for me. Slightly larger than the palm of my hand, it's small enough to tuck into a pocket or bag with ease, but it's not so small as to make it awkward to hold and aim. After using this camera for 8 months I have discovered some drawbacks. First, my camera did NOT operate well on standard AA alkaline batteries. It was constantly locking up, beeping, and generally malfunctioning. I thought I would have to replace the camera. Then, on a tip from a freind, I switched to the higher powered CRV-3 Lithium battery, (available on Amazon) and my camera woes were solved. It's worked like a dream ever since. Second, turning off the camera is kind of clunky and time consuming. You turn the camera on and off by sliding the front lense cover open or shut. This is nice and simple, but closing the camera takes some time, as you have to start to close the cover, then wait for the lense to retract back into the case before you can finish sliding the cover shut. This adds an extra 5 seconds to the end of any photo session before you can stick it in your pocket and move on. To some this may be annoying, but I've gotten used to it. And lastly, of course, the 16mb memory card that comes with it is too small to be very useful. (I remember only getting around 17 high quality pictures on a card.) Invest some money into a high capacity memory card (128 or 256 MB) and you can take hundreds of shots without having to download them or switch cards. So, in summary, great camera. For better results use a CRV-3 Lithium battery instead of alkaline, and get a big memory card.
Rating:
Summary: olympus 550
Review: if the OLYMPUS 550 is so good,why did the discontinue the 550 and come out with the 560 model?how can i get an upgrade???????
Rating: 
Summary: Battery Burner
Review: It's a lovely gadget till the batteries run down. I can get superbly detailed photos with it. I have a 16-MB memory card in my camera. The camera will exhaust two sets of batteries filling the 16-MB card.
Rating:
Summary: Quick lecture: Digital cameras and battery types.
Review: Maybe it's because I design small electronic devices that I seem to have a better understanding of this issue of the D-560/C-350 and battery life than others. Digital cameras including this one with LCD monitor screens put savage power demands on their batteries. The basic chemistry and construction of alkaline batteries means that they are not able to efficiently deliver power at this very high rate. They just get hot and their voltage drops very quickly, making the camera shut down in a matter of minutes. Olympus have been amazingly short-sighted in supplying a pair of alkaline batteries with the D-560. It's giving users the very mistaken idea that it's designed to use this battery type, when it *isn't*. The manual on the CD-ROM more or less spells it out that alkaline batteries are only to be used as a last resort. OK? Rechargeable Ni-MH and non-rechargeable lithium batteries (CR-V3) have a completely different chemistry. They *are* capable of efficiently delivering the kind of power this camera (and other digital ones) demand, to give a very useful operating time. I've been using 2,000mAH PowerBase Ni-MH batteries in mine, and getting more than 150 photos before one set is discharged. I think that this is perfectly reasonable. The supplied 16MB XD card can only hold about 80 1024x768 pictures after all. The bottom line is this: if you are going to buy this or a similar digital camera, be prepared to buy some Ni-MH batteries and a charger or pay a lot for CR-V3 lithium batteries for as long as you own it. Olympus should make this fact crystal clear in their owner's manual, but they don't. Yes, the D-560 obviously does have a design fault. It will often give the Low Battery warning even on batteries which have just been charged. However mine doesn't stop working, and the flashing red symbol disappears after a while. If you can live with this glitch and are prepared to buy Ni-MH batteries and a charger (or CR-V3 batteries), this is one incredibly good digital camera I fully recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Superb quality pictures -
Review: My first advice to anyone looking for a camera of any kind is to buy one from a company that specializes in cameras. Not in televisions and discmans.
The second advice is that a company that has a reputation for professional equipment does not necessarily make equally good consumer level products. I make this comment after my experience with Nikon.
Now for the D-560 - Firstly - this talk about low battery life on this camera is nonsense. You HAVE to use NiMh batteries - Olympus should have made this amply clear. So ignore these ill informed comments about battery life. One can easily take 50 - 60 pics with plenty of flash and LCD use on one pair of rechargeable batteries. Since the camera uses only one pair of batteries, it is easy to carry a spare that is fully charged. Now for the Pros and Cons -
Pros -
Takes beautiful and sharp pics. Print them 8X10 and you will be left staring at them. Believe me!
Its shirt pocket size - depending on the pocket, even two might fit. Very handy and compact. You will carry it with you everywhere and take more pictures that way.
Large 1.8 inch LCD display - bright and nice. Almost occupies half the back.
Very quiet mechanism. The sliding plastic cover - that also serves as an on off switch - is a very simple and highly effective solution.
Lens and CCD combination takes very sharp pictures with very little noise.
Color fidelity and balance is top notch.
Powerful flash.
Contains the basic controls one might want in a P&S. Including, night mode, macro, potrait, backlight etc..
It is possible to use landscape/potrait mode to switch between max aperture and min shutterspeed exposure options. Very handy - can make up for the lack of exposure controls if you want to become creative.
Exposure control is accurate. Uses standard batteries - so it is possible to use regular AA ones in an emergency. They work reasonably if you don't use the LCD. Reasonably fast startup and quick shot to shot times because it seem that the XD card has fast write times.. Now for the cons - uses XD cards - and these cost almost twice as much. Add its cost to the price of the camera. Add the cost of a charger and set of batteries as well. (I recommend the panasonic charger+batteries). However, your charger/batteries have other uses as well - like use them in your discman. In many cases you might already have them with you. Movie mode does not capture audio.
Rating:
Summary: Overall good camera
Review: My first digital camera. Overall I'm very pleased. I've used it for outside and inside shots and am happy with the quality of the pictures. Definately recommend getting the NIHM rechargeable batteries. Regular ones just don't last. Camera is pretty intuitive I thought. Still learning all the bells and whistles. Software program is not as user-friendly as I'd like you have...I haven't used any other dig camera to compare but so far I'm happy with this one I think its great for general use and overall friendly to get comfortable with quickly.
Rating:
Summary: We LOVE this camera!!!
Review: My husband and I absolutely love this camera. We purchased it for many reasons - but one of them is because we have a baby on the way and wanted digital pictures because it is easier to share via the internet with family members. We are CONSTANTLY commenting on what a great buy this way.... We love our camera! The photos are wonderful quality, and the 3.2MP is perfect for our needs. With a 64MB card, you can take 81 of the largest size pictures, and we haven't needed more than that at one time. It is SO VERY user friendly, and useful in all indoor and outdoor situations. I highly recommend this camera to everyone looking for a great buy!!!
Rating:
Summary: Olympus D-560 3 MP
Review: Nice little camera! Great compact size. Easy to use features, but menu can be a little complicated. The XD memory card holds more pictures than the Smart Media card but is more difficult to locate in stores. Used it for a close-up pictures, with the "flower" setting, but the close-up picture were still blurry. However for the price and size a great little camera! Easy and fast to download pictures to PC!
Rating: 
Summary: Could be better
Review: On the down side, Battery life is not long and the camera is slow to respond. One the good side it does take good pictures.
Rating:
Summary: Super quality!
Review: Pro: I just love the camera! It takes beautiful, clear pictures, especially outdoors. I tried taking some shots indoors too and they turned out very clear also. It is perfect for taking still objects. The functional buttons are, to me, a little bit confusing to use, but if you read the manual, then it should be easy. The camera looks elegant and it is comfortable to handle.
Con: Battery life is too short, 2 AA Alkaline batteries are only good for about 6 pix (if you review them everytime).
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