Rating: 
Summary: Great Camera
Review: With exception to red-eye, I would give it a 10.This works best when taking pictures outside but it is only average at dark places. Try to buy a flash for darker indoors.
Rating: 
Summary: Overpiced low quality plastic toy.
Review: The first thing that struck me when I opened the camera box was the cheap quality of the plastic body of the camera and many of its functional components. The camera looks and feels cheap. There is a small motor inside that control the lens. It kept grinding like a McDonald's give away toy car. The second thing that one notices when tries to shoot a picture is the extremely poor optical quality of the optical viewfinder. I have seen better quality optical viewfinders in disposable film cameras. The Olympus spents quite a lot of effort to warn the buyer that the optical viewfinder is misaligned with respect to the actual picture taken but makes no mention of the optical quality problems. Reading the camera manual the new buyer will be "thriled" to learn directly from OLYMPUS that the camera TFT screen and the the LCD displays have "limited life". The note in the manual further warns the buyer to expect that the screen will eventualy start flickering and getting darker. So if your camera starts flickering after the warranty runs out be prepared for an expensive repair bill. It would have been nice if Olympus had put a longer lasting screen instead of warning of the shody quality of the components on the last pages of the operator's manual. If you plan to use this camera for more than a week in a field environment buy another camera. The operating specification limits in the manual specify operating and storing condition of the camera to 90% humidity. (Most other electronics specify 98% non condensing limits) So dont plan to take any picture on a hot humid summer in this continent. Overall I have to give this camera one star as Amazon does not allow dark holes in its rating system.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best for the bucks....
Review: I've owned 5 digital cameras in just the last few years and find myself to be very demanding. I researched extensively the cameras available and found that the C3030 is certainly one of the best for the bucks. The only negative thing about the camera is it's time delay between clicking the button and it taking the picture. So if you do a ton of action shots you may want to do some more research. My former Mavicas were instantaneous. Otherwise a great camera. The only negatives I have aren't the camera as much as Olympus... A. Camera lens cover comes off when you look at it wrong. I lost mine in the first week and still have'nt been able to find a relplacement. Get a $2.00 lens cord and you'll be spared this problem. B. Buy more than the 16mb flash card. Unless you shoot just a few pictures and download religiously, you'll want more memory. C. Don't use the LCD panel display unless you own stock in Duracell. Use the SLR through the lens viewer and save a ton on batteries. D. Forget the packaged software provided. Buy a Viking flash reader or just download on to your computer and use a real photo editing program...and if you use Windows 2000 don't even try to load the software. Overall a great camera with great quality images.
Rating:
Summary: Olympus C3030Z Camera
Review: Despite the problems with the optical viewfinder being off alot in the zoom mode, and the Quicktime sound falling behind the movie by a factor of 1 frame every 4 seconds, the Olympus C3030Z is an excellent camera for stills. Olympus has relased firmware version 80 which fixes the Quicktime problem, but they have no plans to fix the problem with the viewfinder.
Rating:
Summary: Serious photographers will love this camera!
Review: This is an outstanding camera. I have been a casual photographer for many years and finally took the digital plunge - the C3030 outstrips the performance of my 35 mm SLR, and after much research, I concluded it outperforms most digital cameras as well. I also read some of the previous reviews, and most of the negative "problems" people listed either weren't problems of the camera or were because the person didn't know how to use the camera. When it comes right down to it, picture quality is what makes or breaks a digital camera. The C3030 sweeps the field. Color quality and sharpness exceeds my 35 mm. I took a face portrait of my son and blew it up to just his eyeball - you could count the tiny veins in his eye. You can easily blow up pictures beyond 8 x 10 and still have sharp pictures. It does a better job reproducing sharp, realistic colors than most Kodak film. Low light capability is very good (even better with the new C3040 with its 1.8 lens). The menu is easily navigated (although it will take a little study of the manual; the camera has a lot of capability) and the controls are, for the most part, very easy to use. The camera is nicely programmable for those who want to venture there. The memory-buffered multi-picture capability (like a fast motor drive in an SLR) is very handy for action shots. The camera is extremely compact considering its capability and can be carried easily. When taking pictures, it is very comfortable and natural to hold, unlike many other digital cameras. The USB transfer rate is much better than a serial cable but I took it a step further and bought an inexpensive Smart Media PC card adaptor. I pop the card out of the camera and into the PC slot and it is a near instant download of 128 MB of pictures! (I purchased the 128 MB card and it holds a huge number of pictures). It uses up batteries, but no more than other digital cameras. I purchased 1400mah NiMH batteries and travel charger for only $38 - it works great and lasts a reasonable amount of time; hasn't been a problem. I have taken many hundreds of pictures, perhaps thousands, without a single glitch. One of my few complaints is the flash performance, but the camera takes such great pictures without the flash, especially with a tripod, I mostly don't use it. Again, the new C3040 may take this even one step further. I also wish the Macro performance was better (closer) but it has been acceptable for most applications. My next purchase will be the telephoto lens to expand the camera's capabilities. Bottom line is you will love this camera.
Rating:
Summary: I almost didn't buy it :-(
Review: I almost didn't buy this camera, mostly because of some of the reviews posted here; the problems seemed targed to exactly what would bother me about it. But I went ahead and bought it, only to discover that the problems didn't exist. It is extremely easy to turn off the flash (just a touch of the obvious button with a flash sign on it), and the Ni-MH batteries that come with the accessory package work just swell. I was also astonished at how long the batteries that came with the camera lasted and lasted and lasted. Not a single problem transferring the pics to the puter, either. I agree that more f-stops could come in handy, but the speed of the lens has worked terrific for me. Shooting at 2.4 covers a lot of territory, and a lens like that for my Canon would cost me a fortune. Come to think of it, it has cost me a fortune. I find myself opting to underexpose shots (when the choice has to be made) because I can always recover a good deal of the "lost info" through Photoshop. But once it's blow out, it's out. I have to say that going back and reading some of these reviews, now that I have the camera, I'm wondering if I have the same camera as some of these other people:-) All of the good points about this camera have pretty much been covered, so I won't spend time going over them. I just want to put in my rave about how small it is, the angles available on the lens, and the mind-blowing prints that come out of my Epson 1270 printer. The tonal range of the colors is so broad (much broader than I've been able to capture on silver halide) that I sometimes put a file through Adobe first, just to bring it down to what is usually expected. I was very nervous when I bought this camera, thinking that the time for me to own a digital really hadn't come yet, but I was delightfully wrong about that. Even if I weren't relying on this for professional reasons, I'd want it just for keeping family memories. It is such a delight to be in a "junk in, junk out" photo enviornment, and not biting my nails until I'm in the darkroom to see if I caught what I thought I was catching.
Rating:
Summary: Olympus C3030 is a Great Buy at any price
Review: I have owned this camera now for about 7 months now. I use a Epson 850 printer with it. I just love this thing. It really works great, Pictures are out of this world. Has a white ballance control which is so importanton digital cameras. This means you can take color corrected pictures in a Gym, out doors, when clouds come out and indoors with incadencent lights. It even does moview with sound. Has many features my 35mm had too so I can take custom pictures. Buy this camera, it is fun, easy to hold, and carry. To make this work well I recommend buying these with it at the time of purchase: The olympus 64 meg scan disk not any other manuf. You can do panormic only with oly. Buy 8 Rechardable Energizer batteris high energy nic-net-hydride and charger, The olypus CLA1 41mm to 43mm conversion lens adapter, at 24.95 and the step uup ring 43 mm to 55mm , then get a 55mm UV haze filter and 55mm lens cap. This way the lens on the camera can be protected, and you can add a polarizer filter for really great blue skys. Oh it also opens the door to more b day presents for other lenses olympus has. Maybe Amazon will some day carry these items to make it all work. The software that comes with the camera allows wonderful pictures and easy downloads via usb too. you do not need any other software like other cameras. I am really in the photography so I bought photoshop ver 5 as well. I promise you will love this camera as much as I do, Yes it is only rated number 2 now, but it really should be 1 for normal people like me. If you are a pro the number 1 may fit, but price and features, this one you can operate without being a pro and get great pictures. Bottom line buy it, You will be happy.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Digital Output, but comprises in Controls.
Review: I have used this camera for one of my model shoots. Very surprisingly, at 40 by 30 inches poster print, the resolution is so sharp that tiny details such as the model's fine hair on the shoulders could still be seen! even when printed in 40 by 30 inches poster! Now this is something, the 135mm, nor i think the medium format can give. BTW, I used the SHQ format, which gives me abt 27 pic, on a 64 MB disk. However, MANY problems were encountered when we were trying to retrieve the pics from the disk. We had specially bought a cable for the transfer of info, but, it seems that, the disk, or the cable is not very stable. Well, You might like me, get many problems when trying to get the pic out from the disk. Such that even when we try to download the pic from the camera, it kept hanging. But the abovementioned problem is or might be a problem with the PC, or (i suspect) the disk, of which i had three, the 16 MB, 32 MB, and 64MB one. another shortcoming of the camera is the inabilty to switch off the flash feature. As during the shoot, when i try to take my model in low light situations, there is NO way i could turn the flash off, as it does not come with that feature, as it is either in Flash mode or hotshoe to the lightings flash. But overall, it gives gd results for a casual photographer.
Rating:
Summary: Great Camera - EXTREMELY POOR SERVICE
Review: I love this camera but it does NOT work with normal Ni-MH batteries like the book recommends. The more expensive non-rechargable Lithiums like it comes with last a very long time. Great picts too! Customer service at Olympus however is EXTREMELY POOR! I tried to call them regarding their recommended batteries not working (camera goes dead immediately - low batteries). I was on hold (Daytime long distance rates!) for over an hour pushing a button every minute or so. I finally hung up after listening to them tell me how valuable my time was. So,I tried E-mail. Got a great generic answer but not about my question. So, I tried their web site. It said Ni-MH batteries of 1300 mA or better work. Mine are 1500 mA and don't. So, I tried a response to their E-mail. Yet another useless response that didn't even approach answering my question. I tried to call them again and got the same crappy treatment again and hung up. I tried E-mail again and got yet another useless response. The bottom line is that I'll use the $10 each lithium batteries since I get about 250 shots from them. I won't even attempt to use their support again. Don't waste your time. I really like the camera and its a shame that a company that makes such great products can't get a support department that can read or staffed to handle the volume of calls they must be getting. Its no wonder they don't have a 1-800 number for support!
Rating:
Summary: Olympus doesn't support TWAIN anymore !
Review: One of the major issues around Olympus digital imaging systems is, that they keep ignoring TWAIN as a standard for digital imaging. We had the C-21 and returned it because of the lack of support for W2K and Twain (i.e. no direct picture transfer into W2K or PhotoShop). Reading the reviews this is a general problem for all Olympus cameras except the E-10. Olympus does not intend to fix this. The consequence is that you need to buy additional transfer equipment, use additional software spending extra money and time on getting things achieved. Your option is thus the Nikon and Canon (S-20).
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