Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This is my third Olympus camera and in my opinion it is the best one. The pictures are amazing!! I am not the greatest photographer, but this camera makes me look good. The color is perfect, it's easy to use and it's Olympus!! As with all digital cameras, battery life is terrible, so invest in rechargeable batteries and always have spares. Before purchasing this camera I was tempted to go with a Nikon, but when I compared the features side by side-Olympus was the one for me.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Camera!
Review: I am not going to bore you with a bunch of technical info. I just want to say that anyone with half-a-brain about photography will love this camera. I upgraded from a C-2000Z and I found this camera very easy to use. The manual is not the clearest thing to understand but that's where the half-a-brain comes in handy. If you take your time and don't get hung up about having to remove the lens cap before you turn the camera on you will be very happy with this camera. The great thing about digital is that you can experiment with it and instantly see the results. That makes the photography learning curve much faster and easier.
Bottom line: A great high end camera that is fairly easy to use.
Rating:
Summary: A Hard to Beat Camera
Review: After having doused a Camedia 2000 Camera in a river in the Venezuelan jungles of the Amazon, I decided to go for the top of the line Olympus Camedia C-4040. Took it to Turkey and shot over 1000 pictures at low and medium resolution. Came home and projected them on a 3 ft. by four foot screen and everyone was amazed. I am absolutely fascinated by this camera. Color rendition is excellent, and battery life exceeds expectations, especially if flash is not used. You really don't need it in many situations since the camera behaves marvelously in low light situations. Also, Windows handles the transfers without any problem for quick viewing and picture rotations. The manual modes are good for the overly serious photographer but for those just a notch under "professional" that want first class pictures and know how to take them, the programmed mode will take care of all the technical details for you magnificently. I only wish I could attach a fisheye lens to the otherwise complete digital camera. This is a camera for the discriminating photographer.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Camera - but...
Review: Overall, this is a fantastic camera. The resolution is astonishing, clarity is excellent. The only problem I've found is with some of the attachments and specialty lenses. I got the UV filter, which is highly recommended by the manufacturer as a protective cover for the lens. You need this if you're planning on using a telephoto or fish-eye lens. The problem? If you're using one of these lenses, you *have* to have an external flash because the adapter is so long that it casts a shadow from the internal flash. It also blocks part of the view in the viewfinder, so you can't see the entire frame. Otherwise, I've found no flaws. I do recommend a flash memory reader so you can avoid using the tiny USB cable that comes with the camera. Seems faster, too. Overall, I'm still loving my camera - use it nearly every day!
Rating: 
Summary: Shutter lag and bad colors
Review: I just returned mine to the store, it is my second Olympus; I had a 3040 for two years, I found the shutter lag (the 2 seconds mentionned in the previous comment) unacceptable and what you may have read above about the colors being off and the burned out colors (whitish) when taking photographs outside in the sun is all true; I was hoping that in 2 years Olympus would have improved things but found the same defects. I need a digital camera but this is not it. A new Minolta Dimage X has no shutter lag and better colors at a fraction of the price. On the plus side this camera will take pictures in near darkness with the flash turned off, the lens and sensor are that fast , the colors will be off of course but they would be off with the flash also.Digital is still a trade off unless you buy a Nikon D100 for many thousands of $.
Rating:
Summary: Slow!?! NOT IF YOU KNOW HOW TO USE IT!
Review: Many of the reviews here on Amazon.com say that there is a lag, of a few seconds, between the pressing of the button and the time the shot is taken. "You don't get the picture you acually want." But this is not the case. When you push the sutter button half way down, the camera focuses. Then when you push it the rest of the way, it takes the picture instantly. If you are unaware of this focusing feature and try to take the picture without focusing beforehand, than there will be a lag of a few seconds. In short; this camera is very fast as it is one of the fastest on the market today.
Rating:
Summary: Amateurs(Like me) and Pros alike will like this camera
Review: Let me first state that this is a wonderful camera, and that if I had it to do over again, I would buy this one without reservation. It's simple to use for us just getting started, but has the bells and whistles a pro would look for. The biggest cons are the use of Smart Media and the lens cap thing. Aside from those, the rest are just nits. Pros:
Very easy to learn how to use. The menu system is straight forward and easy to change quickly. Point, shoot, get good photos. It's almost as if the camera is able to correct for inexperience. With 2000 or XP, very easy to off-load a card. Using it to shuffle 128MB of data back and forth tho, has been problematic (i.e. from a laptop to a desktop -- but then, that's why there are CD burners...). Lightweight, small, and easy to hold onto. I've had disposables that were more cumbersome than this one. Battery life is great. I can normally shoot through three cycles of about 150 HQ pictures before the juice is low. People have complained that rechargeables are not included with cam -- would have been nice, but oh well -- go buy some. Great, big, beautiful, rich, wonderful, photos! Cons:
The lens cover. Both the fact that it can jam the retractable lens, and the fact that it completely detaches. The last thing I want to worry about when I'm out and about is keeping track of a lens cap...and attaching it to the camera only created a dangling distraction and wind catcher. An integrated cover would have been nice. Low light, auto-focus, auto-film speed, no flash situations, for me, cause blurry pictures. As I stated before, I am by *no* means anything but an amateur photographer...so it could just be me. There are times that I do not want a flash -- I would prefer the ambiance of the natural light. I find that I have a difficult time with this...the photos almost always come out blurry if the subject moves even slightly. The optical view finder. Worthless. tiny, poorly placed, scratches easily...mine is unusable after four monthes. And, in bright sunlight, the digital view finder is almost unusable. 16MB Smart Media card. Yeah right. That's about 5 photos at SHQ. Go buy a 128MB card. While we're on the topic of Smart Media -- I'm afraid that this is going to be a casualty of the portable data wars. It will probably be around for a few more years, but I'm skeptical. Why did you make me print the 400 page instruction booklet, Olympus? Ouch.
Rating:
Summary: Pros and Cons
Review: Pros:
- takes quick time movies!
- picture quality is good
- picture download is easy and quick Cons:
- lens cap keeps on falling off in my bag
- flash pictures are horrible; flash ruins everything
- need to turn off flash repeatedly, almost for every picture and it takes three pushes of the flash button to get it there each time
- picture is taken about a second after you press the button, so you don't get the picture you wanted
- takes time for the lens to come out when you turn the camera on (too slow)
Rating:
Summary: High Quality Camera with a few issues
Review: I have owned this camera for about 8 months and like it a lot, but it doesn't quite fit my needs. It produces high-quality pictures, has good battery life (I only use the LCD screen for macro shots). But, you need a 128 MB memory card if you plan to take many pictures while away from your laptop or computer for downloads. The USB port is quick and I can download the pictures directly from the camera to my laptop without using much battery power. I had an Olympus D360 3x zoom before (a 1.3 megapixel CCD) and was very happy with the quality of the exposures and pictures it took without much fuss. Taking good pictures with this camera is more difficult, probably because it is much more complex and has much greater resolution. When exposure and focus is right, the camera takes great pictures but it is not as automatic as my old Olympus. I travel a lot internationally and use the camera to document my work and to send pictures home via email. The C-4040 is overkill for this. It is bulkier and the pictures, while much higher resolution, are also much bigger. So, I have used lower resolution and higher compression to have pictures that are fine in reports and, with more compression in Photoshop, are small enough to send via email. So, why carry this larger, high-resolution camera? I read some complaints about the lens cap and turning the camera on with the cap on. The camera lens extension mechanism does not jam, it just won't turn the camera on. I have done this a couple of times, just turn the camera off, take the lens cap off, and turn it on again. Works fine. No lasting effects from forgetfulness, just as you would want and expect. I like the lens cap, it ties to the camera with a sturdy cord so I have never lost it. Keeps the lens clean even in dirty conditions of driving around construction sites. The issues: More complexity, bulkier camera, big files, and a substantial parallex problem in some shots (things look barrelled or not square, especially at the edges of close-up shots). Even though the lens faster, that hasn't helped me take better pictures inside. Exposures need to be set carefully at lower light settings and I am just not used to it. If you are looking for an easy to use,easy to carry, almost automatic camera, look elsewhere. If you are looking for high quality pictures and high resolution and have the experience and time to get good exposures and good focus (I have trouble getting good focus in macro mode), this is an excellent camera. I plan to keep it to use in more demanding photographic situations but will buy a lower resolution and smaller camera for my travels.
Rating: 
Summary: Be careful with this camera
Review: Always have purchased Olympus cameras however the mechanics of this camera are not smooth and too sensative for users. We had camera only 1 day and the camera was defective. If you accidently leave the lens cap on and turn on camera it will jam the mechanics of the lens which will not allow camera to operate. If you choose you can pry the retractable lens out but one should not make a camera mechanics so sensative. Everything else about the camera was great! In comparison the Sony brand lens moves with less clicking noise and is much smoother and doesnt try to operate if the lens cap is left on. As you can see we converted from Olympus to Sony. Somewhat of a disappointment for we have used Olympus for over 15 years.
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