Rating: 
Summary: Thorough interface and power for each user group
Review: I own the 2MP version of this camera and the user interface is at once both simple and powerful (there are aperture priority and shutter priority as well as full manual menus as well as lanscape, portrait and action full auto settings). The important thing about this series of cameras is the optical zoom (note: this is NOT DIGITAL ZOOM - digital zoom simply pixelizes and eliminates original information). The more optical zoom you have the better for your composition. My earlier version of this camera has 10X optical zoom and I use it ALL THE TIME. It was the difference between capturing my son's first time on stage at his Christmas play and just having crowd shots! Don't get another camera. This (and anothr Olympus at 10X) are the digital cameras to have under $[money].
Rating: 
Summary: A great camera at a great price, but not for action shots
Review: I own this camera and am very pleased with it. I have some photography experience but this is my first digital camera, so in choosing a camera my goals were to find one that is as close to a traditional 35 mm film camera, but digital. This camera acheives that goal. The main drawback to this camera is that it is difficult to take action photos. I'll get to that, but first a few pros: - Of course, the powerful optical zoom and optical lens, (combined with digital zoom gives you almost 30x zoom).
- For having an optical lens, this camera is really compact! It is easily held in one hand.
- Full automatic controls of shutter speed and aperture, but also the option of full manual (as well as shutter speed priority or aperture priority) should you want to do something creative. Though it does not have unlimited exposure time; you can't go past about one minute. And a few cons: - The necessary accessories will drive the price up. It only comes with a 4 MB memory card, and much more is needed (I recommend at least 64 MB, probably 128 MB). Also, rechargeable batteries are recommended, as well as a carrying case.
- Though it uses double-A's, most rechargeable double-A's don't last long. I often end up buying regular double-A's in the end anyway.
- Like other digital cameras, the camera must be powered up before taking photos but you don't want to leave it on at all times in order to save batteries. However, if you have a sudden photo opportunity it does take a minute for the camera to power up. The camera will go into sleep mode to save batteries and it "wakes up" a little faster, but still somewhat slowly. This is a minor drawback.
- And the biggest drawback, for me, is the difficulty in taking action shots. It is difficult for two reasons: 1) The auto-focus is slow. By the time the camera focuses and shoots, your photo opportunity easily may have passed. It does have manual focus but it is much slower! You have to use the up/down and left/right arrows on the back of the camera to focus. First, this is an inconvenient location especially if you are using the viewfinder instead of the viewscreen. And, the buttons are digitally controlled; each press of the button requires a short processing time. If you think you can manually focus on the fly with this camera while shooting sports photography, forget it! So, unless you are in a situation where you can focus manually once and take all of your photos at that focal length, you will have to rely on the moderately slow auto-focus. 2) After each photo, the image freezes to show you the picture you just took. This is a nice feature on most any digital camera nowadays, but since you can't turn it off it can really interfere if you are trying to take several photos back-to-back. The viewscreen does this, but so does the viewfinder, so there is no avoiding it. The only option, if you want to take quick back to back photos, is to turn on the "rapid-shooting" which will take 2 or more photos every time you press the button. Fortunately it's digital so you aren't wasting film! All of that said, I will mention that I have managed to take some decent sports photographs. The drawbacks are a nuisance but can be worked around in ways like those that I have mentioned. I recommend this camera to anyone that is looking for a digital camera at a very affordable price that will provide many of the benefits of a traditional 35 mm film-based camera. It is good for beginners as well as amateur photographers, but if you're planning to do action photography I recommend sticking to the 35 mm, or finding a different (though surely more expensive) digital camera. Bottom line: it is hard, if not impossible, to beat this camera for this price.
Rating:
Summary: A great camera at a great price, but not for action shots
Review: I own this camera and am very pleased with it. I have some photography experience but this is my first digital camera, so in choosing a camera my goals were to find one that is as close to a traditional 35 mm film camera, but digital. This camera acheives that goal. The main drawback to this camera is that it is difficult to take action photos. I'll get to that, but first a few pros: - Of course, the powerful optical zoom and optical lens, (combined with digital zoom gives you almost 30x zoom).
- For having an optical lens, this camera is really compact! It is easily held in one hand.
- Full automatic controls of shutter speed and aperture, but also the option of full manual (as well as shutter speed priority or aperture priority) should you want to do something creative. Though it does not have unlimited exposure time; you can't go past about one minute. And a few cons: - The necessary accessories will drive the price up. It only comes with a 4 MB memory card, and much more is needed (I recommend at least 64 MB, probably 128 MB). Also, rechargeable batteries are recommended, as well as a carrying case.
- Though it uses double-A's, most rechargeable double-A's don't last long. I often end up buying regular double-A's in the end anyway.
- Like other digital cameras, the camera must be powered up before taking photos but you don't want to leave it on at all times in order to save batteries. However, if you have a sudden photo opportunity it does take a minute for the camera to power up. The camera will go into sleep mode to save batteries and it "wakes up" a little faster, but still somewhat slowly. This is a minor drawback.
- And the biggest drawback, for me, is the difficulty in taking action shots. It is difficult for two reasons: 1) The auto-focus is slow. By the time the camera focuses and shoots, your photo opportunity easily may have passed. It does have manual focus but it is much slower! You have to use the up/down and left/right arrows on the back of the camera to focus. First, this is an inconvenient location especially if you are using the viewfinder instead of the viewscreen. And, the buttons are digitally controlled; each press of the button requires a short processing time. If you think you can manually focus on the fly with this camera while shooting sports photography, forget it! So, unless you are in a situation where you can focus manually once and take all of your photos at that focal length, you will have to rely on the moderately slow auto-focus. 2) After each photo, the image freezes to show you the picture you just took. This is a nice feature on most any digital camera nowadays, but since you can't turn it off it can really interfere if you are trying to take several photos back-to-back. The viewscreen does this, but so does the viewfinder, so there is no avoiding it. The only option, if you want to take quick back to back photos, is to turn on the "rapid-shooting" which will take 2 or more photos every time you press the button. Fortunately it's digital so you aren't wasting film! All of that said, I will mention that I have managed to take some decent sports photographs. The drawbacks are a nuisance but can be worked around in ways like those that I have mentioned. I recommend this camera to anyone that is looking for a digital camera at a very affordable price that will provide many of the benefits of a traditional 35 mm film-based camera. It is good for beginners as well as amateur photographers, but if you're planning to do action photography I recommend sticking to the 35 mm, or finding a different (though surely more expensive) digital camera. Bottom line: it is hard, if not impossible, to beat this camera for this price.
Rating: 
Summary: Olympus Camedia C-720
Review: I purchased this camera 18 months ago from Best Buy (sorry Amazon, I didn't have my account yet). My first digital camera. With accessories and the price of the camera at the time (they are now selling for half??) we spent $600.00. From the start the camera on Auto and Sport settings produced pictures that were blurry and out of focus about 1/3 of the time. Best Buy and Olympus had me convinced, being new to digital cameras, that I was the problem and that I might have been better served with a more basic camera (really?). The camera has since been back for repair with Best Buy once already under their extra four year warranty (5 week turn around, I plan to use a $100 Kodak digital I carry on my motorcyle in the meantime) and is going to go back again as the problem is now worse. When it comes back the next two times I will take it out of the box, have them take a blurry, out of focus shot of me and hand it right back to them. After the first "repair" Best Buy did not report that anything was found in need of repair only that the camera was recalibrated. I expect that there is nothing to fix as the camera is fundamentally flawed. The shutter speeds at Auto and Sport settings are just too slow. Three "repair" tries with Best Buy and we get our money or credit back. Olympus now tells me, after their warranty has expired, to go to the manual settings and increase the shutter speed and shoot in the manual mode. In other words that their camera shutter speed at Auto and even Sport mode will continue to be slow (and ruin pictures). By this time I had already figured this out despite their condescending advice that I probably should not have such a complicated camera! I have read similar reviews re: this particular camera with these problems at several other consumer sites. Check it out for yourself. Stay away from the Olympus C series. Interesting that they are currently not available from Amazon(things that make you go hmmmm)??!! I am staying away from Olympus all together. Customer service is a run around with a product they are unwilling to recognize as defective. Customers experiencing problems with these cameras (it seems from other reviews that not all are troublesome) should be offered a replacement or a trade toward something that works (maybe something simpler for those of us thought of as digitally challenged). We are extremely disappointed. Wake up Olympus. Time to cut the manure and reach out to make this right with your customers. I would love to retract this review.
Rating:
Summary: People think I am a professional photographer!
Review: I purchased this camera the 1st of September 2002 and I never thought I could take pictures that are so stunning! Others think that I am a professional photographer and have offered to buy my photos! This camera is great for portraits but it truely delivers unbelievable 8x10's of landscapes, animal subjects. The tiniest details of a subject is revealed and with a photo stylus printer you will amaze yourself. When I first printed up a picture of a bald eagle I was floored at the detail of it's feathers, clarity of the iris, and even the water beads on its feathers. Everyone I have showed my photos to have been in awe and have drawn a crowd just to view them. Some of the people I work with want to buy this product just due to the pictures they have seen without seeing the camera!! I can't tell you how very, very pleased I am!!
Rating:
Summary: Good photos, features; Bad focus, Redeye
Review: I really enjoy this camera. For still shots, it is INCREDIBLE! However, the focus is incredibly slow and tacky for such an expensive camera. Oh. Redeye is another major problem with this camera. Almost every picture I take of a person has red eye. Oympus needs to work the kinks out, but I would buy this camera again.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Love This Camera
Review: I received this camera for Christmas and absolutely love it. It has a strange feeling focus, but once I got used to it-- absolutely wonderful! I've taken pictures that a professional photographer friend of mine has complimented. The clarity, ease of use, and 8x optical zoom make this my favorite Christmas present in a long, long time.
Rating:
Summary: Motion blur is horrible
Review: I was [convinced] by the marketing of the zooming features of this camera. The motion blur on this camera is terrible. If you want to zoom in on something, get out the tripod cause even just a little motion will get you wierd shadows, bluring, and an interesting double vision appearance. Watch for this camera on ebay, cause that's where I'm putting it.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to use and also a pleasure to own!
Review: I've only had my C-720 for a few days but I did take it to a softball travel tournament this week-end. My daughter plays third and I got some really neat shots from my side of the fence. I also got some nice shots in and around the hotel. It's easy to pick-up and start shooting right away even if you've only used the simplest disposables. I took a picture from the window of our hotel room of a beautiful fountain that was across the street and several hundred feet away. It captured the beauty of this fountain and captured my grand-daughter and daughter standing there too! If you buy it I don't think you'll have any regrets. What more could you ask for it has 8x optical zoom and 3 megapixels. That pretty much covers it. Plus a whole lot more!
Rating:
Summary: Grrreat Camera!
Review: I've tried several digital cameras over the last 2 years searching for the elusive combination of speed, image quality, and lens. While the C-720 isn't the best in any one category, it is a great package for families and trips. The autofocus is quick and the lens is outstanding - long enough without being so long as to cause excessive shake. You have to work with this camera - set the shutter speed high and you can zoom all the way out without a problem, perfect for parades, and other family outings. No digital camera is perfect, at least not in this price range, for some things nothing beats a large film image - but for 90% of what we take photos of, this camera, and its siblings (730/740/750) are perfect for what they do,
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