Rating: 
Summary: Buyers: BE AWARE!
Review: This is my third Olympus Digital Camera, and I bought it based on my successful experience with the previous ones.Despite of many requests to the Manufacturer (unanswered), I still cannot take a simple reasonable quality photo with the C-700. It is almost impossible to resolve the focus issue, regardless of how much light you have. In few cases where I used macro under sunlight, the results were quite exceptional. However, most of the photos taken outside (cloudy days) or inside (with a flash) came out blurred and disappointing. Even when you focus on a bright spot before flashing, there is no assurance your photo will come out Ok!. For the cases where I was successful, the flash literally wiped out the central subject and kept others (no more than 8 feet behind) pretty much in darkness. If you browse user reviews in Amazon.com you will find that I am not alone. A store clerk suggested me to buy a memory card different than the one supplied by Olympus with the camera. Although I have not tried that route yet, I doubt this will solve the problem. A WASTED INVESTMENT, UNFORTUNATELY.
Rating: 
Summary: Great camera with workable flaws
Review: Pros have been mentioned in several posts so I'll be brief: 1. Great zoom but tripod required for substantial zooming.
2. Decent resolution of 1600x1200.
3. Easy-to-use controls
4. Excellent ergonomics
5. Lightweight Cons (with some workarounds): 1. Instruction manual provides no info on how to attach lens cap to camera. I ended up using the external flash outlet to tether it because I don't have any need for it. I used a thin dark thread that goes around the outlet (with the outlet cover securing the thin thread). The thin thread, in turn, is then tied to the strap. The reason I did this was because the strap itself is fairly thick and doesn't sit in the outlet very well. This allows plenty of room for the lens cover to be put on while the lens is completely out.
2. Pictures were blurry. However, I discovered that going from HQ (High Quality) to SHQ (Super High Quality) did less lossy JPEG compression and the pictures were noticeably sharper. The downside is that each picture is twice as big. 3. The time that you shoot the image and the picture is taken is quite long. The way around this one is to press the shutter half-way beforehand so that the lens is focused. When the moment to shoot the picture arises, simply press the shutter all the way in and the picture will be shot almost immediately. 4. Very bright objects against very dark objects result in dark blue outlines on the dark object. For most cases, this is not very noticeable. 5. Night pictures have very high noise. In some cases, the noise is outright distracting. This is probably the worst thing about the c700. My solution is to load the picture in Photoshop. I, then, use "Select Color Range" to select all the dark parts of the picture and apply a "Guassian Blur." While this doesn't cover up the noise completely, it helps.
Rating: 
Summary: ok --when it worked (for only 6 months)
Review: This camera suddenly stopped working after less than 6 months of light use. Olympus said it would take 10-14 days to get it back. They received it 6 weeks ago, and I'm still waiting. Getting through to customer service, or getting an email back is a nightmare. Buy a camera that is more reliable!
Rating: 
Summary: Good and Bad
Review: This is my first foray into digital cameras, after decades of 35mm shooting - both snapshot and 'enthusiast'. My first impressions were great - it's a super-lightweight camera, and the zoom is awesome. The 'USB storage class' device is fantastic - plug into your computer, and bingo - a new hard-drive shows up and you can copy pictures - easy (zero software installation)! And the macro feature is awesome. But the negatives cropped up after a month or so. I took a bunch of pictures at a Christmas gathering using the flash. To my horror (since I didn't take any backup pics on my 35mm camera), many of the pictures were blurred. Since the flash 'freezes' the motion, this could not be a movement problem; much research into this revealed that most digital cameras use a 'contrast' method to focus, and in low-light, they can't get a good focus (compared to snapshot 35mm cameras, which use infra-red). The camera has to focus before the flash fires, so there has to be enough light WITHOUT the flash to get a good focus. So beware in low-light conditions. Second problem is that this camera has an 'Electronic Viewfinder' - what you see in the viewfinder is a 'mini-lcd' screen. This has a lot of advantages, but - in low light (eg outdoors, where you plan to take advantage of the up-to-16 second exposure), you cannot see the image at all in order to 'frame' it. An optical viewfinder does not have this drawback. That's it so far for the negatives. Since I like taking low-light shots these limitations are significant. Note that many higher-end cameras have the electronic viewfinder, and many digital cameras use 'contrast' focus only. I would personally recommend finding one with good optical viewfinder, and one that has an 'auxiliary infrared focus' device. Maybe hard to find.
Rating: 
Summary: Perfect!
Review: I am no techno-geek... I knew almost nothing about digital cameras before I got this. I love it. It does take a little getting used to and time to figure out how to do certain things. But I have taken great pictures and have been able to print them with great success. I highly recommend this camera!
Rating:
Summary: overall acclaim
Review: Being a person long on photograpy and short on computers I was immediately impressed with the easy start up and quick usabilty of the C=700. If you take the time to read the instructions carefully they leave very little to question, and those questions are answered as you progress.
The camera is light and handy, and while the buttons look small when you use them they are just fine. Being a nature photographer I was immediately drawn to the 10X zoom, WOW is that impressive.Using the zoom at full strength will require a tripod for stabilization, but that is impressive as is the Macro feature at the other end of the spectrum.'
I can easily see where I'm going to have tons of fun with this baby.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad Not the best I have seen
Review: I bought this camera becouse of it's 10X zoom and becouse I liked the price range. I Loved the camera when I bought it but I found out the picture quality takes a back seat in low light. images are blury and grainy. Over All I would say buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Oly C-700 UZ
Review: This is not the "point & shoot" camera for everyone. There is a serious amount of lens on this light little camera! -I'm a rather shaky person (too many electrocutions) so it was nearly impossible to get an auto focused picture until I put it on a tripod. -I am impressed with the quality of my pictures now.
The software in the package isn't very impressive, but it does have a nice quick crop tool that keeps your camera settings in the picture file. -A handy bit of info when you're trying to master the manual settings and have a few good quality "accidental" (I mean Auto) photos on your hard drive.
A higher resolution would have been nice for landscapes etc. -The power of the optics makes up for the lower resolution on smaller subject matter though. (Who needs pixels if you have zoom)
If you've worked with lower resolution digital cameras you'll find yourself running out of disk space in a hurry. -Get a 128 MB card for it.
Rating:
Summary: outstanding
Review: for the price and the picture quality outstanding,if you are shaky get a tripod for distance to keep'm sharp.Plenty of features and real easy to use
Rating:
Summary: A Great All-Around Digital Camera
Review: I've had the C700 for sixty days, after having nearly returned it upon reading C-NET's reviews complaining of poor quality pictures. Make no mistake, there's nothing wrong with the quality of pictures from this unit, but this is a camera that is so feature-rich that you're not going to appreciate it until you really learn how to use it, which they evidently didn't. I take many pictures at night inside Irish Pubs and am impressed with the rich colors that the camera captures with no flash at all. It automatically will change the film speed from 100 to 800, change aperture and shutter speeds to garner truly warm and detailed shots. Hold the camera steady or use a tripod. If you're subjects are moving around indoors, use the flash. If pictures appear "soft" in focus, simply click on the "sharpen" feature of any photo management software product (including the one that comes with the camera) and you'll be pleased with the results. The main benefits are: Great auto settings; terrific zoom in a very compact and good-looking camera, easy-to-learn menu functions, great digital viewfinder; absolutely simple download-to-pc procedure, and best of all, complete ability to manually control the camera settings. Drawbacks include: Slow shutter response...you're not going to get a snapshot the instant you hit the button...it's going to focus first. That makes action shots tough, but check out the neat bracketing feature for sports action and general use. Dismal manual...even the 200 page on-line manual fails to explain anything in detail, you need to buy a digital photography book. No zoom on video mode...no one has mentioned this, but I was surprised that the zoom wouldn't work while taking a QuickTime video. Lens-cap strap: get a new, longer one from the start. This camera is perfect for anyone who doesn't make a living taking pictures but wants as many of the features of a multi-thousand dollar camera as they can get for a reasonable price. Get the card reader accessories, 64-128 Mb media cards, case and power supply--you'll want the power supply while you're learning how to use the camera.
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