Rating: 
Summary: Should have kept the 5050's lens
Review: It's hailed as an upgrade of the 5050 - but Olympus slowed down the most important part of the camera... the lens.The 5050 used to start at f1.8 and top out at f2.6. Now the 5060 starts at 2.8 and ends at f4.8 at 110mm. This makes it virtually useless for existing-light photos indoors or in other dim light. It also makes it tough to get a (built-in) flash photo when you're zoomed-in, as the flash can't pump out enough light to illiuminate a Christmas play (for example) from the front row. The only way to get f2.8 is to stay on the wide-angle, which shows significant distortion, especially at the edges. I say they blew it, if adding the wide angle was the reason they lost the fast lens speed. They should have just let users add their own wide-angle converters. It's a looks and feels like a beautiful camera - but for me the low light performance is a real negative. If this is an important part of your photography, keep looking, or buy an add-on flash - and if you buy the 5060, get it from a vendor who will take it back.
Rating: 
Summary: not bad
Review: Iv'e had this camera now for three months and I gotta say, this is one fine camera !! very user friendly, the battery seems to last forever, I cant say enough good things about this camera!!
Rating:
Summary: Charger problem solved
Review: July, 2004 - Just like the other reviewer from Texas, out-of-the-box the battery/charger had a problem. I'm sure this is a good camera if I ever get to use it.
The charger flashes red after about 2 minutes of charging. The instructions say to immediately call Olympus support. Which I did and after about 15 minutes on hold, I'm told I can either return the camera or mail in the charger and battery. I'm mailing the charger/battery - so I'm guessing I'm out of a camera for a couple of weeks.
When two people take the time to report the same problem within 2 months, I think Olympus has a serious problem with a supplier.
November, 2004 - follow-up: Since I was going on vacation the first of August, I purchased a second charger and battery - which worked fine. It took Olympus four(4!) months to return the charger and battery I submitted to them - AND - they reshipped the same equipment back (still malfunctioning) in the same packing materials with instructions to resubmit the equipment if I still had a problem. The camera works great - but if you need help from Olympus - good luck.
Rating:
Summary: Charger problem solved
Review: Just for information to the people who bought the c 5060 recently like I did and reported the problem with the charger's blinking red light when first charged out of the box. I had the same problem but went ahead and fully charged the battery overnight despite the instructions saying to call customer support. The battery was fully charged in the morning, the indicator light was green, and have not had a problem since. What happened I think is the battery came from the supplier uncharged so the first time it is charged it takes a long time (I left it overnight probably 10 hours) and red indicator light is blinking.
Rating:
Summary: Very Nice
Review: Let me say up front that I take a LOT of ambient light and/or super-wide angle photos, so I'm not ready to toss my 35mm gear yet. I have thought that digital is for Pascal Programmers - every 'bug' is a 'feature.' However, after owning several cheaper (2 Mpx) digital still cams, I finally felt this one was worth taking the plunge - and I'm not disappointed. The camera is smaller than it looks in pictures, controls are well-placed, and it feels solid. The menus are not totally intuitive, so you do have to look at the manual. Picture quality is everything, and IMHO, the Oly 5060 is currently the best thing going. Nice sharp images with good color and low noise. Once set up, it comes closest to printable images right off the card (fiddling with Photoshop will always make them 'better' of course . . .) Others have noted the 'slow' lens, so I bought the FL-20 flash, which is nice by any standard - smaller than a deck of cards and adequate for living-room-size venues. Expensive - well over $100 - but the option is to get a cheap flash and fart around with 'manual' mode whenever you want to use it. Really - do you want your $600 camera, or your $35 flash controlling the exposure? I Also got the WCON-07C wide angle lens attachment, which turned out to be surprisingly huge - the objective is almost 4" across and blocks the built-in flash (which is fairly worthless anyway). I know true rectilinear was too much to expect - there is some barrel distortion with the built-in lens at widest, and the converter lens makes it a -lot- worse. Still, a digital still cam with 99 degree angle of view is pretty cool, barrel distortion be damned. Ok, to wind this up: PROS: 1) Outstanding Picture Quality, at middle zoom ranges
2) Smaller than it looks in the ads, and easy to handle
3) Nice flash and wide / tele conversion lenses available.
4) Camera itself pretty reasonable on price / quality basis.
5) 32Mb storage - more than most - included (xD card).
6) Also takes Compact Flash cards. CONS: 1) Distortion at widest angle
2) Must buy additional $35+ part to attach accessory lenses.
3) You need the nice little flash & its pretty expensive.
4) What? ANOTHER media card format..?? Overall, this is a nice, nice camera, subject to the tradeoffs inherent in all digital cameras. Very Good image quality at mid-range focal lengths. For impromptu images in tight locations, you need a wide angle - for less money, I could have gotten a fast <20mm lens for my 35mm system - but if you want wide and digital, you are going to find that life is full of little trade-offs, and this is the most bang for the buck right now.
Rating: 
Summary: Proprietary batteries a bad choice
Review: Most disappointed with the choice that Olympus made to go with proprietary batteries in most of their new C series digital cameras. Love their cameras and matter of fact have bought three C-5050 zooms this year for myself and family. However, there is nothing worse than having the batteries go dead on you and there is no way to recharge the batteries. With the C5050 Zoom camera it comes with rechargeable AA batteries , but in a pinch if they run down you can always use any AA battery at your local 7-11 store. One of my biggest bragging points and reasons for buying Olympus has been their choice not to use proprietary batteries, but now I am sad to say I have bought my last Olympus unless they rethink this. I know the proprietary batteries that comes with the C-5060 Zoom has a tiny bit more power and you can get a few more shots than with the rechargeable AA batteries that comes with the C-5050 Zoom, but Olympus did not do this for that very small gain. Olympus was thinking profits and only profits and they know this camera is almost worthless with one battery. They know most people will have to purchase a second "extremely over prices" proprietary battery and that means big bucks. Sometimes I just don't get corporate America. I understanding wanting more profits, but they need to calculate in how many customers they will lose doing it.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant, but.....
Review: Note to readers: You will find updates at the end of this review, which was written about a few weeks earlier. It is not entirely happy reading.
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I've been very happy with Olympus digital cameras, having gone through several generations of them. Facing some work which required wide-angle capability I upgraded from my 2020z so I could use my wide-angle conversion lens, giving me a 35mm camera equivalent of about 19mm when needed.
In terms of photographic quality, the results I am getting from this camera are nothing short of spectacular. Great sharpness and resolution that, as some reviewers have pointed out, are virtually as good in the standard HQ mode as in SHQ and TIFF. Fast shutter. Many exposure options. Very little noise. The camera is significantly larger than my 2020, but the build is solid and comfortable -- making steady shots a lot more likely. I also like the menu system, and the various convenience buttons offer a lot of adjustments that do not require going deep into it. Though some users have noted that the lens is significantly slower than that on the 2020 and 4000, I have had some good luck with low light situations, and when things get pretty dim I increase the ISO settings, with good results. No problem there. I find this a fair trade off for wide angle capability. I also like the tilting and swiveling LCD (more flexible than on the 5050). It's bright and filled with useful information, so I use it all the time, though a 'my mode' setting allows me to power up without it in a pinch.
OK, some quibbles. First, there is the mode dial failure issue, which some reviewers have noted -- and which is the subject of a Yahoo group and a fine Wrotniak article. Whether Oly has worked this problem out, what the failure rate is, etc. are not clear, and until I am persuaded that my production line was clean I will have a little 560 in the bottom of my bag in case of failure -- something I would generally do anyhow, particuarly since the 560 gives extremely fine results and runs forever on rechargeable CR-V3's.. What does bother me is the silence of Olympus on this matter. They have not satisfactorally explained the situation to many who have asked, and they haven't had the courtesy to respond to some questions I put to them. Anyone who invests in a product of this quality deserves a response, and as a long-time Oly user and advocate I am extremely disappointed and have the sneaking feeling there is a real problem here that should be resolved by a recall. After all, some of us rely on this camera in our work and if there is a problem want to have it fixed on our calendar.
Speaking of the mode dial, the on-off switch is just below it and I have found that it is simply too easy to move the mode dial when turning the camera on and off, an unhappy situation if one is in a hurry. Bad design. Wear gloves? You're cooked.
Another quibble is that Oly has eliminated a slot for SM cards in favor of microdrives which few Oly users use. I have pile of SM cards and would have liked that option (in addition to the CompactFlash and xD). They have it on the 5050.
Ok, as for the battery issue. I borrowed a friend's Oly 5050 which runs on AA's and though the NiMh's I used were fresh I could squeeze no more than 60-80 shots out of the camera (using LCD; and remember that NiMh's have a fast discharge rate which means that when you need them they may be sorry shape to power a workhorse like this) before having to change batteries (this is about the same as with my 2020z). Using the 5060's proprietary battery (and others I picked up from third party resellers for as low as $7.00 each -- they work perfectly) I'm easily exceeding that, and can do almost a full day's shooting without worry. In addition to finding cheap Oly compatible batteries I found a marvelous rapid charger for less than $20 which cuts charging time by about 2/3rds. I've thus been able to cut the long cord on my OLY OEM charger back to a few inches, giving me a tiny little charger to put in the bottom of my gadget bag for travel. Yes, it would be nice to have the AA option in a pinch, but Oly makes a battery holder that uses two of the camera's very small batteries, and if one can pick up spare ones that work perfectly well for seven bucks (cheaper than four decent NiMh's), why not buy a few and just be sure one is in your pocket when you go off on a shoot? By using a proprietary battery Oly has also improved battery loading very significantly (my 2020 latch cover is a bugger, and more than once I've spilled batteries on the floor when changing them at night or in a hurry).
My conclusion is that this is a fine camera that has a design flaw or two, and may or may not have a serious one that requires factory repair -- and should get some honest speaking from Olympus, a reputable company that has a fine product line. One needs to go into the battery situation with eyes open, but by no means is it required to purchase Oly branded batteries or chargers for backup. Given the extra power and fine results I'm happy. So far....
-----> new comments:
The camera died yesterday. I had done a relatively full day of commercial shooting and it had behaved beautifully. Brought it home, changed the battery, offloaded my data and set the camera down for a couple of minutes while I went off to get a cup of coffee. Came back and, voila, dead as a doornail. Checked out various contacts and pulled the battery to see if the camera would reset (occasionally my trusty 2020 would freeze up, but would unfreeze very suddenly after about 20 minutes of batteryless rest). Left the battery out all night and 16 hours later took it and camera over to a nearby camera store where I do a lot of business. They noticed the 5060 had died with lens fully extended and that it would not respond to an ac adapter. Alas, it is in the mail and Olympus sez they will turn it around within a week (not holding my breath on that folks). (note: I've learned that it may take as long as ten days for this camera to reset itself. Unlike some earlier models, it has a little battery or some other voltage holding device which allows users to recharge batteries or protect settings for a long time without a battery. The good news is this feature can save a lot of pain, the bad is that it there is a problem not fixed by the factory reset function you may have to wait quite awhile to find out if your camera is actually dead or just in a deeper than usual sleep).
It does seem to me, having read quite a bit and having had this experience, a rare one in my Oly experience, that there must have been both shortcuts and maybe some truly untested bits and pieces in the manufacturing process that are causing problems to what would seem like quite a few people. These problems, as in my case, come after about two months of fairly heavy usage. Sure, covered by warranty, but I now have to backfill and the camera I hoped to have with me on a forthcoming trip will probably be on a workbench somewhere. Or Oly will send me a new one and two months from now....well lets see, but I suspect this is not the end of the saga. Hmmmm, those new Canons and Nikons are looking better and better.
End of story (for now?)
Olympus did as it promises and got my camera back to me about two weeks after they logged it in. Actually, my post office track told me they had the camera several days before actually logging it into their system, but from what I can learn there is nothing new about that. Calls to customer service to check on the camera were all but useless -- unfriendly and sometimes difficult (due to language spoken by agent). The technical report indicates that three circuit boards were replaced, suggesting some kind of catastrophic failure (which also managed to kill my memory card).
The camera is now working pefectly and my fingers remained crossed. My dealer tells me the turnaround time is about the best in the industry. I wish I knew more about checks they ran on the camera and whether there was a firmware upgrade, etc. but one can't have everything. It still puzzles me that such a fine camera just imploded, but I do see a lot of BMW's and Mercedes by the side of the road these days!
Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT BUY OLYMPUS C-5060 DIGITAL CAMERA!
Review: Olympus has a problem w/ part# VC7997 on these cameras that causes menus to pop up on LCD w/o touching buttons and buttons stop working. Numerous people are complaining about this problem on the Internet - go to yahoo groups, Olympus_405080. Olympus needs to recall camera. Mine worked fine for almost 3 months before problem arose so don't think yours won't fail.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: PROS: Great Images Can be obtained from this camera. Color & the like. Batt. life has been great even with a full night of flash use. Almost every command has a shortcut or a button on the camera making it a blast to use. Support for 3 types of Memory CF, XD, Or MD (Hint: 340MB MDs DO work in this ca) Wide array of add ons. Works great MACs with OSX and above. Iphoto will read the camera like a dream. With the dual slots for cards/MD you can switch on the fly between the two and that means you can have loads of memory! PhotoShop CS support for the RAW format. No plugin needed! The camera is not lite but not going to make your arm fall off. That's what I love about it. It feels like a camera and not a toy (EX. Cannons EOS digi) CONS: Save your money and get a good TTL flash for this camera and/or the bracket with a HS link cable. The flash on the camera is not in the worst place but I have found red eye and other flash points to be a bit of a trouble. Get more lens sets. You do have to buy a tube to make them work but it's not all that big of a deal. They also make aftermarket lens sets in a vast range of sizes. (Big Deal you have to buy lens sets and items for film cameras to0.) Also it will take a while for you to learn everything about the camera because the manual is not very well. In short I love my 5060 and have loads of great photos! My friend bought bought the finepix and it stoped working after 2 months! Mine is going strong without a problem!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Camera with Wide Array of Features
Review: The Olympus C-5060 is a truly great camera! About the only complaints I have are that when using the viewfinder what you see is not necessarily what you get, especially when close to the subject, and manual focus can be a little difficult. An SLR camera would take care of both of these problems, but I can't afford it. Also, the supplied 32-MB memory card is way too small. A 256 is about the right size; it will hold nearly 100 images in the better-quality jpeg format. My main reasons for looking at this model were the lithium-ion battery and the ability to zoom out to a reasonably wide angle. There have been negative comments about the battery in other reviews; I can't understand why. With my old camera, I had become very tired of messing with piles of AA NiMH cells, charging one set while using another. The Olympus battery lasts for hours and hours on a charge. Just in case, I bought a second battery (Merkury Innovations, about $20, higher capacity than the original). The physical design of the C-5060 is excellent. The controls are not tightly crowded, but are spread throughout the body. Buttons are different sizes and shapes, so using it in low-light situations is easy. The camera seems very rugged. I hope I never drop it, but I would be very surprised to find any damage if I did. The CCD array is very quiet and has a noise-reduction feature for low-light situations. I have taken some night-sky pictures in which stars are points of light on a completely black background. It is also possible to take good flash photos at night. The camera lights the subject with an eerie red glow for a few seconds in order to get an accurate focus. Using the camera in fully automatic mode generally produces good results. When you need to take control, you have many choices: aperture-priority, shutter-priority, or fully manual exposure, for instance. I don't think there's anything that can't be placed under the user's control. Unfortunately, that eliminates excuses for taking bad pictures. The image quality is just about perfect. I was a little disturbed at first by ghostly outlines around tree branches and other objects. This turned out to be the sharpness setting. One would think that zero, the factory default setting, would be normal; minus numbers would produce soft focus and positive would sharpen the image. Not so! At zero, images are over-sharpened, producing unpleasant artifacts. I set it at -5, and if I feel the need to sharpen an image I use the unsharp-masking filter in Photoshop. Also keeping white balance always under manual control prevents color variations that sometimes occur with WB set to automatic. All in all, I am very happy with my decision to buy this camera. It has generally surpassed my expectations. I would recommend it to anyone looking for something beyond point-and-shoot but not able to move up to an SLR with interchangeable lenses.
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