Olympus C-50 Zoom Review

Overall Rating

- Excellent picture quality

- Good presets for point-and-shoot

- Easy to use

- Infrared remote to show off :)

- Have to close lense for reviewing

- Red eyes (as with all compacts)

I've had several cameras, both normal and digital, but none of them (even if more expensive) have had as good picture quality as this baby. The 5 Mpix of course helps but the real bonus is in the colours - they are really, really good - and when given time to focus the crispness of the pictures is of very high standard.


To mention the camera's downsides:

You have to close the lense cover to review images, the autofocus takes slightly too long to make the camera a real point-and-shoot (though I've yet to see a digital do that) and the video mode simply sucks :).



But with that said (and if you're not looking for a digital video recorder) the bonuses of this camera are awesome. The pictures are very, very good, using the presets ("Auto" for day and night setting for night) makes it a very simple camera to operate (my girlfriend hates gadgets but loves this camera!) and the battery (though special Olympus) lasts quite long - I'm filling my 96MB cards (around 100 pics) on a single 2 hour charge. Be aware that you need more ram than the default 32MB though - each picture is about 1MB if good quality, 0.5MB if ok quality.

Members' Comments onChrace.'s Review

• Wayne. on 27th May 2003

  mm...just push the quickview button twice (or three times?) next to the LCD will made c50 enter the review mode rite the way, pushing twice (or three times?) will toggle the LCD back into live preview mode, no need to slide the cover at all. I do love my c50, I can play with it all day with a fully charged battery, filling up 200 pics into my 256mb xd card in HQ quality. The only downside is I've been talked into buying an extra battery when I purchase the camera, which I seldom need to use.

• Chris. on 27th Jun 2003

  On the red eye note... there is a function of the flash button that if you press it while in camera mode until you see the eyeball icon, it'll go into red eye reduction flash mode which works very well. I was really annoyed by the fact that I had to close my lens cover but now I just found out that I can hit the monitor (quickview) button twice (which isn't anywhere in the manual or on the Olympus website) and it goes right to review mode. Yipee! =P

• Peter25 on 16th Feb 2004

  Thanks for the great review, you convinced me to choose this as my first digital camera. Id been wanting to buy a camera for a while and when I saw that Amazon were running a deal- the camera, a 64mb xd card and an extra battery all for £249.99 including p&p I had to buy one! It should arrive in 3-5 days and I can’t wait! All I need to find now is a case at a reasonable price to complete the set.

• neiltate on 17th Nov 2004

  Totally agree with this review but one point you (and many others) are mistaken on is having to shut the lens to reivew the pictures you've already taken. Just double press the button to the right of the LCD to go to view mode and do the same again to get back to shooting mode :)