Olympus IS-3000 Review

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Olympus IS-3000
3.9 stars
Average rating for this product is: 3.9 out of 5

From 2 ratings and 9 reviews

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Jonathan.'s Review of Olympus IS-3000 35mm SLR camera

28th Jul 2003

Overall Rating

1.5 stars
  • Value for money
    0 stars
  • Features
    3.5 stars
Good Points

The 35-180mm lens, responsive zoom, built-in twin flash, spot metering, decent fps rate, nice handling.


Bad Points

The viewfinder, single point auto-focus, no manual focusing, f/4.5 maximum aperture is slow (an even slower f/5.6 at the zooms further reaches), instruction manual is as thick as the Yellow Pages, zoom is noisy, film is loaded the opposite way to normal (right to left), its accessories (wide-angle & tele converters, flashgun) are overpriced, no manual ASA rating.


General Comments

The more recent IS models, as well as the models that preceded the 3000, cannot beat it. I am not keen on so-called "bridge" cameras though, they should make up their minds, whether to be a point-and-shoot compact or an SLR. If you are going to use this camera purely as a compact, then what use are features like exposure bracketing or multiple exposure facilities? If you are going to use this camera creatively as an SLR, then you will eventually become disappointed with its limitations. One of the biggest disadvantages of bridge cameras is the fact that the built-in lens is non-interchangeable. The converters are over-priced, they suffer from distortion and are only available in 28mm or 300mm focal lengths. If you decide that you want to buy a 16mm fisheye or a 400mm for an IS camera, then its tough luck! Besides, the features that this camera has to offer are available within most modern SLR cameras, such as a Canon EOS or Minolta Dynax for example, which have a broad range of lenses and loads of accessories. The Olympus IS-3000 that I once owned broke down, after only two exposures, I wasn't at all heart broken however, I got a refund and bought something better!

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Members' Comments onJonathan.'s Review

  • paspartout on 26th Sep 2006

    Lucky you - to realize - within 2 exposures! - all those wrong qualities of this marvellous bridge-camera. Or was it 2 pics too late ? For me it was the best bridge-camera I've ever seen. Brilliant optics, great flash (even the built-in one), solid, well-made. Top of the (amateur)range, if I may say so after taking more than 10.000 pics with it. The only problem? The end of the conventional film-era.