Olympus C-720 Review

Olympus C-720 Ultra Zoom
Digital Camera

BY HENRY MARCINKOWSKI

9.2003
Issue No.12

In the last issue of MetroMac Express, Associate Editor Bill Chachkes reviewed the Fuji 2800 digital camera. He had longed for the Olympus C720, but found it to be out of his financial reach. Recently, the Olympus became widely available at a lowered price. What a difference a few months can make!

I, too, have been looking at digital cameras for some time. An avid amateur photographer for many years [five years as President of my camera club], I wanted to take advantage of digital technology. When traveling, I usually had too many or too few rolls of film with me. A digital camera should solve that problem.

My basic cameras in the recent past have been a Pentax SLR with a 28 - 200mm zoom lens and an Olympus APS pocket camera with a 2-1 zoom. With strobes and specialized filters and lenses for the SLR [50 mm standard, 20mm wide angle, 500 mm mirror, etc.] my camera kit became rather bulky for travel.

My digital camera has to have more than the standard 3X optical zoom, and should have at least 3-megapixels. I did not worry about the digital zoom, since its use would degrade photo quality. The Olympus C720 seemed to satisfy my requirements.

Features of this camera include:

8x optical zoom lens equivalent to
40-320mm in 35mm
3-Megapixel CCD for up to
1984x1488 pixel images
0.5-inch color electronic viewfinder
1.5-inch color LCD monitor
Program AE, Shutter-speed priority,
Aperture priority and full Manual exposure modes
f2.8 - f7.1 aperture settings in 1/3-step EV
1/1000 to 8 second shutter speeds
Macro focusing mode from 3.9" to 6.5'
ISO auto or fixed at 100, 200 or 400
USB connectivity
Uses four AA or two CR-V3 batteries

I settled on taking HQ pictures, which are at 1984 x 1488 pixels. The 16MB SmartMedia memory card that comes with the camera can hold up to 21 such photos. Since that would never be enough for the kind of use I was planning, the first thing I bought was a 128 MB SmartMedia card, which could hold more than 170 pictures at this resolution. Checking out the sales at COMPUSA and COSTCO, I found them for more reasonable prices at eBay.

OK, now I could start taking pictures. Setting up the camera to take pictures was very easy. I set the date and time, chose the standard picture resolution and ISO and started shooting. The camera comes with two CR-V3 batteries, which are good but expensive. I bought nickel metal hydride [NIMH] rechargeable batteries with a charger to ensure the availability of power.

I took pictures of my apartment, my wife, our grandchildren and just about anything that would stand still for me [although our 3-year old granddaughter doesn’t stand still for anyone]. The electronic viewfinder [EVF] shows you what you will get, as does the LCD monitor when it is activated. A great feature for those of us who wear glasses is the diopter adjustment for the EVF. Like all digital cameras, there is a slight delay between the time you press the exposure button and the time the picture is actually taken, but this becomes less significant when using the built-in flash.

Pressing the shutter button halfway sets the autofocus mechanism in operation. When the picture is in focus, a green dot is visible in the EVF and you are ready to shoot. When the picture has been taken, it can be reviewed on the LCD monitor; if it is not acceptable for any reason, it can be discarded and the shot tried again - imagine doing that with a film camera! I still take many more pictures than I think I need, but now I can discard the bad ones before bringing them home.

Photos in the camera can be enlarged for inspection on the LCD monitor using the lens zoom lever. After taking a number of pictures, they can be viewed as thumbnails on the LCD monitor - 9 at a time. In addition to still pictures, the camera can take short videos, without sound, which can be seen in the LCD monitor, or when connected to the computer, in iMovie.

Cables supplied with the camera allow connection to a computer’s USB port and to a television set. I got a Memorex SmartMedia card reader to attach to my computer. When a card is inserted into it, the card shows up on the desktop as another hard drive. Downloading to iPhoto is easy and fast. Alternatively, the Camedia Master software supplied with the camera can also be used to edit, print and email the photos taken.

So now I am practicing using all of the controls on the camera, and having fun at the same time. Am I happy with this camera - a resounding yes! Will I be able to take hundreds of pictures of Disney World and the family when we go there next Thanksgiving - yes again. Will I recommend this camera to everyone who asks - absolutely YES!

[+] click each photo for larger image