I bought this camera a few years ago as a replacement for my old Zenit, on the basis of a few magazine reviews and a shop test. It's a competent camera but it doesn't do anything particularly well. Many of the modes/functions it has are only useful for beginners, while it's missing some that you might hope to find, e.g. frame-forwards control (for when you want to do multiple exposures). The "predictive" autofocus is laughable - if you want to capture a moving subject you're best off pre-focusing. The shutter relese/focus stopped working properly after a few months, though in fairness other cameras somtimes have the same problem. Of it's contemporaries the Pentax MZ-5 was/is the best buy - it has all the essential features, while the superfluous are stripped away to leave a smaller body.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
(+) Great for beginners, fool proof, easy to use, compact and can buy used models very cheap. (-) Slow autofocus, no manual overrides for shutter and aperture settings.
(+) Fold out LCD screen, Image Stabilization, Zuiko lens quality, Picture quality, Flash options (-) Noise in low light, Too many buttons, Badly laid out, Too many gimmicks
helpful by (50%):
somewhat helpful by (50%):
