Olympus CAMEDIA C 1Zoom

...nicely. We bought the Olympus C-1 Zoom in September 2001 from Jessops (the high street camera store) in Manchester for £280, which was the cheapest we could find at the time (including most of the internet stores I think). At the same time we also bought a 16 MB SmartMedia card for £15, a battery charger for £13, and a carry case which Jessops chucked in for free (nice one).

The following bits are included in the box:

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...a highly technical model. Olympus themselves pitch it as a beginners model (www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/digimg/intro.cfm?id=C-1ZOOM) but that is sensible because that is what it is. The cheapest I could find it now (June 2002) was £170, which is more than £100 cheaper that when we bought it 9 months ago, and this is largely due to superseding models and the price direction for digital cameras in general. If you are a beginner looking for a first digital ... more

Introduction
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Although I don't have a digital camera at home, we have one at work and I can use it whenever I want, which suits me nicely. We bought the Olympus C-1 Zoom in September 2001 from Jessops (the high street camera store) in Manchester for £280, which was the cheapest we could find at the time (including most of the internet stores I think). At the same time we also bought a 16 MB SmartMedia card for £15, a battery charger for £13, and a carry case which Jessops chucked in for free (nice one).

The following bits are included in the box:

Camera - obviously
Strap
Software CD-ROM
USB PC Cable
Video Cable (PAL)
8 MB SmartMedia card
Lithium Battery Pack
Instruction Manuals
Warranty Card

Getting Started
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The C1-Zoom is very easy to set up, and I didn't encounter a single problem despite not reading the instructions. The battery cover is located on the bottom of the camera, with a quick slide and lift enough to open it, and the 2 AA batteries pop in easily. Putting in the SmartMedia card is even easier, with the cover located on the side of the camera. Just open the cover, check the directional arrows are right, push the card in and close the cover.

To start snapping, pull the lens cover aside and the pop-up flash unit pops into position. Then you can point the camera at your target and push the picture button, and - as they say in magician's words - hey presto. There is obviously a bit more to it than that, you can adjust the zoom, use the built in LCD monitor to check your photo prior to taking it, etc but that is the simplest way to get a quick photo. To close the camera after use, simply slide the lens cover back across and push the pop up flash back into position until it locks.

Functionality
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It looks like the majority of other compact digital cameras on the market. It is a bland matte silver, with a sliding lens cover on the front and an LCD screen on the back. The navigation buttons are located to the right of the LCD screen, and the zoom control and picture button are on the top of the camera. It is well shaped and comfortable to hold, but thankfully it does feel robust and sturdy - it has survived a few knocks and drops! The camera weighs 185 grammes without the batteries or the SmartMedia card so it is light enough to carry in your pocket without it causing you to walk lop sided. The only criticism with the design is that the pop-up flash unit doesn't look as if it would withstand a significant impact.

The LCD screen is a 1.5 inch TFT (the same as those flat panel monitors that are over priced at the moment but look rather swish) and although it is a bit on the small side, it is very useful. After taking a photo it is displayed on the screen and many times you find you haven't taken quite what you wanted (screen slightly tilted, thumb in the way, dumb tourist in the way, etc) so this allows you to see your photo and then delete if necessary. The navigation is easy enough, with the buttons being right next to the screen. It is the standard arrows menu, with the up, down, left, and right arrows guiding you around the various menus and submenus. The main criticism about the menus is that they are not instantly recognisable as to what functions they perform and a couple of times I've deleted ALL the photos when I only meant to delete ONE of them! The look of disbelief is quickly followed up by the swearing and anger, which is then followed up by dealing a swift blow to the camera, so it's a good job it's solidly built.

The small button beneath the navigation buttons is for the monitor preview. If you decide to use the monitor preview option when taking photos then it does drain the batteries quite a lot so it isn't recommended and to be honest, as the photo is displayed on the screen afterwards, it is a bit of a waste of time. A point about the batteries is that they last fairly well under 'normal' conditions (turn the camera on, take a couple of simple photos, turn the camera off again) but using the monitor preview or leaving the camera on for extended periods does drain them quite quickly as they are only a couple of dinky AA's.

To zoom in or out on your subject matter, then use the zoom button just next to the picture button on top of the camera. The camera features 3 times optical zoom and 2 times digital zoom, of which only the optical zoom should be of any interest as digital zoom is an artificial zoom and therefore crap. I have found that on a few occasions I needed more zoom capabilities and the camera loses points in this area, but it is still enough for the casual snapper.

The resolution is 1.3 megapixels, which is down at the bottom end of the scale when compared to other new models. This is still quite usable though, and despite the manufacturers pushing out in the region of 6 megapixel models, beginners will be quite happy with this.

Memory
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The standard 8 MB card that comes with the camera can hold approximately 8 images on the SHQ (Super High Quality) setting, 24 images on the HQ setting (High Quality) or 82 on the SQ setting (Standard Quality). I must admit that I only use the SHQ setting as I find the pictures are a little grainy and not as clean as I would like on the HQ and SQ settings. This does limit the amount of pictures that I can take, but when the camera was bought we included a 16 MB card with it (as an extra on top of the 8 MB card) so that obviously doubles the capacity.

There are various size cards available for the camera, which are 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128 MB. The 128 MB would be the obvious choice for those requiring a large capacity, as it holds about 128 SHQ pictures. However, this costs over £100, so for me it is a matter of whether I would actually need that great a capacity.

Ease of Use
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As I explained before, it is a no brainer to take pictures with this camera. But it does require a partially functioning brain cell to upload the photos to a PC. Here's a quick rundown - take the software CD that comes with the camera and install the software onto your PC. Plug in the USB cable that also comes with the camera into your PC and then into your camera. Open the Camedia program (the icon has a dog on it for some reason) and click on the camera on the navigation menu (probably recognised as a removable drive, as strictly speaking that is what it is). The photos are displayed in thumbnails, and then it is a matter of selecting the ones that you want and saving them onto your hard drive. It saves them as JPEG images, which is the best format for digital photos and keeps the file size down. They are then yours to do as you please, be it print them off yourself, send them to people via email, or send them off to the internet photo shops that print them off as normal photos and send them back to you.

Conclusion
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This is definitely a camera for those who want ease of use and basic functions over a highly technical model. Olympus themselves pitch it as a beginners model (www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/digimg/intro.cfm?id=C-1ZOOM) but that is sensible because that is what it is. The cheapest I could find it now (June 2002) was £170, which is more than £100 cheaper that when we bought it 9 months ago, and this is largely due to superseding models and the price direction for digital cameras in general. If you are a beginner looking for a first digital camera then this is recommended. It will last you a good long time (the calendar is good until 2031 so you're sorted in that respect) before you will need to upgrade. If I was buying at this level now I might look at the models that superseded this one, or possibly second hand. If you are any sort of an expert looking for something with a little bit more to it then this isn't recommended.

Oh, by the way I didn't use this camera to take my profile picture, because I was on holiday at the time and work might have been a bit put out if I had taken their camera on holiday with me!

Thanks for the read.
 

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