I got the Olympus Camedia C-460 from Curry's, I paid about £170 for it. I was very cheeky and said "what do I get if I buy it from here" they asked me what did I mean and told them "I wanted a bigger memory card free" after a bit of haggling I got the 512 meg card for a £10, They was selling them for £30. If you don't ask you will never know, I got a pc for a friend from Comet about 2 years ago and got them a printer free :)
I got home and the first thing i found as with a lot of cameras etc was no batteries. Why or why do they just not put the price up by £10 and add the rechargeable packs?
Lets get on with it....The box is nice and has loads of information on it. Covers the specifications of the camera etc. Open the box and oh look a little bit of advertising showing you the "compact
leather case" "quick charge batteries" that you wish you had bought when you picked the camera up :)
The box came with various items including, USB cable to transfer pictures from the Olympus C-460 to your pc, also software to install so your pc recognizes it, The Windows XP users out there don't need to install the software as XP auto detects the Olympus C-460. Also a AV cable that you can plug into your TV so you can watch your real time video via the Olympus C-460. There was another software cd that is a paint package and lets you do allsorts of things to your pictures.
The basic manual which is in English covers around 45 pages and comes in 4 different languages (French, Dutch, and Spanish). The instructions for the Olympus C-460 are very easy to follow, with nice easy diagrams of how the camera works, the manual also has a very good trouble shooting, I have only needed to use it once it nearly 2 years of having the Olympus C-460.
A note of Olympus about the "life" of the batteries and how to reduce the wear on them, for example, the battery power will still be consumed when connected to the pc, and of course it recommends you buy there "Olympus battery pack", as said before just go and pick up a pack from Argos with the charger for less than £10. Information about your "Picture Card" also comes in a small manual, telling you the do's and don't of the card. In fact there are other manuals that cover the "safety precautions", your warranty.
** I also got a Olympus innovate protection called "yellowtag" where you register a code that is given to you in a book on the internet and you fill in your details. You stick your unique sticker on your camera, and if god forbids you loose it, the nice person who finds it enters the information by email and you are supposed to be contacted etc. Seems a great idea but would people of today be honest enough to do it ?
Two batteries where included in the box, but they lasted all of 15 minuets. This is why rechargeable batteries are a must!
The camera itself is a sexy silver little item, it measures 10.5cm in length, and is 4.5cm in width, and stands at 6cm in height. Turn the Olympus C-460 around so the back is facing you and you can see a viewfinder and a LCD screen to the left and 6 buttons. The buttons are for moving around the onscreen menus. There are two buttons on the top of the camera, one is a zoom lever and the other is the main shutter button. When the batteries have been inserted, you operate the Olympus C-460 by moving the lens barrier. This brings the Olympus C-460 into life, the lens pops out and your LCD screen comes into its own. The LCD screen shoes you what you are pointing at, but if you press the "OK" button at the back it put the LCS screen into the menu option where you have a huge selection of things to play with.
Different things in the menu you can do…
You can set the date, the language, and the quality of the image or movie. You can see what images you have taken or even view the movie you have just recorded. There is a option to choose from the "auto" setting right down to the brightness. The images that can be shot are "Portrait" "Landscape" Night Scene" "Self Portrait" and of course "Movie".
Other options include how to use the flash, Red eye reduction and how to set the self timer so you can take a hands free picture, the Olympus C-460 lamp flashes for 10 seconds then 2 seconds later the Olympus C-460 beeps and the picture is taken, it takes some setting up to do when you want to use it but it can be fun trying to sit back down with the time you have. That all I am going to cover in the menu options but there is a lot more you can play with, I could go on for ages.
The images
The Olympus C-460 takes very good quality images. I did some christening pictures for my friend as they had asked me to be a God parent, and after people had seen the print outs, I was asked to do some family shots and made a bit of money, so that cant be to bad. I find the shutter speed of the camera very good it takes fast moving objects very well (see pictures of dolphins I have taken whilst on my holiday); you can set the quality on the Olympus C-460 to what you want, either low quality up to Super Quality. I have to be honest I have not really got around to using the movie option, so I can't comment on it. I may give it ago someday, I bought the Olympus C-460 for the camera side of it anyway and I didn't know about the Movie making until I got it home.
(+) Ultra-compact dimensions, fun automatic tools, good performance for the asking price (-) Cluttered menu layout, camera buttons are scarce, specs are almost identical to the Samsung ES15
I am currently looking for a digital camera, and reviews like yours (long, informative...) help me make up my mind. maybe not this camera because of the battery life! thanks for the heads up on that.
salem_witch 05.01.2007 20:11
Those pictures are really clear. I was a bit shocked that the batteries only lasted 15 mins. Perhaps I need to get rechargeable ones for my camera...
lesa60 17.12.2006 17:49
Great pictures and it's good it has a viewfinder which is becoming less common with compact cameras now. Good review :)
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