Olympus FE-210 > Reviews > Excitement, to disappointed

Author's product rating:   

Picture Quality	Satisfactory
Range & Quality of Features	Diverse
Ease of Use	Easy
Overall Look & Design	Good
Value for Money	Satisfactory

Advantages:	cheap !  !
Disadvantages:	Not all it is snapped up to be !  !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I thought that the best way to describe this product may simply be to explain, how desperate I was to acquire it!!

I have a friend, who always has the latest technology, the latest clothes, the latest you name it!!
And I am always, always, just a little green eyed! We went clubbing a few days ago, and we always take cameras out with us, so that we can capture all the right drunken moments!!
I have my own digital camera which I really like, but when she pulled this out, I couldn’t help but ask about it, and ultimately, I couldn’t wait to buy it!!!

Before I did anything, (it is always best to research into an expensive or technical product before you buy it) I looked the camera up on the internet, and compared it’s specifications to other similar products.

Step 1~ I looked on the Olympus website ~ http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/29_FE-210.htm

Step 2~ I read carefully through the small bits of information that this web site gave me.

• 7.1 Mega pixels – This is a high amount and means that the pictures are ultra clear and of an excellent quality. And this also means that when the pictures are printed, or developed, put onto a computer (whatever you want to do with them) they are of a beautiful quality, less chance of blur, etc.
• 3 x Optical zoom, for all those who don’t know ‘specification lingo’ this means that the camera can zoom in to 3 times closer than the standard frame. Due to the high mega pixel of the camera, this will also mean that the quality will still be in the picture even after the zoom
• The LCD screen is 6.4cm, which is a really good size to view your photos at, to give you a clear idea of how they look.
• The dimensions of this camera (W x H x D) are 89 x 64 x 30 mm, the camera is pretty small, compact and really stylish!
• The camera comes with many different shooting formats - Candle, Indoor, Sunset, Auction, Cuisine, Documents, Fireworks, Landscape, Sports mode, behind glass, Portrait mode, Self-portrait, Night portrait, Panorama assist. This means that the camera can give your photos different effects, which lets face it is a cool gadget to have.

So I looked through all these specifications, then I thought, it looks cool I’ll get it, I didn’t have a clue how much it would be, due to the high mega pixel I was expecting about £200, considering that my dads was only a bit higher and his cost £400. When I purchased this camera on the internet for £92 and the delivery was free, I have to say that I was not only shocked, but also completely satisfied, and I felt better about buying a camera even though I had one already!!!

When shopping on the internet I found this camera to be between the prices £85 - £100, which I believe is completely reasonable and a complete bargain.

The camera came with all the parts it needed, including a handy wrist strap.
However, when I received this camera, I realized that maybe; I should have taken another look at my friends before I committed to buying, in the club hers looked really neat and stylish, maybe because it was silver. When I received it, I actually realized that it was slightly chunky and heavier than the camera I already had!!
However it wasn’t too heavy and it still fitted neatly into my handbag, so that wasn’t an issue.

Another thing with this camera is that it doesn’t come with a charger or rechargeable batteries; this was the same with my older camera, although I preferred this as rechargeable batteries are more expensive and to buy a pack of AA batteries once in a while isn’t a big bother to me.

The main big problem I found was that, even though the mega pixel was high, my images weren’t of the quality I expected, all the shots that I take indoors, tend to come out really yellowy or a brown shade. This means that I have to use the flash more often and then my pictures look too bright and the faces in the pictures look illuminated.

The camera is really easy to use, as a lot of the functions are automated, this means that although the camera is simple to use, a lot of the settings have already been recorded and it is hard to change the way the camera works so that it suits your needs.

It’s quite upsetting really!!! I was really looking forward to the delivery of my camera, but I’ve ended up giving it to one of my brothers, as my older camera is better, in picture quality, shutter speed, ease of use, different options, style, weight and pretty much everything!

However, at the end of it all I did manage to find a really big advantage the instruction manual was brilliant! And therefore it was easy for my little brother to take off my hands!!!

It’s a good little camera for the price, but I expected too much and therefore I was let down!