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[OM] Impressions of the Oly C-2500L digital camera

Subject: [OM] Impressions of the Oly C-2500L digital camera
From: Chuck Norcutt <norcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 05:45:14 -0500
Cc: McGrew@xxxxxxx
Several of you have asked recently whether any of us owned the new
C-2500 and what we thought of it.  Someone had also queried about a
rumor that the batteries would only last about 20 minutes. (Not true as
you'll see)  I don't own any digital camera but I was recently talking
to a good friend (Jon McGrew) who just bought one and asked him if he'd
be willing to share his impressions with us.  What follows are his
comments:

Chuck Norcutt
Woburn, Massachusetts, USA

----------------------------------------------------

Thanks for your note, Chuck.  I have been using my new Olympus
C-2500L digital camera quite a bit (...I took over 150 pictures while
I was in Pittsburgh last weekend, 70 of which I had posted on a
website the next evening), and I am quite pleased with it.  I think that
Olympus did a very good job.

The camera uses both SmartMedia cards Compact Flash cards.  My
one chief complaint is that they didn't go the one slight extra step and
also allow the use of Compact Flash Type II cards.  If they had done
that, I could have used the IBM Microdrive hard drive in the camera,
which is faster, bigger, and cheaper than equivalent solid state cards.
I ended up with the 32MB SmartMedia card which is supplied with the
camera and an additional 128MB Compact Flash card.  A full-resolution
picture can be stored as an uncompressed .TIF file; at that rate, it's
about 8MB per shot, so those two cards give me about 20 shots--
in other words, a roll of film.  Storing an 8MB shot is fairly slow,
even
on the solid-state cards, although the camera can take additional shots
while the writing is taking place (it has 16MB of internal memory).
But the IBM Microdrive would have made that substantially faster.

However, that complaint aside, I think it's a very good product.  At
full
resolution (1712x1368 pixels), I am able to print an 8x10 photo on an
inkjet printer (at 170 dpi).  I have an Epson 900 inkjet printer, and
the
photos come out looking very good.  I also have an Alps MD-5000
printer, so I got the dye sublimation upgrade when I got the Olympus
camera.  Output from that printer is very slow, but the results are
essentially photographs.

I am using the supplied Ni-MH rechargeable batteries in the camera,
and it looks as though they will be good for 100 shots or so (at least
at
medium resolution... it takes more time to store the bigger pictures).
But so that I could keep shooting, I also bought a belt-clip battery
pack
that is supposed to be equivalent to about ten times the life of the
four
AA batteries.  So far, I haven't needed to use that pack much-- the
internal batteries are working fine.

I also got the add-on FL-40 flash, and recommend it highly.  It extends
the completely automatic operation of the camera, even zooming when
the camera lens zooms.  Or, of course, as with the camera, it can be
used in a much more manual fashion if you wish.  Good product.

I spent an afternoon and evening --over eight hours-- taking over 80
shots last weekend, nearly all of them with the add-on flash, and the
one set of batteries in the camera (plus the one set in the flash unit)
provided more than enough power, even with lots of zooming and
reviewing shots on the LCD monitor... in other words, normal operation.

I bought the camera at a computer store in midtown Manhattan.  I went
to B&H Photo/Video in Manhattan to get some of the accessories.
When I asked about the accessory telephoto lens, the clerk told me
that they have it, but he wouldn't sell it to me for that camera... he
said
that I won't like it.  It's a good lens, he said, but it was made for
other
camera models, and on the C-2500L he told me that it causes
vignetting.  He said, I know you won't like it.  Wait for newer lenses
to come out from Olympus.

I bought a circular polarizing filter in another department in that same
store, and yep, even that causes some vignetting at full zoom.  I guess
I need a larger filter and a step-up ring.

I am pleased at the progress that has been made with digital cameras
in the past year or two.  Things are looking good.

Regards.
--Jon

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