June 3 - June 10 2001

Olympus C-3040 Zoom by Alessandro Cancian About one month ago I was flying towards Europe and found myself chatting with the passenger sitting next to me. I was exploring, with the help of a user manual, the various features of a new digital camera I was taking along. The scene raised the curiousity of my neighbour, and he began to shower me with questions. The model I was handling was one of the latest jewels by Olympus, i.e. the Camedia C-3040 Zoom. The 3.3-megapixel camera represents the second generation of the C-3000 design and updates the former top-of-the-line 3-megapixel design, the Camedia C-3030, incorporating some interesting enhancements. With its linear design, classic all-black body, with textured, non-slip surfaces on the back panel and right-hand grip, the C-3040 is lightweight and handy. The Olympus camera offers a newly designed super-bright 7.1-21.3mm (35-105mm 35mm equivalent) f/1.8 3x zoom lens for better low-light capabilities. The C-3040 also has a digital zoom giving up to 5X magnification, but my advice is to use it as little as possible and only if absolutely necessary, since it degrades picture resolution. The camera features a viewfinder and a rear panel, 1.8-inch-wide view colour TFT LCD monitor, which automatically displays detailed exposure information when activated. Usable both in automatic and manual mode, the C-3040 can capture, in addition to photos, small video clips in QuickTime format, in either SQ (160 x 120 pixels) or HQ (320 x 240 pixels) modes, with simultaneous sound recording capabilities. The C-3040s default image resolution is 2,048 x 1,536 pixels, but lower resolutions of 1,600 x 1,200, 1,280 x 960, 1,024 x 768, and 640 x 480 pixels are also available. Image quality options include two JPEG compression ratios, plus an uncompressed TIFF mode that produces full-resolution images. The Olympus camera ships with a 16MB SmartMedia memory card for image storage. This capacity, far from optimal considering the size of higher-resolution images, in my opinion must be boosted by purchasing more memory cards, possibly with higher capacity. The camera can connect directly to a computer via the USB interface (Olympus also provides a video output cable for connection to a television set) and it is perfectly compatible both with Macs and PCs. Software shipped with the unit includes Olympus Camedia Master 2.5 utility package, which provides minor organization and editing tools. Everything worked smoothly with any OS I tested, even with the new Mac OS X, which astonished me by downloading and classifying the photos as soon as I connected the camera to the USB port. Working with the C-3040 is incredibly simple, with easy access to zoom control, shutter and built-in flash. However, Olympus still hasnt tethered the lens cap, which falls off when you turn the camera on and the lens extends into the operating position. One of the strong points of the C-3040 Zoom is the battery life. Coming with two LB-01 3V lithium batteries (CR-3V), the Olympus camera performs incredibly well; I managed to archive about 500 pictures without reloading. It is a pity that the indispensable battery charger is sold separately as optional. Photos taken in automatic mode are good, especially for shots taken in interiors with enough light. On the other hand, should the light be insufficient, the built-in flash is not the ideal solution, unless the subject is quite close. A proprietary sync socket allows you to connect an external flash unit when additional flash power is needed. Outside, one should be careful of overexposure. Taking advantage of its internal 32MB memory buffer, the C-3040 Zoom offers a Sequence mode that mimics the motor drive on a film camera, continually recording images for as long as the shutter button is held down or until the memory runs out. Overall the $999 U.S. C-3040 is a pretty good and fast camera that can satisfy even users who want something more, thanks to the incredible quantity of options available for any situation and to its very good quality lenses. The price is reasonable, more so if considering the long battery life, even though the memory card capacity should be increased and the battery charger should not be considered optional. For further information please visit www.olympus.com

 

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