By Catherine P. Bejm

this camera is amazing. can do anything with it, all sorts of lighting(including back lighting!!!), can stop movement(never get a blurry shot), and every photo comes out crystal clear. BUY this camera…you won’t find better at this size and price

By Baileybear

This is one of the few ultracompact cameras with a 5x optical zoom. It is very small with a large (2.5″) beautiful LCD screen. It is also packed with useful features. I researched many ultracompact cameras and this one came out on top. The only caveat is that it takes an xD picture card (developed for Olympus and Fuji cameras), which is 3 times more expensive than an sD picture card. Also beware… some of the features of the camera, such as the panorama function, will not work unless you use an Olympus H type xD picture card, which of course, is the most expensive type of xD card. It is still a great camera, but it would be nice if somewhere in the official description of the camera, Olympus had included this information! Some great features:
‘Available Light’ mode for taking indoor photos — useful when the flash washes out the subject, but the scene is too dark without the flash.
‘Image Stabilization’ for low light photos
‘Sunset’ which brings out the reds and yellows
‘Fireworks’ — a great option that makes fireworks photos look fantastic
‘Behind Glass’ which reduces the glare and reflection of subjects taken through glass
‘Documents’ which increases contrastSome features that are funky:
‘Expression Edit’- this takes a photo and changes the expression of the subject, but makes them look more like a cartoon character
‘Smile Recognition’- when you lock on the subject, the camera takes a photo when the subject smiles (I haven’t gotten this one to work yet, but can’t imagine using it very often either).

The menu system is very easy to use and there is an on camera guide to help you take better photos.

If it wasn’t for the xD card, I would rate it 5 stars. Because of the fact that you are forced to buy the Olympus xD card to get all of the functions to work, I rate it 4.5 stars.

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