Product Description

Designed in a sleek body, C-3030 Zoom blends the best of consumer convenience - like auto-everything ease-of-use. It offers a versatile built-in flash, and a powerful Olympus 3x optical lens plus 2.5x digital zoom with some of the most advanced features of any digital camera today - including a whopping 3.34 million pixel CCD. C-3030 Zoom also has an external flash TTL sync connection and adapters for optional lenses and filters - for full creative control that advanced photographers will enjoy.But while you'll appreciate the ability to shoot like a pro, you'll love the fact that C-3030 was designed with the consumer in mind. From its compact design to its comfortable, ergonomic grip and wide-view LCD screen, C-3030 has all the convenient features you want in a filmless digital camera - like USB, QuickTime movie recording mode with sound, new long-life batteries, and more - all without the big, blocky size of many other advanced digital cameras.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69164 in Camera & Photo
• Size: Medium Size
• Brand: Olympus
• Model: C-3030
• Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 4, Windows, Windows NT 5, Mac OS 9 and below, Mac OS X, PowerMac, Macintosh, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server
• Dimensions: 3.00" h x 4.30" w x 2.60" l, .87 pounds
• Memory: 16MB
• Display size: 1.8

Features

• 3.3 megapixel sensor captures enough detail for photo quality prints at 8 x 10 inches and beyond
• 3x optical plus 2.5 digital zoom lens with autofocus
• Included 16 MB SmartMedia card holds 24 images at default resolution
• Connects with Macs and PCs via USB port
• Uses 2 proprietary lithium or 4 AA batteries (2 lithium batteries included)

Amazon.com Product Description
The Olympus C-3030 zoom digital camera is an ultrahigh-resolution digital camera providing a 3.34-megapixel CCD for true-to-life colors and 2,048 x 1,536 pixel resolution. Its all-glass f/2.8 3x zoom with continuous 2.5x digital zoom brings you up to 7.5 times closer to the action. You have the choice of using either the traditionally styled real-image viewfinder or a 1.8-inch color TFT LCD monitor to frame your shots. The LCD is also handy for playback. Other technical features include a built-in 6-mode intelligent flash, a self-timer with remote, and a time/date imprinting function.

Using removable SmartMedia cards for its storage system, this camera offers 15 different image-resolution capture modes--including five uncompressed TIFF modes and up to 191 seconds of QuickTime movie capture with sound. Built-in USB connection and serial connection allow users downloading flexibility. The Olympus C-3030 is compatible with both Macintosh and PC platforms. It is the only camera in its class with a 32MB SDRAM buffer for rapid shooting at 3.3 frame-per-second burst mode up to 5 photos, and real-time shooting at 1 photo every second.

Even though the Olympus C-3030 is user friendly and can perform all camera functions automatically, you have a wide variety of user-selected and manual features to make your pictures as artistic as you'd like. The Olympus C-3030 offers special-effects modes including B&W, sepia, blackboard, and whiteboard. It also provides user-selectable ISO settings (100, 200, and 400), slow shutter speeds of up to 16 seconds in manual and 1/800 second to 1/2 second in auto, aperture settings of f/2.8 to f/11 through the entire zoom range in 1/3 step increments, and autoexposure bracketing for an array of exposures (plus or minus two stops in 1/3-step increments with three- or five-step bracketing.)

In response to one of digital camera users' chief complaints about previous models' power consumption, Olympus has designed the C-3030 zoom with improved battery life. While it will operate on 4 AA alkaline batteries for convenience, it lasts longer with the use of the CR-3V (LB-01) lithium batteries. It can also operate on an optional AC adapter.

In the box, you receive the C-3030 zoom digital camera, a 16 MB SmartMedia card, an RM-1 remote control, a software CD-ROM (including Adobe PhotoShop LE), a PC/Mac USB cable, an NTSC audio-video cable, two AA lithium CR-3V batteries, a user guide, a registration card, and a strap. Olympus backs the C-3030 with a one-year limited warranty.

Customer Reviews

One camera that does it all
I had the predecessor to this camera the 2020Z. Great camera but I wanted audio capability. Everything I liked about the 2020Z is here and more. Its still compact (fits in pockets better than most), EASY on batteries, excellent colors, fast lens (2020Z is faster), fast shot recovery, wireless remote and very light weight. The 3030Z expands on the 2020Z with one lever zoom for both optical and digital modes, higher resolution (won't gain you much on average size pictures), more control over power off and on settings. Some things that I do miss about the 2020Z are it's faster lens and the ability to shot 30 frames per second in low resolution movie mode. You do have a large memory buffer on the 3030Z so you can shoot 5 frames in best resolution mode in a little over a second! While no camera can yet do it all this one comes very close. I currently have an Olympus 2500L, 500L, 2020Z and Nikon Coolpix 950 and this is my favorite by far.

The only things I would change on the 3030Z are: an incredibly close macro mode like the 950/990 Nikon, standard NiMH batteries and charger like my 2020Z, faster lens of the 2020Z (one of the fastest on a digital), 30 fps in all movie modes as well as optical instead of digital zoom with movies and the nifty little exposure histogram like on the high-end Nikons. Those minor quibbles aside it is an outstanding camera. It doesn't eat batteries, takes great pictures (not just great digital pictures) and is very fast between shots and from the time your press the shutter to the shot is actually taken. If you have used a Kodak 280 or 290 you know how aggravating it is to press the shutter and wait...wait... wait... until you finally lose the once in a lifetime shot you actually wanted to take.

It is tough to go wrong if you buy this camera. It is not cheap but it is an excellent value. The "boot up" time of the camera is really quick too. If you are willing to trade off a slightly smaller memory buffer for burst mode and slightly less recording time in movies as well the Olympus 3000Z is a good choice and you will save about $200. One big plus often overlooked is the software that comes bundled with the camera. The software included with the Nikon's is basic at best. If you buy the 3030Z you get Adobe Photoshop 5 LE which is an outstanding program that gives you a lot of control over editing your images. It may be the "light" version of Photoshop but it is still incredibly powerful. This does NOT come with the 3000Z though! I think that is part of the pricing difference between the two. One other big plus about the Olmpus "C" series in general is that you rarely get "red eye" when using the built in flash. I can't seem to avoid it on my Nikon 950 and my friend has the same problem on his Nikon 990. The 3030Z does a great job in low light conditions without the flash too. Buy one, it's a great camera!

IMPRESSED!
Being a tech geek, I did a bit of research on the various websites and narrowed my choices between the Olympus 3030 and Nikon 9090. It seemed to be a toss up depending on which features you valued most. I chose the Olympus for a variety of reasons and haven't regretted my decision. First of all, the picture quality exceeded my expectations from the very first picture. I've taken a variety of shots from the different settings and even with the "avereage" quality setting of images, the detail the camera picked up is unbelievable. I've even zoomed in on the images with various photo editing programs and still can't detect any distortion. Secondly, the installation of the provided software was a easy. A nice bonus to the software was the supplying of Adobe Photoshop 5.0 LE, a slimmed down version of the very popular photo editing program that sets the industry standard for professional photo editing. Third, Olympus provided a USB cable for downloading images from the camera to the PC, which speeds up the process tremendously when comparing it to a Serial transfer.

The few complaints I have concern more of the decisions of Olympus for what they provided instead of the overall quality of the camera. First, why in the heck didn't they provide a charger and rechargable batteries? Sure, they upgraded to Lithium batteries but this camera eats a lot of juice when using the LCD monitor. And how about providing an AC adaptor for those times we want to download all our images or use the camera indoors. Second, I had to go out and purchase a little lens cap strap since the cap isn't connected to the camera. Having to place the cap in and out of my pocket when I want to take pictures is asking for the cap to be lost (especially when making the family trips to Disneyland).

Finally, the Olympus also uses the Smartmedia data storage and provides you with a 16MB card. This isn't bad depending on what setting you have your camera on (the higher the quality, the less pictures you can take) but I would consider purchasing an additional memory card with a higher capacity. As of this date, I believe the highest amount of MB that Smartmedia makes is 64Mb. I know the Nikon uses the Compact Flash system and can go a as high as 128MB. That's a feature to consider (well, the cost for a 128MB Compact Flash card runs on average is about $300).

Default Settings, Etc.
This is a very nice camera. I agree with Jim DuLaney on the shutter delay of digital cameras. I am use to the release on my Canon F-1 and A-1. However, you can shoot again while the camera is still recording the image to the SmartMedia Card.

PLEASE NOTE: "Slopedirk" (see his review) must not have used the owner's manual. You most certainly can set your own default settings, such as your preferred resolution; whether you want flash or no flash; shutter priority or aperture priority, and the preferred setting; etc.

The menu selections are fairly simple once you play with the camera awhile. As for the problem of taking the lens cap off before turning on the power - buy the extender tube (an Olympus accessory). This tube is needed if you attach accessory lenses. I find it very useful because it allows me to use a filter (Haze, UV, Skylight, etc.). I leave it on at all times!

A good companion book for any digital camera: Digital Photography For Dummies®, by Julie Adair(find it at [amazon])... This is an excellent resource and also explains imaging software (Photoshop, etc.) and printing. (Don't let the title steer you away. I don't usually like Dummy books; but a professional photographer even uses this book and highly recommends it!)