Great Camera ,Now Obsolete but Good Value

Author's Rating:

Pros: LCD viewfinder display, great photo quality, great zoom. Uses common AA batteries. Pixel mapping.

Cons: Supplied XD card too small. Size. Battery life. Useless "movie" mode. Poor tech support.

The Bottom Line: 
This is a great camera, I would recommend buying it, but read the details in my review.

Author's Review
The C-740 is now (8/2005) an older model so those that are available should be at a greatly discounted price. For most people, a 3 MP camera is just fine and paying more for a 4 or larger MP type is a waste of money.

I obtained this camera primarily for eBay photos. I chose it because Olympus is one of the few manufacturers that offered pixel mapping, a feature that recognizes dead pixels in the image system and maps around them so that they don't show up in your photos.

The quick-start instruction sheet is too brief and doesn't explain as many things as it should. Other users have reported frustration at figuring out how to use the camera upon unpacking it.

If you want a camera for the video/movie mode, forget this one. There's no sound and the images are all jerky. I don't know why they included this feature at all; if you want video, buy a camcorder.

If you like lots of little Japanese sounds and video-game-like birdcalls pouring forth from the camera as you change settings, you probably would be happier with a Canon as this camera does not do them. You can turn on the "sound" feature which gives you some audio prompts, but I don't use it.

The zoom feature is very useful and the camera is reasonably easy to learn. Picture quality is very high but for close-ups you will need to learn how to use the Macro or the manual settings, and once in awhile on the AUTO setting you will get a fuzzy photo and have to start over, apparently because the focus is being confused by something in the field of view.

The XD-Picture Card memory system is only used on Olympus and Fuji cameras so they are often more expensive and harder to find than other formats, but I had no trouble securing a new in package 256 MB card on eBay for $ 32.00. I recommend you buy the Olympus branded cards and not the Fuji or generic labeled versions.

It would have been nice to have a hot shoe for a flashgun, but you can get auto-triggering flash accessories that don't need a wired connection to the camera.

Olympus phone support is horrible, but that doesn't imply that other manufacturers are any better. After wading through a series of phone-tree menus, you will then be disconnected as a reward for your patience. The web address for the support section of their website comes up "404-not found," but you can get to it through the main page. Some of the support choices apparently involve an involuntary download of huge files of javascript or Active-X controls, none of which will be within the patience of dial-up internet users and none of which could possibly be necessary.

The camera is large in size so that it won't fit in a normal size pocket, and the plastic body would undoubtedly suffer complete destruction were the camera dropped. Hence a protective case would be a good idea.

Photos that appear light enough on the LCD screen on the camera usually turn out to be darker once they are in your computer. This is easy to rectify using a tweaking program such as Image Composer or Photo Shop.

The 16MB XD card that comes with the camera is all but useless and is only good for testing the camera while you wait for a 128 or 256 MB card. The camera is apparently capable of recognizing a 512 MB card as well but the manual only mentions 256, probably because of its date of printing. (Do be aware that some Olympus cameras require firmware upgrades to recognize larger XD cards. This is apparently not one of them.)

The custom lithium batteries that come with the camera are very expensive but might be good for trips where access to batteries is not easy. I bought a set of 4 NiMh standard AA rechargeable batteries and a charger and so far those seem to be working out great. The battery cover seems flimsy and without a delicate touch, some users will probably break it sooner or later.

To use this camera, you'll need a computer with a USB port and a CD drive, which most newer machines have.

Some digital cameras just have an optical viewfinder like a regular 35mm SLR camera. This one has an LCD screen for the viewfinder, which is especially useful in low light conditions and is a must-have in my opinion.

Choosing this camera will depend on what you want to do with it. If you want something small you can keep in your pocket for casual snapshots, this isn't the one for you. If you don't mind the larger size and the great zoom and professional feature menu, this is a great choice. One probable reason for the size is the ability to use regular AA batteries, and the larger lens and zoom mechanism.

Be aware that some unscrupulous camera dealers, primarily in the New York area, pluck the included accessories from the package and then try to sell them to you at an additional cost to make their price seem cheaper than their competitors.

Finally, you will really need software to work over your photos, to get the best results, but this is true of any camera. I use Image Composer, a Microsoft product that is part of Front Page 2000, but it is in my opinion overpriced and hard to use. You mainly need to crop, lighten, sharpen and compress photos. Don't be one of those people who e-mail 2-3 MB' worth of photos to someone with a dial-up internet connection!

Recommendation- I would definitely buy this camera if I were looking for something to replace a 35 mm SLR type camera. If I were looking for a pocket toy for casual snapshots, I would choose one of the smaller models.