Olympus Camedia D-580 / C-460 Inexpensive, Easy to Use 4.0-Megapixel Digital Camera

Author's Rating:

Pros: Price, features, performance, connectivity, sturdy construction

Cons: Lens lid sometimes difficult to open

The Bottom Line: 
With good performance and ease of use, this camera is a good choice for a beginner and a more advanced user alike.

Author's Review
The Olympus Camedia D-580 is a 4-Megapixel digital camera that updates the Olympus D-565 with ergonomic and usability improvements. Some buttons are enlarged, menus changed and jacks relocated (some for better, some for worse).

Construction

The camera features a solid, sturdy door that covers the lens, flash and other items that are normally exposed during shooting. The door is slightly difficult to open and close, because of the force required – you are always afraid to break something.

When the lid is opened, the lens extends and the camera powers itself on. If you try to close the lid, the lens retracts and the camera powers itself off. This design is easy to use and protects the lens, flash and other elements well.

The camera body itself is sturdy and has well-designed, easy to use, lids for battery compartment, memory card, A/V and USB ports and a power port lid. The D-565’s black buttons on the rear are replaced by body-color silver ones, most of which are also larger and feel more solid.

Camera Pictures

You can see how the camera looks (front and rear) by going to the following address:

http://www.review-shop.com/Olympus_D580/Olympus_D580_1.html

You can copy and paste the address above into your browser's address area.

Connectivity

You can view the pictures (and short videos) you took on the TV screen by connecting the camera to a TV via a supplied A/V cable (the camera also has a DC power jack so that you don’t deplete the batteries by doing so for prolonged periods). You can also transfer your pictures and videos to your computer either by using the USB connection or by removing the memory card and inserting it into a reader connected to you computer, provided you have one, of course.

The A/V and USB ports are located under one lid, whereas the DC power port is under another. On D-565, the USB port was all by itself and it was where the DC port is now. So now the ports are grouped by function (e.g. power, viewing/transfer), whereas previously they were grouped by mode (prolonged TV viewing, quick computer transfer).

The USB connectivity is easy and works on PCs with modern operating systems (Windows 2000, XP, etc.) without the need to install drivers. With Windows 98, you have to install a driver from the disc supplied.

The camera, when powered on in viewing mode (by pushing a button on the back panel), appears as a removable drive in Windows and can be operated as such – you can copy files from there. JPEG files represent pictures taken.

Picture Quality

The camera has 4-Megapixel resolution and can take pictures at maximum resolution of 2288x1712 in SHQ or HQ modes. The JPEG compression is lower in SHQ mode, resulting in better picture quality and larger files. The included 16Mb xD-Picture card can only fit 5 shots in the SHQ mode or 16 shots in HQ mode.

There are two lower-resolution modes: 1600x1200 (SQ1) and 640x480 (SQ2, VGA resolution). These are useful for web posting or emailing. The supplied 16 Mb card can fit approximately 32 shots in SQ1 mode and 165 shots in SQ2.

The 4-Megapixel resolution lets you print photographs of up to 8x10 with great detail level. You can also easily download the pictures to your computer and resize them (lower the resolution) to post them online in a smaller format.

The camera produces very good pictures with good contrast and colors, especially in bright sunlight or using the built-in flash. Obviously, it is a point-and-shoot camera body, but its picture quality is very good and it is easy to use as well.

In fact, the quality is better than the film-based point-and-shoot camera would provide because, in part, of the fact that the focus distance for digital cameras is smaller than for film cameras and that increases the depth of view (the part that is in focus at a given time) at the same aperture setting.

Also, the lens has maximum aperture of f3.1 (at wide angle), which is better than what point-and-shoot film based cameras normaly provide. This lets in more light and allows you to shoot with faster shutter speed.

Flash and Power Consumption

The camera has a very powerful flash, which is a good thing. Keep in mind that some pictures taken with flash look too bright and overexposed on the LCD, whereas once viewed on the computer or printed, they are not overexposed to that degree. Try experimenting first, before erasing and trying to retake the picture.

The camera uses two AA batteries, which it consumes rather quickly. I highly recommend NiMH rechargeable batteries of the highest capacity you can get. Digital cameras are power hungry and this one is no exception, particularly when using its powerful flash and LCD.

The flash features defeatable red eye reduction mode and you can forcefully turn the flash off.

Viewfinder and LCD

The camera’s LCD is 1.8-inch and is reasonably bright in the sunlight. It has resolution of 85,000 pixels, which is enough to see what you are shooting, but not enough to see if the picture is in sharp focus. The LCD lets you frame the picture perfectly, whereas the optical viewfinder conserves the batteries but shows only part of the picture that will be taken.

The LCD also shows you the current shooting modes, information about the battery status and the memory card’s remaining capacity. It also serves to display menus.

Focus

The camera uses contrast detection to focus – a somewhat slow process (slightly less than a second), which produces good results nonetheless. You can focus off-center by pushing the “shutter release” button halfway with the subject in the center of the viewfinder or LCD, moving the camera to recompose the shot and then depressing the button all the way to take the picture.

The camera also has Macro mode and can focus in the range of 8”-20”. In normal mode the focus range is 20”- infinity.

Adjustments

You can make numerous manual adjustments, including white balance (auto, fluorescent light, Daylight, Overcast, Tungsten), picture mode (presets for portrait, landscape, etc.), exposure control, B&W, sepia effect and others. You can switch between digital ESP and spot metering (e.g. for dark objects in strong backlight).

The camera has calendar and can add the date information to the pictures on the memory card.

Zoom

The camera has 3x optical zoom and 4x digital, which combine to 12x zoom. You can disable digital zoom to avoid resolution loss. The zoom rocker seems counter-intuitive to me – you move the lever forward to zoom out and towards yourself to zoom in. Ditto in the picture review mode – you can zoom in and out the same way.

Some Specs

The never hurt. Here they are:

Maximum aperture range: f3.1-f5.2 - the former is for wide angle, the latter is for full telephoto.
Shutter Speeds: 1/1,000-1/2 sec. and up to 2 sec. in Night Scene mode
ISO – Automatic 50-400

Bottom Line

With good performance and ease of use, this camera is a good choice for a beginner and a more advanced user alike.


My Reviews of Other Digital Cameras

Canon:
Canon Powershot S2 IS Digital Camera Review
Canon Powershot S1 IS Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot A520 4-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot A510 3.2-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot S500 5-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot S410 / Digital IXUS 430 Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot SD400 5-Megapixel Digital Camera Review

Panasonic:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 5-Megapixel Digital Camera with 12x Optical Stabilized Zoom Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 5-Megapixel Digital Camera with 12x Optical Stabilized Zoom Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ4 4-Megapixel Digital Camera with 12x Optical Stabilized Zoom Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ15 4-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3 Digital Camera Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ2 Digital Camera with 12x Leica Lens and Optical Image Stabilizer Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1 Digital Camera with Optical Image Stabilizer and 12x Leica Lens Review

Olympus:
Olympus Camedia C-765 4.0-Megapixel Digital Camera with USB and ED Lens Review
Olympus Stylus 410 4-Megapixel All-Weather Digital Camera Review
Olympus Camedia D-580 / C-460 4.0-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Olympus D-565 Zoom Digital 4-Megapixel Camera Review
Olympus D-575 Zoom Digital Camera Review

Sony:
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T1 Digital Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T33 Digital Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T7 Digital Camera Review

Others:
Minolta DiMAGE Z2 Digital Camera Review
Pentax *istD Digital SLR Camera Review