Great Camera for those who want to get into digital photography inexpensively Costco Price 199

Author's Rating:

Pros: Compact, convenient, nice lens shield so no fussing with lens caps. Good quality Olympus shots!

Cons: Lens shield can be accidentally hit during use turning the camera off. Battery life.

The Bottom Line: 
I would recommend this camera as it is simple to use, compact in size and produces quality images which should be able to be printed up to 8 X 10.

Author's Review
I’ve been into digital photography for about a year and a half now. I own the more advanced Olympus C5050Z which has allowed me to learn about some of the more advanced features that can be used to get a bit more out of one's pictures. Because of the greater control afforded by the C5050Z my wife found that camera to be a bit more difficult to use than our old 35mm point and shoot. This is what prompted me to find an easier camera to use. My search ended with my choice of the D580Z at a great price point.

Digital cameras require digital media and the D580Z, like most digital cameras, comes with a token 16M XD card. Don’t leave the store without buying a larger capacity card. I bought this camera at Costco for $199 and also bought a 256M XD card for $47 (man, they’ve come down in price!). See below (way below) for further discussion re: card capacities, etc.

I have had a great time learning about, and using, digital photography with that C5050Z. My wife wanted to get into it also and was looking for something a bit more compact, convenient and geared towards “Point and Shoot” photography. After doing research on the internet, including here at Epinions, I decided on the Olympus D580Z. I was already pleased with the quality of my Olympus C5050Z product so there was a definite lean in that direction. I have to say I am real glad I did as this little $200 camera has really impressed me thus far.

A few advantages this has over my higher end C5050Z is the compact build of this unit as well as the “lens shield” that slides back and forth and doubles as the “on/off” switch. This on/off functionality makes it just about impossible to hurt the lens extender mechanism as the lens shield by default must be clear of the lens when it’s turned on. I mention this because if you have read reviews of other cameras like my C5050Z you’ll see many people forget to take the lens cap off before turning the unit on, thereby potentially causing damage to the gears that extend the lens.

A real nice feature about the D580Z is that you could just throw this guy in your pocket and not worry about carrying around a $700 (about what I spent on my other camera) piece of equipment. Not that $200 is nothing to sneeze at, but it is a fraction of the cost. As mentioned in the "Cons" line at the top, a downside to that lens shield doubling as the on off switch is that on a few occasions I have inadvertently turned the unit off unintentionally. Once I realized this was an issue I have been more cognizant not to repeat that error.

This 4 megapixel unit has 7 shooting modes which are very neatly accessible with a single touch of one of the arrows around the center button. Because I am familiar with the Olympus digital cameras, I was able to use this unit without reading the directions at all. It is very easy, very intuitive. The seven shooting modes are Auto, Portrait, Self Portrait (yes, for holding the camera towards you and taking a picture of yourself!), Landscape, Portrait plus Landscape, Night and Movie. All these modes are displayed, again with the touch of a single arrow, in a “wheel” format. You just hit an arrow to move thru the wheel and select your mode. You can just leave it on Auto which displays a “P” in the screen and let it figure the settings out for you.

This D580Z is a pleasure to use since it’s compact and there isn’t a whole lot re: setting changes you have to think about. I have to say, I really enjoy my C5050Z though this D580Z is probably less daunting (read perceived easier) to use since there isn't a whole lot to change re: settings. The C5050Z by comparison allows for additional features to let you control the shot and be more creative and artistic if you choose. I will also say, I don’t use those features a whole lot because I’m not a professional but am, at this point, probably an “advanced” amateur. I know what most of the advanced features are about (certainly not all and I certainly haven’t mastered the techniques) but again don’t get into it a whole lot for the kind of “normal” photography I do. By “normal” I mean taking pictures of my family, etc. I do take scenery shots on vacations and I enjoy the quality the lens of the C5050Z offers and the slightly higher grade of resolution. For example, the D580Z provides 2288 by 1712 in SHQ mode. The C5050 (a 5 megapixel camera), in the same SHQ mode provides for 2560 by 1920 pixels per the same area. The more pixels, the better the shot is able to reproduce reality. It’s kind of like the difference between Hi Def TV and normal analog TV…the more lines of resolution the better. Doing some quick math on both height and width numbers here yields an approximate 12% better picture quality on the C5050Z vs. the D580Z in terms of resolution in the SHQ mode in both directions. One benefit of the D580 having lesser quality resolution is that my 256M XD card in the D580 can hold about 92 pictures in SHQ mode. In my C5050Z, the same card holds about 71 pictures because it is writing more data per picture as just discussed.

Another nice feature of the D580Z is that it takes two standard AA batteries (versus 4 in my C5050Z, no big deal, just for comparison purposes). I use Panasonic rechargeables but it’s nice to know if we’re on the road you can buy two standard AA batteries if you run out of juice and you’ll be back shooting again. UPDATE...after a few more weeks I've noticed you better have a few pairs of extra batteries. This camera goes thru the batteries pretty quickly. I put two new AAs in after my rechargeables gave way. Two standard AAs lasted maybe 30 pictures. These may have been on the shelf for a while at the store, who knows. My rechargeable 2100 mAH batteries did last longer on the one charge, I probably snapped 50 pictures on those, either way, not great on the batteries....END UPDATE I tend to stay away from proprietary batteries that are difficult to get my hands on in case the batteries die on the road or even if you’re at a theme park or whatever for the day.

I’ve read about shutter lag issues (time between when you press the button to snap a shot and when the shot actually gets recorded). I haven’t experienced shutter lag where it’s been real noticeable or a problem. Actually, shot to shot time (time between being able to take consecutive shots) seems as good or better than my C5050Z.

For those of you who have yet to venture into digital photography know that a major benefit attributed to digital cameras, and I’ve heard this over and over again, is “When you have a digital camera you take so many more pictures!” Let me tell you, this is very true. With a regular film camera, you take shoot a roll of 24 exposures and maybe you’re real pleased with 3 or 4 of them. The other 20 pictures you paid good money for film and developing don’t seem to be worth the cost. I would hesitate to just shoot away because of the perceived lack of value in the majority of the pictures I would get. That hesitation is gone with a digital camera and you end up with many more quality shots at the end of the day because you aren’t concerned about shooting away! I know this isn’t germaine to a review of this unit but is an important aspect in deciding to get a digital camera.


I realize many of you looking at this unit may not be interested in learning a whole lot about photography. You may be like my wife who just wants to point and shoot and move on with life. If you are interested in learning a bit of something, read on. Know that I am cutting and pasting a bit from my C5050Z review so please forgive those references…..Before I bought my first digital camera I spent a combined total of maybe 40 hours reading photography sites (some of that time was finding sites in the first place, so here’s a link which provides a gateway to many good sites…

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1008&message=4536807 )

learning about such things as sharpness, saturation, contrast, aperture settings (good link discussing this is

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&message=2081983

shutter speeds, flash intensity, ISO settings, macrophotography, etc. If this sounds a bit daunting to you, don’t let it. Although I have a basic understanding of most of these items, I usually change very little with my C5050 since I’ve learned about what those items are and have set my camera to my likings. One really nice feature with this camera is the “My Mode” option. With this feature you can program a variety of settings within a “Mode” and there are 8 modes you can set to your fancy depending on shooting requirements. Remember, I was a point and shooter and for the most part I still am. I have set all 8 modes mostly based on recommendations of Steve Wrotniak

http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/c5050/c5050-rev.html.

Of those 8 “My Mode” settings, I find myself in Mode 1 about 98% of the time. I leave the camera in that “My Mode” 1 and occasionally make minor adjustments from there (maybe a slow flash instead of auto flash to mitigate the reflection of the flash back at me in the picture…did that a bit this past week).

You should know this D580Z has 3X optical zoom. Ignore Digital Zoom since that is a marketing gimmick and compromises quality by enlarging each pixel in a picture thereby sacrificing resolution. 3X zoom will not bring much of let’s say “the action” close to you. This camera is not intended to get little Joey in his soccer game isolated one on one. 10X optical zoom is what you are looking for there and something I considered when I was first purchasing a digital camera. I really liked the 10X optical zoom of the C770 which would allow you to bring a subject closer, but picture quality won the day. Maybe someday I will get C770 as well…. Here’s a funny blurb I read a while back when talking about different cameras. I read on www.dpreview.com (a great site to read the user forums and see examples of pictures taken with different digital cameras) a husband (photographer) and wife (golfer) were discussing their respective hobbies. The wife complained to her husband, who had just purchased a C750UZ (older C770 model), that he shouldn’t need another camera since he already had two. He replied to her “How many golf clubs do you have?”. She replied back, “I have one set”. His response…”Maybe you call it a set, but I believe you have 14 clubs, each does something different….Same with my cameras, they each do something different!”. I thought that was kind of funny and also true. You have to decide what you are going to do with your camera before you can make the best decision. If you want to primarily take shots of your kids playing soccer, you may need that 10X optical zoom.

The D580Z comes with a 16M XD card. This is a token card they give you that holds just a few pictures. You will need to buy a bigger capacity card. I mentioned above about the XD card (my C5050Z allows for two cards simultaneously so I also have a Compact Flash card). I bought this 256M XD card also at Costco for $47. As mentioned this D580Z holds about 92 pictures in SHQ mode on the 256 XD card. That means I can take a lot more pictures than that since I delete the obvious bad shots immediately. 92 saved shots is almost 4 rolls of 24 exposure film and keeping in mind I take many more shots than that that it’s like having 5 or 6 rolls of film in my camera at once! That’s a lot of pictures and so for me the 256 meg card is sufficient.

Next I’ll mention that you should purchase a card reader. The card reader in my opinion is the easiest way to get your pictures from your camera to your computer and internet. Read the instructions on this one as you have to “Eject” your media with the computer before removing it from the reader. The best I’ve found out there for my purposes is the Lexar Media 6 in 1 reader….It can handle many types of “digital film” including my XD and Compact Flash cards and is USB 2.0 which means transfer speed is pretty quick. I bought mine from Dell, cost $32….link is

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=A0107419&c=us&l=en&cs=19&category_id=4325&page=external

Because you are considering purchasing a digital camera I’ll discuss securing your images for a bit. If you don’t already have a backup external (or internal) hard drive, get one. If you transfer your precious images to your computer and that hard drive crashes, guess what? You are in big trouble. Back up to the external hard drive regularly. In addition, I recommend purchasing space at an internet site such as

www.imageevent.com

which I’ve used and have really enjoyed. Other sites include www.pbase.com and a host of others. In addition to providing another backup of your photos in case of disaster (what if you’re house burned down taking out your computer and your external drive, heaven forbid) you now have a way to easily share your photos. Cost is about $25 a year for my deal at ImageEvent and is for 1,500 images (a bunch in my book) for that one year.

You have probably figured out by now that the cost of your digital camera is just the start. New digital media (XD card, reader, etc.) requires a bit of extra money. Well worth it since the pictures I’ve taken are…..yep, priceless!

I have really enjoyed getting to know this compact, easy to use camera. The price was reduced at Costco because like everything technology these days new releases are always coming out. I would buy this little guy again in a heart beat for $200 over at Costco.