Olympus FE-340: Slim Pocket Camera Holds Its Own Against Competition

Olympus' latest offering in slim digital cameras is the FE-340. Although bulkier than its predecessor the FE-280, the FE-340 is only 0.9 inches thick, making it easy to slide into a purse or pocket. The combination of metal, plastic and chrome gives the camera a nice durable feel, and the black and silver trim are stylish.

Optical zoom on this camera is 5x with 8.0 megapixels; other cameras similar to the FE-340 typically have 3x to 7x zoom and 7 to 12 megapixels. Since the FE-340 uses a rechargeable battery, there's no worry of having to waste money on disposable AA batteries. However, an extra battery may come in handy, as the one with the FE-340 will last typically 150-250 shots.

The screen on the back is sharp and clear, and is almost 3 inches diagonally. It doesn't lag or stutter when tracking your subject, but the screen may be hard to see in bright light due to its glossy finish. A backlight boost function helps sometimes, however. As for picture quality, the FE-340 shines in a couple areas.

Overall quality is OK, but for shooting close up, the super macro mode does very well. The camera has completely automatic settings, but if you wish, you can adjust ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, and image compression for example. ISO can be set up to 3200, but picture "noise" increases the higher the ISO setting. There is a quick scene setting to landscape or portrait to the mode dial, which is convenient, and access to the other scene modes is on the mode dial. The FE-340 comes with an on-camera shooting guide (as every Olympus does now) which helps the user use the correct settings to shoot a picture depending on the situation.

This is helpful if you are using a digital camera (or new to photography) and want perfect pictures. If you're an experienced user though, you'll probably never use this feature. Other good shooting features include facial detection, which is common on most cameras a today, and the ability to see how exposure compensation values will affect your picture in four different ways. The Digital Image Stabilization also helps with eliminating camera shake when shooting action or in low light.

The FE-340 also excels with in-camera editing. The perfect fix features redeye, lighting, and blurriness fixing which can be all done at once. There is also a "face focus" feature that will bring a person's face into focus, but this function only works on pictures with several discernible faces. The expression edit feature is also new; it takes the subject's face and will try adding a facial expression, such as smiling. This only seems to work on one person's face, and it can be hit or miss depending on if the camera can detect the subject's face correctly. Other editing functions include cropping and resizing. For playback, there's a slideshow function which will go through all pictures taken, and a "my favorite" option that allows you to set a picture as a favorite so it can't be erased and will be easily viewable by selecting this option.

The few negatives about the FE-340 are out shadowed by its features, but can be breaking points. The FE-340 uses the xD memory card format, which is slowly becoming obsolete, as SD and Compact Flash are the dominant formats. xD cards can still be obtained, but Olympus is the last camera manufacturer that has cameras that are xD only compatible. As mentioned previously, the camera is rechargeable.

If your battery dies while on vacation, if you don't have a charger available then you either can't use the camera or will have to buy a new battery. However, the benefit of using rechargeable batteries outweighs this negative. The image stabilization only increases shutter speed and ISO setting, and is not a true stabilization system like on some point and shoot cameras. There is also a yellowish tinge to images when shooting indoors, but this disappears when good lighting conditions exist.

Overall, the FE-340 is decent performer and is available in either black or silver, with some retailers selling a 'pink' version with a case and picture frame. If you don't mind using xD memory cards, this Olympus is worth taking a look at.