Product Review: Olympus C-60 Zoom Digital Camera

This camera first made it's appearance in 2004 for a hefty price of $300. The Olympus C-60 Zoom digital camera was one of the best digital cameras on the market for less than $1000, and it was a big jump in quality over the previous Olympus versions. Sporting 6-megapixels, the camera sold very well and still has a strong fanbase.

It's surprise them that the Olympus C-60 Zoom digital camera can still be found on eBay and Amazon, and that they're still selling strong. If you're looking for a high-quality digital camera that works very well, but you want to spend less than $100, this camera is perfect.

The average good/above-average quality of the C-60 Zoom digital camera sells for about $40 - this is only because of it's age, and does not reflect it's quality at all. Read on below to see if this high-quality, super-cheap digital camera will meet your needs.

Features

This camera has a lot of features, including manual aperture, shutter speed, flash, exposure, and quality controls. The turn dial at the top allows the user to quickly switch between nine different pre-made settings, each of which can be further manipulated. The settings can each be pre-optimized for different settings, such as outdoors, indoors, day time, and night time.

The picture quality can be adjusted for optimal photo quality, or optimal storage space. The photo quality can be set as low as the ultra-compressed SQH2 all the way up to uncompressed TIFF.

There is a panoramic mode that makes it easy to shoot a panorama. The panoramic mode offers blue guides that allow you to leave enough over-lapping for each photo, as well as controlling the white balance and color to make sure they match in each photo.

For those who enjoy shooting movies, there is a VGA quality for shooting footage, and it does a good job. A nice feature of the C-60 Zoom's movie mode is it's ability to zoom in while shooting footage. This is something that is still uncommon for modern digital cameras, and was practically unheard of at the time of this cameras production date.

Image Quality

The best feature about this camera is it's image quality. Unlike some digital cameras, which are nothing more than toys, this camera does an excellent job of adjusting white balance and controlling nice. There is minimal noise on a low ISO, and a considerable amount at the highest ISO - the times you would use such a high ISO aren't that common, so this isn't a problem.

If you learn how to manually control camera settings to optimize for any situations, you will be able to produce beautiful pictures with this camera. If you don't understand the art of photography, however, this camera's AUTO settings still do an excellent job of getting the best picture.

Build Quality

The build quality of this camera is perfect. The camera is small, yet solid feeling. The body is composed entirely of metal, and is quite sturdy. It won't break easily if dropped from a reasonable height. The buttons and buttons and adjustment dial is also metal. This makes it a perfect choice for anyone who uses their camera in a rough environment. This camera will survive the jostling of a backpack, the rough ride of a mountain bike, or the long haul up a mountain.

Battery Life

I managed to fill a 256MB storage card (over 1000 pictures) in one charge.

Conclusion

Overall, this camera is highly recommended. Because it is old by technology standards, the price if very reasonable, far cheaper than you'll find any digital camera. The build quality is perfect, the features are awesome, and the photos are clear and high quality.