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Olympus D-540 3.2 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

Olympus D-540 3.2 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

List Price: $229.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: D-540 zoom
Review: A x-mas present that blew me away. The camera is small and very portable. The battery problem is a concern. The low battery light came on within the first hour of using the supplied batteries. I put in new 2300mah batteries and had the same problem ,although they never actually went dead. The power-saver feature does work, despite another review I read. The xd-memory is a draw back, being new and $10-20 more than Sd media; xd is half the size of sd however.

Overall, while I am pleased with the camera; a little upgrading would be worth it. The 540 takes short movie clips, but has no sound. The 560, for I believe $10.00 more, has audio.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW! what a great camera
Review: After much deliberation I purchaced this camera to take pictures of my new son; knowing Olympus's great quality and userfriendly apperatus I did not think I would be dissapointed, I was not.<br /><br />The photos from this camera, particularily in superfine mode are outstandingly crisp and clear, after ordering prints online (including 8x10s) I realized what a signifigant purchase this was there was virtually no difference between the prints and photographic prints.<br /><br />Two hints for anyone wanting to buy this camera however<br />a) buy the 256mb card it is worth it for the 115 SHQ shots you'll get<br /><br />b) it is absolutely nessessary to buy a battery charger with four Ni-MH batteries. These will last you one whole day. about 70-80 shots.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Olympus D-540 ( aka C-310) - SUPER MACRO !
Review: Although I've access to assorted digital cameras,a need for super close up work in electronics had left me frustrated, since most modern units max out at a handspan (~200mm. Grr !! BUT - this new Olympus C-310 (as it's sold here in NZ) fits the budget bill well, since it goes to just 20mm (~1 inch). Yah - see sample pix (itself resized to ~100k from original 600k)=> www.picaxe.orcon.net.nz/picnksm.jpg.
* Top features - supermacro, 2 AA NiMH, large LCD
* Downsides - rather chunky styling, no sound with movies
Of course all the "normal" Olympus features & user friendly software is included. But could be worth it for budget super macro alone I'd say, espec. in electronics, micro engineering, flowers, insects, medical, jewellery etc

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Value
Review: Compact, simple to use camera. For the price it comes packed with features - easy transfer of pics to PC using USB cable. Excellent picture quality when used at best Pixel setting - 20 pics with original 16MB XD memory card. Not used the movie mode - own a camcorder. I invested in a rechargeable Li-Ion CR-V3 battery pack (yes! now available as rechargeables), much better life/performance than even the higest rated rechargeable NiMH - not very expensive given its performance, available on Amazon for $31 (I bought my Li-Ion battery pack from Buy.com at $29.50).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great camera but some problem with the battery ilfe
Review: I have always love Olympus image quality, the colors are great and the lcd discplay shows exactly how the picture will look like when you get it into the computer, the pictures look alive, i compared to other digital cameras such as HP, Kodak, and there is no point of comparison, Olympus Rocks!!, the only problem with this model is the battery life, i recommend that yo turn of the display, disable the flash when you dont need it and get rechargable batteries, and carry them with you every time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A great camera
Review: I have taken more than 1000 pictures with this great camera. Here are my opinions on it..

Positive Stuff:
1. Excellent picture quality. No doubt, I liked the picture quality more than a Sony Cybershot 3.2 MP camera.
2. The most powerful flash I've ever seen. The camera can take a good picture in complete darkness.
3. Decent battery life. Even though the camera might indicate a Low battery indicator soon, it actually lasts for a long time. I used Panasonic 2100 mah rechargeable Ni-MH battery. I got about 32-34 pictures (all with flash). If you actually turn off the LCD display while not using it, it saves a lot more battery power.
4. Transferring images to a PC is pretty straight forward.
5. The camera is compact and light as well. It was able to fit in to my jean pocket!
6. The camera makes good judgement when to use flash and when not to use. At the end of the day, we are totally satisfied with the image quality.

Negative stuff:

1. The camera is just too slow to respond, particularly, if the battery is low.
2. There were occasions where I had to take some moving objects, but just couldnt time my camera to take it. The response time between pressing the trigger and the camera firing is about 1.5 to 2 seconds (which might be too late sometimes).

Conclusion:
1. If you use a rechargeable battery with a good MAH, the camera is pretty neat.
2. What matters at the end of the day, is people should get good remarks about the photos they take and I get that all the time when I use this camera.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Colorful, Razor-sharp Pictures - Highly Recommended!
Review: I have the Canon A80 (4.0 Megapixels) and also bought this new camera (known over here as Olympus C-310) recently. While the Canon may have a 1.5 inch swivel LCD screen, this camera has a larger & more pleasant 1.8 inch LCD screen, definitely takes SHARPER pictures, and has less chromatic aberration (purple fringing). It does have slightly more picture noise (i.e. digital 'film grain') compared to the Canon, but you will notice this only if you have a keen eye for it. (the extra picture noise probably arose from the more aggresive sharpening algorithm employed by Olympus as compared to Canon)

The heavier & more solid Canon uses 4 AA batteries and last for hours upon hours even on alkaline batteries, but you can only take a few more shots once its low-battery warning flashes. In contrast, the Olympus uses 2 AA batteries only and is therefore much lighter, but one caveat - on both new & newly charged rechargeable 2100mAH NiMH batteries (2100 mAH and above are strongly recommended), the low-battery warning indicator does start flashing too soon, when the camera gets warm.

However, I have found to my surprise that with the low-battery indicator persistently flashing, this camera still allowed me to take approx. another 120 continuous shots, around 80 of which had used flash. This means that while rechargeable battery life is actually ok for the camera, the low-battery warning is way too premature to be relied upon.

While this camera also lacks other features found on the more expensive Canon and requires the newer, smaller (and more expensive) xD memory card, it is very much more pocketable, and has a new hidden Ace - the 'Super Macro Mode' hidden in the Menu option, which allows fantastic close-up photos from under 1 inch (2 cm) away, compared to the Canons and Nikons which can only go as close as 2 inches (4-5 cm) max only.

Overall, this camera takes very colorful, contrasty, razor-sharp pictures, and pictures taken with the flash were also well exposed. I have noticed that the latter are definitely brighter than those taken with competing Nikons, such as the Coolpix 2100/3100 & newer 2200/3200 range, which seem to suffer from slightly underpowered flash and remain unrectified by the manufacturer until this very day.

VERDICT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - despite the premature low-battery indicator, the camera delivers one of the very best picture quality in its price category, with a new hidden bonus (Super Macro Mode!). This is my very first review ever at Amazon.com, and I hope this short review has helped.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A really great compact camera...
Review: I received this camera as a gift and subsequently took it on a long trip to Russia (instead of my bulky SLR film camera). This camera was outstanding: easy to use, produces good quality pictures, lightweight. It makes toting "regular" camera gear around too cumbersome to contemplate: this camera slips into a pants pocket easily enough. As my first digital camera, it's everything I had hoped it would be and more.

The software (Olympus's Camedia) is pretty good and relatively easy to use, although managing your pictures can be more work than it needs to be. Maybe I'll upgrade that to the Pro version. Nonetheless, I was downloading pictures quickly and everything worked cleanly. The main reason to use the software (rotating pictures) is convenient.

The camera itself is lightweight and pretty durable (my son dropped it a few times and it survived just fine). The 16 MB card that comes with it is too small for realistic use, but a 128 MB card is easy to purchase: budget for it, as you'll want the storage. There are only a few minor annoyances that you'll want to compare to other cameras before choosing this one (I don't think anyone else does it any better).

First, this camera (like many digital cameras) devours batteries. The "low battery" warning comes on very quickly--way too quickly, since battery life far exceeds the warning. However: as the battery runs down, the camera itself processes more and more slowly. So I've found that you'll often miss shots because you need to know about a second in advance to push the button. The lag between "go" and the camera firing is annoying.

Second, the zoom control is a bit difficult to use. It's located on top of the camera and twists, an action that I find difficult to perform while aiming the camera. I've taken to holding the camera at about chest level to shoot pictures so that I have better control.

Overall, the picture quality settings are easy to manage and the pictures themselves are bright, clear, and sharp. The autofocus is almost always perfect and you'll rarely dig into the menus to adjust the camera performance. The panorama capability doesn't seem to work, but it's an extraneous feature.

In any case, this is a great little camera. It does everything a digital camera should, is well made, and makes me a happy camper.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome little camera
Review: I searched high and low for a new digital camera, buying and returning 4 different cameras in a week before finding this awesome little Olympus. I tried cameras from Kodak, Fuji, and Canon and none of them compared to this camera. It is small, simple to use, and affordable. First off the LCD display is extremely crisp and clear and the menus are very user-friendly. The camera starts up fasts and takes pictures relatively quickly also. I will say, it is not the best with batteries.(a common problem in digital cameras though) Just invest in some good rechargables, it's worth it. Anyway, my pictures, snapshots and closeups, come out very sharp and look comparable to those taken with a 5mp camera I have. I think if you are looking for an affordable, portable, great new digital camera invest in the Camedia-540.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Gift, Big Smile
Review: I would not be writing this except for the fact that I found these reviews so Helpful at Christmas when I was looking for a camera and other items. I brought this as a gift for my son, who had no idea he was getting it. He has never been into electonics or computers so the ease of use that other people stated was a big fact in my buying. My son was surprized with the Gift and taking pictures in minutes of opening it. He told me the camera was Great and easy to use, when connected to the USB port it pops up on the screen asking if you want to send pictures to the printer or computer. He said it was Very easy to use and figure out. The batteries are the negitive thing just as everyone else had said. It uses them Toooooo Fast! But from all the reviews I read on the other cameras it sounded as they all do. We have some Rechargeable on the way, I hope they help.


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