Olympus C-770 Ultra Zoom

OK – Typical high class Olympus camera, served me well for several years now, but a complex non-intuitive menu system spoils it's usability, e.g. I have to read the manual every time I take macro shots to refresh my mind on how to do it. 4.0 Megapixels is small by today's standards but it's an old camera now (and still works like new). Before I buy… Read more

another Olympus I'll be looking VERY closely at the menu system. Quality camera taking very good photos. What an AWFUL menu system!

Good – I bought this camera a few years ago before going overseas. It has since trekked around quite a bit of Australia and other countries overseas. Although not a small, light camera I find that it fits in my handbag quite easily. The quality of the photos it takes are outstanding- both my daughter and myself have won photography competitions with… Read more

photos taken on this camera. As mentioned, the LCD screen did become scratched easily and this makes it very difficult to see your shots on a bright day. Price, zoom Rear LCD sreen scratched easily and is almost impossible to see on a bright day

Good – I've been really happy with this camera and it has lasted well for many years. It's not the most compact camera but that seemed to be the trade off at the time to have the zoom. It has a good optical and digital zoom and good picture resolution without producing file sizes that are too humongous. With a 256MB card I can take hundreds of pics. I… Read more

think Olympus is a quality and reputable brand which is why I chose it. Excellent quality, has lasted for years without a glitch. Takes good resolution pictures. Good zoom. Takes pretty good quality video so I don't really need a video camera. Sometimes hard to take a clear picture if indoors with no flash or on the highest zoom setting - need a very steady hand. It's annoying to have to go into the menu to turn the sound recording on for video recording every single time. I can't find where to set on to be the default.

Excellent – Excellent all round camera that even a novice can get the hand of with lots of fearures for even the experienced photographer. You can choose to allow the camera make all the choices for you or you can set your own. Have taken thousands of ohotos with mine and has never let me down. I wou;d recomend this camera to everyone as its features are… Read more

endless. Produces great shots evertime with ease. The 10 optical zoom is fantastic for taking sporting photos of your children while way out on the side lines Not as compact as alot of other cameras but thats the price you pay for a great zoom

Good – Good value for money. Highly recommended. Easy to use. The 10x zoom gives a much closer picture than the 300mm tele zoom I was using on my old SLR. High quality pictures. Software is very easy to use. Although the zoom is excellent for tele shots it is poor for wide angle photos. You will not be able to get the same wide angle that one gets with… Read more

a standard SLR zoom lens.

An upgrade to the software is necessary (at a cost of about $30 delvered and paid for on-line) if you wish to perform more complex tasks such as manual stitching of panorama shots.

Good – It’s not a pocket camera (unlike the Canon S45 I already had) but the build quality is fine. The maximum memory card is only 512M though you can use a 1G but in movie mode it will not have sound! Also if you use anything other than Olympus xD cards you won’t have the Panorama function! The menus include many functions that I don’t believe belong… Read more

in a camera (Printer options, Slideshows, Image cropping, Rotation), there aren’t really a negative but I don’t feel they belong in the camera since computer software does all of this, others may disagree! I bought the C-770 simply because I wanted the 10x zoom & I’m happy with the choice. It takes good hand held images despite not having anti-shake which seems to only up the ISO setting so as to increase the shutter speed anyway? I bought the C-770 on eBay on 21 July 2005 for $495AU ($379US) which included postage so I considered that a good price. Reports said the battery life was poor but I haven’t really confirmed that. I always carry two extra fully charged batteries & have usually not needed them. The size does make bag choice difficult but I used a Lowepro Rezo 60 which even fits with a UV filter & extension tube attached. Once you master the manual settings (A/S/M) they are fairly easy to use & excellent. The flash can’t inadvertently go off when you don’t want it to which I especially like. By reports it is still the smallest 10 times zoom (14 times using 1600 x 1200) camera on the market. Digital zoom I don’t regard as useful since the image quality suffers. I suspect the energy used to extend/retract the lens every time you stitch it on/off is wasteful. The menu takes a lot of use to fully understand & the personal settings really aren’t of use unless you have an excellent memory as to what you set under each. Not good in poor light situations even on ISO 400. You only have a choice of, “save all” settings, or “reset all” settings on power on. To maintain certain preferences the “save” is better but the downside of this is if you partially zoomed last time it will remember this. I guess that’s what the “My Settings” are meant to alleviate but I haven’t really mastered this!