Olympus Smart VR-310

Battery charging problems cause failure of unit – I was quite impressed for a while but have had increasing charging problems. The latest example is that the video screen had the battery charging light show that battery as empty. It would not allow video to fire up and yet I could fire off well over 100 double flash shots to try and empty the camera. This tells me it is likely a logic/sofware… Read more

problem because a flat battery will not fire off over 100 double flashes. Now the little thing won't accept a charge at all. Yet I have had it charging most of the day. Very blasted unfortunate as I am on holidays and counting on the camera. The last two samsungs were a dream. The camera wants to be good - if yu know what I mean - it just dies though. Frustrating! Never again unles I can adjust a setting or something. Repairs - not worth it - if thats what it requires it goes in the bin along with the bitter taste. Looked good seemed simple and flexible - good resolution for the price. Battery management and bit poor in low light.

Worst Camera I have ever owned – Purchased this camera in Nov last year because I previously had an Olymous Camera and Had no problems. However this camera whenever I tried to charge the battery I lost all power. Had the mainboard repaired in June, and when I went to recharge battery again the same thing happened. Had to return it to Dick Smith for a refund. Kept losing power whenever I tried to recharge battery

Lasted a fortnight – I bought this camera in Australia in January, and barely used it until travelling in America in April. It lasted 14 days (granted, it was heavy usage of about 1000 photos in that time). Now it will not power up at all, took it to a camera shop and it is not a battery issue. This means I need to post it into Olympus in America under the warranty,… Read more

with a 3 week turn around time, so basically I will be without a camera until then. This is unacceptable and extremely frustrating and I warn against buying this camera if you want it to last longer than a fortnight. Also, the lens cover stopped opening the whole way on start up after about 10 days. Avoid! took reasonable photos - while it lasted Shortest life of a camera I have ever owned

A lot of bang for your buck, almost perfect for point, aim and fire! – I like small, inexpensive digital cameras, that you can point, aim and fire. Strangely looking around my office I can see my last 3 or 4 cameras, Richoh TF-500D the last of my film cameras, then a 2.1 megapixel Canon Ixus that was nearly $1000 new and finally a Sony DSC-W55, 7.2 megapixel with 3x zoom. Overseas last week I did my duty free… Read more ·  5

shopping for grog on the way out of Melbourne, picked up the catalogue. The Olympus @ $129 duty free caught my eye. 10x optical zoom, HD movies, 14 megapixels, I had a look in Singapore on the way home but they were about $160 duty free in Singapore so no point. They did have an extra colour red whereas Australia seems to have silver, black and purple. I went for purple as silver is too plain and black to easy to put down and be hard to spot.

Initial impressions I wasn't sure. But 4 days later I'm sold. All of the cameras I've replaced above mainly got the chop because they were too slow. I'm mainly interested in how quick the first shot can be taken from turning the camera on. The Olympus is fast. It has some sort of automatic flash that does a great job on indoor pictures of pets for example. The old Sony the flash really washed out the image. With the Olympus you would not know it was a flash shot.

There is also a choice of 3 sounds, "beeps". The beep I've set makes quite an engaging noise. Since getting back and looking at what else is around I've only seen a Pentax with 18x zoom for around $200 that I would have considered with more time.

But for me a 14MP camera with 10x zoom at $150 including a pretty decent sized SD card (8GB for $21.95 duty free which looks like it will hold about 1800 14 megapixel shots) is a bit of a no brainer.

I read some online reviews that were largely positive but some reservations about blurring at the edges on certain zooms, etc. But those tech heads and tech reports will always say there are better models available... if you spend more.

Like it or not we live in an age where cameras like mobile phones improve year by year. Most of us change phones every couple of years because they get scratched or worn out. It's probably the same with cameras. They are too cheap to get fixed if something where to go wrong.

I'm going to enjoy this Olympus. The ability to take clear indoor shots with the auto setting was an unknown bonus.

This is a functional, fun to use camera. At the price how can you really go wrong. I really was a Sony man but try finding a Sony at this price with 10x optical zoom. You won't. Well priced, quick & easy to use, excellent for portraits, etc indoors in poor light Olympus don't make leather cases for their cameras. Would like one of these

Good camera at a low price – The Olympus VR-310 is a very easy to use camera with high specification. It comes with 10x optical zoom in a compact body. The features are great and easy to use. I found it very value for money and took beautiful images. If you are looking for a good camera but don't want to pay high price, this is absolutely the one you should be checking out.… Read more

The photo quality is not bad and the best thing about it is the wide angle long zoom. The camera also has an image stabilization which is very handy. If you want high features camera at a good price, this is a camera that should be on your list. Inexpensive, easy to use Not very good design

Excellent features at a great price – I bought one of these cameras at the local Costco store for only $160 after finding that nobody else in town could beat that price. This is a great general purpose camera with more than enough features to suit the casual / family photographer. 10 times true optical zone with digital zoom included is matched with 14 megapixels resolution which… Read more

means you can make high quality posters of your shots.

The only negative is its size - it's so small in my large anglo-saxon hands that I have to be careful not to block the lens when I hold it up for a shot! There are plenty of tricks and image manipulation features via the onboard menu, you can make all sorts of classy shots. Excellent pictures at this price point, easy to use with a very intuitive menu The camera crashed and died when I updated the firmware online after registering it but the replacement unit is working ok.

No need to upgrade – I've owned my 6 megapixel for 5 years & I've been happy with it. So when I was given a 14 megapixel as a gift I thought it should be better. Yes and No. While it has 10x zoom, panoramic pictures, a separate button for video shooting and special effects, like fish view, pop-art, and drawing. It doesn't have 3D like in the manual. I found that it doesn't shoot well at night. 10x zoom, wide panorama Not good at night