Olympus C-3000 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

by Olympus

Product Details

Product Manual [1.65mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 2.6 x 4.3 x 3 inches ; 10.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004TJ7O
• Item model number: 225025
• Batteries: 4 AA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,617 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Combining a 3.34-megapixel CCD, 3x optical zoom, and 2x digital zoom, the Olympus C-3000 Zoom is a powerful camera with many advanced features. It offers USB connectivity for high-speed image downloading and also includes a removable 8 MB SmartMedia storage card. You can record four seconds of sound in still mode and make a 60-second QuickTime movie with sound. The C-3000 Zoom captures many of your favorite activities and moments with ease.

Olympus has added several image effects to enhance your creative choices, including black- and-white and sepia modes for shooting monochrome images. The high-powered lens features an all-glass, eight-element 3x zoom that produces clear normal shots as well as close-ups. A six-mode flash system allows shooting in a variety of light conditions, and you can choose which ISO equivalent is most appropriate for each shot. You also have full exposure control with aperture and shutter priority, as well as manual exposure, for fine-tuning your pictures.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

168 of 170 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This camera has made me into a photo junkie, October 8, 2000

By 

Brad Larson (Waupaca, WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Olympus C-3000 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

Before I saw this family of cameras in action, I didn't have an interest in digital photography. The company I worked for bought a C-3030 and I was called over to set it up. As I worked with it, I became more and more impressed. The USB connection is blazingly fast (assuming you're using Win95/98/2000), the LCD is sharp and bright, and the processing of the pictures themselves is very fast. Then I actually looked at a picture taken at 2048x1536 and my jaw dropped. Using just the defaults for white balance, ISO, shutter, etc., the picture it took of a hedge of flowers was amazing. Both the C-3030 and C-3000 have outstanding picture quality due to the well-designed Olympus optics and let you manually set just about everything for that perfect picture.
I searched around and bought a C-3000 because the greater onboard memory buffer of the C-3030 wasn't all that important to me, I didn't need Photoshop LE, and I was going to buy a 64 MB card for it anyway. The $200 you save, in my opinion, makes this a much better buy than the C-3030.
One photography magazine labeled the C-3030 "the camera for nerds" due to all the options you can set. If you're into it, this camera will let you explore photography as an art form. I'm still learning what I can do with it, but it's already produced some beautiful photos.
One recommendation I have is to buy a CD burner. Photo albums on CD save a mess of hard drive space and are a great way to permanently store pictures and then show them off to friends.
Finally, there is one feature that I don't see mentioned much elsewhere. In the panorama mode, if you take pictures in a complete 360, the Camedia software lets you create Quicktime VR movies out of them. This lets you truly express the feeling of being at a place. I did one at Lambeau Field and you do feel like you're in the crowd when viewing it.

148 of 152 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Takes great pictures!, July 1, 2000

By 

Audrey Tang (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Olympus C-3000 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I bought this camera before going on a family trip to Alaska and was able to take some really amazing crystal clear pictures of glaciers, cravasses and mountains. This camera is absolutely incredible.

* Be sure you have a USB port in your computer before getting this, as this is the only way to connect this camera to your computer---which is much much faster than a serial port connection.

* The software comes with Quicktime so that any "movies" you take with your camera can be .mov files---they come out great, awesome sound.

* There's a 3x zoom which works great...plus 2.5x digital zoom which zooms much further but might sacrifice a little bit of quality--great to know that one has this option

* pretty compact and looks like a normal camera instead of other bigger, hunkier digital camera models.

* shutter speeds from 16 sec. to 1/800 sec.

* 1.8" wide LCD monitor in the back for auto viewing

* remote control

Overall, this is a really great camera if you're willing to spend the money. Considering how much of a photo freak I am, it's worth it.

80 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Terrific camera! Perfect for the advanced amateur, August 16, 2001

By 

P. Hoegel "average joe" (Kenner, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Olympus C-3000 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I was in the process of researching digital cameras, when I very unexpectedly got this one for Christmas. I haven't been disappointed--it is a terrific camera!

The controls are wonderfully logical, and are not plagued by cryptic ideographs. The range of creative control will impress anyone with even a modest background in photography. The C-3000 lets you go from no-brainer point-and-shoot mode to complete exposure, metering, focus and flash control and back to dummy mode in seconds. Even better, you can customize the default settings, letting you have the exact baseline settings you want immediately following power on.

But the real gems are the Olympus optics and CCD. I have made dozens of absolutely gorgeous 8x10 and even a few 11x14 prints that are nearly indistinguishable from high quality 35mm prints.

Why only four stars? Because my only serious gripe is the batteries, specifically if you're forced to use anything other than lithums. I've tried both nickel metal hydride rechargeable and standard alkalines, and it drains them both very quickly. However, you will conserve a lot of power if you make your default flash setting "off", so that you're not charging the flash every time you power on. Additionally, the Olympus lithium battery packs are very hard to find, but I've found that Energizer AA photo lithiums work just as well, and are often cheaper.

As someone with a serious amateur interest in photography for nearly 20 years, I realized recently that the C-3000 has become my primary camera for everything from quick party snaps to that once-in-a-lifetime shot of sunrise on Mt. Fuji. Meanwhile, both my 35mm P&S and my Nikon SLR rig are collecting dust. This camera is an excellent value: beautiful pictures, easy to use, excellent creative control, and very rugged aluminum construction, a big plus over other manufacturers like Sony.

Bottom line: this is a great camera, and the C-3000 is the best value in the C-30X0 product line. The only camera I'd recommend instead is the C-4040, which gets you the 4 megapixel CCD, but if you rarely make prints bigger than 8x10.