Customer Reviews

Olympus Camedia C-720 3MP Digital Camera w/ 8x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

In a word, yes. The 700 was my favorite digicam ever, putting most everything else in storage. However, along comes the 720 & adds a 50% better resolution while sacrificing only a small amount of the fine optical zoom (from 10x to 8x) that the 700 is known for. In point of fact, zooming at 10X without a tripod or image stabilization (not present on either the 700 or the 720) is extremely challenging. Anyway, this camera is beautifully made and ergonomically engineered. The aspherical all glass lens system is excellent and the resulting 3 megapixel images are crystal clear at 8" x 10" and quite acceptable at 11" x 14". The zoom of course remains the trump card on the 720, and the smoothness (just the right damping) with which it reaches its 8x limit is awesome. Another nice feature is its ability to take QuickTime movies, which really adds to its versatility. The camera as shipped does benefit from some upgrading, but these things can be added later. I would suggest the first purchase be a much larger memory card than the 16 megs included (I like the 128); if possible, buy Olympus, as these proprietary cards allow for a few more digital formatting tricks than do the others.

This is my 4th digital camera and they have certainly improved. I chose the 720 because of it's 8X zoom lens and small size, plus the use of standard sized batteries. I took it on a two week canoe trip in Ontario and it performed great. The photos are crisp and sharp. Even with the maximum zoom, the focus was sharp, although I did use a mono-pod for stability. I was particularly impressed with the battery life. Based on my older cameras, I took 6 sets of batteries for the two week trip.... but I ended up only using two sets: one set of NiMH rechargables and one set of lithium batteries was all it took for two weeks and over 600 photos, including lots of previewing with the LCD display.
I also found the LCD viewfinder more acceptable than I had first expected. It is a bit grainy and takes some getting used to, but it was brighter than most reviews have implied and it was great to be able to see 'exactly' what was going to be in the picture since it is 'through the lens'.

Overall, I am very pleased with the camera. Very impressive.

****
The best selling points of this camera (for me):
- it works on AA batteries, and if needed, you can buy them in any country. (Buy rechargeables!)
- it has an awesome zoom (when coupled with the digital zoom)
- the pictures are beautiful, and can blow up to 8x10 on high resolution
- even when you shoot the shot at a high resolution, you can change it later to a lower res if you want to. But be careful, you can go down, but not back up!
- it has a panorama function that works pretty good, and it includes stitching the pictures together
- it fits on a tripod
- it is quite practical in size
- it is very affordable for what you get and the quality of output.
- you can view your pictures immediately on a television with the video cable
- you can view the image on the TV while you are shooting the picture (works great for family portraits so you can see the shot before it is taken and fix things that don't quite look right)
- I like the rapid fire shooting it has

The things I can live with but wish were better:
- it takes any smart media card, but the panorama function only works if you buy the Olympus smart media card
- If you plan on using it for extended periods, you really need to buy rechargeables
- the digital zoom is not very clear when viewing the image UNTIL you actually take the shot. And you really need a steady hand. But the shot comes out perfect. The thumbnails look blurry, though the picture really isn't.
- The pics take a long time to load onto your computer if you try to load them through your camera. I bought the DAZZLE ZIO! SMART MEDIA READER and it downloads the images boom-boom-boom-boom...instantly! Excellent feature, but sold separately.
- Doesn't come with a carrying case (good carrying cases are expensive - also sold separately)
- it only comes with a 16mb smart media card, YOU NEED MORE! (cha-ching)...for a 128mb, which by the way is about all you need for a week vacation. Takes 167 pics at high resolution.
- It sometimes takes a long time to focus and I did miss a few action shots because of this, but if you are prepared and pre-focus the camera it works great. You can also use the rapid firing option and just delete the ones you don't want. I did that too and it worked great.

Overall, this (in my opinion) was an excellent choice. I have had the camera for 2 months now and I LOVE IT! It was quite affordable if I were only buying the camera at... but when you add in the rechargeables, the recharger, smart card, carrying case, cleaning rags, media card reader, and tax, you do need to think of it more like an investment than a toy. The final bill came out to... OUCH! Would I do it again? You bet! Considering the stock market, it was the best investment I made all year. Do I regret not getting the 4.0 mp? No way, the zoom is not nearly as good as the 3.1, and when am I really ever going to print out an 11x14 picture (which is the only reason you ever need to go bigger than a 3.1.) besides, my printer isn't even big enough to print it, so I would have to have a shop print it - not realistic. Don't waste better options for more mega pixels, unless you are a professional, you really won't have the need for them.
Hope this helps!

If you're looking for a great digital camera for a great price, get the Olympus C-720. Like most of you, I'm not a professional photographer, but in the first week I was able to take what I consider to be some very nice shots. After reading the extensive manual, I quickly came to the conclusion that this camera will do a LOT and I'm going to have to experiment with it quite a bit to learn all of its capabilities. The only beef I have is the slow auto-focus only, no manual focus. Though the manual zoom is accurate, it can be a bit slow when you're trying to catch a fast moving object. For example, I was trying to take a shot of my dog as he was running toward me . . .forget it . . .the focus was just too slow. Olympus' suggestion is to "pre-focus" on the subject, then take the shot. Okay, sounds good. But why not include a manual focus? The 8X optical zoom is awesome. Coupled with the 3X digital (to get 24x) it is incredible. As with other high-zoom cameras, use a tri-pod for high zoom shots or a VERY steady hand. The 8X optical zoom is so good, I rarely use the digital zoom at all. Though this camera has a smaller rear viewing monitor than most cameras in its class, it hasn't bothered me at all. I can still review photos with ease and it saves on battery life. The quality of the photos is remarkable. My wife and I have taken quite a few "jaw-droppers" in just the first few weeks of owning the camera. It's nice not being saddled with film processing costs and delays. You can review the shots right on camera and delete what you don't want. Consequently, we've taken more pictures with this camera in a few short weeks than with all the other cameras we've owned, combined! So far, the battery life is amazing as well. Around 400 shots! IMHO, it blows the 2MP cameras away. Get a 128MB card and you'll have a hard time filling it up in one day.

This is my 2nd digital camera (the first being a Sony Mavica FD-7) and have found this to be great camera for both indoor and outdoor use. Macro shots are fantastic and the 8x zoom is tough to beat on the other end of the scale. It does have issues in low light at maximum telephoto and in those cases a tripod may be required. Overall, I have not experienced too many issues at maximum zoom. Add some decent rechargeable NiMH batteries, a 128MB SmartMedia card (holds about 60 SHQ or 175 HQ photos), and you're set. The camera is light enough to carry all day and small enough to tuck into a bike pack.

This was my first digital camera and I was very encouraged by the positive reviews I had read. My biggest problem with the camera was motion blur. I got blurry motion in auto mode and sports mode from very simple movements (hand or head). I phoned Olympus and they agreed that there is motion blur and attributed it to the line of Ultra zoom cameras. They suggested going to manual mode and increasing the shutter speed. That made the auto point and shoot mode worthless. My wife is not a photographer and would never be able to handle that, especially in the short moments you get to snap a picture. These blurs occurred without any zoom. It was worse with the zoom, optical or digital. It would be great for still subjects and a tripod, but not for a simple picture of my dog. I have since gone to the C-4000 and am very pleased. I took a picture of a moving ceiling fan and it froze the blades perfectly. I have also used the C-3030 in the past and was able to take pictures out of a moving car. Not with the C-720. If you are considering this camera, make sure you try it out for yourself first.

When pictures turn out good, they turn out really good (great, excellent, so much better than with other digital cameras) with vivid colors and great sharpness. However, in low light conditions they don't turn out that good.
I bought this camera only for it's great optical zoom which is the greatest advantage of this camera so you can compose what you really want. 8x optical is more than twice as much as what most digital cameras offer and I don't know how those other cameras sell with such a useless zoom (3x optical is nothing!) 3x optical is just ridiculous when 8x is already available.
The autofocus is sometimes very disappointing. It might let you down when you need it the most. For example, African Safari, great opportunities missed because the autofocus just took too long or just didn't focus at all! Very frustrating. Like if you went to Africa every day!
I had the c700 model before this one and I'm not sure if selling it to my brother was a nice thing to do with a brother. Had the same problems. Big surprise when I found that the C-720 doesn't have sound capability in the video mode. C700 had. Why would Olympus come up with a newer model with more resolution but decrease the zoom to 8x and take out the sound capability? Go figure!! Bottom line: if you don't care about having sound on your video clips, don't care missing some once in a lifetime photo opportunities because the autozoom didn't work, then go for it! But, if you don't mind spending [a more money], maybe the c730 will not have all the flaws of it's predecessors. However, that's what I thought when I upgraded from the c700 to the c720 so we are back to the beginning and Olympus is unpredictable. Lets be positive and think that maybe they get it right this time.

but the performance is below par. Firstly, this camera has many great features (manual control of apeture, shutter speed, exposure compensation, flash brightness, and much more). It's fairly simple to learn how to manually change these features to fit the situation you're photographing. The camera design and on screen menus are user friendly, and the camera has a very solid feel to it (probably can take abuse well).

Unfortunately, over the 3 days and 200 pictures that I had this camera, I don't think I had a single picture that I was impressed with. Most all of them were fuzzy, some of them blurry, or the white balance was incorrect, some of the pictures even had noise in them...and I tried almost every type of lighting condition possible, with tweaking every feature the camera had every time. I believe the problem lies with the autofocus. It's slow, irritably slow...and this camera has trouble focusing on many types of objects (dark, shiny, brightly lit). Should I have to use the auto focus lock every time? I don't think so. In auto mode, I get the same result in picture quality, even though the camera is supposed to set everything on its own. Also in auto mode, the flash is way to bright (thermo-nuclear bright), but can be toned down in manual mode. Finally, the LCD view-finder is noticeably laggy, or jumpy...which would be a problem when trying to snap a fast moving object, where you would have to snap the picture slightly before it was in the center of the view-finder to compensate.

Now I've read great user reviews about this camera (which is why I bought it in the first place), but I honestly can't say anything near what anybody else has said. Traded in for a Fuji Finepix 3800 (close equivalent) and have had no problems so far at all (look for review soon). Well hope this helps anyone considering this camera!

This is my third digital camera. Previous to this camera I had a Nikon Coolpix 885, which I quickly learned to despise because I never knew if (or when) it had taken a picture. I sold it on eBay and bought this camera.

Oddly, the first Olympus 720 I got was defective and would eat a set of batteries in 15 minutes. I exchanged the camera for a new one which is quite fine in this regard. The batteries last quite a long time and the camera is good at conserving power.

What I like about the Olympus 720:

First, the video viewfinder is actually through-the-lens like a proper SLR. This is great. I can see when the camera is in focus and when it is not. This also helps in an unexpected way: Because you see it out of focus, you will focus the camera. Thus when you want to take a photo, the camera is already focused and there is very little lag before the image is captured. With rangefinder digital cameras, you don't see it out of focus and therefore you may not squeeze on the release until the moment you want to capture. Of course then it has to do its focusing thing and sometime later actually take the picture.

The settings can be viewed through the eyepiece in addition to the monitor. This helps me as I am now getting far sighted, and with the Nikon I had to put on reading glasses to view the settings on the monitor. Not so with the Olympus 720.

I can see when the camera takes a picture. Like SLRs whose mirror swings up when the shutter is released, the Olympus momentarily blacks out the viewfinder when the image is recorded. You absolutely know that a photo was taken just then. You don't have to listen for a beep (Nikon 885 doesn't even do this), or wonder if the flash you saw was your camera or someone else's. Many times with my old Kodak 280 I'd get a blurry photo because I had already begun to put the camera down when it actually took the photo.

8 to 1 optical zoom. Not stinkin' digital zoom... optical zoom. Wow. Most digital cameras are 3 to 1. This is a real help. Scanning some of the other reviews here I can only assume that the people complaining about motion blur are simply inexperienced photographers that don't know that longer focal lengths require additional stability or shorter shutter times.

AA batteries. I much prefer the flexibility you get using standard size AA batteries instead of some oddball or photo only battery. I got nice NiMH recharables. Works great. In a pinch you could use plain-Jane AA batteries but of course they'd get eaten up quickly.

In general, the camera has lots of features as you'd expect. I use the PASM mode. In that mode it displays the f-stop and shutter speed through the viewfinder. Good stuff.

What I don't like:

Well, the image quality is not quite as good as I'd like. I'm going to experiment with the auto ASA to see if manually setting it to 200 or 100 makes for a better picture. Don't ask me why, but my ancient Kodak DC 280 takes the nicest looking photos of any digital camera I have seen. I wish the Olympus' sharpness and tones were as nice.

The manual: There's a quick start guide, a paper manual, and a PDF manual. The paper manual while thick, is not complete. Print out the PDF manual.

The quick start and paper manual neglect to mention that when you connect the camera to your computer via USB that you need to set the camera's mode to Image Review. Only the PDF manual reveals this vital fact.

Body color: Now I'm getting picky. I would much prefer a nice black over the silver color.

I bought this camera, then returned it... The 8x zoom is great, and it seemed like a great value -- but the electronic viewfinder is very poor, especially in low-light conditions, and the autofocus is too slow. I'm now trying the Fuji FinePix S602...