Olympus Camedia C700 2MP Digital Camera w/ 10x Optical Zoom

by Olympus

Product Details

Product Manual [5.31mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 7.5 x 4.1 inches ; 1.7 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00005B6UF
• Item model number: 225285
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,920 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 31, 2001

Product Description

The 2.1-megapixel Olympus C-700 Ultra Zoom digital camera boasts an outstanding 10x optical zoom lens (plus 2.7x digital zoom-equivalent to 38-1,026mm) and an ultracompact size (4.2 by 3 by 3 inches). The impressive aspherical glass lens gives you excellent detail and sharp, clear pictures, plus the size of the camera makes it easy to bring along wherever you go. The C-700 also offers rapid succession firing--just over half a second per shot, and QuickTime movie mode for short video clips. Additional features include multipattern TTL autofocus, built-in flash, diopter adjustment, 1.5-inch color LCD monitor, self-timer with 12-second delay, auto exposure bracketing (three or five images), auto white balance, and special image effects such as sepia mode and black and white.

The C-700 stores images on removable SmartMedia cards. The camera can be operated in several modes: in programmed auto mode, the camera does everything for you. In aperture- and shutter-priority modes, you get to set the aperture or priority, and the camera does the rest. In manual mode, you have control over all camera functions, with shutter speeds as long as 16 seconds. Images can be downloaded to either a Mac or PC via USB storage class connectivity, which means it can be connected to any USB-based Windows Me/2000 and Mac OS 8.6 or later computer without installing any software. The C-700 also ships with two CR-3V long-life disposable lithium batteries (four AA batteries can also be used), an 8 MB SmartMedia card, lens cap, strap, retainer cord, and software.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

378 of 383 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome camera, September 28, 2001

By 

Neil (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Olympus Camedia C700 2MP Digital Camera w/ 10x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

This is my second digital camera. My first was the Olympus 340R which is still near perfect after 3 years of use. I do a lot of outdoor photography and needed something with zoom capability.
The pixels wasn't that big of a concern because the 1.3 mp of the 340R was suiting me just fine. I run my 19" montitor's resloution at 1600x1200 and the picture fills up the screen with awesome quality.

The zoom on this camera is amazing. It can take a picture of 8 pt text on paper from across the room (11 feet) and you can read it clearly. It's also pretty amazing how lighting is composed. Without the flash on, it still compensates for a lot of light. I was able to zoom across the neighborhood for about 1500 feet at night and still get a good picture of cars coming down a hill.

With my old camera I found that digital zoom is pretty much worthless unless you print straight from the card. If you need the extra zoom, you can do it on your computer. I tested this out: I took a 27X zoomed picture and a 10X optical zoom of the exact same object. On my computer I enlarged the optical zoom photo 300%. The detail was exactly the same in both photos. When you only use optical zoom, you also get more overall picture. What I mean my this is that you get more frame area to crop out if you need to, abling you to center the object easier.

One feature that no one has mentioned yet is the ability to record 4 seconds of audio with each photo. I find this really cool to mark my GPS location points. I mark the position on my GPS, take the picture, and then record what GPS waypoint the picture is of. The 4 second audio is only 32K on the card, so you won't even notice loss of space. You can even go back and re-record or add audio to pictures already taken.
When you play back the photos while connected to a TV, the audio plays with each photo.

The stability is somewhat of an issue when zommed in, but I also found the "action" mode to elimate any bluring.

A lot have mentioned the "lens cap of doom". It doesn't pop off the lense, it's held by a thumb spring. (mabe the older ones did just snap onto the lense, but my new one doesn't) It also comes with a retaining cord so it's no going anywhere. The camera didn't have a specific place to attach the lens cap cord, so I wove it into the neck strap. It's long enough that it doesn't stop the lens from pertruding out when turned on and you forget to take the lens cap off.

Viewing taken photos on the LCD is very quick. My 340R would take about 3 seconds to load each photo in to the LCD. The C-700 is almost immediate, and you can zoom in 3X and pan freely around the photo. After taking a picture, you can also view the last shot immediately and delete it if you want. To do this, press the LCD button [] twice quickly. I use feature this a lot because I like to show people the photo/video right away.

The last feature I absolutely love is the USB connection. I have a FlashPath (floppy disk reader) for my old camera, which won't be getting much use anymore. The USB is pretty much as fast a reading from a hard drive. A 4 meg video clip starts playing immediately straight from the camera.

141 of 142 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highest-rated 2.1 megapixel camera, July 1, 2001

By 

Peter544 (Santa Rosa, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Olympus Camedia C700 2MP Digital Camera w/ 10x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

After having done an exhausting research which included reviews of many different cameras from about 10 digicam review websites both here and in Europe, and having had years experience with other digital cameras, I have chosed to purchase this camera based both on the ratings and the features it had.

The C-700 is truly an engineering marvel with absolutely astounding picture quality which exceeds other more expensive cameras and even cameras with a higher pixel count (!!!). The camera has good optics and is still the world's smallest 10x optical zoom digital camera. With the optional Olympus lens "tube" (screws in over the camera lens) you can use the Olympus wide-angle lens as I do, with the final 35mm camera equivalent being 30.4mm (38mm without the wide-angle lens).

Some of the minuses are: unlike the 2100 model it does not have the physical image stabilization so if you go at the maximum zoom you have to be careful to hold the camera extremely steady. Majority of other cameras also lack this feature, however, so it's not really that big of a minus. The camera does not have a way of turning off the internal LCD, even if only the large LCD on the back is being used, the lifespan of my 1600mAh NiMH batteries inside the new C-700 still far exceeds all of the other digital cameras I have used before, especially compared to the power-hungry Nikon digicams, so this is more of a gripe in principle than anything else. The C-700 CCD chip, LIKE ALL OTHER CURRENT digicams, creates a blue-ish halo around high-contrast edges (example: a tree or a roofline against a bright sky).

The pluses are plentiful. In the manual mode, you have almost complete control over the camera, plus (and this is very important) the camera has a MANUAL WHITE BALLANCE setting, as well as the standard auto and misc. presets. This is extremely helpful if you take photos in tricky lighting (studio lighting, etc.) I also really like the fact that you can record a 5 second audio clip with each photo, even after the fact after you review the images, just to keep yourself from forgetting what the photo object is (part number, name of the person, street address, etc.) The camera is very well balanced and feels comfortable when shooting.

I would recommend you getting an Olympus brand SmartMedia card if you plan to do any panorama shots, which greatly increases the efficiency of making them due to Olympus card's built-in ROM program. The software that comes with the camera is unusually well done, unlike most of the other packages I have seen with other makes and models. Panoramas get directly exported to Quicktime 360" web-ready panoramas, it's a joy to do this task. No need to get your hands dirty with funky 3rd party software and extra steps. Simply shoot with an Olympus card, 'stitch' the photos (automatically) using the Olympus software that comes with the camera and SAVE-AS 360 file. Then you upload it to the web, link to it and you have a rotating 360 shot! The software even knows what type of zoom you used for each photo, as that is embedded within each JPG file, along with complete exposure information, while still remaining fully compatible with PhotoShop, etc.

This is also the first camera I have ever seen that follows the standard external storage protocol which allows you to unload the camera to any computer (Win ME, Win 2000, Mac, etc.) WITHOUT installing any software or any drivers. The camera simply shows up as yet another drive when plugged in to a USB port, without rebooting.

Olympus really did a great job on this camera and priced it extremely aggressively considering the features, in order to further increase their digital camera lead in the marketplace. This camera produces up to 8x10 photo quality inkjet prints and about 4x6" (excellent quality) in 300 dpi for magazines, etc. (a lot of my photos get published in misc. travel magazines). If you need to do magazine work with photos bigger that the 4x6", check out the 4+ megapixel Olympus E-10 (price), though I cannot comment on it as I have not yet used it first hand.

104 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow what a camera! The zoom is fantastic., November 12, 2001

By 

B. Fuller (United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Olympus Camedia C700 2MP Digital Camera w/ 10x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

This camera is the one to get and is worth paying extra over the C2040 and is worth getting over the C3040. Here is why. The 10X zoom is magnificent (It is equivalent to a 38mm to 380mm on a 35 mm camera and it only weighs 11 oz. Incredible.). You cannot imagine the difference between your standard 3x zoom until you see how close a 10X zoom gets. Digital zooms are completely worthless (you can do the same thing as a digital zoom on your computer). Also, this camera has a LCD viewfinder that looks straight through the lens (very similar to a camcorder). This is amazing as what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG). There is no parallax and it saves batteries by not having to use the back LCD to frame your photo. Once you try it you won't want to go back to anything else.

Even what some people consider negatives are actually positives. First, it is only 2.1 mega pixel. This is actually a good thing unless you are a professional photographer taking 11x17 or getting your photos published in a magazine. Not only is a 2.1 mega pixel cheaper but it saves space on your memory card so you can take more pictures. With the current memory, bandwidth, and storage limitations, 2.1 is about all you will need. I bet most of the people with the higher resolutions end up shrinking their photos once they get them on the computer. Two, no image stabilization. It is true at 10X zoom it is fairly easy to get some blurring (especially in low light). Get a tri-pod. It is lighter, cheaper and far less complex than image stabilization (Also, it will be handy for those night shoots when you don't use a flash). It is tricky to use the manual focusing. You use the menu arrow buttons instead of rotating the lens. However, judging how the lens works it would have added significant bulk to the C700. This is the smallest 10X zoom. If you have seen any of the others, (such as Sony) you can really appreciate how small and light this camera is.

When I was shopping for a camera it came down to the C2040 and the C700 UZ. The C2040 has a lower F-stop (1.8 instead of 2.8. This is a good thing as it lets in more light for the same shutter speed. So for low light situations you can have a higher shutter speed which lessons the likelihood of blurring). I wasn't sure how big of a difference this made. And in most conditions I don't think it makes that big of a difference. The C2040 only has a 3X zoom and optical viewfinder. Both of which I think were significant shortcomings. Also, you can record sound onto your photos in the C700 something you can't do in the C2040.

In the end, I paid the extra (cost) and bought the C700. I totally made the right choice. The pictures are great. Also, as you get better you won't outgrow this camera. It has all sorts of manual features that will have you fiddling for hours if you so desire but it is also completely point-and-shoot automatic if that is what you want. But in the end it all comes down to the zoom and LCD. I can't say enough good things about the 10X zoom and LCD viewfinder. Buy this camera and you will see the difference!