Customer Reviews

Olympus D-390 2 MP Digital Camera

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I've checked out many digital cameras in the under $250 dollar price range, and this one really performs the best. I've only had it for a small amount of time and already see how many times better it is than my older HP 1.3 mgpxl digital camera. It's xD picture card is very lightweight and small and is easily accessible. The auto connect USB has worked just as well requiring NO DRIVERS to install and transfer files. The Video Out port also has worked quite well in displaying pictures. The snapshot button to take the pictures does not have that awful delay that other digital cameras seem to be plagued with. The batteries do not last very long if you're using standard alkaline so NIMH is heavily recommended, or the lithium CR-V3. Even with the batteries installed and the xD media card, the camera was very lightweight and compact, easily slippable into a pocket. The pictures that I've taken so far have come out beautiful. Even the digital zoom did a pretty good job of maintaining picture quality while using it due to Olympus' good interpolation algorithm. At 2.5x digital zoom, the pictures still looked very printable. It also offers a lot of adjustable settings from white-balance, flash settings, contrast, brightness, other editable effects built-in, and program modes to manually get the optimal picture, or everything can be in AUTO mode to easily take the pictures. The interface is easy to use and efficient. The pictures tend to take a little bit of time longer than what I would like to store them (about 5 seconds) for the higher quality pictures, but even this is still reasonable. The 2 megapixels are enough for any casual user and the price ... cannot be beat. Overall I greatly recommend this camera for anyone looking for the biggest bang for the buck in this price range.

think about what you are going to be using this camera for...is it to make gigantic murals that are as big as a wall this is not the camera for you, but if you are just taking normal pictures to show on your computer and want up to 11 X 14 printed pictures this is the best thing going for the money. you don't need a big expensive camera for everyday pictures. be ready to buy a bigger memory card the 16mb will only hold about 30 pictures and you will need batteries too, the ones that come with it are not really meant for a digital camera, rechargable batteries are best especially if you can find nickel metal hydride at 1800 milliamps. radio shack has them for about [...]. the software that comes with it is fantastic...get this camera. no one hould be without an Olympus Digital camera espically the d-390!

I've had mine for about a month now and I am generally impressed. I bought it primarily for taking pictures of stuff for auctions, but have discovered that it works well as a general purpose camera.

In particular, it is good at catching quality pictures in less-than-ideal conditions. For instance, the other day I was out getting tossed around in a small boat on the ocean trying to take a picture of another small boat that was also getting tossed all around. Even though both the camera and the target of the photos were in constant motion, the images were sharp. It also does a pretty good job of balancing color in lighting conditions ranging from blindingly bright sunlight on the water to dark restaurants.

I do have a couple gripes with it. Most annoying is that it forgets your settings, such as whether to flash, image resolution, etc, every time you turn it off. This is really a pain since in many case these settings are only available by navigating menus and if you want to quickly grab a picture you're stuck with it's defaults. Also, it really does eat batteries -- forget about using alkalines -- get several sets of 1850mAh or better NI-MH rechargables.

I received this camera as a lovely gift from a friend. I was very impressed when I opened it...really classy and tiny looking with a nice, sleek look and the cute LCD screen.

This camera is very good with picture quality! It beat my sister's ... digital camera with the quality! It records short videos (no sound) and does the auto-picture thing (set it and it takes the picture in 10 seconds). It has great options like the redeye mode, landscape mode, night mode, portrait mode, and more! You can even make your images black/white, sepia (old ancient look), or normal of course. Good customizations!

The bad. The batteries don't last very long. I'll say in about 1 hour of use, dead. So get some good batteries or at least rechargable ones to save you money.
Another bad. The zoom. The zoom is almost pointless. First of all, it doesn't zoom very close. Second, the picture quality is just terrible with each zoom you do. Because of this, you're almost without a zoom. Oh well.

Besides those 2 bad things, the camera is A-OK! Worth the money and a great gift for anyone. Really easy and fun!

This is my 3rd olympus camera, the previous ones are 35mm, so this is my first digital. I have always liked this brand cause for the price you pay you get a great camera. My sister has the D-380 and I was very impressed with it. I decided to upgrade and buy the D-390. Kind of dissapointed to find out that halfway the fun the two AA batteries run dead (you wont survive a party without an extra set), the time lapse between one shot and when the camera is ready for another shot is too long, almost 10 seconds. Is hard to catch good images with kids because once you push the button it doesnt take the picture for another 2 seconds, and the timer is harder to program than in other cameras. My recomedation is to purchase de D-380, the previous model, is more user friendly, it holds 4 AA batteries and cheaper. Good Luck

I just figured out a cure for what everybody is blabbing about! Everybody is saying "the d-390 doesn't save your settings after you turn it off!" Well, you are wrong! All you have to do is this:

1. Push the OK button

2. Go to Mode Menu

3. Go down to "set" with your down button

4. Go to "all reset" and pick "off"

5. Now your camera will NOT reset everything! Perfect cure!

This camera is absolutely great. It takes very sharp and non-grainy pictures.

The batteries last very long on this camera (around 4 hours with the screen at low brightness), especially considering it only uses 2 AA batteries.

The 16mb xd card won't be enough for most users, so I recommend the Olympus 128mb xd memory chip to go along with this camera. (Other brand cards will not support the panaromic feature)

The camera uses USB mass storage, making it very compatible with every OS. This means that when you plug the camera in on windows, it creates a virtual drive and you can simply drag the pictures out of the camera. (Avoiding the horrid software all together). You can also store non-image files on the camera if you want to.

The Olympus D-390 also saves very complete EXIF image information, which includes things like shutter speed, light source, date/time, flash on/off embedded into the .jpg. Many image viewers support EXIF tags and you can see these details.

The manual is very complete, the only thing I found missing was tips for creating panoramas. The software included assembled the panoramas adequetly, but further cropping is needed in an image editing program.

Disadvantages:
- doesn't rotate images automatically, even though it detects orientation
- underexposes images slightly, requiring a photoshop 'levels' change
- no AC adapter
- no optical zoom
- flash sometimes fires in bright outdoor conditions
- sometimes requires going through long menus to access a basic option (for example, macro mode)
- movie mode is low quality and without sound

I'd greatly recommend this camera to anyone that's looking for a cheap digital camera that takes sharp pictures.

I like my Olympus D-390, but here are some faults I find with it:

- doesn't use power from USB when transferring photos to computer -- drains batteries instead!
- no optical zoom
- can't turn on menus when lens barrier is closed
- no dock
- no battery charger
- must wade through menus to get to scene selector (portrait, macro, landscape etc.) -- wish this was on a physical dial like on Canons

Stuff I really like

- price ($... Cdn at ...)
- self-portrait mode, where you can point the camera at yourself (is this mode unique to Olympus?)
- lens barrier, which doubles as power switch (lower-end cameras like Kodak's often don't even have a lens cap)
- quality: 2 megapixels are adequate for 5x7's

Tips
- by default, all the settings reset when you turn the camera off. Set it so that it doesn't do this (see manual for details)
- set the flash to be always off! On one shot it made my mom look like a ghost. Besides, with it off, pictures will appear as in their natural light.

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Update 2004-11-29
My mom just got a Canon A-75, and I am sooo jealous! It just pampers you. And macro mode is a physical control - no wading through menus to get to it! Be good to yourself and buy a Canon A-75 (or the A400, which is almost as good and costs a hundred bucks less).

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Update 2005-04-01
Figured out a way to avoid wading through menus to get to macro mode -- simply leave macro mode on all the time! It only kicks in when the camera is pointed at something close anyway. Problem solved!

Like I said though, if I were to get another camera I would get one of the Canon ones I mentioned. The D-390 easily blurs if your hand shakes ever so much.

This camera is perhaps the easiest, most user friendly I have ever seen. I didnt even read the manual, and I have figured out how to navigate the menus, change picture resolutions, do video capture, work the zoom, and review photos. Transferring files to your computer and managing the flash disk is just as simple, as the USB mass storage lets you connect w/out drivers or software. Maybe one day they'll start making blue tooth ready cameras in digital SLR formats. Very easy to use. Great for internet based applications like ebay photos, propery viewing, and general photo taking. I love it. I bought mine for $50 from an online classified, and the camera came all the way from Antarctica. For those of you that complain that it resets to the default settings at power off and eats batteries, you're right. however, if you read the manual, or even search the on screen menus, it gives you the option to turn that off, and why in God's name would you not use a lithium battery?! Thats what all cameras should be using, and they last forever. Think people. Train smarter, not harder.

Good camera. Definitely worth the money for your first digital camera or if you don't need an optical zoom. Disregard all the reviews stating the you can not save your own personal settings. They are wrong. You can save your setting if you simply read the manual. It's easy to do and all you have to do is read the instructions.