Customer Reviews

Olympus D-460 1.3MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(93)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I did a lot of research on digital cameras before I purchased the Olympus 460 ZOOM and I am extremely happy with this camera. My criteria were picture quality, advanced features and a price under $500. After a week of taking over a hundred pictures, I'm very impressed with both the crisp quality and true to life colors of each picture. It automatically adjusts to florescent, incandescent, and outdoor light. The selectable ISO settings makes for very impressive low light pictures. The panorama stitching was easy to use and very accurate. This will be great for taking seascapes while on vacation. I'm still on my first set of batteries so battery life is great. I read a lot of reviews on the D450 ZOOM before I purchased the D460 and all the small things that owners complained about were fixed. Olympus really must listen to customer feedback. The menus are easy to use, it remembers settings when turned off, they even ship three manuals in each language instead of one in three languages. I recommend picking up a USB port SmartReader or Floppy adapter. Also get some NiMH batteries and a charger. You're in for some great pictures with this camera.

I have been using this camera for about a month now. I did extensive research on the internet for digital cameras $500 and under. The runners where Olympus 360L, Kodak 210, and Olympus D460Z. And it is a very impressive camera overall. The camera itself offers wide angle or zoom 3x shots. It also offers a 3x cropping to bring it to 6x. It's menu is very easy to use out of the box. Has 2 menu modes, one with camera active, one when it's not active (setup mode.) It's auto focus is by holding the button halfway down for a sec, then clicking. It's wide/zoom is a small lever next to shutter button for easy access. You can use it's LCD or to save on batteries it's normal view frame for taking shots. The smartmedia card and batteries easily installs/uninstalls. If offers what they call a Paranormal mode which takes multiple pictures on one frame. It offers a sequence mode that lets you take 10 pictures back to back with for a series shot. You will need to format your SmartMedia card if it's not from Olympus, but it's fast and easy to do. My only gripes are when closing the lens cover, you have to be careful and let the lens retrack first, so you just close it a little, then the rest of the way after lens is back in. The flash flips up, and seems a little clumsey there, but it works fine. You will need to purchase more than just this camera when you buy it. What it comes with is: 2 lithium batteries, a hand strape, an 8meg smart media card. And what else you need would be: a carrying case (est $30), a bigger smart media card (I got a 64meg est $60), NiMH Batteries w/charger(they aren't cheap but worth it est $110), a smart media reader (est $40), and maybe the power adaptor (est $60). With a 64meg card I get 36 shots in sqhq mode. And with my NiMH batteries, after one month of use, I still haven't had to replace them. Normal alkline recharables last maybe 30-40 shots, the NiMH last more like 300-400 shots. I use the lithium that came with it for backup batteries and place them in my case with 8meg memory card. A SmartMedia reader is a must for getting the pictures to your computer. Otherwise you will have to use the serial connection to the camera and very slowly d/l the pics. Which means you'd have to have a power adaptor because it would drain your batteries. With a media reader, it's like using a zip drive, and see the MediaSmart card as another drive, and you just drag and drop your pics to your drive, fast, simple, and very slick. If you choose to purchase this camera, you will be more than pleased that you did. But be aware, you will need to make a few more purchases in accessories to truely enjoy this camera.

I'm primarily a 35mm and subminiature photographer and was waiting until digital resolution and price met at a nice point. The D-460 did it for me.

First, a couple of warnings: 1) Batteries - Although Amazon lists 4 AA alkalines as the power source, don't count on it. The two included Olympus lithium batteries (which are each the same size as a pair of AAs) are a special high output chemistry. You will be VERY unhappy if you take the camera to an event and only have one set of alkalines. Digital cameras use a lot of juice, especially when you download and when you use the LCD screen. The consumer problem is that the Olympus batteries (CR-V3, or p/n LB-01E) are VERY hard to find. I've not seen any in camera or electronics stores, although you can purchase them for $14 ea directly from Olympus -- and Olympus says you should be able to buy them from several internet vendors, but the only one on their list that even showed the batteries was B&H, and they didn't have any in stock (@ $10 ea.). The next best thing is use rechageable NiMh cells. You can spend a hunk of money and buy the Olympus cell/recharger set, or can hunt around electronics stores and buy something for about half the price -- make sure you get AA cells in the 1400 to 1500 mAh range. 2) Price - The normal street price for this camera is now $399. 3) Downloading Photos - Although you can use the included serial cable, you'll also use a lot more batteries. If you have a USB port on your computer, you should consider getting getting a SmartMedia external drive. They're inexpensive and fast and easy to use.

But to the good stuff. Side-by-side tests against my office's Sony Mavica's give the Olympus the edge at the same 640 x 480 resolution. When you go to the higher 1280 x 960 resolution, I think you'll be pleased with the results. The optical finder makes it much easier to take snapshots, especially in bright sunlight, where LCD only cameras leave you wondering what you're shooting at. The 3:1 zoom ratio is comfortable, and you can do accurate closeups using the LCD screen for a viewfinder. If you go ahead and buy the SmartMedia external drive, you should consider getting an additional 8MB (one comes with the camera) or 16MB card.

I think that for many applications, including some professional use, you will find this to be a good performing camera at a good price.

(The only reason I gave it a 4-star rating is because of the so-so availability of the lithium batteries, and the fact that it took a little more digging than expected to figure out what was really going on with those things.)

I was hesitant to make the jump to a digital camera. I bought this baby, and boy am I glad I did. The pictures are remarkable, even when printed 8x10 on my printer (nothing fancy, just an HP 712C.) I get better detail on closeups than I do using my SLR camera. Pictures turn out great even in very low light. Plus, if you pick up a set of rechargable batteries, this guy is practially free to use. No more spending dough on film or developing. I highly recomend this camera for anyone looking to jump into digital pictures. It's well worth the money and will save you a bundle.

After reading every review we could find, last year we ventured for the first time into the digital photographic world purchasing the Olympus 340-R digital camera. We were definitely not disappointed.

The D460 is this year's model improving the 340-R by adding a 3x optical zoom in addition to the 2x digital zoom. For the price you will not match the features and quality of this camera.

After just a few days the camera accompanied us to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and Seoul, S. Korea, while we nervously left our Canon SLR at home. The camera performed marvelously. We found the optional 16MB flash memory card more than adequate for our needs, as we easily downloaded photos each day into our laptop. An 8MB card comes standard.

We were amazed at the quality of photos even in low light settings. We took shots at our conference including a multimedia presentation where surprisingly the projected image on the screen was readable! While staying in the countryside in a traditional Mongolian "ger" (tent), we shot an incredible photo of the predawn sky-- even the morning stars are clearly distinguishable!

Arriving home we were completely satisfied with the photos shot at the low resolution setting when printed out on our HP Deskjet 895 using an Epson photographic paper. I doubt that most people would be able to tell the difference between the prints and a standard developed snapshot. The enclosed Olympus and Adobe software is easy to use and functional for most home use. You will absolutely love the Quickstitch utility that simply creates oversized and panorama shots!

One of the only weaknesses we found a little frustrating was the variance between the optical viewfinder and the digital one. If you frame... say, a head and shoulders shot in the optical viewfinder, you will discover that digitally the camera sees a much broader area. Olympus should do a little better job calibrating the two viewfinders.

Apart from that, you will want to invest in the NiMH charger and at least 8 batteries-- shop around for the best price. Also, picking up a 3.5 inch floppy adapter for the flash memory card will be a big time saver. You simply pull out the flash memory card, slip it into the adapter, and then slide the floppy into any computer. You'll save time and frustration over having cords laying all around your table, plus a significant download time.

One last item-- Do you think a 16MB memory card will be too small for your needs? You can purchase up to a 32MB smart media card which will give you more than 400 shots at 800x600!

I bought the 460 because I wanted a digital camera that I could stick in my pocket but one that I could also expect to take respectable pictures. On the first count, with the built in lense shield, the camera is easy to 'bring along'.

My expectations have been generally exceeded on the second count. The camera was purchased in time to document a fantastic mixture of daffodils at their peak. The camera's macro mode produces stunning pictures, the detail and contrast of a bloom that fills the frame is beautiful. My guess was and is that the apparent price premium for this camera goes towards premium optics that only a company like Olympus knows how to engineer.

Color rendition is equally impressive, only flesh tones under flash seem to be a bit off, and fortunately in the warm direction. Otherwise, my expectations have been exceeded, it's comparable to 35mm negative film. And I haven't noticed any significant distortions either.

My comparison shopping indicated that the flashes of all cameras in this range have a 13 foot range. I was hoping that the capability to quadruple the effective ISO to 500 would extend the usable range to 26 feet. So far, after 250 pictures, I have found the noise in a picture taken at ISO 500 renders low quality pictures. I haven't experimented much with ISO 250.

The camera seems to be slow to focus, or I'm too impatient, one must wait for the green light in the view finder to confirm focus has been found or fuzzy pictures result. But this is no SLR, it's a point and shoot concept and one that, given good lighting, takes fantastic pictures. I printed a still life on a Textronix Phaser wax printer at 8x10 and was amazed that I got a frameable picture. I didn't expect this it at only 1.3Meg pixels!

By the way, it runs just fine on AA NiMH batteries from Target or Radio Shack.

I did a lot of research before I bought this camera and had it narrowed down to two. I decide on this one because I had owned the similarly styled 35 mm and loved it.

I like the fact that there is no lens cap to loose, but the lens is still protected. I use it to take promo pictures of bands, so the location can be a bit hostile (bars and nightclubs) and I wanted something that I felt was at least somewhat protected.

I was more than thrilled when I uploaded my pictures to a site to have 35mm quality prints made and found that I could get exceptional 8x10 pics from just the middle setting of the quality choices. But even in the lowest setting the pictures are great for website postings.

I bought a 16mg card to go with it and I got 3 complete shows worth of pictures and with the Flashpath adapter, the websites are getting updated faster than ever.

I also bought 2 sets of rechargeable batteries and have found that I can get a whole weekend of shows (12-15 hours)on them even using the LCD panel and it's still cheaper than buying disposable.

I was in the market for the Sony Cybershot DSC 30. I really liked the way that the camera looked and was anxious to have one. Then I did a little research. I found out that Sony has there cameras made by an outside manufacturer. sony also does not share their technology with other manufacturers so if you want to accesorize, then you have to pay the inflated prices for "genuine Sony parts". Olympus has been in the camera biz for years. So I asked myself why am I going to buy a product from a company that doesn't really specialize in cameras? It is also good to know that there is only one kind of storage media that you can use with the Sony Cybershots. Conviently, Sony has also jacked the price on there "Memory Sticks" because it's the only thing that you can buy for it. The Olympus D460 does every thing that the Cybershot does, save for the swivel LCD display. The Olympus also uses smart card media, so you can be a little more selective in what can fit your budget. Speaking of budgets, I saved about $120.00, and still feel that I got a better camera that what Sony could ever offer. If you like affordability, convenience, and a simple camera, the Olympus D460 is the camera for you. If you like to pay for a name, then buy a SONY!

I must say I'm pretty happy with the Olympus 460 Zoom. I originally was going to buy the 360, but I figured if I was going to spend the money for a digital camera, I might as well get the zoom.

With the 460 comes some advanced photography features like spot metering, fill-in flash, etc. Those features may seem useless to amateur photographers, but if you take the time to learn the features, you'll end up with better pictures.

The TV wire is pretty cool, and even the pictures with the lowest quality look pretty good on TV.

The LCD screen on the camera is very sharp and has amazing color. I just wish there was some way to cover the screen to protect it better.

A downside to the Olympus is that it doesn't come with a lot of accessories. I'm going to have to buy stuff like a camera case, battery recharger, USB adapter, and a 32 MB card. ....

The D460Zoom is my second Olympus Digital Camera. My first was the D360, which was a great camera until a child put the batteries in wrong and burned it up! I cannot say enough good things about the D460Zoom...It writes the files quickly allowing follow-up shots in 2-3 seconds. It has easily understood controls, and takes better quality photos than most digital cameras I have seen -- including my brother's large and bulky Sony. The autofocus and zoom both work without hitch and allow a considerable amount of leaway in composing your shots. One of the things I find especially exciting is its ability to adopt to difficult lighting situations. You can take pictures in very difficult bright and dark shadow conditions and get excellently exposed results. I am comfortable taking pictures in any lighting situation, indoors or out.

While there is some media that hold more pictures than the smart media cards, the smart media cards are very small and easy to use. I bought a card reader [and] it is as easy to down load pics as to read a disk--faster even. For the money, this camera is as good or better than many costing twice as much.