Olympus D-580 4MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

by Olympus

Product Details

Product Manual [6.17mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 7 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 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: B0001DKQX2
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,497 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 12, 2004

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

If you're new to the world of digital photography, the Olympus D-580 offers just the right blend of easy-to-use features and high-quality optics that delivers vivid pictures. The D-580 Zoom has a durable polycarbonate body with an attractive metallic accent on its sliding protective clamshell lens barrier. It also features a 4-megapixel resolution, 3x optical zoom, movie mode with sound, a bright LCD monitor to review images, and Olympus's new TruePic Turbo image processor, which speeds up the camera's start-up, shutter lag, recording and playback time.

Optics and Resolution
The 4-megapixel D-580 captures 2288 x 1712 pixel images for prints up to 11 x 14 inches. It also has 1600 x 1200 (2MP) and 640 x 480 (VGA) resolution modes. It features a 3x optical zoom that, when combined with a 4x digital zoom, delivers a total seamless 12x zoom. The aspherical all-glass zoom lens is constructed of 7 lenses in 6 groups and has a focal length of 5.8-17.4mm (35-105mm equivalent in 35mm photography) and an aperture range of f3.1-f5.2.

Movie Mode and Audio
In addition to capturing still images, you can also shoot short videos with sound (its companion D-540 has no sound capabilities) at 15 frames per second (fps). The D-580 has two resolution modes: 320 x 240 and 160 x 120. The built-in microphone can also capture short memos that can be appended to each message

More Features
The D-580 is one of the first Olympus models to feature TruePic Turbo, a new image processor that sharpens image clarity, contrast, and color for life-like results. This feature also makes the camera 30% faster in processing images and is combined with a super-fast shutter release time.

The D-580 offers a menu architecture that's easy to navigate for fast access to the right settings with just the press of arrow buttons. Seven preset shooting modes can be accessed through the "Virtual Dial" (viewable through the LCD menu) to provide fully automatic exposure adjustments; these include Program Auto, Portrait, Portrait-Landscape, Landscape, Night Scene, Self Portrait, and Movie.

Other features include:

• 1.8-inch TFT color LCD monitor (approximately 85,000 pixels)
• Optical real-image viewfinder
• 1.5 frames per second burst up to 12 frames
• Built-in flash with auto, red-eye reduction, fill-in, and off modes

Direct Printing
The D-580 is PictBridge compatible, which enables you to transfer pictures from your digital camera to a compatible printer (such as the Olympus P-10), without a PC or image-editing software. All PictBridge devices share three basic features: camera-to-printer connecting, single-image printing, and uniform error messages (in case something goes wrong).

Storage and Transfer
Images are stored on XD Picture Card memory cards. The card's small size, about the same as a postage stamp, helps to keep the camera size down. The included 16 MB card will store approximately 16 images at 2288 x 1712 pixels (at HQ, JPEG setting). Images can be downloaded to either a Mac or PC via USB 1.1 connectivity, which means the camera can be connected to any USB-based Windows 98 Rev2Me/2000/XP and Mac OS 8.6 or later computer without installing any software.

Power and Size
The camera is powered by 2 AA batteries (alkalines included, NiMH rechargeable recommended) or 1 CR-V3 battery. It measures 4.3 x 2.3 x 1.4 inches (W x H x D) and weighs 5.8 ounces (excluding batteries and storage media).

What's in the Box
This package contains the Olympus D-580 digital camera, 16 MB XD Picture Card, USB cable, 2 AA alkaline batteries, wrist strap, quick-start guide, and instruction manual. The CD-ROM features Camedia Master software, Adobe Acrobat Reader and Camera Reference Manual.

Product Description

OLYMPUS D-580 -- This compact, 4.0 million effective pixel Digital Camera is ready to go where you go and bring back a visual record in splendid detail and vibrant color. Choose between 7 different shooting modes, or capture a mini-movie with audio using QuickTime. You can even connect directly to a PictBridge enabled printer and have your photos in no time -- no computer required. Shutter speeds - 1/1000 second - 1/2 second (up to 2 sec. in Night Scene mode) Manual and preset White Balance modes Up to 12 second self timer Burst Mode - 1.3 frames per second Built-in multi-mode flash USB 1.1 interface Unit Weight - 5.8 ounces w/out battery Package includes - 16MB xD-Picture Card, 2 AA Alkaline Batteries, USB & AV cables, wrist strap, software on CD-ROM, manual 1 year limited warranty

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Camera, June 24, 2004

By 

"huarong" (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Olympus D-580 4MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

It is an excellent camera for this price (I bought it for $250 about 2 weeks ago). Last week I used it to take pictures in Niagara Falls during day and night. The pictures during the day are crisp. During the night, I held it by hand to take pictures of rapids and the water falls (without flash). The water flow effect was surpringly clear and bright.

Its TruePic Turbo image processor is indeed very fast. I used the camera to take pictures of fireworks. During 10 minutes I took tens of pictures.

However, it is quite necessary to have four recargable Ni-Mh AA batteries with this camera. It uses battery power pretty fast.

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Value!, July 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Olympus D-580 4MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

This camera is an excellent value! It is very cheap for a four megapixel camera, has zoom, takes great, sharp, and colorful pictures! I bought this camera for my girlfriend based on what I had read about ease of use for this camera. You would be hard pressed to find a more user friendly camera in this price range or above. THe auto focus on this camera is excellent! We have taken lots of picures with this camera during the day and night and little have come out anything but clear and colorful. Two of the night photos I took of fireworks came out blurry but this is to be expected when not using a tripod. This is a great camera that has a very powerful flash and is easy to use. A word of warning would be not to even try using Alkaline batteries, they will be spent in about 20 shots. One warning, for outdoor wildlife enthusiasts, the zoom motor on this camera is very loud! Instead get one of the Lithium CR-V3 batteries which give excellent picture taking volume in this camera. I highly recommend this camera to anyone looking for an easy to use, great working and low priced camera.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Olympus D-580 - A Great Mid-Priced Digital Camera, June 7, 2005

By 

R. E. Trout (Albany, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Olympus D-580 4MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

Several of these reviews sound like they are talking about a different camera than the one I'm using. Or they didn't read the manual and don't know how to use it. I've only had my D-580 a few weeks but couldn't be more pleased. It's compact and stylish and has Olympus's trademark sliding lens cover to protect the lens.

The sliding lens cover does seem a bit stiff, but so does the one on my Stylus 35mm camera. I've been using that for 5 years and it still works just fine. The thing you have to remember, and they tell you about it in the manual, is to close the lens cover in 2 stages. You slide it part way to the detent, the lens retracts, and then you can close it the rest of the way. I like the sliding lens cover.

The D-580 has 4MP resolution with 4 settings: SHQ, 2288 X 1712; HQ (the default setting), also 2288 x 1712, but more compressed; SQ1, 1600 x 1200; and SQ2, 640 x 480. The included 16MB xD card will hold up to 19 pictures in HQ. In SHQ, it will hold only 6. Obviously, you will want a larger card. They're available all the way up to 1GB. Using Olympus cards and the Camedia software, you can stitch together panoramas from as many as ten images.

It has several modes accessible through the menu: Program Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Portrait-Landscape, Night Scene, Self Portrait, and Movie. Most of the time you'll get the best results by using Program Auto, the default setting, and letting the camera do the thinking.

The easily accessible macro setting (there's a separate button for that) allows you to to take pictures from as close as 7 cm. The macro pictures look great and I've been using the macro more and more. And you can use the zoom in macro, allowing great flexibility. Apparently the zoom is disabled in super macro mode, which is accessible through the menu.

Speaking of zoom, it has a smooth 3x optical zoom, and 4x digital. Thankfully, the digital zoom has to be turned on whenever you want to use it. I don't ever see a need to use it, since with 4MP to work with, most of the time you can just crop the picture and still end up with resolution to spare and much better results.

The numbering system used for pictures is P + month + day + number of the picture for that day's shooting: e.g. P6070001, for June 7, 2005, picture number 1 (the year doesn't appear in the file name, but is recorded). That ensures a unique filename for each picture. One little quirk is that the date resets to January 1, 2004 if the batteries are taken out for 3 days. Not a problem, just something to be aware of. Resetting the date is pretty easy.

The included Camedia software seems fairly useful, especially if you want to do panoramas, but since it mostly duplicates software I already have, I didn't install it.

Picture downloading on the Mac is simple, and you don't even have to turn this camera on. When the USB cable is plugged in, the LCD lights up and gives you three choices, the first one of which is PC (the others are Print and Exit). You just click the OK button and iPhoto launches. The camera shows up in the finder as a drive, so it must be ejected before you can unplug it. Unplugging it without first ejecting it triggers an error message.

It is powered by 2 AA batteries, and while power consumption is heavy, it isn't quite as heavy I expected. I used the supplied alkaline AAs for about a week before they gave up the ghost. Then I switched to rechargeable NiMH batteries, and it did much, much better. I use the Monster Cable MB 4-DCRC, sold by Amazon. I prefer cameras that use AA batteries over cameras that use proprietary lithium ion batteries because AAs are cheap and available and in a pinch you can drop in some alkalines.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the D-580. Picture quality is consistently great with Olympus's new image processor (TruePic Turbo), and it has enough settings to fiddle with to keep a person amused for hours. Not that you have to -- on Program Auto, it does everything for you and does it very well. I highly recommend this camera for the amateur who likes uncomplicated cameras, but occasionally likes to dabble in creative photography.