Customer Reviews

Olympus FE-100 4MP Digital Camera with 2.8x Optical Zoom

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

 

 

This camera works like a dream. Would recommend it for the average person who wants a good camera for family, vacation photos etc. Takes very good indoor flash photos. Colors and resolution are excellent.

Has a good feel and easy operation. Lens retracts and lens cover closes when you turn it off.

At 4 megapixels you get more than enough resolution for 8 X 10 blowups.

Uses "XD" format picture (memory) cards. Would recommend you buy the 256 MB card or a 512 MB for a few more bucks. I purchased a Fuji 256 MB card and it works fine. Holds about 260 photos.

Can use two ordinary "AA" alkaline batteries. However would recommend the NiMh rechargeable batteries. Bought the Energizer 15 minute charger from Amazon which comes with four Energizer "AA" NiMh batteries. Long lasting batteries and most pleased. I shot a whole day of photos including many flash ones and did not have to replace them 'till late at night. Great charger and batteries. It's at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DIIAS/103-2880875-1151054?v=glance&n=172282&n=507846&s=electronics&v=glance

As with any camera, a case for it is advisable. But buy a case at Circuity City or BestBuy rather than online. That way you can walk with your camera and see how it actually fits into the case and how much stuff you want the case to hold e.g. spare batteries , charger etc.

All in all, a good reliable product. Congrats to Olympus.

If you buy it, you wont be disappointed.

[...]

Pros: A good camera for all users. Good picture quality and easy to transfer to your PC (if you use software other than whats provided).

Megapixels. 4.0!

Movies!!! Record movies in quicktime .avi format! A+ (no sound though)

It's a good name brand, with great reviews in computer magazines and on many electronic sites. A sturdy quality camera worth buying (for the right price).

It gets four stars for a couple of reasons...


Cons: The software it comes with isn't really user friendly. I thought picassa [...] was much easier and had more features.

Next, some of the features are spelled out in the user manual. For extreme up close pictures, like you would do for selling items on online, the up close function isn't spelled out... you have to play with your camera to figure it out. (If you buy it, there's a circle button with 4 arrows in it, push it to the right for up close pics).

Also, the zoom isn't as good as it could be... 2.8X telescopic (good quality), plus another 5X digital (which is poor quality). But unless you're a professional photographer, this should do for the average joe.

Lastly, if you're not carefull, you'll lose battery life quickly. It's easy to set it down and forget it, and it goes into a standby mode which still uses battery life. If you forget, it may cost you battery life.

Overall: The con's really are minor compared to the cost to quality benefit you get from this camera... it has more megapixels than many higher cost competitors, but it sacrifices in the zoom, 2.8X.

This is a great camera for anyone to have, great for users of all levels.

I ordered this based on good reviews here and low price, and because my much older Olympus had been stolen. But after trying it for less than 5 minutes it was back in the box to be returned, even though I burn thirty bucks on the return. This camera makes the cardinal sin of having an enormous (2 to 2.5 second) delay between (a) when you press the button and (b) actually taking the picture. In this respect this camera is slower than my phone camera, and even slower than the 4-year-old 2.1M Olympus I had, amazingly. If you are taking pictures of people who are moving (i.e. anybody who is not posing), and you are trying to capture the moment, this mis-feature will be frustrating for the life of the camera. I'm really puzzled why people would like this camera, unless they are mostly taking pictures of scenery or of people posing.

I bought the Olympus FE-100 as a gift for myself. As a mother of four, I needed a reliable camera, that would take high quality pictures. I have owned my camera for approximately three months, and love it! It has many great features, and is very easy to learn, without tons of technical reading.

This camera, like most others, does require the use of "good" batteries. If you try to stick the cheap batteries in it, it just will not work. But it is worth the extra cost, as the pictures turn out beautiful. I have already captured so many wonderful memories that will last a lifetime.

You will need an extra memory card, as the camera has a limited amount of memory, as do most good digital cameras, but you can purchase the extra memory at a low cost, and it doesn't have to be the Olympus brand. The memory cards are very easy to install, and make a world of difference. With one decent memory card, you can take over a hundred great pictures, before needing to upload them to your computer, making it perfect for those holidays and special evcnts.

I have always had great sucess with Olympus products, and their customer support is another great reason to consider purchasing their products.

I read many, many reviews before deciding to purchase this particular model, and I really feel that I made the best possible choice.

I got this camera for my Mom when Fry's had it on a One Day sale for a ridiculously low price.

If you are a point and shoot person - give this model serious consideration and not the ones with more megapixel counts. More megapixels don't equate to a better camera. 4 MP is ample resolution for an 11X17 inch print. Plus the images are not as big (in terms of bytes) so the pictures are easier to manipulate and store, you don't need as big a memory card, and the simple fact that the pixels on the CCD are bigger leads to greater light sensitivity and less noise compared to the same size CCD with a higher pixel count.

The five stars that I give it, takes into account certain factors -
1) Its low price -
2) Small size

If the camera was priced twice as high, I would not buy it. But for its current price, it can't be beat.
What I like -
1) Very easy to figure out the menu's. But my mom might still need help.
2) Small size (little like an egg). Easily fits in a purse or pocket.
3) Exposure and color balance is better than a Kodak EasyShare C330 that I was able to compare it with.
4) Uses two AA batteries and the battery compartment/lid is well designed (attention to detail).
5) Has optical zoom with the coverage required in 80% of cases -for additional 10% walk to your subject for 90% coverage.
6) 28MB of camera memory is built in - so you can use it in addition to the external one.
Some shortcomings -
1) I intially had lot of low battery errors which went away after I switched to higher quality NiMH and used the camera for a while (the batteries were broken in before being used on the camera - so this is not a battery issue)
2) The lens opens and retracts rather noisily with a grating sound that is unpleasant to hear.
3) Uses XD memory card is proprietary to Olympus and Fuji cameras only. XD cost's a bit more - and you should factor that into the price when you purchase something. I hate it when manufacturers adopt proprietary formats.
4) The camera did not always figure out white balance correctly under artificial lighting and flash switched off. Not really a factor if you use the camera in the automatic mode only.
5) The mode selector dial on the side would move when taking in and out of a case - so it is possible to take pictures in the wrong mode accidentally.
4) Colors were a little on the yellow side.

Other comments -
The lack of viewfinder is not really a problem I think. The built in LCD works quite well and is somewhat visible even in the sun. The LCD is a bit small, but is quite sharp and works well for framing your subject. Hopefully the smaller LCD will be less prone to breaking.

Its picture quality is not quite what my Olympus C-4000 is capable of, but it still takes pretty good images that represent the scene well. But then, the C-4000 is much bigger, and even now, an equivalent replacement would cost 2 - 3 times as much. Not quite a fair comparison.

For its price the FE-100 is very good value and won't dissapoint you. I think it is the best in its size and price class. Much better pictures than a Kodak C-330 I have compared it with.

In my experience, only Canon and Olympus really have what it takes to make digital camera's that take great pictures. But with a Canon, you'll spend almost twice as much.

The Olympus FE-100 works pretty well - fairly easy operation, good construction, the bells and whistles you'd expect at this price. Here's what's not so great...

The camera would not transfer pictures to my computer. I had to call their tech support and download the proper program, which should have been in the camera system to begin with.

The pictures are "okay" but not crisp and snappy as you would expect from a 4 megapic camera.

The starter manual and CD master manual are poorly written and neither explains important basic camera operations. Not user friendly at all.

The editing of photo tools are truly basic and not explained at all in the manuals. And they don't work so good. Use red-eye reduction only if you want your subjects to look like cartoons.

And, yes, at least one in five shots is completely out of focus. I know this wasn't me or an unsteady hand because I put the Olympus on a tripod and shot the same object ten times. Three shots were out of focus.

With the Olympus reputation, I expected more.

one simple use camera, dosen't have all the bells and whistles take great pics does enough for the the person that likes simplicity but Far as zoom for far away don't expect much over all its a great little camera

I have had no problem with 'blurry' pictures. Sounds like the earlier reviewer has a problem with 'camera shake' - i.e. keeping the camera steady when taking the photo. Additionally, the shutter button is two-stage. When you depress it half-way the camera focuses and then the 'green light' comes on & then you press it all the way and the pic is taken.

The `nightscene' mode works fine for me. The nightscene mode does not use flash and is a timed exposure where the shutter opens for a few seconds to capture the image `as it is' without flash. The camera has to be on a tripod or placed steady on an object (like a ledge or railing etc.) to get a good shot. If you take the pic holding the camera in your hand it will definitely be blurry. There is a good example of a nightscene mode photo in the `Customer Images' (page 3 of the images) at the top of this page.

Or you can simply use the `Autoflash' mode and take your outdoor photos with no problem using the built-in flash.

Sounds like somebody did not take the time to read the instruction manual properly!!

In the end, this is a great little camera that has provided me and my family with so much fun and captured wonderful memories.

It's not for the avid or serious photographer. But if you want a camera for fun and family photos, you can't beat the performance and features at this price.

I would recommend it to you.

I received this camera as a gift in late 2005, my 1st digital camera. It wasn't so bad in the beginning but as time went on it became rickety yet still takes ok photos...as long as you're not taking those photos in low light. If you're not in direct sunlight & you're trying to take a close up forget it. Many pics sometimes come out with a yellow hue. I used to use this camera to take photos for my ebay business & I take quite a lot of close up shots & I will say this camera takes great close ups, shots are clear & sharp but, again, sometimes with a yellow hue if in the slightest of low light. This camera has macro & super macro & aside from the low light issue its super macro is a great feature that works pretty good. Controls are very easy to use, this camera is easily portable. The display on the back is extremely SMALL, not sure of the size but it's sometimes very hard to see the pics you've taken due to its tiny screen. This camera also has an extremely SLOW shutter speed & slow startup time. I will admit my Olympus has been beaten up in the yrs I've had it (broken zoom button, broken battery cover, been dropped, gotten wet, etc) & yet it still works with the exception of some of the imperfections that came with the camera when it was new. I have a rubber band around the camera keeping the battery door closed yet this thing just won't die. Very heavy camera & made to physically last, very sturdy & takes a beating. This camera takes regular AA batteries but I don't suggest it, it will eat up basic batteries in a day, ALWAYS use rechargebales they'll last weeks. This camera isn't slim, it's a chunky little thing but still decent. If you're looking for a camera that's good in low light do NOT go for this one, if you just want good close ups then it's a great camera for you. This camera also takes video BUT it has no sound (a waste if you ask me), plus on play back the video moves too fast as if it were an old 8mm home movie, never understood why this happens so I never used the video feature. All in all it's a great backup camera if you need one for super close ups but in low light...yikes!

I bought this camera for $140 which I thought was pretty good, but you really do get what you pay for. I used it maybe once a week, if that and took good care of it to avoid problems. However, I had it only 6 months before it broke.

One day, 6 months later I went out and needed the camera just to take some pictures for memories. So I hit the 'on' button, the lens extended out only half way and would not go back in. I had noticed it doing this a couple times before, where the lens would go halfway out and would not turn on, but if you just turned it off and then on it would be fixed. So i figured it was dead batteries. However, when it finally broke the batteries were fully charged, so it was not a matter of that.

I took it back to where I got it (best buy) who couldn't tell me anything (yea such a great "geek squad" who can't tell you what's wrong). So they told me they'd send it to the company and have it back in 4-6 weeks. So 8 weeks go by and still nothing, and at this point I was just fed up with Olympus because my graduation was coming up in the next week, I didn't have a camera and it was well over the 6 weeks. They didn't even bother to call and update me.

Best Buy was worthless because all they told me was it was "discontinued" which I found out later it's not, and gave me store credit only towards another one of their "fine quality" cameras.


I refuse to buy anything else by Olympus because they make inferior products, do not stick to deadlines or update you of the status, and don't tell you what the problem was withthe camera. With my "gift certificate" to Best Buy I bought a Nikon CoolPix which was $30 more and I am so much more satisfied. Batteries last longer, much better picture quality, slimmer, more picture taking modes. I'm just sorry I didn't get this one to begin with.