Customer Reviews

Olympus FE-140 6MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

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

 

 

I am amazed by the other poor reviews, as we really like this little camera! We got it for my grade school son, who loves to take photos. I have a much fancier and nicer camera, and I still enjoy the photos that this one takes.

It is easy to use. It has lots of useful settings. It is small and compact. And, in my opinion, the photos look really nice.

My son is young. He is not particularly steady holding the camera. Yet, he is taking a great many nice looking photos, which are not blurry, look good to the adult eye, and print nicely.

I'm really finicky about grain, sharpness, etc. (which is why I have a very nice Olympus C-8080 for myself), and I'm just not unhappy at all with the photos that this smaller, cheaper Olympus takes.

For the price, I consider it to be a nice little camera.

With the Olympus name, 6 megapixels, a local price of less than $200, 22 shooting modes, and a user interface that is so simple you don't need to read the manual, I expected to love the FE-140. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong initial test subject. On the Olympus Website, I read that in macro mode you can shoot objects as close as 5cm, so I decided to take some photos of a ring. Virtually nothing turned out. Rather, the pics looked as if I set the camera to "self timer", tossed it straight up and waited for the shutter to snap mid air - and all this despite "image stabilization" as one of the FE-140's advertised features. Needless to say, I was shocked. The last time I was in the market for a digital camera - in 2000 - I walked away with a 1.3MP point-and-shoot that has absolutely no image stabilization, no manual controls and no macro, but to this day, dying battery and disk drive notwithstanding, can still manage to focus on small objects, such as jewelry, with surprisingly good results.

At first I thought my FE-140 was defective, but then, buried in a PDF on the included CD-ROM, I discovered a disclaimer to the effect that it may not focus well on reflective surfaces. So much for my budding idea of using the FE-140 to sell jewelry over the Internet. This camera is going back.

As for "regular shots", I didn't take many. Additionally, the photos I took were limited to indoors. What I can report is that while the color was a vast improvement over my old camera, the images produced by the FE-140 appeared a tad bit soft. Using my bulky but trusty 1.3MP Panasonic PV-SD4090, I have been able to shoot pics of my parakeets - with details in the feathers - that I can't seem to capture with the FE-140. I know the FE-140's mild softening serves to reduce the appearance of noise, but personally I prefer crisper images, even at the risk that they appear somewhat pixelated. It's simply easier to compensate in Photoshop for a camera that oversharpens than to find that I have no choice but to live with a camera that is incapable of making each spec of dust stand out (close up, that is).

After doing additional research, I'm heading out to purchase a Fujifilm F10, which is on clearance here at Amazon to make way for its newest incarnation, the Fujifilm F30.

I bought this camera thinking of Olympus as a good product at a reasonable price.
Eventually after having used for a very short time I noticed that it did not meet my needs and requirements.
On one hand this camera is straightforward to use, handy and easy to carry in your pocket.
Functions and programs are ready to use. On the other hand grainy and blench colours were quite present on all my shots, even if I used proper program and lots of care while taking pictures. The shutter made me crazy: in many cases images presented moved subjects. After 7 days I had my money back!

I am just grateful to move from the tradional 35mm and flash. I tried it the old way when I received a camera for my high school graduation 20 years ago. I missed a lot of good pictures through assembling my previous camera. Naturally, just turn this camera on, point, and shoot! Love that! My only dismay is battery life. It's short and maybe Olympus should include rechargable batteries with the camera. I read some of the other reviews, and I'm sorry people aren't as thrilled. The first thing people say about my camera is how jealous they are of the LCD resolution [lol]. It is like watching a minature TV! I used the self timer and video capability... Great! No sad stories to tell...

I bought this camera as a replacement for my stolen Sony. I figured Olympus was a good brand and for the price the camera seemed to be a great value- even having 6 MP. But it proved to be a mistake as the camera can not focus and well and takes horrible night shots. Also the camera takes pictures so slowly that you may miss the action you are trying to photo!

this camera its fabulous and takes
excellent fotos, its easy to use.
low price

I got this camera recently to replace my old 2mp kodak, and I
love it!! True, it does take pictures a bit slow but it is great. Highly reccomended!

For the price this camera is a beauty. With all the features you get and the fact that it's a 6 megapixel camera, you can't find a better camera for under $200 On top of it all you get Olympus's famous durability too! This is my 2nd olympus digital (I still have the first) and I couldn't be happier!

at least for me. i purchased this camera at target in may 2006. it seemed like a good value, had good features, and i thought a camera from olympus would be of good quality. however, by june 2006, it had become defective and i could no longer take pictures; the screen only read "card cover open" even when it was completely closed. figuring it was just a fluke, i took it back to target and they graciously replaced it with a new one.

i've used the new one since june, never dropped it, never done anything rough with it, and i keep it in a protective case, but this one has recently broken as well. when i try to turn the camera on, the lens zooms in and out and the screen flashes and then goes blank.

the camera itself is attractive, easy to use, and the pictures come out nice enough, but i am now going to have to go through the hassle of getting yet ANOTHER camera. this time, i'm going to opt for another brand such as canon or sony, and i will definitely be writing to olympus about the problems i've had with this camera because 2 broken cameras in less than a year is unacceptable.

I received the Olympus FE-140 for a birthday gift and there's some things are good and those that are disappointing.

GOOD: Easy to take pictures and allows you to create settings, such as black and white, portrait, and night-time.

BAD: Although it allows you to make a video, it lacks sound.

I'll hold on to mine, but for video pictures, I'll borrow a camera that has video and sound.