Customer Reviews

Olympus SP-320 7.1MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The Olympus SP-320 is a dream to use. I especially like the stabilization program since I don't have a tripod. The ultra large 2.5 inch LCD is easy on the eyes. Also, the gray color of the body doesn't stand out like the silver bodies on other digital cameras. Only drawbacks are that it only comes with a wrist strap, not a neck strap, and the manual is on CD, which you load on your computer. This is an inconvenience when you need to refer to the manual and your "manual" is at home on your computer. All and all, I would rate the SP-320 *****. Much better than my HP digital camera!

I love this camera. My fiancee and I have been arguing over what camera to buy, and this was the perfect one for both of us. I still do a lot of amateur B&W photography, and I like having control over my old 35mm Canon, so I wanted the same control in our digital camera. With this Olympus I can control everything (ISO, aperture, shutter, etc.). Granted, it's not the same as some of the digital SLR's on the market, but you still have a lot of control. My fiancee likes it because it has a very user friendly navigation and the automatic settings. Olympus has a nice Guide feature will explain most of the items within a menu (e.g., it tells you the differences between all the different shooting modes). Another thing I really like about this camera is that it has some "meat" to it. With every other camera I picked up in the store I felt like I was going to break it by just holding it. Call me old-fashioned, but some of the new cameras are just so tiny it's almost uncomfortable to shoot with. Don't take this to mean that this camera is a monster...it's not. It's still very compact and light, and it fits comfortably in my big hands. As for the automatic features, they're great (I even like using them). There are a lot of shooting modes to pick from. It has the standard Landscape, Sport, Night, Fireworks, etc. (the stuff you'll use) and a few you might not (I can't imagine using the Cuisine shooting mode, but it's there!). The image stabilization feature really works, too. I compared pictures with my old digital Nikon and the Olympus...wow. Of course, there's a difference of about 3 megapixels, but I can see a difference in how blurry the pictures are. The only hang-ups I have about this camera (which are pretty minor) are the size of the memory cards (they're about the size of a Listerine square, so I worry about losing them) and the optical zoom. The zoom works fine, I just wish it was more like 4x or 5x, but that more a money issue than anything.

I did a good amount of research before buying this camera. Some of the pluses include a large LCD screen, compact size, relatively easy to use. But, after using it for a few months, I am disappointed with a few things. First off, the delay when taking a picture is often terribly long... so you often lose your subject, especially when trying to photograph kids! Even in sport mode and burst mode this is an issue. Perhaps I have just not found the right setting, but the Canon I owned before this Olympus, was a cheaper camera, but when you pushed the button it took the picture with almost now delay. Another complaint is that is does not come with a battery pack.... you instead have to use AA (which seem to die in minutes) or rechargables that don't last much longer. It seems everytime I pick the camera up the batteries are dead or near dead. VERY ANNOYING. I am selling mine on Ebay.

I'm no expert in digital photography (I'm still most comfortable using my old Nikon F2), but after doing a bit of research on lower-end digital cameras, I decided to take a chance on this one. Because it was released only in the spring of this year, there are virtually no professional reviews and only a handful (albeit very positive, like the ones here) of user reviews. However, this camera is simply unbeatable on paper - I'm amazed that there are so many features crammed in.

After picking up the camera on sale at Circuit City for $190, I can say that it's lived up to Olympus' claims thus far. I love that I can choose full manual control, full auto mode, or everything in between. Picture quality appears to be good although I can't give a verdict until I really put it through its paces. Battery life (I use high-capacity NiMHs) has been pretty decent.

My only real complaint is that although the LCD is large, resolution is only acceptable at best. Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase and would enthusiastically recommend this camera. Amazon doesn't offer the best deal on it, but does seem to have the best price on the 1GB xD card.

My wife and I bought it because we dropped our old Olympus and they wanted $90 just to look at it. So instead we splurged and bought this for our trip next week. I've spent the last week putting it through it's paces and it seems like it is quite the camera. Very intuitive to use, makes excellent quality shots which show up on my mac just like they looked in the viewfinder. Last night I put it on the tripod and took some night shots and they turned out great. The light was beautiful. So far I'm very pleased. Now we'll see how it does in France!

--Update July 9 2006---

Just got back from France. We took approximately 725 pictures while we were there (and a couple in DC over the fourth) the camera performed wonderfully. We brought with us 6 rechargeable batteries though we only went through a pair in about a day in a half. We had a Rayovac 15 minute charger so we really only would have needed two batteries but oh well.

I was really pleased with the scene option. On this setting the camera gives you a bunch of preset settings (museum, fireworks, cuisine, scenery, indoors, etc) these are great. For example the behind glass setting turns off the flash and ups the depth of field so that worked great for shots from the train (except when a tree leapt into the picture). We took pictures of all our meals and the cuisine one takes great shots but it leaves the flash on auto so after being embarrassed in a fancy restaurant once we started turning that off too. But in general that scene setting was nice because it provides a bit more intelligence than auto but doesn't require fiddling with F stops and ISO's. Thought the camera will do all that if you want it to. Even the fireworks setting did a great job on a tripod at the Washington monument.

To sum up - this is a very powerful, portable (I kept it on my belt) easy to use camera. We are very satisfied with the purchase.

I don't know what it is about Olympus cameras, but Olympus is the only brand that works well for me. I tried a Canon A-70, got blurry photos, gave it to my son. I tried a Nikon Coolpix L4, got blurry photos, gave it to my wife. I tried a Panasonic Lumix, got blurry photos, sent it back. My son gets good pictures with the Canon, my wife gets good pictures with the Coolpix, and it turned out that my oldest son, who lives in a distant city, had purchased the same model Lumix I'd returned. Go figure!

Olympus--first a C700, which I still use when I need its 10x lens, then a D540, and now an SP-320--all give me great pictures.

Overall, I'm happy, but there are 3 things I don't like about the SP-320. The first two are design features that I knew going in, so I can't blame Olympus. First, it's a bit bigger than I'd like, but still small enough to carry comfortably in a case attached to my belt. Second, if it's going to be that much larger, why not let it be powered by 4 batteries so that it would require less time between shots when using the flash?

The third was a surprise that caused me to lose a bunch of pictures. Because of the way the camera is designed, it's very easy to unintentionally turn the knob on top that selects the shooting mode when removing the camera from a snug case. I'd think I was in Auto mode, which was how I placed it in the case. However, the knob often gets turned to the A or P settings when the camera goes in or out of the case, so I'd be shooting in a different mode from what I was expecting. Now that I know this happens, I check the camera every time I remove it from the case, so it's no longer a problem.

I prefer to plug my camera into a USB port rather that use an xD card reader. Olympus seems to have switched over to a USB cable with a mini USB 12 pin male connector on one end. That's three Olympus cameras, three different USB cables. This is my only device with that kind of connector. Life was so much easier when the world seemed to have standardized on the mini-B!

We bought this camera to take on an Alaskan cruise. It didn't take long to learn all the features and start taking great pictures. It's a nice size for traveling. I bought a 1 Gb card so I didn't have to worry about running out of disk space. I only have 2 slighly negative comments. I wish you could permanently set the picture size from the default picture size (3072 x 2304) to a smaller size (I used 1600 x 1200). That still gave me great quality but quadrupled the number of pictures I could save on the card. Reseting the image size is easy, but something you have to do everytime you turn on the camera. The other minor complaint was that I wished I had a camera with a better zoom lens. I didn't realize how important that would be for taking nature photos, but that was just bad planning on my part rather than the camera's fault. Overall--a great little camera for a great price.

I've read it in several other reviews and I'm repeating it - the battery life on this camera is unbelievably poor. Take away 20 of the several hundred options on this camera most people won't use and improve the battery life. I couldn't be more disappointed with this camera to be honest. Slow click to shoot times coupled with the ridiculously low battery life makes the SP 320 a great buy for those who want to drop more on batteries in the first year than the cost of the camera. Rechargeables? Go for it. Add up all the time you spend unloading and reloading the batteries and it's a nice second job. Think about it - there's a reason why a 7.1 is selling for $150-$180. Run - don't walk - away from this disgrace to digital technology.

I have had this camera for three months with the same alkaline batteries I popped in when I got it. Granted, I've only taken about 40 pictures (30 flash) and my good battery results may be due to my occasional use. I feel this is a great point and shoot for the money. The pictures are great and downloading them via card reader or included USB cable is simple and fast. The only con for me is the manual settings are too tedious for me to deal with but every other camera I have had at this level was the same same.

I gave this product a rave after a couple weeks of use, but after struggling with the manuals for a couple more months, trying to figure ways of taking fairly ordinary outdoor and indoor shots at night or under challenging lighting conditions, I have to change my rating to mediocre at best. As I indicated in the initial review, the manual is just not helpful. The camera offers way too many options that are not clearly interconnected--at least in the manual instructions--so that the user wouldn't have to spend an hour determining how to "enable this while disabling that." A classic example: why is it necessary to reset the flash mode every time the user changes a Scenes option? Or why is it so difficult to get a fast shutter speed for nighttime action photos? The blur factor in general is disappointing for an entry level camera that seems to promise so much. Options are fine, but only if accompanied by helpful advice in the manuals.