Customer Reviews

Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 170 QD Date 35mm Camera

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Bought this camera to replace one I had actually worn out! I run a lot of film through a camera in a year. This point and shoot camera gave me sharp pictures with good color on 400ASA film, indoors with flash. The flash was effective to 17 feet away. I put 200 ASA film in and shot pictures both indoors and out. Results were more than satisfactory. I plan to take this camera to Italy with me instead of my SLR. The zoom is smooth, and the image in the viewfinder is very close to actual picture. I love it! Worth every penny!

I have owned quite a few cameras in my life, and feel this is one of the best I have come across. The zoom is excellent, and so far, only two rolls of film used, I have had zero failures. The buttons are a little bit small, and I just need to get used to that, the zoom is easy to use. The feel of the camera is good, despite its small size, it fits well in the hand. The point and shoot era is here, and all the years of my using a Nikon 35mm slr seem to be over. This is just too simple and easy. To go back to the changing lenses, carrying all the baggage, etc hardly seems worth the effort if the end result is as good or better.

I've owned several point and shoot cameras, including models by Vivitar, Fuji, Olympus, and Rollei, and have gotten excellent photos from all of them. The Rollei is one of the very high-end cameras in the point and shoot category, and the price reflects that fact. However, it has an extremely sharp lens and has a 1/8000th of a second maximum shutter speed, which is amazing for a point and shoot camera. It's probably fast enough to freeze an airplane propellar, not just a golf swing.

...I did want to mention a couple of things that you should be aware of when you buy a camera with this extreme a zoom lens.

Several makers have recently come out with point and shoot cameras with 5X zoom lenses. I recently saw one from Pentax being sold at a major chain. The first problem with these cameras is that it is very difficult to make a lens that is very sharp and at all focal lengths. With this extreme a telephoto lens it is much more difficult to do this, and you have to sacrifice some sharpness as a result.

It's true that there have been some important advances in camera lens optics that are going into these cameras, such as the use of aspherical, plastic lenses. The new Nikon 125i and the Minolta 125mm Freedom Zoom incorporate these lenses, for example, and they are excellent cameras. If you decide not to buy this one, I would highly recommend either of these, and the Minolta is available also...

However, these cameras don't exceed 3X. My own preference is to stick with point and shoots that don't exceed 2.5X or 3X. This way you will probably get a camera that is pretty sharp at all focal lengths. I don't know if this particular camera has aspherical, plastic components, but if it did, it would be another factor in its favor.

The second issue you should be aware of is that you won't get a very fast F-ratio at the low end with this extreme a telephoto capability. Often the F-ratios at the low end are only 3.4 or 4.2 or so, so they're not very fast. If you do buy one of these cameras you should probably use ASA400 film most of the time, unless you're pretty sure you won't need anything that fast.

The last thing I wanted to mention is that telephoto lenses this long are prone to more mechanical wear. For lightness, these cameras use plastic gears that do wear more quickly over time. I've seen long telephoto lenses on point and shoots that start to droop slightly with age, so that the telescoping sections don't precisely line up anymore. If you stick to a 3X or less lens, you are unlikely to have these problems.

If you're seriously considering this camera, you should test it out and try running a few rolls of film through it and see how it performs. The photo shop where I bought my Fuji Tiara had a 30-day return policy. Try taking photos at different magnifications and compare them. You will probably notice that the photos in the middle of the lens's telephoto range are the sharpest, but the others might be perfectly acceptable. Try it out and see. It may be just fine for you, and in that case, you will get a camera with an amazing telephoto range that can replace a whole bagful of equipment for a typical system camera with interchangeable lenses, and which will weigh only a fraction of that and take up only a fraction of the space, not to mention the cost savings.

Love it! I had my first Olympus Stylus for YEARS. After dropping my first camera way too many times (over many many years), I finally had to replace it. I was sticking with the Olympus Stylus. Like the first one, this camera also takes great pictures - especially close up people-pictures. I always use 200 film and get great results every time. Call me lucky. I don't need all this zoom power though and find I don't use it. Probably a little too much zoom for a hand-held camera, but the photos I take with this camera are very nice.

I bought this camera mainly because I thought the 170mm zoom lens would prevent me from turning out as a dot lost in the crowd in my college graduation photos. Well, I'm not a dot, but I'm one huge blur. To fully take advantage of this long zoom lens, you must have extremely steady hands or a tripod. It's not a problem when the lens isn't zoomed out all the way, but then I might as well own a cheaper camera with a shorter zoom. I will probably try to sell this camera and downgrade to an Olympus with a 140mm or 110 mm zoom lens.

I'm contemplating this camera to replace another similar model I left behind on the airplane. If it is like the other units, the only knocks are the battery compartment door will need duct tape to stay closed eventually and the finder is somewhat small. This makes it a little hard to get a quick eye-to-finder alignment for fast "did you see that fish jump" type shots.

This will be the third unit, previous units only failed due to extroardianary circumstances that I would in no way hold Olympus responsible for. I take these cameras out hunting & fishing, since it's "splashproof." Small enough to fit in a pocket, light enough that it does not to feel like you are carrying around a brick all day at a theme park and always takes great pix!

Simple point and shoot. Awsome zoom. Pictures are consistenly sharp and clear. I'd recommend it, specially for travel when a digital camera just doesn't have enough memory to hold so many pics.

This is simply a great camera. I have used it for over 2 years. I bought it at buy.com when it was newly released. We bought it primarily for the zoom. The zoom is simply excellent. This is one of the best point and shoot i have used. I have used Canon and Minolta before. The controls are all conveniontly placed and the zoom works great. I have never missed a picture.

I've owned my camera for just over one year...the pictures were great...for about 9 months then the camera started to rewind in the middle of a roll of film...sometimes. I sent it back to Olympus during the warranty period and they returned it but it continued to rewind...I'm giving up and presently using disposables...

Really, I wish I could give this 3.75 stars. At three stars, I feel like I'm low-balling it.

I didn't pay full price for this camera. If I had, I may not have been as happy with it. It has its flaws, that's true. When the zoom lens is extended out all the way, I have never been able to capture a non-blurry photo. I kind of expected that might be the case when I bought it and other reviewers have cautioned on this issue, so I don't really feel particularly let down by it. I always take hyper-zoomed pictures with the understanding that it might just not work out. Unfortunately, I've yet to be proven wrong.

The thing that actually bothers me is the flash. It has several flash settings for different times of day. There's even an option for no flash. Sometimes though, when that option is clearly not going to be useful, it would be nice if the flash wasn't so spot-like. It doesn't diffuse over the entire frame very well, I guess you could say. I have several pictures where I can clearly tell where the flash went off as it's brighter in that part of the picture; sometimes just a tad, sometimes considerably so. Its biggest downfall is at mid-dusk when the light is too dim for no flash but is just dark enough to expose its spot-like flash problem.

I offer all of that with the caveat that when it's not mid-dusk and not at the absolute end of the zoom length, it takes great pictures. Really, it does. It works peachy all day and nearly all night, save for mid-dusk. When you don't use the flash- perhaps for ambient, moody pictures- it gathers light very well and you'll get what you want.