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. 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. 

Stylish and compact, the Olympus D-395 is an affordable and fun way to enter the world of digital photography. Designed for ease of use without sacrificing photographic quality, the D-395 integrates a bright f2.8 lens and smart picture taking functions for incredible shots with point-and-shoot ease. It also offers a 3.2-megapixel resolution, built-in flash, and automatic exposure, focusing and ISO systems. While the quality of photos I printed are good, even at 8x10, my problem is elsewhere. Anytime the photo isn't in bright sunlight, the photo is garbage. With the flash on the background all but disappears in blackness. Without flash the image appears like a multiple exposure (fuzzy outlines). Action shots are also problematic because of the delay from pressing the button and time until the photo is actually taken. Outside of those problems the camera has held up well to my constant abuse and the short battery life is solved by turning off the auto-display of each picture after you take it & by using rechargeable batteries.

Olympus yet again raises the bar in the ultra-zoom digital camera arena with the 4-megapixel Camedia C-765. It's the smallest digital camera in the world featuring an optical 10x optical zoom (as of February 2004), measuring 4.11 x 2.36 x 2.7 inches (12-percent smaller than its predecessor, the C-750) and weighing only 9.9 ounces. It also features a Super Zoom function that extends to 14x close-ups, movie mode with audio, fast USB 2.0 connectivity, and a bevy of manual features. I've had this camera for about 3 months, and I love it. As far as an amateur/for fun review, then I have to give it 4 stars. I would give it 5 but I must say that in low light situations, it's sometimes hard to get the camera to focus. But, the overall ease of use and picture quality of this camera is great. The only other camera I even thought of getting was the Cannon S1, but didn't like the 3 megapixels and the fact that the camera would not focus correctly at max zoom....(verified this fact by playing with one at my local camera store...If cannon would only fix this little problem...then I will get the next generation of this superb camera). Great little introductory camera for those of us with little knowledge of picture taking. 

If you're new to the world of digital photography, the Olympus D-540 offers just the right blend of easy-to-use features and high-quality optics that delivers vivid pictures. The D-540 has a durable silver-toned polycarbonate body with a shutter style lens barrier. It also features a 3.2-megapixel resolution, 3x optical zoom, movie mode, 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. The Olympus D-540 is a good camera for the money. I hear that the digital zoom causes grainy photos, but have found this to not be so. It is a little slow to shoot, but this allows for some last minute aiming. The self timer is a little extraneous, as is the micro zoom function. The video is nice, but if you want a longer video, you'll have to purchase a larger memory card, which I have yet to do. You can save your settings which is nice, especially if you want a smaller size picture which takes up less memory, or if you use the digital zoom frequently.

With the Stylus 410, Olympus adds improvements and refinements to its popular all-weather Stylus 400. This 4-megapixel digital camera still features a 3x optical zoom and a splash-proof design that protects the camera even on rainy days. But it also adds an all-weather microphone for movies with audio and Olympus's new TruePic Turbo image processor, which speeds up the camera's start-up, shutter lag, recording and playback time. Its not as easy to use as the Olympus D-580 4MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom but its better in the sense that battery is rechargeable. I returned the Olympus D-580 because it was using up too many batteries. I had to switch batteries after 30 or so shots. But the picture quality at night doesn't measure to that of the D-580. I would have given this camera a 5 star if the picture quality was comparable to the cheaper D-580. But other than that I love everything about the camera. 

The Olympus Stylus 300 is perhaps the best go-anywhere point-and-shoot digital camera, thanks to its all-metal, weatherproof exterior. Easy on the eyes and comfortable in the hand, the Stylus 300 can also withstand water splashes, driving rain, and windy snowstorms. And though it's not waterproof, you can add the optional PT-016 underwater case for diving photos down to 130 feet underwater. The menus are very organized and the manual does a great job explaining all the features. Landscape pictures and portraits are incredible. The camera does a good job reducing red eye, and skin tone is captured very accurately. The zoom isn't great, but I was willing to sacrifice the zoom for the size. The 16 mb XD card that it comes with is very small. I would recommend getting atleast a 128 mb card. If you get a new XD card and you're planning on taking panorama's, make sure that you get an Olympus brand card (other brands don't support panorama shots). Battery life is great. I was able to take a little over 250 pictures with a fully charged battery (about 200 of them were in the lowest resolution and the other 50 were in the highest resolution). It can be difficult getting clear pictures if you don't have a steady hand. It is also difficult to determine if the pictures are clear from looking at the LCD screen. Sometimes they'll look clear on the screen, but when I download it onto the computer they'll be slightly blurry. The one negative thing about this camera is the slow shutter speed. Don't even try getting action shots. All you'll see is a blur.

Olympus yet again raises the bar in the ultra-zoom digital camera arena with the 4-megapixel Camedia C-770. It's the smallest digital camera in the world featuring an optical 10x optical zoom (as of February 2004), measuring 4.11 x 2.36 x 2.7 inches (12-percent smaller than its predecessor, the C-750) and weighing only 9.9 ounces. It also features an MPEG4 movie mode with sound for high-resolution video at 30 frames per second. Other features include an all-metal body, a Super Zoom function that extends to 14x close-ups, fast USB 2.0 connectivity, and a bevy of manual features. This is one of the greatest cameras you can buy for under $1000 excluding proffesional SLR cameras. When someone goes to a store like Best Buy and looks around for a digital camera I always see people unsure of their product choice as if they don't necessarily know what they are getting and end up with a camera that doesn't hold up to there expectations. However the olympus c-770 will hold up to your expectations and possibly even go beyond your expectations. You may look at the price and think "wow $600? I'm not willing to pay that much for a camera when I can just buy one for $400 or less!(Lets just say the Sony Cyber Shot)." Anyone who thinks that is wrong. If you compare the two cameras you will see a significant price difference and quality difference. The SCS(Sony Cyber Shot) which represents most inexpensive cameras may have alot of the megapixels youve been told about which is good but when you consider other factors contributing to the camera 5 or so mega pixels won't seem a good enough reason to buy it instead of the olympus. 

Point and shoot ease and full manual controls, the Olympus Camedia C-740 delivers sharp, crisp 3.2-megapixel images for print enlargements up to 11 x 14 inches. With its powerful 10x optical zoom digital camera (30x total zoom when combined with the 3x digital zoom), you'll capture image detail you didn't know existed. The Camedia C-740 also features a more compact body than its predecessor (the C-730), a new extra-low dispersion (ED) lens, movie mode, a built-in flash, and compatibility with XD memory cards. The camera is powered by two CR-V3 lithium battery packs (LB-01, included); rechargeable AA-size NiMH batteries are recommended (four are needed to power the C-740). It measures 4.2 x 3.0 x 3.1 inches and weighs 10.4 ounces. This package includes the Camedia C-740 digital camera, 16 MB XD memory card, batteries, USB and A/V cables, wrist strap, and CD-ROM with Camedia Master imaging software and USB drivers for Windows and Mac