Olympus D-360L 1.2MP Digital Camera

Title : Olympus D-360L 1.2MP Digital Camera
Author : Olympus
Release Date : 20000313
Binding : Electronics
Regular Price : $
Amazon.com Price : $269.99 ( %)
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Editorial Reviews :
The Olympus D-360L digital camera offers truly outstanding performance for its price range. It's very similar to its bestselling predecessor, the Olympus D-340R, and, like all the Olympus cameras in this line, the D-360L produces high-quality photos with amazingly accurate color. This camera also works well in low-light situations and offers a wide array of compression, display, and printing options, making it a good choice for both beginners and advanced users.
With an interface much like a standard point-and-shoot camera, the Olympus D-360L combines ease of use with digital technology, 2x digital zoom, and TTL autofocus with macro mode; these elements give you the flexibility to shoot a wide variety of subjects. The 1.3-megapixel CCD sensor ensures accurate color, while features such as automatic exposure, white balance, and four-mode flash enable you to capture shots in a range of lighting situations.

The Olympus D-360L includes a 1.8-inch color TFT LCD monitor for picture composition and playback, onscreen menus, and on-the-spot lock/erase buttons so you don't lose pictures you want or waste memory. It also includes a 12-second self-timer, video-out capability, and optional direct printing straight from the camera. The camera automatically shuts off when not in use to preserve battery life.

The Olympus D-360L is easy to set up; all you have to do is put in the batteries and memory card. The included 8 MB memory card holds up to 60 pictures in the lowest resolution mode (640 x 480), and memory is expandable up to 16 MB. Taking pictures is a snap; you can easily adjust the exposure, change the flash mode, change the picture compression mode, and use the self-timer. We ended up referring to the manual to display and erase pictures, but once we learned the process, it was simple to display images in either thumbnail or single-picture mode. The LCD screen is clear and bright, and we preferred using it instead of the optical viewfinder. The D-360L does well in low light, focusing in dark situations and then providing well-lighted images via the flash (which has a red-eye reduction option). As long as you have something stable to set the camera on, the D-360L takes great night cityscapes or indoor nonflash photos.

The Olympus D-360L's strength lies partly in its high resolution--at 1,280 x 960, it's one of the highest-resolution digital cameras available for under $400. If you want the very highest picture quality, the D-360L can even record images as uncompressed TIFF files, eliminating any loss in quality suffered during compression. You can fit only two uncompressed images on an 8 MB memory card, but for certain high-end or professional applications, the uncompressed TIFF capability is a strong advantage.

The only drawback to the D-360L is its relatively short battery life. Four AAs have enough power for only about 60 low-resolution pictures--not nearly enough for a day on the town or a friend's birthday party. It doesn't come with rechargeable batteries, but you should consider buying a few sets and a charger.

Along with the Olympus D-360L, you receive a removable 8 MB SmartMedia card, capable of holding 122 standard quality shots, a Windows connectivity kit, a video output cable, four AA alkaline batteries, a user's guide, and a strap. You also get a CD-ROM with Camedia utility software for editing, manipulation, and panorama stitching. This camera is compatible with both Windows and Macintosh platforms and comes with a limited one-year warranty.

Buyer Reviews :
Bought the camera a couple of months ago, as we wanted a camera that our 9 year old son could use to learn to take pictures, and we were wincing at the $7-10/roll cost of 35 mm film, including developing. Very good camera, with some limitations

Pros:

- Excellent images within the 1.3 Megpixel limits

- Very good sensitivity in dark/ shadowed areas -- but contrast can swamp subtle shadings.

- Easy to use for most settings. I had it up and taking pictures within about 5 minutes, although figuring out all the bells& whistles took a while. Panoramic pictures are very nice, although you have to be careful in how you compose the set of pictures to get good splicing in the computer.

- Camedia software is pretty good, although there are better image processing software available.

- Downloading is easy although somewhat slow with the serial connection.

Cons

- Eats batteries. Buy some rechargable NiMH batteries and a charger on your way home from the store. I keep a set charged at all times and swap them out every time I take the camera out. Works great that way. Very very seldom run out of power when using the camera. LCD works very well, but will drain your batteries.

- Viewfinder does *NOT* show accurate depiction of what the image to be captured. Use the LCD for proper image composition (but doesn't work in direct sunlight), or be willing to crop the pictures on the computer

- At low light levels is very sensitive to movement and blurring of images (not unexpected).

- It's not 35 mm resolution; there are limits on enlarging pictures before running into pixel limitations. For point and shoot though, it's great.

- 2x digital zoom is a feature of very limited usage. Figure you're buying a camera without zoom, and you won't come in with adverse expectations. Almost never used.

Tips & Comments

- We're getting almost 35 mm photo quality outputs from a HP Inkjet printer (PSC 500) and HP premium photo paper. The pictures look good on white bond paper, but the difference with high quality photo paper is amazing.

- We've only filled the 8 MB card a couple of times and wished we could download the pictures to take more. A few minutes editing using the thumbnail display on the LCD can delete bad pictures and reduce the number of images on the card to take more pictures. We do download the camera every night and clean the images off the card.

- Our breakeven was an estimated 30 rolls of film -- if we used the camera more than 1000 images we would have found it worth it. We took 400+ pictures alone on a cruise to Alaska, and then listened to a friend complain about the $150 developing cost they had from their 35 mm film rolls.

- We had the policy of not taking 'scenery' shots with the 35 mm since we didn't want to waste money taking pictures without a person in the picture. With the digital camera we just take pictures. The change in attitude to taking pictures is striking. We find the marginal cost per picture is near zero -- unless you print them out. That cost is around $0.10-0.25 per 1/4 page picture.

Overall

- Very happy with this camera, once we've learned its foibles. Its not perfect, but very good. When we're going out on a family outing, we now just slip the camera in a pocket and take it along. We take 10x as many pictures due to the simplicity of digital imaging and the quality of this camera.

- We highly recommend it.

(by A Costumer)

Features/Technical Specs :
* 1.2 megapixel sensor captures enough detail for photo-quality 5 x 7 prints
* 2x digital zoom lens with autofocus
* Included 8 MB SmartMedia card holds 13 images at default resolution
* Connects with Macs and PCs via serial port
* Uses 4 AA batteries (included)

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