The C5050 is a remarkable camera in so many ways that only the passage of time can take away from it. Just a year after the 5050 made its debut, the market saw a veritable flood of 6- and 7-megapixal cameras, most considerably smaller with new features and capabilities. For those who have external flash units, this camera offers a flash shoe; however, those who want to travel light, I'd recommend a smaller 6-megapixal with a non-glare LCD and AA batteries. Skip the proprietary batteries. They won't be around in a few years.

The Olympus D-40's a great camera if you can still find one. It's a 4-megapixal, but it's a beauty.

I have been using my Camedia C-5050 for 13 months. I was always VERY pleased with good picture quality. One of the big pluses this camera has is the lens. While on a trip in Brazil I was able to take pictures of wildlife at dawn when a friend of mine with a similar 5MP cmaera of another brand could not get his to focus because of lack of light.

Unfortunatelly, just after 1 year of use I had to send it in for repairs since all the pictures started turning out purple! All resetting and formatting of storage cards was to no avail. Sending a great camera for repairs when you've always treated it with great care, is discouraging, but I guess that can happen with any camera or brand.

Rodolfo

So as not to be too redundant, read 4 star review by Charles from 12/03, "Sees in the dark like a cat".

Having owned the C-2000, C-3000, & C-4040, obviously I'm a big fan of Olympus. But the C-5050 is more than a simple upgrade, its been significantly re-tooled. Key improvements are:

-Dual media slots: one takes either a SM or xd, and the other a CF. You can toggle between the two of them easily. This is the only Olympus model to offer this feature, and its nice that I don't have to toss my SM cards.

-Pivoting LCD screen (180). If you compose on the LCD screen as I do, this is a great feature for shooting overhead or down low.

-Macro & SuperMacro modes: takes crystal clear photos from 1.2".

-Additional Program Modes: Beyond P Mode, the are presets for Sports, Portrait, Landscape, and Portrait + Landscape (foreground in focus), and Night. But I tend to get less noise in low light photos w/o flash in P mode vs. Night mode

-Separate on/off toggle wheel that also functions as a "quick select" of certain options, including flash type, freeing you from the menus.

-Five "My Mode" settings where you can save your own custom settings

-Option to shoot in 3:2 SHQ mode to enable 4X6 prints w/o cropping.

The P mode is so good, I rarely use the full manual settings. Easy to modify P mode with buttons that can change exposure +/- in 1/3 stops.

I shoot almost exclusively without flash, and it's truly amazing how much brighter the image will appear than actual. Autofocusing can be slow if the subject is not well-defined, but that's to be expected. There's an option to turn on a red autofocus beam.

This is Olympus' only 5+ MP model to have the f1.8 lens, and is worth the trade-off of lower zoom than the C-5060 or C-8080, which have f2.8 lenses. Having traded down once to f2.8 with the C-3000, I think the f1.8 is of more value. At 5MP, its not a problem to severely crop on the PC & still have a top quality image.

Re: the comment about settings not being saved, there is a menu item "All reset". Default is "yes", simply change to "No", and settings will remain intact.

As for weaknesses, the Manual is next to worthless, and the Camedia software could be better, but I have Photoshop 5.5 and MS Image Pro, so not really a drawback for me. Also, when the batteries are changed or die, the date needs to be reset.

Even if you've had an Olympus C-series before, enough has changed that you'll need to sit down and go through all the menus initially. There are alot of good online references (Steve's Digicams is one). The Olympus website also has support and tutorials.

I hightly recommend this camera. I plan to keep this for many years to come, as 5MP is enough for me.

I have had this camera since Dec 2002 and love it. The only thing to watch out for is very, very slow focus in low light (and it does have a nice f1.8 lens). The same holds true if you try to focus on a featureless space.

For more than ten years of mountaineering, running rivers and exploring remote corners of the world, my OM-1 was my constant companion. Although not a professional, I was passionate about photography. In 1990 I was experimenting with low-light color photography. In a cement health clinic in a roadless corner of Nicaragua, my OM-1 suffered a fall and a fatal head injury.
I had bought and experimented with half a dozen cameras since, but none could begin to replace my photographic partner. After only a week with my C5050, I am still learning just how to get the precise image I envision - but already I am capturing wonderful light effects, the color is true, the display almost as good as the SLR. The brilliant optics, the feel of the shutter, the sophisticated but not unfriendly programs and manual override, and the ease of in-camera composition echo this camera's great film predecessors. My beloved OM-1 is reincarnated for the 21st century. I can hardly wait to get back into the wilds.

I purchased this camera when it first came out and later bought a 64 mb xD Picture Card for it when they were very expensive. Recently, I went and bought a one gigabyte card, only to find that it is not supported by the C-5050. Olympus was useless in supporting their product and simply stated it's non-compatible with no plans ever for it to be. They could upgrade the camera, but they decided its not worth it. There is no way for me to return the card - thanks Olympus! Oh well, it is a great camera like the other reviews generally reflect. Other than the compatibility issue, I do have problems with the media cover reporting that its open when it is not. This is easily fixed; if you break the plastic pin that pushes in to feel the door is closed, so it would not bother me enough to effect my purchase decision.

I have an 18-month old Olympus C-5050 which malfunctioned due to defective CCD sensor. CCDs are not supposed to break down in so short a time, it is the heart of a digital camera. Soon I found out that I am not alone!

(...) Now it's obvious that Olympus C-5050 have CCD problem, which is probably inherent. Four is a pretty big number considering that we all happened to be Photo.net members, ratio that to how many of the members owned a Olympus C-5050. Extrapolate the ratio to the total number of this model produced...talk about statistics! There are probably a lot more of these lemon cameras out there, (...) and nowhere to vent their disappointment except to their spouses.

In this case, Olympus Camera Corp. should be responsible to repair these defective cameras without charge irregardless if the defective C-5050 camera is within warranty period or not-simple reason being that CCDs are not supposed to break down in 18 months. As owner of one of these lemons, I demand so.

AND THEY SHOULD APOLOGIZE TOO!

I LOVE this camera - I have had 2 other C-series camera : the 2100UZ and the 750, both of which were terrific cameras and, I might add, both of which brought their original price when sold.
When I bought the C-5050 I did a lot of research, looked at the 8080, 5060, etc, and chose this one. It is more compact, has a lovely feel to it with the metal body and heft. The camera allows a variety of memory but I quickly went to the Ultra CF as it writes quickly. I use the Xd only so I won't have to reload when taking pics at family gatherings. It just writes so much more slowly; forget using TIFF or RAW with the xD. It is fine if you take HQ photos, tho - I just never use that setting.

Once you take the time to learn camera functions, it offers many options. I love the f1.8 lens which was a large factor in buying the C5050. The camera is also a nice size, fits in my hand well and the weight makes it easier to hold steady when shooting. This is the camera I drop in my bag when I go visiting, and I have become the family photographer ...everyone thinks I am a terrific photographer but the camera simply makes it so easy to get superior shots - and of course, you have that great cropping ability too. When composing shots, you can zoom in and you can also zoom in on the pic just taken to be sure it is going to be what you want. A major improvement in my techniques just due to this function.
Shooting in low light is amazing - both natural and flash. This camera has an awesome flash - it takes beautiful indoor photos.
There are just so many positive features - other reviews cover them in detail. The camera is not for anyone who just wants to point and shoot, although it certainly is adequate. It does take a little time to learn the features but is not difficult. I would recommend Dennis Curtin's "A short Course in Olympus Camedia C-5050 Zoom Photography" for beginners who wish to learn quickly and easily. A few days spent exploring the features will make this camera a joy to use.
I might add that I also own the Canon D20 DSLR which is awesome...but I do use the C-5050 as much. Plan on keeping it forever - I have had no problems whatsoever with the camera...only in now knowing how to use it when I started. Buy it, love it!!

I've had my Olympus C-5050Z since spring 2004 and so far it's been great in most respects. This is the first digital camera I've owned, and I did a lot of research before deciding which one to buy. Key features that swayed me:
* f1.8 lens (at wide-angle setting) for good low-light performance
* moderate zoom (optional add-on zoom lens gives you a decent "portrait" zoom)
* 5 MP (plenty of resolution for prints up to 8 1/2 x 11 in.)
* price <$500 (I bought it new, but when it was technically "last year's model" because the C-5060 had already come out)
* ability to shoot in RAW as well as TIFF and JPEG formats
* uses AA batteries; no longer a prisoner of the proprietary lithium battery syndrome!
* remote control (nice for group shots, longer exposures)
* wide variety of customizable settings, as well as auto settings for emergencies or borrowing by less-geeky family & friends
* good macro capability
* flip-down LCD for easier shot previewing
* flash hot-shoe (which I don't use currently, but is nice to have if I want it)
* ability to accept multiple storage media formats (I use CompactFlash most of the time, and just recently got a Sandisk 1GB CF card which is working great so far)
* panoramic capability (but only with Olympus xD cards)

After using the non-digital Canon Rebel G for the previous few years, I'd finally gotten fed up with the slowness of the Rebel G's 35-80 mm zoom lens (f3.5 was the best it could do, so I had to use ISO 800 film unless I knew I was going to be in bright daylight for the duration of the roll). There were also maintenance problems (two expensive shutter repairs, and a camera back door that had to be secured with rubber bands after the catch broke). The last straw was returning from a trip with what could have been some great photos, paying $50+ to get them developed and printed, and finding that only 3 or 4 of them were any good at all. Bye-bye film!

In researching digitals, I looked at many many sources of information, spending literally weeks populating a complex spreadsheet with various criteria. The most helpful source overall was imaging-resource.com, where I found the same test shots taken with all the cameras I was considering, plus detailed but easily understandable descriptions of camera features. Steve's Digicams also had some good info, and of course the user reviews on Amazon were valuable as well. By taking such a deliberate approach, I also realized what features were really important to me. For example, good macro performance was high on my list, but movie capability was merely a nice-to-have.

I came very close to buying the Canon G3 but decided the Olympus C-5050Z had a slight edge by virtue of AA vs. proprietary batteries, and f1.8 lens vs. f2.0.

Now that I've been using the Olympus for a while, I can give you the benefit of my experience. I've found that the speed of the camera (both startup and shot-to-shot) is excellent, despite some others' comments to the contrary. I've taken a lot of pictures that are very high quality (in my humble opinion), including amazing stuff like macro shots of an insect that was only 1/4" long but looks like a monster from outer space in my photos! Most of my pictures are of outdoor nature subjects, and I've had very good results, with accurate color, very little--but some--chromatic aberration (purple fringing), wide dynamic range in my images, good results in a very wide variety of lighting situations, and even decent short movies (although I listed that as a "nice-to-have," it is kind of fun!). Many times I've taken pictures that had things in them I didn't notice until later, such as the incredible colors and textures inside an iris blossom, or the "cicada" that turned out to be a hummingbird! (And thanks to the C-5050Z's excellent image resolution, I was able to crop and blow up that hummingbird and get a fantastic stop-action photo of this marvel of nature in flight!)

I also like having several options that I was familiar with from using the Rebel G--aperture priority, shutter priority, full manual, as well as full automatic "program mode." On top of that, you have many many other controls if you're willing to delve into them: white balance, color saturation, flash mode (I keep it turned off most of the time), ability to creatively over- or under-expose, and of course the all-important DELETE key if you see you've just shot a dud!

It hasn't all been rosy with me and the C-5050Z, though. Several times I've been irritated to return to the computer and find that all my photos were apparently shot at midnight on 12/31/2001, because this camera loses the date & time setting every time you change batteries, and sometimes even when you don't! So I'm training myself to check the date & time before every outing. I've also had some frustrations with the focus. Quite often if the subject I want is in the foreground, the helpful auto-focus will give me a perfectly sharp background with a fuzzy subject!! Arggh! Maybe there more about the focus metering I need to learn, but I was under the impression that "spot" focusing should do the trick. The results are not always consistent. I've also had some trouble getting the "manual" macro focus to work at times (it gives you a magnified view of your subject as you move the electronic slider up and down to get the setting you want); when it works it's great, but in bright light it's hard to see the LCD display and the microscopic numbers indicating distance to the subject--especially if it's a hot day and you've got sweat dripping off your nose and insects buzzing in your ears! However, I should add that in normal shooting situations, the LCD is excellent, and you can adjust the display brightness & contrast for bright daylight, so that's been pretty good.

There are a LOT of external buttons on this camera, which is convenient once you learn what they do, but it takes some patience and a willingness to dive deep into the documentation. Some of them function differently depending on the context, or in combination with other buttons--common with new technology these days, but still a challenge for anybody older than 25. It's also sometimes difficult to find settings in the on-screen menus, but again you do learn with some practice. When you don't want to fool with all the options, just set it to one of the program settings and start shooting.

As some have noted, it's a pain to turn on the camera and get about 15 insistent beeps while the zoom lens bumps into the lens cap and retracts. I've trained myself to avoid this most of the time by a) removing the lens cap *before* powering up (duh!); and b) in case I forget to remove the lens cap, making sure the mode selector dial is in "review" position before powering up, since the lens doesn't extend when you power up in that mode.

Bottom line--would I buy this camera again? Not being a rich person, yes. (Or, for the less geeky who are willing to sacrifice bells & whistles for ease of use, I'd recommend the Sony DSC-W5.) It would be much better to have through-the-lens focusing, and I'd love to have a good long-range zoom lens for wildlife photography. But for most situations, the Olympus C-5050Z is a great camera. And I saved enough buying it to justify buying the excellent Epson R800 printer, which can produce archival-quality prints that are instinguishable from "real" photos. And now I have a Mac with Photoshop CS software, so with this suite of equipment, I can produce some truly stunning images. (I also got very good results from the same printer with my old PC with PaintShop Pro and the Olympus Camedia software).

I look at this as a camera to tide me over for a few years until good digital SLRs become plentiful and less expensive. Then I'll be in the market for an upgrade, but until then I expect to have many more pleasurable outings taking pictures with my C-5050Z.

take great pictures!!! But keeps on breaking. My sister and brother and me have the same one and all broke in a year. (3 camera ) all lemon? what are the odds? cost $175 to fix it. My sony cybershot digital camera produces poor quality pictures. I also own canon 20D and it's kinda heavy for disneyland, but has superb pictures, my dad has the Canon Sd canon 550 and it works good. I might get the same one...

I have owned my 5050 for coming up on 3 years now. It's a great camera, although many were effected by the bad Sony CCD issue.

Mine went dead just after 2 years of use. Olympus covered the repair under an extention of the basic warranty for this problem only(announced just about the time miine broke, and they rebated earlier people who had paid for the repair). Took about 2 weeks to turn it around, and they did a nice job.

There are some other longevity issues, many relating to the capacitor that preserves the settings when the batteries are out of the camera. Olympus is not covering that problem.

I do love the camera. Takes great pictures, especially with the Olympus FL-36 flash attached. It has a fast, bright lens and works wonderfully after you lower the default sharpness setting and move the ISO mode to 64 or 100.

Fears of longevity issues keep me from rating it a 5. Love of the pictures keeps the numbers high.

I'd like to give this 4 3/4 stars, with the 1/4 being that I can't get the date and time stamp to show on pictures.

I've had the camera for about 3 years. I love it. Good quality prints every time. Easy point and click so my kids from 6+ can use it. It has a ton of features that I don't think I'll ever use.

The only thing is...I could never get the date to print on the pictures, which was one of the reasons why I bought this camera, because the spec metioned "Date and Time stamp".

I did not want to edit the photographs which would be a pain. I take a lot of family pictures and with my old 35mm camera the date & time appeared on the photographs. It was great to look back at old photos (baby pictures) and see what year they were taken.

I looked at manual, very vague. I researched forums and still nothing. Not even sure if you can do this w/ C5050.

I also took a lot of closeup jewelry and flowers and the macro mode works wonderfully for this purpose. I also have one wide angle and one zoom add-on lens which work well also for nature shots.

The LCD screen flickered and the camera produced green/purple pictures at one point and stopped working. I went to Olympus site and read that there was a call-back for certain models, so I sent mine in and they repaired it for free. Even paid for packaging and shipping.

My husband bought me this camera for Christmas in Dec 2003 at $979 Canadian for the basic camera before cards and warranty.

I love the photos when the camera is not in for warranty (luckily he purchased extended warranty for $79) work:

1/ Sept 2005 - the camera just stops working - noted that the camera is in clean condition; repair printed circuit board; repair electrical system; replace command unit.

2/Jan 2006 - camera stops working - it is noted as clean; repair printed circuit board; repair electrical system; replace mode dial.

3/ Jun 2006 - camera stops working - is noted as clean; repair printed circuit board; repair electrical system; replace mode dial.

The sad part about this last warranty is that I was on a trip to Australia for 1 month and it died on day 3!! I had to purchase a $300 digital there to get me through the trip.

I can't wait to sell/trade/give away this camera as it has been nothing but a heartache!
deborah in canada

My Olympus C-5050 is less than two years old. Two years of very light usage, and it's already broken. I sent it to the Olympus Service Center. They replied with an estimate for $197.96 but no mention of what was wrong with the camera. (The $197.96, incidentally, only buys me six more months of warrranty.) A call to their "service representative" yielded no further information. I was told that their was no one I could speak to who could tell me what was wrong with the camera. They did know, however, that it wasn't the bad CCD issue (a covered repair) because my serial number wasn't in the batch of cameras that had that problem.

I was given the option of paying $197.96 for a camera that would then be guaranteed to work only six more months or trading in for a cheaper camera for $240. The cheaper camera is an Olympus SP310 which Amazon sells for $243. Some trade-in, huh?

Not surprisingly the C-5050 has been discontinued but don't be another Olympus victim. I would urge anyone thinking of purchasing an Olympus product to read some of the other Olympus Horror Stories here and other places before sending these people any of your money.

Consider yourself warned.

This camera takes excellent photos and in particular I like its ability to take photos in low light conditions. However, I can not recommend it based on my experience. After less than two years the capacitor that maintains the date, time, and user-mode settings failed. Now everytime I change the batteries, no matter how quickly I change them, the camera loses these settings. It's very annoying and in my opinion a serious product defect. Based on my Internet research I am not alone in having this problem and Olympus apparently has no interest in offering a reasonably priced repair. Very disappointing.

Purchased C5050-Zoom in August 2003, refurbished. Worked great for about 2 years. Then when switching batteries, date/time is lost every time. I searched internet, no info on getting a 'base' battery replaced or details on type of battery. Sent e-mail to check on service, and told to send it in an it would cost a lot of money ($170 comes to mind).

My children know how to operate and take photos/movies. Ages 20 - 6. Has advanced features for more experienced users.

Around Aug. 2006, I noticed that after putting in fully charged batteries, after taking a few pictures (with or w/o flash) that the 'low battery' warning was blinking. If I power on/off, it goes away for a few pictures. I tried this just yesterday (31 Oct 2006) on 'low batteries', ended up taking 118 pictures with it. Most were without flash, and did not use LCD viewfinder.

Used a C-2100 Ultra Zoom for over a year in 2000-2001 which I why I picked Olympus. 2 other family members purchased Olympus on my recommendation. I hope those models turn out better than the C5050 and Olympus support is better and more reasonable.

For the expense of servicing, I'm just riding out this camera until it stops working. Will then put money towards a newer/better/cheaper model. Other family members have Kodak Easy-Share models, have not heard problems with them. Great photos, easier to charge on base and copy files to computer.

This is the third time the lens mechanism has broken. The first one was with a similar C-3030 and it was repaired under warranty. The second time it broke it was not under warranty and too expensive to repair. I thought the lens looked sturdier on the C-5050, but it failed.

The mechanism that moves the lens in and out failed. It had taken two pictures and then the next picture the lens just got stuck.

I've pulled the camera apart - but can't get the lens out - maybe I'll try again.

Its too bad because the lens was good for the camera's compact size, for its age it was fun to use all the controls and it was very good in low light.

My other camera I had to sell on eBay for parts - I fear this will go the same way.

I purchased this camera about four years ago and it's still going strong. Although it was my first digital camera, I had few problems with all the controls - most of them seemed rather intuitive. I used the camera for professional photography and had flawless results every time. Between the camera's capabilities and my ability to edit, pictures came out literally poster perfect nearly every time. The only "complaint" I have is that there is no way to turn off the LCD when using the viewfinder, which makes the camera an annoyance to others when using it in a dark theatre situation. I had to come up with a little black velvet-like "baggie" to put over the LCD when I was using it in dark places (such as when I went to a museum show). The camera is a complete joy and is so portable that I can even pack along my tripod and some extra lenses without feeling like I'm loaded down with camera equipment.