I bought this camera for my husband 2 years ago. Worked fine until recently would not download pictures. I ordered a new battery and it still didn't work.
A real dissapointment.
Would never recommend it.
Sorry

This is a great little camera! Fits easily into a pocket or purse - I've carried it from desert to glacier and it has performed wonderfully. Terrific quality shots - just enough zoom - and very hard to damage when it is closed up. I'm buying a second one because my wife and I are always both trying to grab for the one we have. (Over a bigger, fancier, digital Nikon no less.) If you can get a good deal on one - buy it quick while they are still available!

A very powerful, versatile, and impressive little camera. For taking shots in conditions of plentiful light, this camera was hard to beat, at least when it came out (it's since been discontinued). When it hit the market, it was unquestionably the most powerful digital camera of its size.

There are problems, however:

1. On the little movies, there is no "sound" available.
2. You have to turn the camera off and close the cover to review the picture you just took!
3. This camera cannot take pictures in low lighting conditions at all. Not without the flash, at any rate. Starting from about the late afternoon on, this camera is all but useless for natural-looking shots. They'll be far too blurry; this is a constant annoyance.

Olympus recently came out with the C-60 Zoom, which is the new version of this camera. With that one, they have fixed problems 1 and 2 but not 3: still a major problem, but this is not the only brand of digital camera with this problem.

Also note: if you're replacing a c-50 with the new c-60, you'll be able to use your batteries, your battery charger, and your memory disks with the new version. But the cable that connects the camera to your USB port is slightly different, so you won't be able to use that.

Also, the C-60 can take memory cards of up to 512 MB! This is pretty impressive (on the highest-quality setting, for example, this will allow you to take about 120 picutres; on the lowest-quality setting, over 6200!), although that's a pretty expensive little card. With the C-50, coming out of the box the most it would take was a 256 MB card, unless you bodily sent the camera in to Olympus for a "firmware upgrade," which was free if you provided proof that you had bought a 512 MB card. This is not necessary with the C-60.

I purchased the C50z from Fry's and it worked fine for a while. The 5 MP produces very vivid images. However after 9 months photos taken with this camera produced a white line that ran vertically in the middle of each picture. Olympus support agreed to fix it under the 1 year warranty. However as this camera belonged to my company I had it professionally packed and sent via DHL to Olympus's repair depot in California. A month later Olympus sent me a terse note stating that the camera had "UPPER CORNERS DENTED. WARRANTY INVALID DUE TO IMPACT DAMAGE". They demanded $150 to fix it "out of warranty". The fact that I oversaw the packaging myself and saw not a scratch makes me suspect that either DHL or Olympus employees damaged it in transit and both company disavowed any responsibility. Though I personally use an Olympus still camera for the last 10 years and have had good experiences with it, I must say that the current level of quality/control and warranty support leads me to believe that quality has dropped considerably on Olympus products in the last few years. Their support dept seems more interesting selling people newer models or billable repair than in providing actual post sales service.

I received this camera last year for Christmas (12/2004) and it is almost unusable now because the sliding door in the front doesn't switch the camera on. The door is on a thin, plastic rail that has bent and now it isn't positioned properly to hit the on switch. If I push the door in while I slide it open, it will turn on; however, in the middle of taking pictures it will shut off again. I treated the camera like gold, too, always keeping it in a protective case and it was never dropped or banged up. I find it very frustrating that an expensive camera like this could be designed so poorly.

while i was happy with the picture quality, except for the
abundance of red-eye in photos, i had a reocurring problem
with the track of the cover chipping and causing the sliding
lens cover to loosen and even come off. this was a huge problem because the buttons that control the camera turning on and off are triggered by the sliding door and this is affected by the door being loose or coming off. this was considered
"damage due to rough handling" or something like that, so i
paid 180.00 to have it repaired only for it to happen again,
withing a couple months of the repair.
i never dropped it. i kept it in a case, so i am convinced
that the materials on the track that the cover slides on are
made of weak materials. i decided to live with it for a while
and finally gave up and bought a different camera.
the e-mail i sent to olympus customer service was handled with
a form letter with no answer to my specific questions.

this camera worked fine for me until i had problems with closing the cover, which caused the camera to turn off and on automatically. a very simple design defect that new purchasers are unlikely to spot, but which has destroyed my enjoyment of the camera. it was only then that i discovered that olympus after-sales service leaves a lot (ie everything) to be desired. it was a fine camera while it lasted, but there are plenty out there with the same features and without the design defect... i'm defecting to the competition.

I've been using this camera a lot now that I have a baby.
It works fine even when he runs around, but ONLY if I use the flash.
Without the flash, the pictures get blurry.
The video only lasts 16 seconds without sound. It has NO audio! That sucks big time.
The memory card that comes with it is way way too small. Definely needs to buy a bigger memory card.

My sister got a much cheaper camera and it has audio without the limited recording length time. I'm considering buying another camera, and give this one to my 21 months son!!!

Also, the x-D card are more expensive than other memory card.

I do like this camera, but I would have to agree that the lens cover on this camera isn't very good. The first symptom I noticed was that when the cover was opened the camera would not turn on. Eventually, it got worse and I just took the cover off to see what was broken and decided it wasn't fixable. Now, I just use the camera without the lens cover. It still works just fine and I just flip a little switch to turn the camera on and off.

Everybody's right with their list of pros and cons...but here's the thing...if we all wanted all those extra features we would've bought a different model! Why is this camera good? Small size, great resolution, point & shoot, good battery life, resitant to cold (i dropped it in the snow and it's fine).
I practically take it everywhere and it's still alive. I've had it for almost 4 years, and even though there're other great cameras in the market..i know it still competes, cos its got great features in such a small package. But if you want something more professional, this is not a camera for you. I hope my review is helpful for you!!! =)

As reported by others, my lens cover is giving up its ghost. The camera does not turn on everytime on first attempt. Opening the cover and general cleaning did not help. The power-down mechanism is still very effective though - sometimes in the middle of composing a shot, it would power down at the slightest provocation.

It was a great camera 3+ years back with a solid feel and a compact size then. Now it is neither here nor there; the superzoom cameras have made a 3x optical lens obsolete (or, "entry" level only) and the really compact cameras have made this look like a tank.

Losing a camera in slightly over 3 years is not good; my Minolta SLR from 1990 is still functional a 100%.

I suppose it is time to buy again and I will buy another Olympus this time , probably the E-500 with dual lens kit. That would allow me to use the current remote - and I have been VERY satisfied with the optics.

My husband purchased this camera for me a few years ago. I didn't use the camera very much. As a matter of fact, it still has the original stickers on it. Many add-ons were purchased at the time, some of which I have never used and are still in their factory sealed packages. After the waranty was up I started experiencing problems with the retractable lens; it would not extend out when I opened the sliding door. I have tried to get the sensor part required to fix the problem, from Olypus, but they say the only thing I can buy is a new battery cover. I told them that I was recently advised that poor sensors is a common problem with their retractractable lenses and replacements should be made available. The representative said I could send the camera in to them and they would fix the problem for $125.00 What nerve! I will never buy another Olympus product and I will tell everyone I know about this issue.