nice camera that you can get here http://www.cameras4free.com/default.aspx?r=345693 thanks for read

This camera is a fast little camera with lots of nice features. It is a battery-hog however, so be sure to buy an extra battery or two for it. It takes around 2 hours to charge the lithium-ion battery pack to full capacity.

The camera takes sharp pictures, but has a small amount of vigneting and slight barrel distortion at all focal lengths. These irregularities will not be noticed in most instances however. The onlt times they really become noticeable is when shooting bright plain subject like a light-colored wall or the sky, where the vignetting is seen, or when shooting architecture where the barrel distortion can be seen by a discerning eye.

The contrast-based auto-focus is quick and precise in bright light, but tends to stumble and hunt in low light or low contrast situations.

On the up-side, the camera offers true-colors and accurate white balance. The ability to put the camera in complete manual exposure mode is big plus for those who want to break-away from the novice auto-program scene modes. This little camera also offers a manual focus option, but with no real distance scale to go by, it is very limited for practical uses.

The size of the camera is small and will fit in most any shirt-pocket without a problem. Easy to stow away and a great alternative to luggging a heavy and bulky SLR around when doing so would be inconvenient.

The optical viewfinder is very small and dim, with no information displayed except for the focusing-brackets. The LCD screen makes up for it though, with a bright, sharp, easy to read display.

The menu system is fairly simple and easy to navigate, making it a snap to change settings quickly. The advanced manual covers all the settings and how to change them, but is only on a disc in adobe .pdf format. A paper manual would have been much more convenient.

Compared to the few other 7MP p&s cameras available, the Olympus Camedia C-7000z is a feature-packed little camera for a decent price.

Having purchased an Olympus D-580 a few months back, and not having been thrilled with its auto-focusing ability for indoor photos, I decided to splurge and purchase the C-7000 after considering the Canon G6 and Sony DSCV3. The C-7000 has an AF Illuminator that the D-580 doesnt have; I figured this would solve the auto-focus issues I had experienced with my D-580 while taking indoor photos. Wrong. Under indoor, lamp-lit conditions, the C-7000 often takes several seconds to focus and then, when the green "focus indicator" light finally comes on, a quick glance at the monitor reveals that the camera is obviously NOT focused. (And, your subjects will probably be wondering how much longer they're going to have that red AF Illuminator shining in their eyes.) Having said all that, I will admit that after using and practicing with the C-7000 for awhile, you sort of "get the hang of" (for lack of a better term) the auto-focus and can achieve acceptable results. I also found it helpful to adjust the camera to "always auto-focus," which is an added drain on the battery, but seems to improve focusing performance. But, all things considered, I'd prefer to just be able to point the camera at my subject and shoot rather than wrestle with an inferior auto-focus. For a $500-$600 camera, I think Olympus can do better.

On the good side, this 7.1 megapixel camera does take very good, very high resolution photos (see my samples) and is solidly constructed (aluminum and plastic). All sorts of settings, ranging from full auto to full manual, including aperture priority, shutter priority etc... I basically leave it on auto, but I did go in and increase the color saturation and the contrast a bit. This compact, easy to carry camera also has a nice selection of features as well (I couldn't get the red-eye reduction feature to work, but oh well: I can fix those better on the computer, anyway.) The C-7000 also allows you to take black-and-white or sepia photos, but you have to switch into either mode BEFORE you take the pictures, whereas the D-580 allows you to make B&W or sepia versions of photos you've already taken. Battery life is decent; it takes just under 2 hours to give the battery a full charge, so buy a spare. The C-7000 uses a proprietary battery so you can't just swing into a convenience store and buy some Duracells to throw into it...

The big question: If I had it to do over again, would I still go with the C-7000? No. I'd choose between the Canon G6 or Sony DSCV3. But, I'll stick with the C-7000 for now. Over time and settings adjustments, I suspect I'll learn to like this camera.

2/19/05 - Update
After using this camera for a month and a half, reading other user's reviews and forum postings, I realize that the C-7000 does have critical auto-focusing issues. I called Olympus tech support and spoke with a gentleman who suggested putting the camera in "night" mode when taking pictures around the house. He then suggested I use "sports" mode when taking pictures of the kids, because "they're always running around." Why the camera won't focus when my kid is sitting perfectly still in a chair smiling patiently at me while the auto-focus grinds away remained unexplained. At any rate, I decided to email Olympus through their website - hoping the question would reach someone who understands the difference between auto-focus and exposure settings - and ask about the C-7000's auto-focus issue. To date, I've received no response. My advice? Steer clear.

I have owned an Olympus C70 now for a couple of months, I have taken over 1500 photos with it. I "upgraded" from a Sony Cybershot DSC P73 (4megapixel). I have a large collection of Olympus OM SLR film cameras/lenses, and was interested in getting back into the Olympus family.

When it actually manages to focus the Olympus C70 produces absolutely fantastic images, but in normal family photographing it rarely manages to focus, or it underexposes severely when using the flash, or it spends ages trying to focus. What is the point of a camera that cannot focus on a human face in anything but direct sunlight? Why is there an AF illuminator that makes absolutely NO difference to the ability of this camera to focus? The Sony cybershot beat this olympus camera, it focused nearly instantly every time. I never lost a photo due to bad focus or the flash exposures being badly underexposed. With the C70 I spend so much time trying to work with the focus limitations that I have begun to hate using it. It's just not possible to use this camera to take quick family photos, by the time you mess around getting it to focus that magic moment is gone forever!

At first I though it was a bad camera, I exchanged it for another, if anything this new one is even worse. Perhaps it is my technique that is at fault, Olympus say that it uses contrast to judge focus, that's great, but it appears that a human face does not have enough "contrast" to get this camera to focus in anything but direct sunlight. Often it will focus on some high contrast object in the background, or if I have it in spot focus mode it will refuse to focus on my childs face. Olympus customer support said that one workaround is to compose your picture by focusing on a similarly distant object, lock the focus and then reframe the picture on to your subject. Sounds great in theory but in reality for shooting shots of people that move this is really a pain in the neck. And in my experience I have often been faced with trying to find a suitable high contrast object to focus on. There is a manual focus mode, that works very well, and I often have to resort to this, but it's interesting that the much cheaper Sony that I had before did not need this option and focussed perfectly every time in every situation.

There is an option to allow full time autofocus, this supposedly allows the camera to keep focus even when the button is not pressed. This option is very much an annoying waste of time. You can point the camera at something, this continuous autofocus will then get it into focus all by itself, great!! Then you press the button to take the shot and the camera has another go at autofocussng and you end up in the same position as above. And it seems strange to me that the continuous focus, often gets focus where the actual Auto focus it tries to do when taking a photo cannot? This option must have been added for marketting purposes.

The image quality when it manages to get focus is nothing short of stunning, I love opening an image in Photo shop and just zooming in, the details seem to go for every and are pin sharp. The noise levels of this camera are excellant, you can take a photo of a blue sky and not see any visible noise! You can take a photo of a face and zoom in until you can see every single little hair! It's really an amazing image quality. If it would focus then this camera would be perfect.

Oh and a word or warning, be "very" careful with that expensive bit of plastic and aluminium, I phoned the local olympus repair centera and was told that if you so much as scratch the camera, olympus can and sometimes does void your warranty. At least this is what I was told on the phone, not sure how legal that is in Australia.

In summary, If you want to take still life photos and can live with an autofocus that is useless for low contrast objects, this camera's image quality is unbelievable. For family snaphots, it's the pits.

As an owner of 2 canon cameras I was not expecting to buy an Olympus. I decided I wanted a digital camera(my first) for Christmas/Birthday (my husband loves it when he knows exactly what to get) and after MUCH research and thought I concluded I wanted the C-7000.
I received it from Amazon.com 7 days ago and have had not one moment of regret. Within minutes of opening I had the xd picture card and battery loaded and had taken a couple of pictures. Then I charged it for two hours as instructed.
What I noticed immediately is how easy it is to use. It is easy to hold, feels very sturdy and has a rubber grip on the front right side. The compact digitals always felt too small to hold comfortably. Trashing unworthy images is painless and navigating the menus is straightforward. I have not read the ins and outs in the manual (product of having a 16 month old) but I have the basics down.
I must admit to being behind the times, my computer has win 98 and the software "bundle" is not compatible. This has not created a problem as I do have a mult-function printer (hp 2400) which has a xd slot. Pop it in, it downloads quickly and without any input. From one screen you can then edit, email, print and save. I can't imagine it being easier with another program.
I had considered buying a backup battery immediately but have decided to wait and see if needed. I have used this camera quite alot in 7 days and the battery shows full powere after only that initial 2 hr charge.
BUY A OLYMPUS 512 MB XD PICTURECARD
i got mine a couple of days before the camera arrived and boy am I glad. Yesterday I went to a party, a house full of one year olds and their mothers. I then discovered it is hard to take a bad picture with this camera. I came home with 78 pictures and those did not include obvious trash (ie blurry or child half out of picture) It loads quickly, focuses quickly, flash cycles instantaneously which are all important as one year olds do not hold still for anyone especially mama. I forgot to use the flash (one button pop-up) and it compensated very well for low light. better than my 35mm would have when subject is backlit.

I am looking forward to using and exploring the more complex options of this high powered toy. I still have about 240 pictures I can take on this card without deleting any.

Closing thoughts: I think this camera is competitive with the SLR models selling for a couple to several hundred more dollars and is more convenient. You don't immediately need a backup battery but I would get a 512 mb olympus xd card (only olympus cards allow you to use panoramic function)

I recently purchased and returned an Olympus C-7000 (thank you Amazon). As has been noted, when properly focused, the images are spectacular. Unfortunately, the focus was inconsistent, even in bright light and even with half-press of the shutter button and giving the camera time to focus. In dim light most of the images were blurry. Flash pictures, however, were always sharp and crisp. This lead me to put the camera on a tripod and try some pictures at low light levels. When mounted on a tripod and using the timer pictures were in focus, suggesting the problem with low light was more related to camera shake than focus. I tried putting the camera in the night shot mode and forcing ISO 400 (higher noise), but shake or focus was still a problem for hand held shots at low light levels.

The Olympus C-7000 is not the only camera for which users report focus problems; many >7 mp cameras seem to have some focus problems and many users report better focused pictures with older, lower mp cameras. In part, the higher resolution sensors (>~5 mp) seem to require more precise focus for the more detailed image they produce. Two recently introduced cameras acknowledge this and try to correct this problem, one by shifting to higher ISO numbers in dim light and the other by shifting the sensor to lower mp resolution in dim light. Until autofocus technology catches up to sensor technology it may be best to limit your choice of point and shoot cameras to 5 mp or less or buy a camera with manual focus, a DSLR.

I concur with the other reviewer in that when the camera manages to focus correctly, the pictures look great. But be prepared to through out 30% of your pictures due to focus/blurring problems. I to have tried numerous camera settings and have yet to find the magic formula.

The 7Mb image size is great and the 30 times zoom are very nice. Also, the camera powers up and is ready to snap pictures very quickly (much faster than any digital camera I have owned). I am going to stay with the camera, but I am a bit unhappy with the focus problems that I have to deal with, especially in lower light conditions.

Thsi is a correction to Mitchell Small's review and his comment about the Olympus Master software and TIF files where he states "You can save the image as a JPG or TIF, but there is quality loss involved."
While he is correct about images saved in JPEG format losing quality, TIFF is a lossless format. TIFF files are larger than JPEG of course but files converted from the RAW format to TIFF retain the full quality of the image. The TIFF compression scheme is lossless, meaning no information is lost and preserving the full quality of the original RAW image.
You can read up on the TIFF file type at [...]

This camera packs a lot of features into a small little camera. However, the focus issue is HUGE for me. I have little ones that I'm always photographing, and the auto focus issue doesn't cut it for us. Family photo taking? This camera isn't for you. Even using auto focus mode (battery draining indeed), and using a flash indoors, you will take several pictures before achieving a sharp picture. In the meantime, your subjects will be temporarily blinded by the "red light". (A big complaint from our family). Not too great for those impromptu moments of catching your children's smiles and "firsts" on camera.

After reading the other reviews, I think this one is not a keeper for us. On a positive note, it does allow the experienced photographer to venture out of the "box", more so than most digitals.

This camera has most of the features of my two well equipped Nikon FE's. It is a supplement and learning tool. Pluses: light; one unit not twenty; mostly complete; macro to tele; good price. Minuses: too small for my XXX hands (made a handle); No print manual; media & battery propritery. Has lived up to its promise and grows as I learn. Has usual CCD low contrast but I compensate easily. Would like to use filters but that's for the replacement camera.

The camera, while highly-rated, should be great, this NEW C7000 was defective right out of the box. The flash feature simply would never work. It took 2 weeks of trying everything, studying the book before we realized it was defective. It was easy to waste time with a NEW camera thinking we were doing something wrong. We were not. It did take pictures but never in low light conditions. Never a flash. After contacting Olympus tech and customer support, several times, their only protocol is to return the product to them for repair. And they would make it like new!

We offered, as a solution, to issue a credit card number to secure the defective NEW camera while another NEW C7000 was sent to us first, THEN I'd return the NEW defective camera. It seemed they might entertain this technique used by other merchants whose products are sold on-line, but ultimately refused.

As I type, it's been over 2 weeks, going into the third week awaiting for our repaired NEW camera to be sent back us.

You'd be far better off buying from a local merchant where you can return the defective new product in person for another new one.

On November 26, 2004, imaging-resource(dot)com (Dave's Picks) rated this camera as one of the top ten of digital cameras for enthusiasts! I purchased this camera and like it very much ***but keep in mind that it is definitely an enthusiasts camera.***

This is a sleek looking camera, small in size that really delivers! I have included some of my pictures. I am very happy with my Olympus C7000. It seems a shame this camera is getting so poo'd by reviewers who say all of their shots are blurred and so on. There is a reason this is happening...

For starters, I think this camera can be a bit of a challenge making it less of a point and shoot type camera. It is geared towards enthusiasts.

For various reasons, don't necessarily expect that you can take your camera out of the box and get those great shots -- especially if you have a refurb. Refurb is generally NOT a bad thing but I suspect the flash is more likely to be turned off and the settings all changed on a refurbished camera!

Respectfully, I wonder about the flash problems of some of the reviewers. I wonder because you can turn off the flash on this camera (possibly, w/o knowing it) and if you bought a refurb, it may already be turned off w/o your knowing it. Also, this camera's flash only pops up MANUALLY. Without that flash, you will have blurred indoor pictures. All this takes some getting used to, especially if your previous camera had an automatic flash. You have to remember to pop open that flash! AND IF THE FLASH STILL DOESN'T GO OFF, THERE IS YET ANOTHER CONTROL FOR THAT.

Blurred shots, however, are most likely due to the camera being set in slow mode. Please go the OlympusAmerica(dot)com website and find this camera model. From there you can open or download the PDF file (which also came with the CD in your camera box) and that will take you to all of the "problems" and all camera info. I did not need to call customer support because everything I needed answered was right there in the PDF file - which was extremely informative and helpful!

Overall this camera takes some patience to get to know. If you are mostly a point and shoot type of person, then perhaps you won't be satisfied with this model. However, it DOES take high resolution pictures and quality little videos! If you have one and cannot return it, try reviewing the PDF file for help and maybe you will find your answer. Remember that this is like a semi pro camera in a unique little package.

I like the zoom feature of this camera and have taken several nice shots of a full moon which required the use of a tripod to use that amount of zoom.

You can have "TALKING STILL PICTURES"! This model C-7000 has a neat feature where you can record an audio file along with a still picture.

I shared some of my digital pictures for this review and one was a picture of my morning glories. When I took that shot, it was early morning and along with that shot I was able to record the morning birds chirping! The audio recorded as I snapped the picture, all I needed to do was engage that feature. Well, I could only share the photo on this review but imagine being able to capture a funny line that your child blurts out or the coo of your baby just as you take that precious STILL PICTURE!! How about the sound of an animal in that cool zoo picture or the crowd cheering at a sporting event...the ideas are endless but great fun for digital scrapbooking, especialy when you didn't plan on a video-clip. You can still get audio and it can be really funny when one isn't suspecting you are recording (like I do with my kids) for that funny, sweet, memorable fun! And yes, I use common sense and good judgement if I use that feature without letting one know but have never encountered anyone saying anything they shouldn't when posing anyway - except for the wise cracker who blurts out something like, "who tooted" and then everybody just laughs harder anyhow!

This is a feature that I can appreciate as a fun bonus because I can use that in my digital scrapbooks beside the picture. It's a personal thing, not everyone may care about that feature and it might be a common feature in newer cameras (don't know) but was a new feature for me.

Another fine Olympus camera is the Olympus Camedia C4000Z which is an older model, but still available. I bought one when it first came on the market and have been quite pleased with that little gem but it uses Smart Media and does not record sound which really never was an issue for me...but I wanted to upgrade with more manual controls. (If you decide to check out the Olympus Camedia C4000Z, please see my shared pictures for that model.)

So, now that I have a digital camera that records sound with movie clips and can record a sound file with stills, I have to admit that I still don't use it very often but really do like having that feature! You can turn that off and on or will get a sound file with every still picture. Even if you don't speak there will be a white noise type of file which can be deleted but will take up space on your memory card if you didn't want to record that will only matter if you have a small memory card.

I purchased a reasonably priced 1 gig XD card from Adorama via Amazon and was super pleased with the entire transaction. As for the battery being rechargeable only, I had reservations about that at first but overall, my battery life is quite good. I really do like saving on the overall cost of lithium batteries and it takes my battery just under 2 hours to recharge. (of course, let your battery fully drain before recharging to keep it going strong) I plan to purchase another camera battery to charge and have ready just for the times when I know the original is winding down so I won't have to wait but this has not been an issue thus far and I've owned this model since the beginning of '05.

The overall savings on batteries is great, especially since I only buy lithium ion for my digital needs.

bought this camera to replace a DX series Kodak.
My thoughts:

- I was excited, at first, by the manual controls, but disappointed by the difficulty of using the pre-set modes when in a hurry (who wants manual all the time?). The option for pre-setting 4 "my mode" settings is great, though.

- The color results are not impressive, I frequently find myself changing saturation and reshooting.

- Battery life is not great and the battery is very expensive. You will need at least one extra at $35 a shot. Also inconventient for international travel.

- Finally, On two trips I have lost pictures when the camera has malfunctioned. Refuses to turn on and/or erases the XD card.

- Did I mention the good picture quality? When the camera works and the saturation is controlled, the pictures are great.

I have had the camera for 2 months now and it is on its way back to the store. Good thing membership warehouses have generous return policies.

I recently purchased the Olympus C-7000 after an exhaustive search and I am very happy with this camera. I have worked as a professional filmmaker for over 28 years and have shot extensively with my full manual 35mm Pentax MX but this is my first foray into the digital still camera world. This camera makes me glad I made the move.

Some other online reviews I read during my search made me apprehensive about the speed of the autofocus and the lag time in browsing through photos stored in-camera but, as I suspected, I think the other reviewers were being ultra-picky. What little effect I noticed, I found to be minor issues particularly when weighed against the many, many excellent qualities of the camera.

The camera is responsive, intuitive and just plain takes great pictures with outstanding resolution and tremendous detail. The basic point and shoot setup is easy to use and very accurate but the camera also has the flexibility to satisfy my pro desires to tinker with the settings for variations in the end result.

Some additional features I really like:
1. The macro (closeup)capabilities are excellent and easy to use.
2. The flash is always off unless you manually pop it up, then it can be adjusted from there. I dislike having a flash pop off whenever it feels like it and it's a pain to go through a menu to shut the flash off every time you power up.
3. The viewing screen is big, bright and clear but the manual viewfinder is very helpful in composing a shot under sunny conditions.
4. Most of the fequently used controls, including viewing and deleting photos, have dedicated buttons on the back of the camera which means you don't have to hunt through lots of menus to do the repetitive work.
5. The camera feels well balanced in my hands and the controls are thoughtfully laid out.

The only downsides I've noticed so far are:
1. A relatively short battery life which I solved by simply buying another battery for about $35. I also purchased a 1GB chip which gives me lots of room to work with.
2. I would like to have a little wider zoom on the short end (maybe a 28mm equiv. instead of the 38mm equiv. provided) and a little faster lens on both the short and telephoto ends but cameras that included these features seemed to cost quite a bit more money so I can live comfortably with this camera for the price.

I am not an expert (yet) in digital photography but I highly recommend the Olympus C-7000 as a solid, well-made, easy to use camera. It is exactly what I was looking for.

I bought this camera about a year and a half ago. This camera has gret manual features i can't be happier with them. This camera is not for someone who is only gonna take it out to bars or on camping trips just to shoot your friends and maybe some landscape. Every camera can do that well. This one is for people who like to play with manual settings and experiment in photography without paying $1000 for a huge camera with changable lenses, but also want the auto features for regular pictures.

PROS Digital zoom is amazing i took closup of the moon although it's grainy no other digital camera can do that that i've seen. I used this camera to take photos of my 3D senior portfolio and out of 10 students my I was the only one not having trouble shooting great pictures! haha everyone kept asking what kind of camera i have. Panarama is great. Video shooting is great with sound, quality is very good. I even have taken photos with sound which came out amazing when i took a picture of a peacock and the noise it was making recorded as well. The premade Scenes are limited to :Portrait, Sport, Landscape+Portrait, Landscape, and Night Scene. I've used Sport and Portrait and landscape the most. Night Scene is useless to me it just turns the flash on for night shots which i dont like. I've used a trip pod with this camera to take pictures of NYC at night and they came out beautiful. Portraits come out great.
Has features like SEPIA and Black and white shooting as well as rotating your pictures and editing them right on the camera (i dont do that)
ISO goes from 80 to 400 newer cameras go up to 800
Has the burst shooting by holding down the button it takes consecutive pictures until u take your finger off, great for sports so you don't miss a good frame.
Brightness of the flash is adjustable and can be changed to Red eye reduction as well as 1st curtain and 2nd curtain flash (does that make sense?) Has noise reduction feature (on and off) you can turn the AF on and off.
I discovered this recently it has MANUAL FOCUS which is great. sometimes the camera can't focus on what you are trying to shoot (if it's too close and its too dark) and you can manually focus it with your arrows! (takes a little longer though)
White balance features : Light bulb, Clouds, Sun, and 3 manual ones you can set. You can adjust sharpness, saturation and contrast (before you take the pic)
Macra and Super macra is AMAZING!!! i already posted some pics and i've taken lots and it hasn't failed. captures details you CANNOT see with your eyes!
Languages: English, french, spanish, portugese
can change the volume on the camera or set it off. has shortcut buttons you can pick, date, pixel mapping, AE/AF: spot metering and ESP. of course timer to take self photos
has P for auto shooting. M for manual. S for just manual shutter speed. A for just manual Apeture. My Scenes you can set 4 of your own manual settings and it will remember them, Scene, Video, and playback.
also has AEL dont know what that is yet lol.

Cons:
-This camera did not come with a case of any sort and they didn't even sell any separately. I had to buy a canon one!
-It's bigger than most digital cameras out there, so i dont take it out much with me, its a hassle to carry around on a daily basis. But it's smaller than the big manual cameras which is great.
-When shooting with limited light or indoors the autofocus focuses for upto 5 seconds just to pick up a focus. it's really annoying and takes too much time. Canon focuses REALLY fast even in low light and quality is better but i'd still pick this camera it's way more advanced.
-Pictures with no flash indoors come out grainy.
The Flash button pops UP when you turn it on which is kinda funny looking

I will be posting more pictures so look out for those :)

What can I say. I love this camera. Easy to use, takes wonderful pictures.
I have used it for close up's as well as far away shots--I am very happy with this camera. I have had other digital cameras and the pictures were not as clear know matter what setting you had the camera on.
It is small, light weight.

in my opinion after using this camer for 2 years on 4 continents in all conditions , nothing matches it , it is as good as my nikon ,cannon film 35mm -not as fast but one can adjust-