This camera really wowed me in the shop, great design, easy to use, large screen. The zoom is great and there is even a super macro mode for shooting small objects. But the pictures, regardless of setting, were really awful in my opinion. They are blurry and washed out. Other sites' reviews indicated similar issues. After about an hour of toying with it I decided to return it ASAP. I'd even eat a re-stocking fee I am so disappointed.

I was looking for a very compact digital camera, and I think I found it. I don't know how much smaller they can make a quality digital camera, but this little Olympus is probably about it.

The camera is easy to handle and has a large LCD on the back but no viewfinder, which would make it easier to use in bright sunlight. The controls are easy to use, and in automatic mode anyone can use this camera with success.

I compared indenticle shots with this camera and my Nikon D70 DSLR. While the D70 images were a bit snappier with better contrast, the Olympus images were remarkably close and surprised the heck out of me. More zoom would be nice, but 3x is adequate for most people in a point and shoot camera, unless you shoot a lot of nature images.

The camera works well in low light situations (without a flash), and the flash exposures appear to be very good. And, since it's hard to handhold a camera this small, the image stabilization works as advertised.

Since I've been taking SCUBA lesson I went ahead and got the underwater case (PT-083) and the case fits the Olympus like a glove, with access to all controls. The price on the case was also very reasonable for an underwater case that will go to around 100 feet, which is farther than I'll be going, and it's not one of those Baggie type cases; this is a well made plastic case with large O-rings.

I haven't had it long enough to check battery life, but so far it's lasting much longer than my Pentax Optio.

I believe if you are looking for a small, quality camera that will fit in just about any pocket this is it. Prices have gone down on all digital cameras, and for under $200 this one is hard to beat. Have also had good luck with Olympus cameras in the past, so expect no less from this one.

And, if you have a problem or question, Olympus support is excellent.

This camera is small so it can fit anywhere. It's very easy to use, has a large LCD screen and takes great pictures. Very affordable. Great buy,, I'm very pleased.

I bought this camera for my wife who wanted a "good small camera." She's not very tech savvy and was able to take the camera out of the box and begin taking photos. I would say mission accomplished. After several mixed drinks the stabilizing feature came in handy and we were in a VERY low light setting and got great pictures.

I returned this product the second day I purchased it. The design was ok - as in it's quite sleek and compact; the menu features was pretty easy to comprehend and master; the only thing with it is the pictures taken weren't sharp enough.

I've read all basic and advanced manual, and took numerous pictures, it didn't do well enough for low light pictures. It looked like some software had blurred the pictures. The color wasn't vibrant enough too. I've tried almost all the settings but it didn't really change the blurriness of the pictures.

I was happy with this purchase until I printed some of the pictures. The photos were a bit blurry. The pictures were taken in a variety of circumstances and all looked a bit off (fuzzy). Some of the pics were indoors with a flash some outdoors with the stabilization feature turned on.
I did like to size and navigation menus. The red eye feature worked well. The shutter lag was good too; pretty fast turn around time to take the next picture. I didn't like that the on/off button was so sensitive. It was very easy to accidentally hit it. Battery life was nice and long too. I have since returned this camera.

I bought this camera about three weeks ago and I hate it! It is sleek and small and very nice looking and the settings are easy enough to use but the pictures are terrible! I have tried every setting, everything I can to change the quality and nada, pictures still stink! Fuzzy, grainy, lines through every photo no matter what light or conditions. Not one good photo yet, I give up. I am very disappointed since I had an Olympus Stylus 3.0 MP that worked great for years and years with great picture quality which I have now given to someone else and regret greatly. I thought it was time for more MP's and a smaller camera, big mistake. I will have to eat this one because it's been too long to return, I just purchased a Canon A630 and hopefully this one will live up to expectations. I wish I had researched more. Do yourself a favor spend a few more dollars and go for anything but this. Olympus, I am very disappointed in you and I am done with anything Olympus. Shame really because before this I would have raved about Olympus. Stay away from this camera.

I ignored few posts and decided to buy this tiny outwardly designed beauty. It took me few shots to know its inherent weeknesses and I rushed back to return. 7.1MP ? just forget about it. What is the use of enlarge/crop a low quality/grainy image to meet magical 7.1MP ? My old 5 MP cameras are doing far far better than this one. I wonder why manufacturer missed the quality of photos this badly while other brands are doing far better.

I love every feature about this camera. It fits in my breast pocket, the battery lasts forever, switching between picture taking and review couldn't be easier, etc. etc.

But I am a little disappointed in the quality of the image, considering that it is a 7+ megapixel camera.

It seems to compare with my 3 MP camera, as far as image quality goes. Now that is OK for me, in that I take a lot of 4x6 type snapshots, and send the digtal images to my internet correspondants.

I should mention that I am using a 1 Gig Highspeed memory module, and store my shots uncompressed at the highest resolution. That should be the best image you are going to get. (That still gives me 198 pictures, between storage to the computer.)

But, if you want to take a portrait and stick it in a 8 1/2 x 11 frame, be prepared for a lot of graininess.

Perhaps it has a lot to do with the fact that I take a lot of indoor shots, in dark rooms, with the flash going, and tend to frame my shots, using some zoom. But, if 3X zoom is optical, and I stay below the red line on the zoom graphic, I should not expect much degradation. But it is there, nontheless.

I'm about to go on a cross-country trip to see Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, etc. Let's see how it performs in the full light of day, at wide angle, with no flash.

Missing manual mode really hurts, the other automatic scene functions are no comparision to manually adjusting aperture and shutter speed. The worst is the picture quality, grainy, poor exposure..., it is worse than my other 5MP Olympus at HQ mode and definitely uses more memory. Well, its only usage is as a quick point & shoot and easy to carry camera which my wife can fit it in a purse. I will not carry this to any vacation.

I love this camera. It's the perfect size to fit in your pocket. The picture quality is great. In the end I still use Photoshop to adjust all my photos anyways. Even my perfect photos. The battery life is excellent and it recovers pretty fast after a flash photo. The modes are all there. I read other reviews saying that the manual mode is missing. This is not true. It has been moved to the Scene Mode. You can control it all from there. I like taking candle light photos.

This is the second one I purchased. I had a problem with my original when I turned it on in dark places. The camera could not read the light and took all black photos. I think I just got a defective camera. That happens. I still think this is the perfect camera for the money.

This is a very sleek, good looking camera that takes very good pictures and you can get it for a super price. It is one of the thinest on the market. It can easily fit into your pocket. Before I purchased the camera, I read the reviews posted on Amazon.com. There were not as many as there are now, but some of them mentioned poor picture quality. I looked at other reviews of this camera on the Internet. These reviews were done by professionals, who did a thorough technical examination of the camera. None of these reviews mentioned any problem with picture quality. Some did say that there was some fuzziness near the outer edge of the lens, but nothing that you would normally notice on a picture. The criticism that they had was the camera has no manual controls. If you want a camera with manual controls, this is not it. However, it is a very easy to use point and shoot camera. You can put it on "Auto" and can continue taking one good picture after another. If you want some control over what you are shooting, you can use the "Scene" selection. This will adjust the camera settings for sports action, beaches, snow, available light, etc. This gives me enough control.

This is a great camera. Very sleak, thin, not heavy, shinny, and what I call, "ediot proof". Everything you could ever want in a camera. It meet all my expectations and more. Got a great deal on Amazon, and they shipped it free, can't beat that. The best part is the 13 funtions plus 3 additional effects if you buy the 1 gig memeory card. You simply choose the scene your shooting and out comes a great picture. I love this camera and it sure beat buying it at bestbuy.

We bought this last night to have as a simple point and shoot camera for my purse and to use when we are out and about. It doesnt even FOCUS! No matter what we do, this doesnt work. Taking it back TODAY! Do not waste your time or money on this camera.

The picture quality is ok. Price was good. Terrible about causing "red eye", if the flash is used for close-ups.

This is a great little camera. Great size and very easy to use - very intuative set-up so very little reading of the manual is necessary. Only complaints is picture software that comes with camera doesn't seem email friendly. It is easier to have files upload to your computer then you link them to an email than to use the software's email program (which didn't work for me). Also, when printing, if you wish to adjust the size to a non 'format' size, your only options are by pixel and not inches - so you don't know how to resize something to fit an odd size frame unless you know pixel to inches conversion. The video capabilities of the camera are great and picks up sound well. Love the ability to put images right from the camera onto the TV to see. Picture quality is very clear and when using the sport setting, you can capture very high speed objects. We went to an auto race and with the sport setting were able to get some GREAT CLOSE UP shots of the cars while in motion. For the price, this is a GREAT little camera. Suggestion: buy the silicon skin and a palm type protection clear screen cover to protect the camera screen. Works great!

Olympus used to make good-quality digital cameras, but their product lines in the last couple of years have been emphasizing the wrong set of features. The company tries to out-do the others by making tiny digital cameras -- the FE-230 is probably the smallest real digital camera I've seen -- you have to see it in person to believe it. It packs over 7 megapixels, a 3x optical zoom that also works in movie mode, and a number of useful shooting modes. It's also very easy to use.

Unfortunately, the picture quality, which Olympus should have invested money in improving, is very lacking. Still images all have this blurry or fuzzy look to it, even when shot on a tripod. There's something not quite right with the lens. I guess it's both because the camera's super-super-compact body demands a tiny lens, and optical physics tells us that a tiny lens often screws up the image quality (by bending and deflecting light too much), and because Olympus uses some cheap lens (the camera is made in Vietnam). Compare this to Fuji's and Sony's just-slightly-bigger models and you'll see the latter companies use much better lenses which are probably no bigger than the one on the FE-230.

The upshot is, the FE-230 takes incredibly dull and fuzzy pictures, as if the camera cannot focus properly. If you are in sales (e.g., a real estate agent) this is a good pocketable camera to carry for business. But if you want to take pictures for your own photo albums, skip this. Get super-slim cameras from Sony, Canon, Fujifilm, or Casio instead.

(Also, this camera uses the xD-card flash memory, which in my previous experience with lots of Fuji cameras is not very reliable and is definitely quite slow, esp. at capacity of 1GB or more.)

This is the worst camara I ever bought. Within a month, after my first vacation the zoom on the camara was broken and the camara did not work at all. WORST purchase ever!

This camera takes awful photos. I have yet to take a photo that wasn't fuzzy, grainy and dim. I do not recommend this camera. I'm returning it ASAP.

This camera takes awful photos. I have yet to take a photo that isn't fuzzy, grainy and dim. I do not recommend this camera. I'm returning it ASAP.

I Bought this camra to replace a former one that never gave me clear pictures 10 MP (fuzzy) and even in it's good days was hard to operate. I was turned off to digital cameras untill a friend bought the Olympus and let me try it, I had to have one after that.

I was looking for a small camera that allow me to take quality pictures but I did not want to spend a lot of money. THIS CAMERA WAS THE ANSWER. I've had this camera for the past 4 months and everyday I'm more convinced that is the best investment I've ever made, I never leave the house without it, no joke! Size is perfect, the screen on the back its a nice size, quality pictures, battery life is also good, great to take pictures in ANY setting from outdoors to candle light dinners. On simple terms...LOVE IT!

Very good camera for quick easy use. Photo quality is excellent, size is excellent. Speed is good--not a DSLR, but for the price, the best there is. The best camera for the price.

I've had this camera 6 months. It's a great camera for the typical "point-and-shoot" user. It seems comparable to other family cameras I've seen. I recommend it, if the cost is reasonable. In fact, Grandma liked my camera so much I bought her one. She loves it too!

The optical zoom is good. Digital zoom is not too great, but my understanding is that applies to all cameras.

Battery life is good. After several months I purchased 2 spare batteries for $20 - and they have more power storage than the original. Not a bad deal.

Plan to purchase an xD picture card. The internal memory is insufficient. I believe this is true for cameras in this price range. My 1 GB xD card holds 25 minutes of video or 190 super high resolution pictures. It holds hundred more pictures if you use regular resolution settings instead of high res. I just bought a 2 GB xD card for less than the 1 GB card cost 6 months ago. I think it holds 3000 pictures? More than an ordinary person would ever take, for sure.

The video quality is nice but not outstanding. Use a camcorder if you want great quality video. But the video funtion is really great for those times when you don't have time to go set up a video camera.

Overall, I like it, the price is reasonable, and I am taking better pictures than I ever imagined.

I purchased this camera for a trip in May, 2007. I immediately noticed after the trip that my wife's 5mp Kodak took a better picture. I then went on another trip in Oct 2007 and the LCD screen cracked the first day. I never dropped it or was rough. Olympus warranty repair is a joke as they did not cover it and wanted almost the cost to buy a new one for them to repair it! Plus, an XD card is more expensive. I like my wife's Kodak and my other camera, a Nikon. I will never buy Olympus again!!!!!

Great camera for everday use of a digital...large screen...very easy to use! Great gift idea for someone who wants and easy to use camera that is not bluky to travel with....love the recharable battery!

I purchased this camera for around $300 at Best Buy after all was said and done. I wanted it for landscape shots while hiking. I found that the images remained grainy or blurry no matter what I did. The size of the battery had me out of juice halfway into the Grand Canyon in a helicopter. What a disappointment. Regardless of whether you are in SHQ (super?) or HQ mode, the images were never clean or natural. The video capabilities on it work great! Unfortunately I purchased this camera for the photo quality, and now I am stuck with it. I will do more research next camera I buy, and purchase something a bit more hefty.

I was helping my dad shop for a camera for my mom, and though I had strong preferences for small digital cameras (Canon Elph series, Panasonic Lumix series), I assumed that with his "under $200" price limit, they would basically be interchangeable. So I grabbed the FE-230 based on the sleek and stylish appearance and good price.

Only when we got home did I look at reviews, and started to worry. Sure enough, the pictures are of simply unacceptably bad quality. Blurry and soft even under full light or with the flash - daylight in a room with a wall of windows and flash = soft and intensely noisy? No manual control at all, over anything? Lame. Out of fourteen pictures that I downloaded, only two were at all usable, and those needed retouching. Even my mother, who is NOT picky, admitted that they were washed out and blurry.

Seriously, my 2MP cameraphone takes pictures that are as good as this and in some cases better. Absolutely unusable if you care about the appearance of your pictures at all. Avoid.

Needless to say, we returned the Oly and she is now very happy with her Canon SD1000.

If you are serious about buying this camera, you should head other posters advise about picture quality.

This camera takes the occasional quality picture, but for the most part, pictures are fuzzy and or overexposed.

The size is nice (small) and its quite stylish. But unless being seen with a small camera is all you want to do (not, for example, take picture that are worth looking at) you should look elsewhere.

My only regret is not buying it from a merchant where I could return it.

If you want one cheap, mine will be on eBay as soon as I can find another camera to take a non-fuzzy picture of this one.

Pros: compact, lightweight, fast shutter speed, easy to use
Cons: takes terrible pictures
I used this camera for about six months and after trying to figure out why the pictures are so often of poor quality I finally gave up and went back to using my old Canon Powershot A520 with 4 megapixels that takes much better photos.

I have to admit, I like the feel of this camera. Light weight and compact. The camera is defective though. Every so often the pictures get lines across them and light leaves trails. It will stay this way for 4-5 days then it is fine again. Basically every time I really need it for business. I did not drop the camera nor is there a scratch on it. I should have returned it immediately, but did not. Every time I thought about returning it, the camera would start working again. When I finally decided to call olympus they informed me I have to pay to ship it to them. I think this is wrong since it is a quality control issue. Also, if I do not come up with a receipt they will charge me. Fortunately it was bought as a business expense. Unfortunately it could take the accountant a couple of hours to find the receipt. That would cost as much as a new camera. I have found other comments from people having the same problems. Their repair department claimed they had not heard of this issue. I think this camera hits the garbage and we try again.

I bought this camera for my daughter. She wanted a small camera that could be easily carried with her and this is just the thing. It takes good pictures and is the envy of the family (I use a much fancier digital SLR, but it is far too large for taking to every event where a picture opportunity arises -- with a large camera, you become a photographer documenting the event and don't enjoy the event as much --- a tail wagging the dog situaion.).

I purchased this camera in October and by May it no longer takes colored pictures. There is little to no help from the Olympus customer service team. My only option is to mail it to them for a fee to evaluate. Very disappointed with quality of Olympus product. I have always owned Olympus but will definitely not buy another one.

I got this camera as a present for junior prom, and it went belly-up just in time for senior prom. It was a good camera to start on, easy to use and took good photos. I loved the macro shots & video, but was very dissappointed when it broke for no reason. The zoom is now out of whack, and I don't plan on buying another one.