In summary
[ia] A distinctive shape, prominent lens, high-rising flash and smart black body give the Olympus C-8080 a quality appearance. It’s also distinguished by the many different ways of accessing most controls, its dual CF and xD-Picture card support, and excellent optics. The C-8080’s lens is built to the same standard as the Zuiko lenses made for E System cameras, but manual focusing is via a button control and zooming is lever-operated. The 1.8-inch ‘sunshine colour’ LCD monitor is mounted on a swing-out hinge but it can only be tilted through about 45 degrees. A neat ‘direct histogram’ uses a coloured grid to indicate areas of the displayed image that are overexposed (red) or underexposed (blue), allowing users to fine-tune exposure levels. . . [more]
Full review
A distinctive shape, prominent lens, high-rising flash and smart black body give the Olympus C-8080 a quality appearance. It’s also distinguished by the many different ways of accessing most controls, its dual CF and xD-Picture card support, and excellent optics. The C-8080’s lens is built to the same standard as the Zuiko lenses made for E System cameras, but manual focusing is via a button control and zooming is lever-operated. The 1.8-inch ‘sunshine colour’ LCD monitor is mounted on a swing-out hinge but it can only be tilted through about 45 degrees. A neat ‘direct histogram’ uses a coloured grid to indicate areas of the displayed image that are overexposed (red) or underexposed (blue), allowing users to fine-tune exposure levels.
Shots taken with the test camera in bright lighting were well-exposed, with natural colour rendition but slightly elevated contrast. The brightest highlights lacked detail, though shadow detail was adequately recorded. Traces of blooming were found in contrasty areas and low light shots at ISO 400 were quite noisy. Video performance was outstanding. White balance was widely adjustable and very good. The C8080 showed above-average response times but high-resolution RAW files took 23 seconds to process.
Strengths
- Fast start-up, fast AF
- Dual card slots (xD and CF)
- USB 2.0 connectivity
- Effective noise reduction with high ISO settings
Weaknesses
- Many settings difficult to access
- Zoom speed too fast with few steps
- Image noise at ISO 400 [BG05]
Specifications
Image sensor: 8.8 x 6.6mm CCD with 8,300,000 photosites (8.0 megapixels effective)
Lens: 7.1-35.6mm f2.4-3.5 ED-High Resolution Olympus lens (equivalent to 28-140mm in 35mm format)
Zoom ratio: 5x optical, up to 3x digital
Lens multiplier factor: 3.9x
Dimensions (wxhxd): 124 x 85 x 99mm
Weight: 660g (without battery and card)
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