The Olympus C8080 King of the new eight megapixel digicam dominion
Written: May 16 '04 (Updated Jun 08 '04)
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Pros: VERY fast, excellent 5X wide angle zoom, broad ISO range, dual memory media slots
Cons: Camera locks while writing RAW images to card and complex operation
The Bottom Line: The C8080 Wide Zoom digicam is easily the best choice among the currently available options in the 8 megapixel prosumer digicam class.
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| Howard_Creech's Full Review: Olympus Camedia C-8080 Wide Zoom Digital Camera |
The new eight megapixel Olympus C8080WZ squares off very nicely against its competition from Nikon, Canon, Minolta, and Sony because Olympus’ product development staff didn’t just affix an 8 mega pixel CCD to an on hand platform. They started with an ergonomically exceptional new body and added a specially designed wide angle zoom, an extensive range of manual controls, an LCD screen that doesn’t fade in outdoor light, almost infinite tweak ability, and their new Tru-pic TURBO image processor for superior image quality and improved speed.
NUTS & BOLTS
Viewfinder/LCD
The C-8080’s high eye point real image zooming EVF (electronic viewfinder) is a bright, sharp, color correct, and fluid (refresh rate is 60fps). The EVF also provides a detailed information read-out and a diopter correction for eyeglasses wearers.
Digital camera LCD screens have gotten progressively better over the course of the digital imaging revolution, but they’ve always had an irritating tendency to fade in bright outdoor light. The C8080’s newly designed 1.8” TFT LCD viewfinder remains bright, sharp, color correct, and fluid even in the strongest lighting. The camera automatically switches both EVF and LCD to high gain mode (but with a slower refresh rate) in low light situations.
The flip up - tilt down LCD screen (while not as flexible as the tilt-swivel screen on the C5060) can be tilted downward 45 degrees or upward 90 degrees to facilitate its use as a waist level, overhead, or close-up finder. A "live" histogram display graphs over and underexposed areas allowing users to fine-tune exposures for a precise exposure. The C8080’s histogram function also provides a unique and genuinely helpful function (called "Direct" histogram mode by Olympus) that highlights the specific areas of the image that will be over or underexposed. A nifty framing assist option overlays a grid on the LCD/EVF to simplify subject placement/alignment and aid in composition. Users can adjust brightness (for both LCD and EVF) via the setup menu.
The C8080 doesn’t have a top deck status display (which is too bad), but serious shooters can enable the Dual Control Panel option (via the setup menu) to engage a real time camera status and exposure information display on the LCD screen. This display is easily seen even in very low light, which makes up (somewhat) for the lack of a top deck LCD display.
Lens
The C8080’s newly designed f2.4-f3.5/28-140 mm (35mm equivalent) all glass wide-angle zoom lens is (according to Olympus) built to the same quality standard as the Zuiko optics for the new Olympus E1 dSLR. The lens needs less than one second to extend from the camera body at power up, and less than two seconds to travel from the wide angle setting to full telephoto.
The C8080’s 5X zoom features two aspherical elements (to reduce distortion) and three ED elements (to minimize chromatic aberration) and provides consistently excellent image quality, very high resolution, and accurate color rendition. Low light images show great color, a wide tonal range, and tack sharp resolution.
Digicam zooms are complex optics and traditionally show visible barrel distortion (straight lines bow out toward the middle of the image frame) at the wide angle end of the zoom range, but barrel distortion with the C8080’s zoom is very well controlled and shouldn’t be a problem (except perhaps in formal architectural studies). Pincushion distortion (straight lines bow in toward the center of the image frame) at the telephoto end of the C8080’s zoom range is very well controlled. There’s no vignetting (darkened corners) and chromatic aberration (purple fringing) is extremely low (visible only in very high contrast color transition areas).
Corners show very minor softness at the maximum aperture, but are much sharper than average. I would have liked to see mechanically linked zoom and manual focus rings, but obviously you can’t have everything.
Auto Focus
The C8080’s super fast iESP (through the lens) auto focus system employs a nifty active contrast detection and passive phase detection AF system. This dual AF system results in amazingly fast (less than half a second in good light), very quiet, and incredibly precise auto focus (currently the fastest AF system available on any prosumer digicam) with a broad and useful range of focus control options including normal AF, Spot AF, Selective Spot AF, Full Time AF, and two macro-focusing modes. A user enabled AF illumination beam ensures consistently accurate and very quick low-light focusing.
Manual Focus
The C8080’s manual focus mode provides two options, manual focus and super-macro (focus ranges from 1.2” to infinity). Focus can be manually adjusted using the up/down keys and the LCD distance scale display. The camera automatically enlarges the central portion of the image 2X to facilitate accurate focusing.
Flash
The C8080’s built in multi mode intelligent speedlight (Auto—including automatic flash activation in low light and backlighting, Fill, Red-eye reduction, Slow-sync, and Slow synch with red eye reduction) is a very capable unit. The Slow Synch mode provides three shooting options. The maximum range of the on-board flash unit is about 18 feet. Users can adjust flash output -2/+ 2 EV in 1/3EV increments. Recycle time is about 7 seconds.
The C8080 also provides a dedicated hot-shoe, permitting users to mount an optional Olympus FL-20, FL-40, or FL-50 speedlight (the FL-50 is Olympus’ top digital speedlight with TTL flash metering and a flash head that zooms with the cameras lens) for expanded flash capabilities. The on-board and external flash units can be used together. Third party external flash units may be used, but shooters will have to use both the built-in and external flash units in manual mode (and manually calculate the proper flash exposure using the old fashioned lens aperture/subject distance guide number equation).
Image Storage Media & Image File Formats
The C8080 saves images to xD-Picture Cards or Compact Flash Cards (Type I or II including microdrives) and can mount both types of memory simultaneously (and switch back and forth between them).
The C8080 saves images in RAW, TIFF, and JPEG file formats. The RAW format is available only for full-resolution images. The C8080 provides users with a neat RAW format editing function that allows them to adjust color, sharpness, and white balance in-camera, post exposure. The edited image can then be saved as a unique JPEG file or processed as a TIFF file. It would have been nice if Olympus had provided this nifty post exposure editing function with TIFF image files as well.
Connectivity
USB 2.0, A/V out, and DC in
Power
The C8080 is powered by the same BLM1 Lithium-Ion battery pack that powers the new Olympus E1 digital SLR. The C8080’s power management circuitry is so efficient that many purchasers can probably forego purchasing a back up battery. My friend and I used the C8080 through two weekends of fairly heavy shooting without exhausting the original battery, some of the best digicam battery performance I have seen to date and more than adequate for very heavy all-day shooting expeditions. I would recommend the purchase of a back up battery for users who plan on extended travel or heavy vacation shooting. The included BCM-2 charger needs approximately six hours to fully recharge the battery.
EXPOSURE
The C8080 provides users with an exceptionally wide range of exposure options including Auto (Program), Program with shift allows users to cycle through a variety of aperture/shutter speed combinations, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, five preset (Portrait, Sports, Landscape-Portrait, Landscape-Scene, and Night scene) Scene modes, My Mode (users can save up to eight sets of favorite camera settings for easy retrieval later), Movie Mode, several Special Exposure Modes, and a full Manual exposure mode. All capture modes are easily accessed via the Mode dial on the C8080’s top deck. Shooters can fine tune exposures with Digital ESP multi-pattern and spot metering, user selectable white balance settings, user selected ISO/Sensitivity settings, user adjustable flash output settings, auto bracketing, exposure compensation, noise reduction, contrast, saturation, and sharpness adjustments.
The C8080 also provides users with two macro modes, making it a great choice for shooters who like close-ups. Macro/close-up subjects are rendered with consistently accurate well-saturated color and very good (but slightly higher than average) contrast. Resolution is very sharp and detail capture is outstanding, even in shadow areas. There is some very slight corner softness, but macro image quality is well above average. In regular macro mode the C8080’s built-in flash covers evenly with no hot spots or lens shadow. The built-in flash is disabled in super macro mode so users will need to shoot natural light close-ups or mount an external flash unit for supplemental lighting.
Movie Mode
The C8080 provides users with a decent movie mode that records video clips (with or without audio) at 640 x 480 pixels @ 15fps (30 fps would have made for smoother video). Clip duration is limited only by memory card capacity. Sound recording can be turned off via the Movie menu, allowing use of the optical zoom during filming. Recording time remaining on the memory card is displayed on the LCD screen. The C8080 also permits users to scroll through video clips (frame-by-frame) and mark cut points at the beginning and end of each segment they wish to save. Content on either side of the cut points is deleted (users can also elect to preserve the original clip unmodified and save the edited portions as a separate file).
Exposure Compensation
The Olympus C8080 permits users to subtly adjust the camera selected shutter speed/aperture combination in auto exposure modes by +/- 2EV (in 1/3 EV increments) to compensate for tricky lighting, special circumstances (snow, fog, large bright/dark areas), mood, and personal or subjective exposure preferences.
Exposure Bracketing
The C8080's Auto Bracketing function allows users to automatically capture either three or five shots of a specific composition each with slightly different exposure values, virtually guaranteeing at least one perfectly exposed image. The camera can be set to vary exposure (from the user selected starting point) by up to +/- 2EV (in 0.3, 0.7, or 1.0 EV steps) to capture one (or two) images with slightly more exposure and one (or two) images with slightly less exposure than the base exposure. Many prosumer digital cameras provide a three-step exposure bracketing range, but the five-step range adds appreciably to the C8080’s creative versatility.
Metering
The C8080 provides users with three light metering options. The default mode is Olympus’ ESP TTL multi pattern evaluative metering. With ESP multi-pattern metering the camera takes readings from multiple areas of the image frame and evaluates brightness and contrast for each segment separately before selecting the optimum shutter speed/aperture combination. The Spot-metering mode evaluates brightness and contrast in a very small area at the center of the frame allowing users to align the center of the frame with the most important element of the composition (like the eyes or smile in a head and shoulders portrait) and then lock-in the correct exposure by pressing the Shutter button halfway and holding it down until the image is recomposed.
The Multi-Spot metering mode allows users to take up to eight individual spot-meter readings from a much larger central area of the frame. All spot readings are noted on a relative exposure scale at the bottom of the LCD screen and then averaged to obtain an optimal shutter speed/aperture combination. Multi Spot metering is a very useful exposure option, especially in high contrast compositions with a broad range. The C8080’s metering system is remarkably capable, consistently precise, and very accurate in even the most demanding lighting.
White Balance
The C8080’s almost infinite tweakability is especially evident in the camera’s exceptionally versatile white balance system which provides the broadest and most useful color balance adjustment range of any currently available digital camera. The C8080 provides eleven WB settings including TTL Auto, and pre-sets for Shade, Cloudy, Sunny, Evening Sun, Daylight Fluorescent, Neutral Fluorescent, Cool White Fluorescent, White Fluorescent, Incandescent, a Custom (manual) setting, and a One-Touch setting allowing white balance to be calibrated precisely with a white card/wall/ceiling.
The C8080 also provides a WB color adjustment function that allows users to fine tune WB by shifting the warm/cold balance toward either the red or blue ends of the color spectrum with a fourteen step (+/-7 steps from the base setting) range displayed on an adjustment bar graph on the LCD screen. This function works with both the pre-set and manual settings guaranteeing precise and accurate color.
ISO/Sensitivity
The C8080’s amazingly broad sensitivity range provides users with the ability to subtly vary image “look” without sacrificing shadow or highlight detail. Sensitivity options include settings for TTL Auto, and ISO 50, 64, 80, 100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 320, & 400. The C8080’s broad variety of sensitivity options couples nicely with the extensive selection of White Balance and In-Camera image adjustment options. The C8080 shows the best noise management at ISO 400 of any 8 megapixel digicam I’ve used to date.
In-Camera Image Adjustment
The C8080’s versatile range of in camera image adjustment options provides skilled photographers with an almost infinite range of incremental exposure/color/contrast tweaks. In-camera image adjustment is an often overlooked but very important tool for overcoming lighting problems, ensuring precise exposure, expressing mood, balancing contrast, and fine tuning color saturation.
Color Saturation
The C8080’s color saturation can be adjusted over an 11 step range (+/- 5 incremental steps from the neutral setting) allowing users to precisely increase or reduce color intensity. Users can also opt to capture images in B&W or sepia tone.
Hue
The hue adjustment allows advanced shooters to make minute adjustments in hue to precisely compensate for certain types of artificial light or to subtly affect the “mood” of an image. A negative setting shifts hue toward blue (reds will alter slightly toward purple) and positive setting shifts hue toward yellow (reds will alter slightly toward orange).
Contrast
The C8080’s contrast can be adjusted over an 11 step range (+/- 5 incremental steps from the neutral setting) allowing users to balance, enhance, or reduce image contrast for better mid tones and improved tonal range.
Sharpness
The C8080’s images can be tweaked over an 11step range (+/- 5 incremental steps from the neutral setting) permitting shooters to precisely harden or soften apparent image sharpness.
Noise Reduction
The C8080’s aggressive Noise Reduction System is the most efficient and capable currently available. Olympus utilizes dark-frame subtraction technology to minimize image noise in high ISO shots, low-light images, and long exposures. Noise reduction processing does slightly lengthen shot to shot intervals.
CONTROLS, DESIGN, & ERGONOMICS
The C8080 “chunky” high tech titanium alloy/polycarbonate/rubber clad body is a major design step away from the foursquare traditional look of prior Olympus prosumer digicams. The C8080 is a fairly large camera with a solid “pro” feel that’s tough enough to go just about anywhere. All controls are logically placed and so responsive (due to the virtually infinite level of tweakability) that they quickly become intuitive. The integral right hand grip is small but it provides a nice balance for the C8080’s heavy zoom. The 45 degree angled shutter button is a really nice touch, harking back to the Exacta, Praktica, Pentacon, and Topcon SLR’s of the sixties and seventies. The Direct buttons are also a great idea, making the most commonly used settings/exposure adjustments instantly available. Menus are a bit complex, but once users gain some familiarity with the camera, access is direct and straightforward. The C8080 is the most photographer oriented digital camera I’ve ever used.
Technical Specifications
Resolution: Eight Megapixels (3264x2448)
Viewfinders: Hi-Res EVF and 1.8” tilting LCD screen
Lens: f2.4-f3.5/28-140 mm (35mm equivalent) constructed of 15 elements in 13 groups with 2 aspherical elements (for improved sharpness) and 3 ED elements (for enhanced color fidelity) all glass wide angle zoom
Auto Focus: Multi – AF Point active contrast detection and passive phase detection AF system
Auto Focus Assist Beam: Yes
Manual Focus: Yes
Exposure: Program, Program w/shift, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, 5 Scene Modes, and full Manual exposure
Exposure compensation: +/- 2 EV in 1/3 or ˝ EV increments
Auto bracketing: Yes, 3 or 5 images +/- 2 EV in 1/3EV increments
Metering: Digital ESP TTL Multi-Pattern, Spot, and Multi-spot
Sensitivity: TTL Auto, and 50, 64, 80, 100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 320, & 400 (ISO equiv)
White Balance: TTL Auto, Shade, Cloudy, Sunny, Evening Sun, Daylight Fluorescent, Neutral Fluorescent, Cool White Fluorescent, White Fluorescent, Incandescent, a Custom (manual) setting, and “one touch”
Flash: Built-in multi mode (Auto, Red-Eye Reduction, Fill, Slow synch, and Slow synch w/ red-eye reduction) with hot shoe for optional Olympus or third party external flash units
Shutter Speeds: 16 seconds to 1/4000th of a second
Image Storage Media: CF types I & II (including microdrives) and xD Picture Card
Image Formats: TIFF, RAW, & JPEG
In-Camera Image Adjustments: Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation, & Hue each adjustable +/- 5 steps
Connectivity: Auto-connect USB 2.0, A/V out, & DC in
Power: Olympus BLM1 1500mAh Li-ion rechargeable battery pack
Street Price Range: $769.00 -- $999.00
Included
32 MB Olympus xD Picture Card, Olympus BLM-1 Lithium-Ion battery, Olympus BCM-2 battery charger,IR Remote Control, Lens cap & keeper strap, Lens hood, Shoulder strap, USB/AV cables, Software CD-ROM, Users Manual
Optional
Olympus offers three optional filters (UV, Polarizing, & Protective) that mate with the standard 58mm lens thread and two conversion lenses (a wide angle and a telephoto) that mate with the zoom via an optional bayonet mount adapter. There is also an accessory grip (B-HLD30) that doubles battery capacity and provides a vertical (portrait) shutter release.
In the Field/Handling & Operation
I have an old friend who sells photo equipment (digital and analog) and we often get together to play with new cameras. For our first outing with the Olympus C8080 we chose a beautiful Saturday afternoon (high seventies, blue skies, and puffy white clouds) and headed for Cave Hill Cemetery (Louisville’s only arboretum and a favorite shooting location for both of us). Cave Hill is a huge green space (over seven hundred acres) filled with ancient trees, flowers, bushes, two small lakes (with hundreds of geese and ducks), and lots of old 19th century native limestone grave markers, so there is always something to photograph.
Kentucky is one of the most beautiful places on earth during the spring. Everything is growing beautifully this year because we’ve had plenty of rain and lots of warm days. It was an absolutely wonderful late spring day with almost perfect front lighting so we spent about an hour photographing families feeding the ducks and geese at the small lake by the admin bldg. We got a couple of interesting interactions between small children and the hungry waterfowl. Once the afternoon golden light started to fade, we jumped in the car and drove to the Cherokee Park scenic loop (which winds through a couple miles of steep hillsides covered with old growth trees on both sides of Beargrass Creek). Just past the Daniel Boone statue near the entrance to the park we pulled over and parked on the shoulder and walked up the hill beside a small seasonal creek. We were hoping to find a clump or two of wild iris or maybe some trillium in bloom. The creek was running pretty nicely so we quickly found a nice patch of Spring Beauties and a small clump of Mayapple. The lighting was pretty dim under the old growth canopy so we were able to check out the C8080’s low light focusing (very good) and close-up abilities (also very good). We didn’t find any Wild Iris blooms or Trillium, so we called it a day.
For our second outing with the C8080 we headed for the Fourth Street Wharf to shoot the Belle of Louisville. Jefferson County bought the Belle in 1962 and for the past forty odd years the old sternwheeler has been a fixture on the Louisville waterfront. She’s the oldest real steamboat still plying the rivers of the United States. She’s brightly painted and makes a wonderful photographic subject, especially on a bright sunny day. We shot the old boat from various points along the Fourth Street Wharf, highlighting her bright red paddlewheel and showing the old Victorian gingerbread pilot house between the two tall stacks.
After finishing up at the Belle we took off for Check’s Café on East Burnett Street. Check’s has been a popular Germantown neighborhood bar for several decades. There’s a small L-shaped bar, a scattering of mismatched tables, and dark wood paneled walls hung with beer signs and framed B&W photos. Check’s is your basic neighborhood saloon. The menu is heavy on upper south comfort food like fried fish, fried chicken, rolled oysters, pan fried oysters, burgers, fries, chili, and home-made white bean soup. Drink choices are limited (soft drinks, beer, coffee, iced tea, etc.), portions are large, and the prices are quite reasonable. The atmosphere (the term ambience just doesn’t fit Check’s) in this historic old pub is relaxed and friendly, the absolute antithesis of chain restaurant chic. We had a beer and ran through our shots of the Belle of Louisville and managed to sneak a few “candids” inside the dimly lit old bar to test the C8080’s low light capabilities.
The following Sunday we took the C8080 to Louisville’s Extreme Park, the morning started out with dark skies and the threat of rain, but things cleared up just after noon and ended up with robins egg blue skies filled with masses of dramatic puffy white clouds. Skateboarders gravitate to the park at all hours of the day and night to hone their moves in the twenty-four foot full pipe, the eleven-foot bowl, and the six-foot quarter pipe. The Park is a photographer’s dream with stunning visual opportunities (the colorfully clad boarders, bikers, and rollerbladers stand out beautifully against the snow-white concrete) and the bowls and pipes are perfectly placed for getting incredible action shots of daredevil boarders “catching some air” in gravity defying leaps.
We’ve been several times to shoot the boarders and knew we’d have to move in fairly close because the C8080’s 5X zoom wouldn’t give us enough reach to stand off and still get frame filling shots.
Skateboarders are all a bit “hammy” and love showing off for the camera---so they make very cooperative photographic subjects. We spent about two hours shooting some genuinely talented young athletes (and a few who really should find a less dangerous hobby). The C8080’s dual auto focus system is very fast and had no trouble in the gorgeous afternoon light locking focus on even the fastest boarders. If you can anticipate the action, exposures are in virtual real time. We printed a couple of 8X10’s (with an Epson 2200 on Epson photo paper) and color, contrast, highlight and shadow detail, and resolution in both enlargements were absolutely exceptional, easily on par with (or superior to) any currently available 8 megapixel prosumer digicam and comparable to 6 megapixel dSLR images.
PERFORMANCE
Image Quality
The C8080’s image quality is excellent, easily better (or at worst equal to) any of the currently available 8 megapixel Prosumer digicam. Color is dead on accurate although some consumers (those who like “wet paint” colors) may feel the default color is a little too neutral, but that is easily fixed by incrementally increasing color saturation. Skin tones are excellent, the most accurate I have seen to date. My friend and I printed two 8X10 inch enlargements with an Epson Stylus Photo 2200 (on Epson photo paper) and both were excellent (even when inspected with a 4X Mamiya Loupe) showing accurate color, good shadow detail, and tack sharp resolution. Outdoors, in bright light the C8080’s default contrast produced marginally darker colors and a tack sharp but slightly hard-edged look.
A real boon to serious shooters is the ability to adjust CCD sensitivity in tiny increments through a (great deal wider than the C8080’s competition) 10-step range allowing advanced users much better control over exactly when image noise starts to seep into the picture. Less skilled photographers can dependably use the C8080’s TTL Auto setting because CCD sensitivity in auto mode doesn’t increase past 200 ISO avoiding noisier high ISO range.
At ISO 50, 64, 80, 100, and 125 image noise is very hard to spot even in shadow areas. From ISO 160 upwards noise gradually rises, but even at ISO 400 the C8080 shows less noise than other 8 megapixel digicams. Noise at ISO 400 is still much too high, but that is a product of the tiny super complex CCD sensor and that is a consistent problem with all 8 megapixel prosumer digicams. The C8080’s noise reduction system works aggressively, which usually results in less noise but noticeably softer images and a slight loss of detail in shadow and highlight areas. I don’t know how Olympus managed it, but that doesn’t appear to be the case with the C8080.
The C8080’s zoom lens may have a bit tighter range than those from Minolta, Sony, Canon, and Nikon 8 megapixel units---but it cranks out sharp images with no vignetting, no noticeable distortion, and almost no chromatic aberration (even in strong backlighting). Another sizeable factor in the C8080’s ability to produce consistently excellent digital images is Olympus’ new the TruePic image processor, which does yeoman work even with HQ JPEGS. The C8080’s SHQ JPEGS are essentially indistinguishable from TIFF format images.
Timing/Shutter Lag
The C8080’s new the TruePic “Turbo” image processor provides the fastest image processing times of any currently available 8 megapixel digital camera. The boot-up cycle is less than half a second. The shutter fires in virtual real time, with no appreciable lag (less than half a second), essentially instantaneous---with or without prefocusing. Shot to shot times are also very quick, averaging around one second, and write to card times are noticeably faster than average, but the camera does lock up when writing RAW (about 12-15 seconds) and TIFF (about 15-18 seconds) image files to card. The C8080’s Auto focus is also very fast and extremely accurate. The dual active/passive AF system drives the lens to focus in good light in 1/2 second (or less) in most cases. The AF system rarely hunts for focus and in low light (due to the passive AF sensor and focus aid beam).
A Few Concerns
The C8080 is a versatile image-making tool that can easily capture impressive pictures in auto mode, but this digicam is a poor choice for neophytes. The C8080’s most glaring fault is its complexity. Inexpert shooters can expect a steep learning curve if they want to maximize the C8080’s potential.
There is very minor barrel distortion at the wide-angle end of the C8080’s zoom range but pincushion distortion at the telephoto end of the zoom is very well controlled. Very minor chromatic aberration is visible at the maximum aperture in high contrast color transition areas but this can be easily managed by slightly adjusting contrast levels (or shooting at f4).
In the realm of niggling little faults, my friend feels the power button is positioned too close to the Mode Dial (people with thick fingers may find themselves accidentally turning off the camera when turning the mode dial). Red-eye is a minor problem, so users who shoot lots of portraits may want to check out Olympus’ new FL50 speedlight.
Advanced shooters may find the C8080’s default contrast is a bit high, but like almost every other exposure parameter the C8080’s in-camera contrast adjustment can be tweaked through an almost infinite range, effectively guaranteeing well-balanced images with consistently appealing mid-tones, even in high-key outdoor lighting.
The C8080’s default sharpening is fairly aggressive and that makes images a little hard edged, but experienced shooters can experiment with the minus settings until they find the best balance between sharpness and noise. Noise is present (as it is in all digitally generated images) but it is well controlled at lower ISO settings. Noise levels begin to rise noticeably at ISO 200 and by ISO 400 noise is fairly high.
Who is this Camera best suited for?
Just a couple of years ago entry level dSLRs (digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras cost at twice as much as a top tier Prosumer digicams, but that’s all changed. Thousands of serious amateur photographers can now afford to buy a dSLR, so why should you buy a Prosumer 8 megapixel digicam?
SLR cameras are modular by nature, meaning that users will probably purchase lenses, external flash units and numerous other components to create a versatile and customized imaging tool kit. The good news for dSLR purchasers is that their 6 megapixel CCD sensors are much larger than the CCD sensors in Prosumer digicams and that means less image noise. In addition Interchangeable lenses are usually much better optically than the fixed zooms on P&S digicams, which means that 6 megapixel dSLR images will usually be better than the 8 megapixel images generated by Prosumer digicams
However, Prosumer digicams provide users with a wide range of easily accessed features, most of the image making options available to dSLR owners, live LCD viewfinders, amazing convenience, and much lighter overall weight. While the initial purchase prices may be roughly comparable---over time a dSLR is going to end up being a substantially larger investment for most shooters, making Prosumer digicams like the C8080 an affordable alternative for many photographers.
Conclusion
There’s no such thing as a “perfect” camera (digital or analog), but theC8080 easily trumps the competition, providing the best balance of exceptional image making capability, durability and ergonomics, manual controls, and useful features of any currently available 8 megapixel digital camera. The C8080’s creative potential will encourage users to push the boundaries of the digital imaging medium. At this moment in time, the C8080 is as good as it gets for Prosumer digicams. If you don’t need 8 megapixels (or if the C8080 is a bit rich for your budget) check out the Olympus C5060 which shares an integrated design philosophy and many advanced features with the C8080
Links
Check out my review of a bargain priced and very capable photo quality ink-jet printer.
Epson Stylus Photo 785 EPX ink-jet printer
http://www.epinions.com/content_60776812164
For definitive advice on How to Choose a Digital Camera please see my review:
http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-2E46-17B174E2-39A418E3-prod1
For information about other 8 megapixel Prosumer digicams you may find the reviews below informative:
Nikon Digital Cameras
Nikon Coolpix 8700
http://www.epinions.com/content_138657762948
Sony Digital Cameras
Sony Cybershot DSC-F828
http://www.epinions.com/content_124605206148
Minolta Digital Cameras
Minolta DiMage A2
http://www.epinions.com/content_134021746308
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 999.00
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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Member: Howard Creech
Location: Louisville, KY
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