Olympus C-5000 Digital Camera

If you are looking for a low cost digital camera that takes great indoor photos, then check out the Olympus C-5000. It's packed with features, simple to use, and takes amazing pictures both indoors and outside. My wife and I have had this one for several years now, and it has served us very well.

Prior to owning this camera, my wife had an older model HP digital camera. It took great outdoor photos, but almost anything taken inside was very dark with a lot of red in it. There had to be really bright inside lights for the interior photos to come out alright, and it was a problem. My wife's mom had an older model Olympus that took excellent indoor shots, so we decided to upgrade from the HP to this one. We've been very happy with it ever since.

For being a budget camera, meaning that the price fell right in between the cheap and expensive ones, this thing has quite a lot of great features. It takes pictures in a 5.0 megapixel resolution, with the largest image size being 2560x1920 and the smallest option being 640x480. It will also shoot video, but it is a very small format (320x240) and doesn't record sound. I often wonder why these cameras even have video options on them in the first place. I guess it has its purposes, but the quality isn't much to look at.

This camera does have only a 3x zoom, which is pretty standard on these older 5.0 megapixel cameras. To be honest, the zoom has never been an issue. We have used it almost exclusively for group photos and other shots that are never farther away that across a room. We have tried doing a few super close-up shots, and the results are sometimes blurry, but that could be because we were holding the camera by hand. If you are looking to do extra close or extra long shots, you will need to shell out more cash for a more feature-rich camera than this. A model in this price range is ideal for general use, like taking photos at family events and the like.

You can connect this camera to your PC using a standard USB cable, which is included, or you can plug it directly into the Video In RCA jack on your television. That way, you can view the photos right there on screen. You can also turn the camera into a display mode where it shows on screen what is being viewed by the camera. It makes a great way for letting the subject of the photo see exactly how the shot will look. A good camera must always appeal to the vanity of the owner, after all.

A 128 megabyte xD memory card is included with the camera, and you can always buy more. At the highest image resolution, you can't fit more than 10 photos on the card, but you can fit many dozens more at a middle range quality. Unless you are taking photos to print on large size paper, it is best to keep the image quality setting somewhere in the middle. Nobody likes it when you get emailed a photo JPG that's 5 megabytes in size. That'll kill some people's email box.

This camera is very easy to use in that it has one switch to power it on or off, then all the various modes are selected by a knob at the top. Taking a photo involves pressing a single button, and zooming involves moving one small lever next to that same button. The 1.8 inch LCD screen is just right for quickly reviewing the photo you've just taken. All of the onscreen menus are intuitive enough that you don't need to read through the manual just to figure out the basic operation.

One of the most impressive aspects of this camera is the inclusion of a remote control. This makes it so easy to take group photos when you don't have to bother with setting a timer then running over to jump into the photo. The remote is very small and you can hide it in the palm of your hand when you press the button. There is a slight delay so that your photos don't come out showing you pointing the remote at the camera.

The most important thing of all when considering a digital camera is the picture quality, and this one is excellent. As I stated earlier, it takes spectacular indoor photos that turn out better than most cameras I have encountered. A good example of this would be one night we had a bunch of friends get together for dinner at Olive Garden, and we took a group photo with all of us sitting or standing around one of the benches outside the front of the restaurant. It was dark outside and there was soft light around the entrance, yet the flash was enough to make the picture come out pretty well.

The color accuracy captured by this camera is pretty impressive. The only issue I've encountered in when the photos are a little overexposed, then the colors seem washed out. Outdoor photos are very vibrant and bright. Indoor shots look great so long as you don't get the camera too close, otherwise the flash works a little too well.

Even at the middle quality setting, the photos taken by this camera are just the right quality for printing on 4x6 photo paper. At higher quality settings, the photo is perfect for an 8x10 photo frame. Any photos larger than that tend to be a little grainy, but that is typical of a 5.0 megapixel camera. If you want to print giant photos, you're going to need a higher resolution camera.

With the way cameras keep going up in picture quality while the price slowly drops, we'll probably be buying a new digital camera within the next couple of years. When that time comes, we will definitely be sticking with the Olympus brand since this one has served us so well.