The C-100 is the perfect gift-camera

As Christmas rolled around, I was looking for a nice digital camera that I could give as a gift to the family and friends segment that required a PHD (Push Here Dummy) camera and yet were computer savvy enough to be able to take advantage of that aspect of a digital camera.

Being a long-time owner of the Olympus D600L I can say without reservation that I am a fan of the Olympus brand, as my D600L has been a rugged and constant friend that has never caused me any problems. With that in mind, I had pretty much decided upon Olympus, but the question was which?

I had a simple list of requirements, those being ease of use, economics, and that the camera not require the outlay of additional cash to be useful.

It needed to be a camera that the intended recipients would not be afraid to use (A hard learned lesson - having given a D600L to my in-laws last year only to find they don't use it because they are afraid that it will get broke).

I knew what I was looking for - a really useful camera that had no fears attached, was compact enough to be carried comfortably, and which more or less protected itself (built-in lens cover).

What I ended up choosing was the C-100, and that was out of a field of over 20 possible contenders. Why?

Features and Benefits

1) Saving Pictures: Perhaps the greatest utility feature of the C-100 is the fact that access can be simply accomplished and does not require a dedicated card port device.

All that the user has to do to retrieve the images from the camera is plug the camera into any available USB port, and the camera is mounted as an external drive on your desktop. Does it get simpler than that?

2) Software: While the C-100 comes bundled with software - the light versions of several image manipulating titles - it is also addressable by the more popular titles, such as Adobe Photoshop. That is a significant improvement over competing brands, which often require you to use the bundled titles. This is obviously not as important an issue anymore due to the manner in which the images are transferred from the camera to the PC.

3) Price: The camera is only slightly dated and still very useful, but careful shopping around found factory certified refurbished models available direct from the manufacturers distribution chain for less than $150 each, and these were re-bundled as original!

4) Memory: The C-100 is equipped with 1MB of built-in RAM and an additional RAM Card Slot that can take different sized cards, which allows a fudge-factor when the user has inadequate card space or needs to snap a picture but had no time to change cards. The built-in RAM is a major selling point!

5) Construct: The camera body includes a sliding lens cover, and its mechanics include a Solid-state Zoom feature. Fewer moving parts mean fewer things to go mechanically wrong, which is a good thing for this camera, because it was engineered for casual use in taking snapshots.

6) Image Quality: It should be understood from the previous use of the word "snapshot" that the C-100 is not marketed to compete with the super-high quality digital cameras. It takes very good snapshots, though some care is necessary in how the pictures are taken.

In its lowest RAM use setting, the images are really not all that nice; they have a blurry quality and are small - and while they look okay on the computer screen, they do not print well. You do not want to try and crop photos taken in the lowest RAM setting, as they are inevitably very blurry and the impact on detail is considerable.

When taking casual snapshots to share via email the low-RAM setting is probably best, however if you are taking photos that you wish to print, you will want to use the highest RAM setting, which makes carrying extra film memory cards a necessity.

The C-100 works best for outdoor photography, where it is a bit more forgiving. When using the flash and for most indoor photography, the steadier the camera is, the better the quality of the photos.

7) Quality for Printing: At the highest RAM setting, the photos will print very sharp, with a crispness allowing for limited cropping while still printing well. Note that care should be taken when cropping - meaning that you do not want to try to crop too small an area, because the limitations in the capture size and pixel depth do not allow for fine detail in small sections.

The normal cropping techniques that are used to center an image, or remove unwanted features on the edges and etc. would not noticeably detract from image quality at this setting, but exclusive use of the larger RAM setting means storing fewer images per card. The good news is that you can switch between settings on the same card with no negative effect, however I have found the best results in quality were obtained by staying on the highest setting.

Using the C-100 with photo kiosks that accept the Film RAM Cards is relatively easy, though due to the limited file management ability with respect to the images stored upon the internal RAM, some thought should be given to organization and enhancement prior to spending money on prints.

8) Battery Life: It has been my experience that the C-100 eats cheap batteries very fast, however it lasts quite a bit longer on name brand disposable batteries. That is obviously a quality and capacity issue that pertains more to the battery than the camera, but the difference should be noted.

For the best performance, the more expensive but ultimately more economical rechargeable batteries are best in my opinion. If you are using rechargeable batteries, two sets should be sufficient for the average tourist day, which I define as being frequent use of the camera at each tourist spot hit.

If you are using cheap disposables, you will want to carry a lot and be prepared to buy more. Name brand batteries like the Copper Top type should be okay at a minimum eight to twelve for an average tourist day, and considerably less if not using the flash.

The Final Word:

This is not a gourmet camera; it is intended for taking snapshots, and is ideal for spur of the moment spontaneous fun. It does that so well it is hard to praise it high enough in that respect, and with the plethora of in-store, pharmacy, and online printing services that make prints from your digital film or film file (online) it works for both sharing pictures via the net and for the more traditional venue.

We gave ten of these as gifts last Christmas, and it is constantly reassuring to see them in the hands of our relatives at holiday and social events. The C-100 certainly worked to break down the tech barrier for our older relatives, and my wife also gets a lot of use out of hers for her craft auctions on the web!

SPECS
Full Range Of Advanced Camera Features
1.31-Megapixel CCD And High-Performance Lens
Versatile And Easy-To-Use Digital Functions
Storage-Class USB Support For Easy Downloading
1MB Built-In Memory For Image Storage
Uses Most Popular RAM Media Card Technology
Stylish Body Design With Lens Barrier
Ultra-low power consumption