Olympus Camedia C-7070 review from TechRadar’s expert reviews of Compact camerasUpdated 5 minutes agoUsernamePasswordRemember me
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The stunning Olympus C-5060 Wide Zoom has proved quite a hit with the camera-buying public over the past year. Its performance and convenience means it has made its way onto the shortlist of many a serious photographer who wants a compact with near-SLR performance.
Building on this success, Olympus has now launched a 7.1Mp version that it hopes will undercut the budget SLR cameras on the market without compromising on quality. To do this Olympus has started out with what it knows best – optical quality.
At the heart of the C-7070 is a bright zoom lens that offers a superb 27-110mm optical zoom range. The lens itself is a luxuriant, multi-coated, all-glass affair that opens up to f2.8 at its widest setting. Olympus has paired its heavy-duty piece of glassware with a capable 1/1.8-inch CCD sensor which should help to reduce noise levels.
Sensors of this size could soon be a thing of the past as current trends head towards further miniturization, and that may lead to increased problems with image noise. Perhaps you’d better think about buying bigger before they disappear from shelves forever.
As far as resolution goes, the 7.1Mp CCD provides images of 3,072×2,304 pixels and you can choose to save the image as a RAW, TIFF or JPEG file. You can also choose the compression level of JPEG and you can opt for a 3:2 image ratio if you want to preserve your composition in order to get your photos printed at a high-street mini-lab.
Special screen
To view the high-res images that such a sensor/lens combination produces, you need a fairly special LCD screen. And it’s here that Olympus has done some of its best work. Although the 1.8-inch screen isn’t particularly large, its image quality has been enhanced to make it easier to view in sunlight. Not only that, the ingenious design enables it to flip through 180 degrees while twisting around its axis by 275 degrees. That means you can use the screen as a waist-level viewfinder or an overhead viewing scope.
It’s equally useful for flipping up and twisting around to show someone sat opposite you the image you’ve just shot. The more vain will also note that the arrangement is just perfect for shooting self-portraits. And once you’ve used the rotating LCD you’ll really wonder how you ever managed with the ordinary static variety. And for those who prefer to use the built-in optical viewfinder the screen can be twisted around and stowed away. That should save on power and provides protection for the screen.
Since we’re on the subject of power, the Olympus Lithium-Ion battery is a real workhorse. Olympus doesn’t quote a battery life in terms of number of shots, but take it from us that the C-7070 has more stamina than a Duracell bunny. Buy a spare and you’ll never, ever run out of juice – even during a heavy day’s shooting.
The body of the C-7070 WZ is wrought from magnesium but the light metallic finish gives it a rather plastic look. Because of this it doesn’t look quite as robust as the hammered metal finish of the Olympus C-5060. Even so, it’s a squat little beast of a camera that has a snub-nosed quality in a dogged dreadnought sort of way. This is the ideal camera for travelling. It’s rugged, reasonably small and yet has a wide-angle lens that few other compacts can rival.
admin @ November 21, 2008