Olympus Digicam Image Quality

[Mermaidman]

My wife commented yesterday that the pictures taken with our Olympus C720 don't look as good as those from our Kodak. Not as sharp or vivid (color). Any current or former Olympus digicam users care to comment?

I'm wondering if Olympus is not as good as I thought, or if we have a defective specimen, or if it's user error .

 

[Czar]

everything beats kodak, I have an olympus 3030z, colors are rather bland but photoshop can fix that, the images are very sharp and focused

Kodak on the other hand always have their trademark, good colors but artifacts all over the place, and photoshop cant fix that

 

[rbV5]

My brother has an Olympus c720 zoom I was able to play with a little this summer. I didn't care for the camera itself compared to my sony, but I thought the picture quality was pretty good actually. Nice all around camera IMHO.

 

[corkyg]

Olympus has always been near the top in picture quality. I have had 5 of them - I still have the little D-40. My main camera now is Canon, but only because it is a full SLR. The Oly is always in my bag for quickies.

 

[Mercurien]

Not as sharp as in out of focus? Make sure you press the button half-way down until the camera focuses. You'll see a green dot in the viewfinder when it's ready. Then you press the button the rest of the way down. =)

 

[tomstevens26]

Well, I've been using an Oly 700UZ since they came out and I've been very pleased. The only regret I have was I got it instead of the 2100 w/ image stabilization. Before that I had an Oly D640 I think it was? I've always been really pleased with their cameras. The only thing that would make me consider some other brand is their customer service. A friend of mine, who does happen to have a 2100, recently contacted them to send his camera in for repair. An issue that is a known problem on many of their cameras, and they were complete jerks about it.

Tom

 

[azkiwi]

Originally posted by: tomstevens26
Well, I've been using an Oly 700UZ since they came out and I've been very pleased.

Same here and nothing but happy. Its always very crisp and I find the colors lifelike and accurate. Do you have your screen colors tweaked for any reason? Have you tried calibrating your monitor to make sure its not a non-camera issue? As far as colors go it might be that you are just used to different tonal interpretation - I use Leica lenses a lot and when I look through say, Swarovski, it takes a while to adapt because their coatings have a different temperature.

As to sharpness, that sounds like a camera issue...

 

[azkiwi]

wups

 

[zShowtimez]

Ive been using 3 olympus digicams recently. I like em all.. even my little 2mp $100 D-380.

Heres some of the pics ive taken.. Most of the shots should have the camera info in the description.
Showtime's Gallery

 

[Anubis]

i hve a C720UZ and its fine. if its takeing pics that are out of focus it coudl be because you are not letting the cam focus itself first. but if thats ot it it could be defective. Oly makes amazing cams some of te hbest

 

[SearchMaster]

I picked up a C4000 from OM on clearance and it is MILES ahead of my Kodak DC4800 in terms of picture quality. There are some things I like much better on the Kodak, but in terms of IQ, there is no comparison.

 

[jmagg]

D 490z here.
Only 2.1mp but very nice quality.
Do make sure to focus and hold the cam steady for a second after the pic is taken

 

[Mermaidman]

THanks for all the replies. I will play around and make sure to "hold the button and wait for the green dot" before taking the pic. Could be I'm drinking too much coffee too

Here is another possibility: I've been taking a lot of indoor pictures, so it could be a lighting issue.

Will post pics if my bbzzdd account ever gets activated

 

[Markfw]

Yes, low light can make them fuzzy. Make sure you have the flash on, and better yet, turn on every light you can inside.

 

[Anubis]

yes indooe pics get a lil fuzzy on mine also if the lighting isnt that good

 

[aka1nas]

Kodaks might have a more colorful picture as they do more image manipulation and processing inside the camera. However, the Image Quality on an olympus will be much higher.

 

[McCarthy]

Yeah, Kodaks artificially 'richen' the colors. Which isn't necessarily bad, lots of the pictures people take day to day are rather dull. But for accuracy the Olympus is ahead; it'll just seem bland if you're used to the other way.

Like listening to a more accurate stereo when you're used to Bose.

 

[oldfart]

Almost any decent camera will have two or three levels of jpeg compression. Kodak on the other hand, only uses maximum compression. Not good if you are interested in image quality.

 

[ZL1]

Id take Olympus over Kodak any day of the week
Id even take Olympus over Canon when shooting indoors


D

 

[Mermaidman]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
Kodaks might have a more colorful picture as they do more image manipulation and processing inside the camera . . .

Is that one factor affecting the length of time needed after you snap a pic and have it saved on the memory card? I think the Kodak took longer to save a picture even tho' it's 2 MP, while the Oly is 3 MP.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Mermaidman

Originally posted by: aka1nas
Kodaks might have a more colorful picture as they do more image manipulation and processing inside the camera . . .

Is that one factor affecting the length of time needed after you snap a pic and have it saved on the memory card? I think the Kodak took longer to save a picture even tho' it's 2 MP, while the Oly is 3 MP.

That and the fact that they use slow memory interfaces in a lot of their models.:disgust: