Pre-order from Amazon - Olympus 5050 digital camera

[AlanS]

UPDATE: Thanks BeaverBob, the jandr preorder price is $729
Think I might buy it from them with Amex BVG and hope for another $100 or so in 2 months with a price match.
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Olympus 5050

Price is $799. Don't think it is any kind of special price though. Looks like a cool camera though. Seems to have the same fast lense as the xx40 series. Seems to take several different types of cards, smartmedia and compact flash. Also, saw something about the camera holding more than one card at a time.

Couldn't find any reviews.



They also have the c-50 (5 megapixel) available for $599

C-50

Though this one doesn't look nearly as good. Not a bad price for 5 megapixels though.

 

[wjones]

Originally posted by: AlanS
They also have the c-50 (5 megapixel) available for $599

C-50

Though this one doesn't look nearly as good. Not a bad price for 5 megapixels though.

This C-50 takes XD memory card, which is very expensive at this moment compare to CF/SM.

 

[GregFish]

I am interested in the C-50 - I wonder what the quality of pics will be like - is kind of expensive though.

 

[AquariusX]

Aquarius looks around for extra 800 dollars lying around somewhere....

 

[WileCoyote]

oh man... if they come out with a 8-10x optical zoom version of these I'm definitely in.

 

[codeyf]

Originally posted by: GregFish
I am interested in the C-50 - I wonder what the quality of pics will be like - is kind of expensive though.

IMHO, xD cards aren't expensive. They just aren't as cheap as CF or SM. $60-70 for a 128mb card is pretty darn cheap if you ask me. Again, just IMHO.

 

[GregFish]

I agree, plus they are supposed to be a lot faster and are smaller too.

 

[Fritzo]

There's actually a technological reason they can't put 8x and 10x optical zooms on digital cameras with high megapixel CCD's. Notice how long it took for Olympus to get a 8x 3MP camera out (the C-720)? And I think that's the highest optical zoom/megapixel you can get right now.

 

[Souka]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
There's actually a technological reason they can't put 8x and 10x optical zooms on digital cameras with high megapixel CCD's.......

Huh? Could you explain this mysterious "reason"

Minolta Dimage 7 is a 5mp with a 7x optical lens. Also, I believe many higher end cameras can use std. 35mm lenses, including tele-photo.

I'm no expert, but why a limit on optical zoom with digital cameras?

 

[gotsmack]

Olympus c-730 10X optical zoon 3.2 Mp

I'm going to buy this camera over winter break.

 

[BigSmooth]

Originally posted by: codeyf
IMHO, xD cards aren't expensive. They just aren't as cheap as CF or SM. $60-70 for a 128mb card is pretty darn cheap if you ask me. Again, just IMHO.

I agree, J & R already has Lexar 128MB xD cards for $59.88 and these things just came out. As soon as more "off brands" start marketing these cards, they'll undoubtedly drop in price even further.

One disadvantage: if you don't have your own photo-quality printer and you like to take your memory cards somewhere to get prints, they probably won't have a machine capable of reading the xD cards right now. I'm guessing it will take a while before most places are compatible with xD for this purpose.

 

[wjones]

Originally posted by: bigsmooth

Originally posted by: codeyf
IMHO, xD cards aren't expensive. They just aren't as cheap as CF or SM. $60-70 for a 128mb card is pretty darn cheap if you ask me. Again, just IMHO.

I agree, J & R already has Lexar 128MB xD cards for $59.88 and these things just came out. As soon as more "off brands" start marketing these cards, they'll undoubtedly drop in price even further.

One disadvantage: if you don't have your own photo-quality printer and you like to take your memory cards somewhere to get prints, they probably won't have a machine capable of reading the xD cards right now. I'm guessing it will take a while before most places are compatible with xD for this purpose.

Ok, when i said very expensive might be overstatement I should say it is a little bit more expensive compare to CF/SM I actually like to size though. They promise 8GB xD card in a few years. If they can make 4GB by next year, they'll be the winner of all memory cards.

 

[zinkpig]

Yeah the c-720 or the recent c-730 come with large zoom lenses but are they really usable ? try composing a shot greater than 5 or 6x zoom with reasonable light with out a tripod..you ll know exactly what i mean ! Its nice to have the ability to zoom in the way to 10x but what are the chances you ll carry your tripod on your weekend trip. The image stabilization (first developed by canon) was the only practical way to use these large zoom lenses, but these cameras ( sony f707, f717 and canon pro90) are all too expensive. olympus was the only manufacturer to offer this tech at a resonable price with the 2100uz(last retailed for 400 or so). i dont know why they phased it out. I really think its better to get a camera with a rich feature set like the canon g2 or fuji f602(6x zoom) which are much more usable.

 

[AlanS]

Olympus INFO

There doesn't seem to be any limit on the movie mode either. Looks like it will run until the card fills up, which could be 10 minutes with a 256MB compact flash card in there.

Sounds like you could put a large compact flash card in there at the same time as the XD card and transfer from one to the other?

 

[BeaverBob]

J and R is taking preorders for the 5050 for $729. Just don't buy them all before I get one!

Also, I've read many places that the olympus cameras have a fixed time limit in movie mode regardless of the size of the memory card. Must be a buffer issue.

Anyway, I agree that bang for buck, the 5050 is right up there!

-BeaverBob


(my first post!)

 

[pdo]

Originally posted by: zinkpig
Yeah the c-720 or the recent c-730 come with large zoom lenses but are they really usable ? try composing a shot greater than 5 or 6x zoom with reasonable light with out a tripod..you ll know exactly what i mean ! Its nice to have the ability to zoom in the way to 10x but what are the chances you ll carry your tripod on your weekend trip. The image stabilization (first developed by canon) was the only practical way to use these large zoom lenses, but these cameras ( sony f707, f717 and canon pro90) are all too expensive. olympus was the only manufacturer to offer this tech at a resonable price with the 2100uz(last retailed for 400 or so). i dont know why they phased it out. I really think its better to get a camera with a rich feature set like the canon g2 or fuji f602(6x zoom) which are much more usable.

I almost hit a deer today. Got my Fuji S602Z zoom in fully and here's the shot of the deer.
Oh yeah there's nothing hot about this deals. I also have an Olympus 2040Z and it feels like a toys after holding the Fuji S602.

 

[javeed]

For what it's worth, I just recently bought an Olympus 4040Z for my wife and she loves it. The zoom capability isnt much (3x) but the expandability and feature list is great. For spec lists of digital cameras (alongwith good explanations of what everything meant) I used dpreview.com which has a spec list of the 5050Z too. As far as reviews are concerned, I've looked at Steve's Digicams (which I wasn't too impressed by and which also doesnt seem to have a review of the 5050Z yet), The Imaging Resource (which has fairly technical and well-rounded reviews but only) specs for the 5050Z) as well as the Digital Camera Resource Page which has short and sweet reviews and a spec list for the 5050Z.

Hope this helps you all making up your mind regarding this camera Personally, I'd recommend the 4040Z very much. But I'd also like the extra CF slot on ours

 

[ajf3]

Yeah the c-720 or the recent c-730 come with large zoom lenses but are they really usable ? try composing a shot greater than 5 or 6x zoom with reasonable light with out a tripod..you ll know exactly what i mean ! Its nice to have the ability to zoom in the way to 10x but what are the chances you ll carry your tripod on your weekend trip. The image stabilization (first developed by canon) was the only practical way to use these large zoom lenses, but these cameras ( sony f707, f717 and canon pro90) are all too expensive. olympus was the only manufacturer to offer this tech at a resonable price with the 2100uz(last retailed for 400 or so). i dont know why they phased it out. I really think its better to get a camera with a rich feature set like the canon g2 or fuji f602(6x zoom) which are much more usable.

I gotta disagree with this... I have the 720 - without IS and I can zoom in 10x during daylight hours... dusk or night, absolutely not without a tripod. I zoom all the way in during my son's soccer games with great results - and I'm just an amatuer.

Now you do have to watch your zoom if you're not under bright sunlight - ie, indoors or close to dusk. Too much zoom and the image comes out grainy... In dim situations and out of the flash range, it's almost useless, but so was my s100 that I used to have. I guess, as with anything, you just need to know it's limits...

 

[BuddyLee]

5050 for $669

http://www.bwayphoto.com/product.asp?id=olc5050

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: ajf3
Yeah the c-720 or the recent c-730 come with large zoom lenses but are they really usable ? try composing a shot greater than 5 or 6x zoom with reasonable light with out a tripod..you ll know exactly what i mean ! Its nice to have the ability to zoom in the way to 10x but what are the chances you ll carry your tripod on your weekend trip. The image stabilization (first developed by canon) was the only practical way to use these large zoom lenses, but these cameras ( sony f707, f717 and canon pro90) are all too expensive. olympus was the only manufacturer to offer this tech at a resonable price with the 2100uz(last retailed for 400 or so). i dont know why they phased it out. I really think its better to get a camera with a rich feature set like the canon g2 or fuji f602(6x zoom) which are much more usable. I gotta disagree with this... I have the 720 - without IS and I can zoom in 10x during daylight hours... dusk or night, absolutely not without a tripod. I zoom all the way in during my son's soccer games with great results - and I'm just an amatuer. Now you do have to watch your zoom if you're not under bright sunlight - ie, indoors or close to dusk. Too much zoom and the image comes out grainy... In dim situations and out of the flash range, it's almost useless, but so was my s100 that I used to have. I guess, as with anything, you just need to know it's limits...

The lack of IS does make the lens a little more prone to blurring in some situations.(IE, mainly low light shots, when the shutter is open for longer periods of time). The longer zoom lens also tend to produce some pincushioning of the image as well as Fairly noticeable Chromatic Aberrations.