Olympus C-5000 Zoom: Next Generation Digital Camera

By Jonathan Berohn

If you don’t like electronic gadgets, then stop here. You don’t need this camera. But if you want serious resolution and enough features that will tingle the skin of even the most jaded, seen-it-all technophile, the Olympus C-5000 Zoom is perfect for you.

Clocking in at 5.0 megapixels, the C-5000 has enough resolution for close-up enlargements, and even publishing. In addition to its resolution, the C-5000 lets you do just about anything you could ever want to do with a camera. It has 12x seamless optical + digital zoom (3x optical and 4x digital), auto connect USB, 6 preset program modes, and Picture Card compatibility. You can also take QuickTime movies and see and review all the shots you take with the built in LCD screen. The 32 MB Picture Card the camera comes with is a bit limited, though—especially if you plan on taking any movies. I’d suggest upgrading to 132 MB so you don’t have to download quite as often.

The C-5000 is both PC and Mac compatible, and it comes with Camedia—an easy to use program that, while not as robust as something like Photoshop, certainly meets the needs of the average home photographer.

One of the best features of the C-5000 is the way it charges the battery. Unlike most cameras where you plug in the whole camera, with the C-5000 you remove the battery and pop it into the charger. This lets you keep multiple batteries charged so you don’t run out of juice at inopportune times.

Also, surprisingly enough, the C-5000, despite its advanced features, is fairly straightforward to use. You can fiddle with all the settings of course, but you can simply take great pictures without adjusting anything. My wife’s 8th grade yearbook students use a C-5000 for the cameo shots, and not only have they taken great photos, but they have yet to break it.