You might overlook this seemingly unassuming camera at first glance, but don’t be fooled! The Olympus Camedia C7000 compact digital camera holds a lot of features and value. Having a 7.1 megapixel range, very user-friendly controls, and excellent quality output, this camera is defiantly a worth contender in its field.

With its innovative and useful new features and you have a rival to challenge most others for the best digital cameras available. Let’s take a closer look at the Olympus C7000

The Olympus C7000 is the smallest camera in its division weighing in at only 7.7 ounces. You will find yourself trying to figure out how they packed as many features as they did into such an impressive little camera.

Upon closer examination you discover that the Olympus C7000 possesses a stylish metal body, finished in a sleek titanium color. Well laid out controls are found on the back of the camera, along with a 2-inch LCD screen that proves easy to see even in bright sunlight due to semi-transmissive TFT technology.

The CCD sensor located deep inside the C7000 has the ability to capture 7.1 megapixels of photographic information and when combined with a 5X optical zoom lens capable of 35-mm focal lengths varying from 38mm to 190mm, this camera more than lives up to its ability to capture top quality photographs.

Thanks to a TruePic TURBO image processor, users can enjoy taking clean and sharp photos with superb color representation and little distortion or noise. As well as a real-time histogram, users can be informed of over and underexposed areas in photos while in any shooting mode via color-coded highlighting. The C7000 can also confidently record VGA video at 30 frames per second, and has both a microphone and speaker built in for recording and playback.

When you press the power button on the top of the C7000 you will be pleased with the time it takes to fire up coming in at under a single second. The feeling doesn’t stop with just speed. You will find the controls to be where you want them to be located and the user friendly external controls will never leave you second guessing how a function is performed.

Find the way through the menu controls using the LCD is also kept simple, and advanced users will be delighted to have many appealing features such as Autofocus Target Selection and Red-Eye Fix so easily accessible.

Photos are stored using xD-Picture Cards, and Olympus have included a 32MB card in the box so you can get started taking photos right away. A USB 2.0 connection is used to transfer photos to your computer, and the cable for this is also included.

You will also find in the box a lithium ion rechargeable battery which powers the Olympus C7000, along with a compatible charger. Depending on the camera settings you should be able to get about 200 shots from this camera between battery charges.

For a digital camera with so much to offer it is hard to find the shortcomings amongst all the excellent features. The only issue that stands out as a problem with the Olympus C7000 is the Autofocus - this sometimes has problems when used in low-lit conditions, although it works well in bright light, even if not as fast as similar cameras available for the same price.

In summary, the Olympus C7000 is nothing less than an excellent camera for the asking price of just under $600. It may not be the cheapest camera of this kind available, but the stylish and robust design, excellent image quality, and many useful features make this camera stand out amongst the others.

One feature not yet mentioned in this review is the time-lapse setting that can set the camera to take photos automatically at 1 to 60-minute intervals, and it is features like this combined with everything else the Olympus C7000 has to offer that make it a highly recommended choice.