Marco Gizmo
Olympus C-5060 Review
Published by Marco Gizmo on May 23rd, 2007 | Tagged Digital Cameras
The Olympus Camedia C-5060 Wide Zoom is the company’s followup to the very successful C-5050.
At 5.1 Megapixels, the C-5060 has a 4x wide angle zoom (equivalent of 27mm). Other features include a nift swivelling LCD viewer which performs well in sunlight and the ability to throw on an extra flashlight. The camera also takes both compact flash and xD Picture cards at the same time.
If you are familiar with the older C-5050 then the C-5060 will be a pleasant surprise with very similar controls. The controls are quite comprehensive and intuitive once you get used to the camera.
The casing is magnesium alloy, so travellers should be able to bash this unit around a little without too much of a problem. A nice big grip also makes it easy to hold when you’re on the move and the 500 gram weight shouldn’t be too taxing for carrying.
The C-5060 has an advanced spot metering mode with up to 8 spot readings with exposure conpensation from +2 to -2.
There is also a white balance function which also allows you to mess around with the amount of red or blue from +7 to -7 steps. There are also 4 customisable white balance settings. There is also a frame assist mode which shows gridlines through the viewfinder to help with framing your shots.
Turning the camera on takes about three seconds which is not great when you are in a rush to get a shit off - not particularly great for travellers. However, the 0.4 second lag time for capturing images (once the thing is on) is actually very fast for a digi compact.
The battery’s capacity is at 10.8Wh making it ahead of the bunch in that respect (another big consideration for travellers) - if you turn off the LCD and use the normal viewfinder, the battery life can be extended a lot longer.
The pic resolution is 2592×1944 pixels and the ISO range is from 80 to 400.
There are a couple of macro modes on the C-5060 allowing you to get within a few inches of the subject.
All up, the long batter life, good pic quality, durability and utility of the Olympus C-5060 makes this one of the better choices for travellers who want one of the better 5 megapixel cameras around.
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