Olympus Camedia C-3040 Zoom 16mb 2048x1536

WHAT'S HOT: Though somewhat brick-like in shape, the all-black-bodied C-3040 has a comfortable and rugged feel, with a four-cell battery compartment that makes a solid right-handed grip. The C-3040 also sports a fast f1.8 lens and takes QuickTime video clips with sound. An extensive list of exposure controls runs the gamut from full auto to shutter and aperture priority, and to a full manual mode that's especially easy to use.

When you're shooting in bright sunlight, viewing the LCD screen of many digital cameras is a painful act of squinting and trying to shade the display. The C-3040's LCD seems brighter than most, and with its simple and easy-to-read text-based menu system, you can work in sunlight with little difficulty.

Quick reviews of shots you've just taken are especially easy on the C-3040. You double-press the button that turns on the LCD, and the last shot you took pops up. The thumb-pad navigation buttons let you scroll through all of your images and selectively delete the rejects. We also like the dual-function zoom control: In review mode, it lets you quickly switch from a nine-shot thumbnail view to one of several magnifications of a single shot (up to 3X).

WHAT'S NOT: Most of the controls are in menus, which slows down your shooting if you need to make some basic adjustments, such as changing the image resolution or switching between aperture-priority and shutter-priority modes. The only two dedicated exposure control buttons handle the flash mode and the spot-meter/macro modes.

Some minor annoyances make this camera less of a pleasure to use. Forget to take the lens cap off when you turn on the camera, and you get a lot of grinding and beeping as the camera tries to extend the lens and then finally warns you there's a problem. Kodak's DC3400 handles this a bit better, with a tethered, soft rubber cap that pops off when the lens extends from the camera body. (A related problem with both cameras is that you cannot put the lens cap on while the camera is in shooting mode.) Our final quibble is with the zoom, which works noisily and slowly.

Setting the resolution is also frustrating: Whenever we turned the camera off (to save power) and then back on again, it would not save the high-resolution setting we wanted to use--it kept reverting to a lower resolution. We later discovered that we had to change one of the user-defined settings buried deep in the menus to make the higher resolution stick.

WHAT ELSE: The C-3040 produces images that rank slightly better than those of most of the digital cameras we've reviewed. In our jury tests it slightly outscored both the nearly identical Camedia C-2040 and Olympus's power-shooter camera, the E-10. The C-3040's images showed good detail and accurate exposures. In flash and outdoor shots, colors looked bright and accurate, though some of the images with lots of blue sky had an overall bluish cast.

Power options abound in the C-3040. The camera comes with two long-life, disposable 3-volt lithium battery packs (CR-V3), but you can also insert four standard AA batteries, get optional NiMH rechargeable cells, or connect the camera to AC with an optional adapter.

Though navigating through the camera's menu system is relatively simple, a few functions drove us back to the user manual more than once. Figuring out the manual focus, for example, took careful reading, and even after we understood how it was supposed to work we found it cumbersome to use.

There is no shortage of extras with this camera, including a remote control for the shutter release, an automatic exposure lock, auto-bracketing, the ability to add audio notes to images, manual focus, sequence shooting, and preset white-balance options. And unlike the C-2040, this model offers both USB and serial connections; the C-2040 is limited to the former.

BEST USE: The C-3040 is a sturdy camera that should fit the needs of digital photographers who like their cameras automatic but want some control over their imaging.

SUMMARY

Olympus Camedia C-3040 Zoom 3.34 megapixels; 2048 by 1536 maximum resolution; 35mm to 105mm focal range (35mm equivalent); f1.8 to f10 aperture range; shutter speeds from 16 seconds to 1/800 second; optical and LCD viewfinders; serial, USB, and video connections; bundled 16MB SmartMedia card; two 3-volt disposable lithium batteries (can also use four AAs); 13.7 ounces with batteries; Camedia Master 2.5 software. One-year parts and labor warranty, toll-free support for 13 hours on weekdays. $799 800/622-6372 www.olympus.com