Olympus C-5050 Digital Camera

Olympus C-5050 Zoom Review

by Tracey Capen

- WHAT'S HOT: There's a lot to like about the C-5050 Zoom, starting with the quality of its photos. In our lab tests, this 5-megapixel model earned some of the highest image-quality scores we've recorded to date. The camera produced exceptionally fine detail, accurate exposures, and bright colors, with solid whites. The only exception was an underexposed flash shot of our model. We were equally pleased with most pictures taken outside the lab. Close-up photos of a butterfly had very fine details and excellent color. Indoor shots with flash were a bit less impressive. All preserved fine details and had sharp focus, but the color seemed a bit cold in some. Each generation of Olympus cameras we review seems to have a better interface. With the C-5050, Olympus took a new approach to combining control buttons and menus. Press a button (for the focus modes, for example), and a menu with large, easy-to-decipher icons pops up. Spin a dial on the back of the C-5050 with your thumb, and the menu options rotate into a selection box. This routine works for many of the camera's most commonly used image settings, including flash modes, exposure value (EV) settings, metering controls, bracketing, and the self-timer. This arrangement is much easier to cycle through and interpret than the obtuse buttons and layered menus used on the Nikon Coolpix 5000--a camera whose design closely resembles the C-5050's.