Olympus Camedia C-740

Olympus C-740 Ultra Zoom Review

by Tracey Capen

- WHAT'S HOT: The C-740 is not the first digital camera to have a 10X optical zoom, but it is the first we've reviewed that's priced under $500. At its maximum focal length, the zoom is the 35mm equivalent of a 380mm telephoto lens--sufficient for sports, nature, and other outdoor shooting. This camera takes the kitchen-sink approach to exposure controls: In addition to a full-automatic mode, you can switch between six scene modes, aperture priority, shutter priority, a program mode, and full manual. It also has manual focus, though you'd be hard-pressed to find it unless you read the Acrobat-based reference manual. (A hint: Hold down the "OK" button for a few seconds.) The useful My Mode option (a feature that's not new to this model) lets you save up to four customized groupings of control settings--typically, different combinations that you use frequently. The C-740's images earned the highest scores we've recorded to date among 3-megapixel cameras. Although most of the shots were a shade underexposed (dark), they had nice detail and solid, accurate, well-saturated colors. Our outdoor photo, taken on a bright, sunny day, showed almost no noise (visible speckling) in the completely blue sky, although the blue appeared a bit flat. The C-740 also captured shadow details that many digital cameras tend to miss. The one significant knock: The shot of our mannequin taken indoors with flash displayed slightly cadaverous skin tones. Most of our casual photos looked surprisingly sharp (for a 3-megapixel camera) and nicely exposed, except for an outdoor portrait with fill flash, in which our model's pale white skin was badly overexposed.