Olympus C-760 Ultra Zoom review

15 March 2004 21:37 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Available only through Jessops, the C760 is an exclusive offering to the chain of camera shops. It’s common practice for camera manufacturers to offer certain shops variants of its range as an exclusive. Sometimes the models are better than the official offering, other times it’s because the chains buyer feels the changes would suit its customers better. Either way, for the public on the whole, it’s not a bad thing. Okay, so you won’t be able to shop around, but then you have more models to choose from in any given range.

This time the variant is the C-760 Ultra Zoom model, a 3.2 mega pixel version of the 4 mega pixel C-750 UZ. Like the C-750 UZ the C-760 UZ still boasts a10x optical zoom although a mega pixel has been shaved off the specification to suit a more Jessop’s-friendly price point.

The mighty lens - giving you the equivalent of 42- 420mm on a standard 35mm camera is powerful enough to get you right in the thick of it (see our sample shots) while Olympus has worked hard to produce a Super macro mode of just 3cm. The rather boxy design houses a 16Mb xD Picture Card, a custom made lithium Ion battery, and the large 10x optical zoom lens. On the back you’ll find Olympus’ standardised 1.8” LCD screen that is large enough to clearly see what is going on (albeit not on a sunny day) and a array of buttons not all in a comfortable position.

Following the trend of many digital cameras, and that of this series, Olympus has opted for an electronic viewfinder instead of an optical one. The resolution - a range plentiful 240,000 pixels is good enough to give you crystal clear images and while the electronic viewfinder is not to everyone’s liking you’ll soon get used to it.

For the point and shoot user the camera can only offer a measly four shooting modes, however it does allow you opt for the manual mode and offers a programmable option as well. Users looking to transfer there files quickly to your PC will be pleased that Olympus has opted for a USB2.0 connection rather than the now slower standard USB socket and this is a great decision when it comes to speeding up the transfer of files from the device.

For a three mega pixel camera, the pictures were surprisingly good and the bright lens helped produce well balanced images even in dark situations (see underground station shot) even when zoomed at full capacity. At the extremes of the lens the pictures did suffer some noise and flesh tones adopted an orangry tint, but nothing too major and the overall colour when not of people, even when contrasting colours were involved, was well balanced.

As with all Ultra Zoom models the camera shake is something that is a major factor and our advice would be to invest in a tripod if you’re planning on using the zoom feature a lot of the time. The fact that you’ve got to rely on a wall or tripod does explain the unit’s square shape - i.e. ideal to balance on a level surface. Beware - while dropping the mega pixel quota does offer a cheaper alternative, losing that mega pixel leaves next to no some room for manoeuvre when you want to crop. It’s virtually impossible in this model as the mega pixel count cannot handle the enlargement.

Verdict

If you're looking for an ultra zoom model on a budget the C-760 certainly offers just that, however the camera does come with restrictions and you may be better off saving your money for a little bit longer.

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Review Recap

Made by: Olympus
Price as reviewed: £350
The good: 10x Optical Zoom, USB 2.0
The bad: Exclusive to Jessops, 1 MP less than old model
Quick verdict: You can only buy this from the one chain, so research the model above it (the C750-UZ) for comparison
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