Olympus FE-340

8.00 Megapixels   5.00x zoom   2.7 inch LCD

I actually wish Olympus would make up its communal mind concerning the FE variety of mid-priced digital compacts. Are they hypothetical to be good, or are they crap? Last August we saw the unsatisfactory FE-230, and then in September we had the actually rather good FE-250. In January this year we saw the truthfully horrible FE-290. Rationally, extrapolating that tendency to the top-of-the-range FE-340, it be supposed to be actually, really good. But then once more, logic is little tweeting bird cheeping in meadow. Logic is garland of pretty flowers that stink bad.

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The FE-340 is an 8.0-megapixel, 5x zoom dense camera with a 2.7-inch, 230k monitor. It has an aluminum body and is obtainable in a range of colors counting black, grey, silver and the quite wonderful metallic pink of my appraisal example (and boy did I get some humorous looks as testing it!). at present obtainable for just £120 it is absolutely towards the budget finish of the price spectrum, compare well with similarly-specified cameras like the Pentax Option L50 (£130), the Nikon CoolPix S550 (£150), the Sony Cyber-Shot S800 (£150) and the Samsung i85 (£160). Of the main brand merely the new Fujifilm FinePix J50 is cheaper at approximately £106. though the low price is reflect in the camera's features and capability. If you're looking for complexity and adaptability then the FE-340 is not for you.

It also has to be supposed that even in pink it's not a chiefly attractive camera. The plan is an irregular lumpy mish-mash of parts that seem like they've been wedged onto the body as an late addition. It is quite light and dense though, measuring 96.9 x 57.5 x 22.6 mm and weigh only 131g counting the battery. It is quite easy to hold, with the chrome detail on the right rim providing some buy for the fingers and the form dial on the back responsibility double responsibility as a thumb rest. Though while the overall construct quality is good, the finish has a number of awkwardly rough edges.

The wheel is a variety of normal Olympus parts common to the majority of the FE variety. It has a board consisting of a D-pad, menu and erase buttons, a mode dial advantage three extra buttons for show mode, playback plus evidence. The zoom control is a pleasant smooth rotary bezel approximately the shutter button, and is extremely simple to use. Though the zoom device itself is step, with just eight increment covering the longer-than-average 5x zoom range. Also the digital go fast cannot be twisted off, and there is hardly any pause flanked by the maximum optical go fast and the hazard zone of digital zoom.

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