with previous models, Olympus has again included that handy infrared remote control.
You can operate the zoom and snap a picture in record mode or control the camera
during playback on the TV from the other side of the room.
Exposure options include Programmed Automatic, a point and shoot mode where the
camera chooses the best combination of shutter speed and aperture. If you want more
control, you can pick from Aperture-priority (F2.8-F11), Shutter-priority (1-1/800 sec) or
full Manual. These modes must be chosen from the setup menu and take effect when
you switch the mode dial to the "A/S/M" position. When in Manual mode there is a
digital light meter displayed on the LCD screen to let you know if your combination of
shutter speed and aperture will yield a properly exposed picture.
The C-3030's sensitivity by default will change automatically to suit the conditions or you
can manually lock it in at ISO 100, 200 or 400. Using ISO 200 or 400 with shutter
speeds longer than 1/8 of a second will result in varying amounts of CCD noise that will
appear as speckles and Christmas lights (red, green and blue hot pixels.)
Metering can be center-weighted averaging or spot. White balance options are:
Automatic, daylight, cloudy, incandescent and flourescent but no manual preset. The
builtin speedlight's output can be controlled (+/- 2.0 in 0.3 increments) and offers
Auto-Flash, Red-Eye Reduction, Fill-in or Off modes. Its working range is excellent from
macro out to about ten feet and with little to no redeye problems. There is a 5-pin
connector for full TTL control of the optional Olympus FL-40 speedlight. Using this
external speedlight gives you much greater working range as well as off-camera bounce
for more natural looking flash pictures.
The all glass, 3X optical zoom lens covers a focal range of 32-96mm (35mm equivalent)
and is not only fast but very sharp. It exhibits the usual amount of barrel distortion in full
wideangle and a moderate amount of pincushioning at full telephoto. The motorized
zoom mechanism is smooth and positive although it often seemed a little too fast. The
focus range is from 30 inches to infinity in normal mode and 8 inches to 30 inches in
macro mode.
Autofocus is TTL using a contrast detection system or you can switch to manual focus
with 130 steps from 8 inches to infinity. When manual focusing, a slider scale is
overlayed on the color LCD and the display is zoomed as you adjust the distance. The
autofocus is accurate and usually performs its job in a second or less even in macro
mode and works well down into dim lighting conditions.
Filters or add-on lenses can be attached to the C-3030 using the Olympus CLA-1
adapter. Tiffen also makes an adapter that can be used on the C-3030, C-2020 and
C-2000 cameras. I did use the
EagleEye OpticZoom
on the C-3030 but it vignettes at
anything other than wide open aperture (F2.8), you can see some sample images by
following the link above.
The 1.8-inch color LCD is one of the new "Wideview" displays and is much easier to see
from the side than earlier LCDs. It has excellent resolution and the backlight can be
adjusted to suit a wide range of viewing conditions. The refresh rate is realtime so there
is no herky-jerky display even when fast panning. It does tend to streak a bit when used
