outdoors and the sun gets in the frame but this is something we see with most digicams.
Screen visibility is good in all but direct sunlight where you should be using the optical
viewfinder unless you need to access the menus. I found it quite easy to shield the
screen by cupping my hand around it when I had to change settings in the great
outdoors.
Speaking of optical vewfinders ... the C-3030 uses the same eyelevel, coupled optical
viewfinder as the C-2020. There is a diopter adjustment knob on the side and it is a
large and bright viewfinder so even those wearing glasses will have no problems using
it. It shows slightly less than 90% of the final image. The LCD if used as a viewfinder
shows about 98% of the capture area. I did notice that the optical viewfinder is offset
from the actual captured image.
I received an email from Alan Chaffee asking me if the C-3030 had the same optical
viewfinder problem as the C-2020. So I performed the following (non-scientific)
experiment. I shot a picture with the viewfinder crosshairs on an easily identifiable
portion of the picture (indicated by the red vertical and horizontal lines) and then
checked the captured image's center. I sent the picture to Alan who brought it into Corel
PhotoPaint, made this
screen capture
and determined that the camera shifted the photo
to the left (by 28 pixels) and up (by 22 pixels). This amounts to a 9% (8.75) shift to the
left and a 9% (9.17) shift upwards.
One of the first exterior improvements I noticed was the new battery door (thank you,
thank you, thank you!) With the C-2000 and the C-2020, the user had to be
ambidextrous to the max to say the least. The new battery door closes easily and
logically and then stays closed with a sliding security latch. Be forewarned -- there is no
electronic interlock so if you forget to flip the security latch the camera still works and all
it takes is a good bump and that door pops open.
Unfortunately Olympus decided not to package a set of NiMH batteries and charger this
time. They did include two of their new lithium 3v battery packs that take the place of the
four AA type batteries. They work fine but they are not rechargeable so you'll end up
buying a set or two of NiMH batteries and a charger to complete this otherwise excellent
camera system. My only other complaint is the lack of any kind of lens cap keeper.
Even Nikon finally gave us a lens cap string with the new Coolpix 990.
Bottom Line
is that this is an excellent camera. As I said at the beginning, it will be one
of the cameras that I'll recommend without hesitation to those seeking the "best" of the
Y2K consumer digicams.
