Olympus Camedia C-5060 Zoom

Review Date: 28th August 2004

Features

The Olympus C-5060 Zoom has a 1/1.8 inch 5-megapixel CCD which will allow you to create prints up to A3 in size. The lens is a f/2.8-4.8, 4x optical zoom which gives a focal length equivalent to 27-110mm on a 35mm camera. The lens is comprised of 8 lenses in 7 groups with 2 aspherical lens elements. There is also a 1x – 3.5x digital zoom available; when combined with the optical zoom this produces a 14x seamless zoom.

The tilting LCD monitor helps you to frame scenes when shooting from difficult angles, such as from the floor or above your head. It can be tilted down 20 and up 90 degrees in 4 positions that click into place. It can also be swiveled round by 270 degrees. The LCD monitor is a 1.8 inch colour TFT with 130,388 pixels, and brightness adjustment is possible. There is also an optical viewfinder available.

The Olympus C-5060 Zoom has a startup time of 3 seconds and a release time lag (including AF time) of 0.4 seconds (in wide angle, focus position from 80cm to infinity). The focusing system is TTL autofocus with contrast detection, with an AF illuminator included for low-light situations. The main autofocus mode is iESP autofocus and there is also a spot autofocus mode, where the AF area is selectable. Manual focusing is available if you prefer that way of working. The standard working range of the camera is 0.8m – infinity; in Macro mode you can focus as close as 20cm from the subject, and in Super-Macro mode as close as 3cm.

The main metering mode on the Olympus C-5060 Zoom is Olympus' Digital ESP (Electro Selective Pattern), which is used throughout their range of digital cameras. If that fails to give a well-exposed image, there is also spot metering, multi-spot light metering and center-weighted metering available. AE Lock allows you to take a reading, lock the exposure into the camera's memory and then recompose the scene. There are also a range of automatic program modes available, including Landscape, Portrait, Night Scene, Sports and Landscape with Portrait. Exposure compensation is available - ±2 EV in 1/3 EV or 1/2 EV steps - and you can auto-bracket up to 5 frames. There is also a very useful histogram function that you can enable to check the exposure of your photographs, either before the photo is taken or afterwards. The shutter speed range is 16 – 1/4000 sec.

There are a range of White Balance settings. You can leave the camera set to Auto or choose from a number of pre-sets, which include Shade, overcast, sunlight, evening sun, tungsten light and fluorescent light 1,2,3,4. If none of the pre-sets provide an accurate result, white balance adjustment is available from (Red) -7 – +7 (blue). There is also a custom setting which allows for full manual control.

ISO speed is selectable on the Olympus C-5060 Zoom, You can either select Automatic and leave it up to the camera to choose what it thinks is the best setting, or select from ISO 80, 100, 200 and 400. The continuous shooting performance of the Olympus C-5060 Zoom allows you to take up to 10 frames at up to 1.4 shots per second in HQ mode, or up to 4 frames at up to 3.0 shots per sec in any JPEG mode.

The built-in flash features numerous modes including Auto (automatic activation in low and backlight), Red-eye reduction, Fill-in (forced activation), Slow synchronisation and Off (no flash). It has a guide number of 9 and a working range of 0.8 m – 3.7 m when the lens is at its widest setting, and 0.2m – 2.2m at its longest. Recycle time is approximately 5 seconds. The Olympus C-5060 Zoom also incorporates a hot shoe for connecting a compatible external flash unit and it works with slave strobe lights.

You can make several image quality adjustments in-camera. Sharpness, contrast and saturation can all be adjusted on a scale from -5 – +5, with 0 being the default value. A number of function modes can be selected - sepia mode, black & white mode, black board mode, white board mode, panorama mode and a two in one function. Images are recorded as JPEGs in a range of different quality and size settings; TIFF and RAW formats are also available. The Olympus C-5060 Zoom has a motion picture mode which allows you to record QuickTime Motion JPEGs. There are 3 settings - SHQ (640 x 480 pixels): 39 sec. max. (15 frames/sec.), (320 x 240 pixels): 96 sec. max. (15 frames/sec.) and SQ (160 x 120 pixels): 424 sec. max. (15 frames/sec.).

The Olympus C-5060 Zoom is compatible with several of the digital image storage standards, including xD-Picture Card (16, 32, 64, 128, 256 and 512MB), Compact Flash Type I/II and Microdrive (except 340MB). So if you're upgrading from an older camera, you may find that you can keep all of your memory cards and use them with the Olympus C-5060 Zoom. The camera is powered by a 7.2V rechargeable Li-ion battery. There is a DC input terminal, USB Auto Connect interface (storage class/SDK) and an A/V output. PictBridge support allows direct printing with compatible printers, and a useful setting memorisation feature allows you to store up to 8 camera settings in a custom mode. The camera's dimensions are 116 (W) x 87 (H) x 65.6 (D)mm (excluding protrusions), and it weighs 430g without a memory card or battery fitted.

Olympus have been fairly generous with what they supply with the Olympus C-5060 Zoom. A neck strap, 32 MB xD-Picture Card, rechargeable battery and battery charger, lens cap, USB cable, AV cable, software (CAMEDIA Master 4.1), instruction manual and a warranty card are all included in the box. You will need to purchase a bigger memory card though when you buy the camera, as you can only fit around 8 SHQ 2,592 x 1,944 files on a 32mb card.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Olympus C-5060 Zoom have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.