Mixed Bag. Review on Olympus FE 290

I made a recent impulsive purchase of a digital cam, budget was 10K and among canon, nikon and olympus, selected olympus Fe 290 becoz of 1) largest lcd screen, 2) reliability( I had used a camedia c 100 earlier) and 3) price( 5000/- discount over marked price of 14995/-) After using it for about 2 weeks now, I am carrying a mixed bag feeling. The package - Fe290 7.1 Mp, 4X optical zoom digicam, 1 GB card free, Li-ion battery, charger and carry pack( this was negotiated)Software. The layout -The LCD screen is a huge 3 inch(viewfinder sacrifised for the screen).Screen comes handy when u do not have laptop or tv nearby and ned to share ur photos with friends.

I was apprehensive a bit at first at the absence of a viewfinder specially in very bright conditions u can not always see though the screen. but the salesmen convinced me that this problem would not occur as the screen technology is new and adjusts automaticaly with ambient light. I have not tried this out yet though. Otherwise, overall layout is pretty impressive, comes in 2 colours -steel and black( N/A). Sides are polished stainless steel and are fingerprint magnets therefore. Casing is seel which gives the camera a look of solid build.Makes it heavy also. Interface -Interface is pretty quick and almost no delay in switching menus and displaying one picture to another.

Connectivity options are USB 2.0. No bluetooth(cant expect at this price!) TV cable provided to view directly on TV AV IN. One big advantage is the controls, they are simple and has something called a " one button -one menu" principle. really handy for quick operation. Photo quality: Above average during day. Even though optical zoom provided is 4x, quality starts to grain halfway through full zoom. this again depends on light conditions and ISO settings. No anti shake available but something called digital blurr control is there.Anyways I am not very shaky with a digicam in hand:-) 16 preset modes available including some new modes like document, sports which are not really a everyday necessity. Macro and super macro available.

For the more curious ones, one programmable mode available where you can set different ISO and apperture .But if you are serious about it, suggest go for SLR if u can afford. ISO max however is 640 which is pretty low, I feel. Olympus advertises 28mm wide zoom in this camera. Should be useful for wide angle indoor photography but do not make the mistake of thinking it is a wide angle lens. Photo quality sucks bigtime during low light / night. Flash is pathetic and any outdoor photography(even for potraits) is a big downer. I wish I could paste here some photos I had taken in besant nagar beach in chennai. Software provided: Olympus master 2 for managing and editing photos. Nothing great, like any other photo editing software. What shocked me was the the trial version of Olympus Muvi theatre did not work at all.

From installation stage itself, it was asking to buy as trial was " over" Video is at 16 fps and not really great. Sucks more is you zoom.sound recording is also average and playback audio output is poor. Here both Canon or nikon coolpix would have scored better I am sure. Battery: Li ion battery provided with charger. Supposed to last for 300 shots as per manual after a full 5 hr charge. For me it lasted for about 100 mostly with flash. Not impressve at all! Overall: At a price of 9995/- and a two year india warranty, it is a good / average buy for indoor photography.But take a serious look at Nikon coolpix also. Hope u found my first mouthshut review useful:-) PURCHASED FROM: SHEETALA CAMERAS, SPENCER PLAZA, CHENNAI.