Everything you wanted in a Digital camera. Review on Olympus Camedia D-360L

It’s been nearly 6 months since I got my own D-360L and I have to admit I have yet to get over it. It’s great features and manual exposure controls will ensure that the amateur photographers and hobbyists never run out of ways to express his/her creativity. It’s no surprising matter that the D-360L have been voted by PC World as the best Sub $500 Digital Camera. Let’s see for ourselves what makes it so special.

This marvel of technology is a 1.3 megapixel digital camera with features that rival those found in 2.1 or 3.4 MP professional cameras at less than half the price. Whoever said that all good things in life came with a hefty price tag.

For starters, the D-360L looks like any innocuous 35mm still camera, unless you notice the 1.8” LCD display and the absence of a film window. It’s not exactly pocket sized in the usual sense of the term so make sure you have extra deep pockets to stuff in this baby. It’s smooth silver finish is marred only by an irritating large red LED on the front panel. This is the self-timer lamp which does come in handy but doesn’t do much for the aesthetics. Apart from this little detail, the camera is designed well. It’s easy to hold and it’s menu based system is incredibly simple to use as soon as you get acquainted to it. It stores pictures on a slim SmartMedia memory card (which looks like an enlarged version of your celluar phome SIM card). For it’s size the media is fantastic. You can store upto 522 pictures (640X480, JPG) on a single 32Mb card. A tiny door opens to reveal the computer, A/V and power adapter ports.

The Camera is also incredibly simple to use, as long as you use the automatic settings. It’s auto-focus system selects the best ISO, flash conditions, and exposure compensation so that every shot is crisp and equals comparable 35mm film quality. Be a bit more adventurous and you can change all these attributes yourself, tweak with features such as white balance adjustment, sequence shots, panoramic mode, spot metering and ESP. The built-in LCD display is crisp and bright but eats up battery life like an unchecked e-coli virus. Apart from serving as a digital viewfinder and previewing pictures taken before, it is also required to set the various adjustments mentioned before. You could also hook up the D-360L to any TV or monitor with an A/V port and preview shots with the slideshow option. This feature comes in handy when you don’t have a computer nearby. Though I haven’t tried it, it is technically possible to use the D-360L as a video camera by hooking it up to a VCR or a video grabber card and activating the digital viewfinder option.

It’s true potential is unleashed when you use the bundled software (Camedia Master) and start downloading the pics onto a PC. The default transfer mode is via a serial cable, which is pretty slow. You are however at liberty to buy a USB cable or an external SmartMedia reader. The S/W has minimal image editing features but it does serve as an image management s/w and has a user-friendly interface such as ACDSee. You could also adjust Camera setting with this. Whenever you hook up the camera to the PC the S/W always sets the camera clock to the system time. After downloading is complete, you can work with the JPG files in any way you want to. I would definitely recommend a 3rd party image manipulation utility such as Photoshop, Photo-o-Paint or PhotoImpact. You can capture images in 2 resolutions [640X480 and 1280X960] and different compression formats. This is essentially a point-and-shoot camera so don’t expect great wide angle or telescopic shots. You can however create your own panoramic shots by using the panorama feature and the bundled S/W, which can create stunning landscape pictures. You could also use QuickTime 4 to create your own QuickTime VR’s.

There is a digital zoom function, which is not quite as effective as an optical zoom. The macro feature however is terrific and you can capture objects from as close as 2” without losing out on clarity or detail.

It usually names the JPG files in a chronological order and contains meta-data which contains information such as Camera Manufacturer and Model, quality, shutter speed, aperture, ISO and focul length to name a few apart from the mandatory date and time of creation.

The D-360L uses four AA Alkaline or rechargeable batteries. For all it’s virtues, the battery life does leave a lot to be desired. This is the ONLY complaint against this otherwise perfect camera. For this reason, I always charge my batteries overnight whenever I need to use the camera for a special occasion. One can extend the battery life to a certain limit if he is judicious with the LCD and flash usage. It is also recommended to use an external adapter while hot-syncing with a PC.

The C-780L (which is the Asian version of the D-360L) is pricey in India with a staggering Rs. 25,000 price tag. You will get a far better deal elsewhere though. It used to retail in the US for around $300, which is amazing value for a camera of this caliber.

All said and done, if you are looking for a great digital camera at a reasonable price, the 360L should be your first foray into the exciting world of digital photography.