Wayne N. Kawamoto
Managing Editor, www.smallbusinesscomputing.com
Olympus America announced its CAMEDIA C-4000 ZOOM, an affordable, full-featured 4 megapixel digital camera that offers a zoom lens, full photographic controls and advanced features such as multi-point spot average metering, super macro focusing, and histogram in shooting and review modes.
According to the company, its C-4000 ZOOM combines a 4 Megapixel CCD and a high-performance f2.8 3X Optical Zoom. The camera should be able to provide crisp, high-quality prints up to 11″ X 14″. The C-4000 ZOOM’s accessories include an assortment of lenses, external flashes and powering solutions.
Picture Quality
The all-glass 6.5mm-19.5mm f2.8-f11 lens (the equivalent of 32-96mm in 35mm photography) is matched to a 4.0 Megapixel CCD. Six scene program modes may optimize image quality by adjusting exposure, tone and color to provide the best match for specific shooting situations, including everything from landscape, to night scene, and sports photography. The C-4000z’s noise reduction mode may produce relatively noise-free photos during long exposures.
Olympus says that its C-4000 ZOOM is easy to use. Standard Program Auto mode should allow photographers to take pictures in typical situations using basic point-and-shoot techniques. Users can access six different scene program modes with a new “Virtual Dial” feature. The “Virtual Dial” should give the shooter instant access to settings such as portrait, self portrait, landscape-portrait, landscape, night scene and sports. Olympus’ newly enhanced “My Mode” feature now offers 4 separate user-customizable settings for more creative options. The menu also features three Shortcut Buttons that lets users assign the most frequently used menu categories.
For easy, software-free photo downloads, the C-4000 ZOOM features Olympus’ USB Auto-Connect capabilities so images may be downloaded quickly and easily in all current Mac and Windows operating systems. The supplied CAMEDIA Master 4.0 software lets users edit, print and share photos.
Experienced photographers may appreciate the C-4000 ZOOM’s manual settings that offer individual controls for aperture priority, shutter priority, and full manual operation with manual shutter speeds ranging from 16 to 1/1,000 of a second. Multi-Point Metering enables up to 8 separate points in the image area to be averaged for proper exposures in difficult lighting conditions. Dynamic Histograms are visible on the LCD in both shoot and review modes to display the photo’s brightness across the image area.
The C-4000 ZOOM is priced at $499. For more information, please visit the company’s web site at www.olympusamerica.com.
