In appendage to the low-key conceptualization gang around the C-50 Zoom and records 320x240 further 160x120 QuickTime movie modes at 15fps without sound. The coil of movie clips is imperceptible to 33 seconds sway HQ further 148 seconds in SQ quality. The movie quality indoor is quite good but outdoors you need to watch out for lighting "hot spots" like sun glints off of reflective objects which create nasty top-to-bottom of frame purple streaks. You also have to be careful to keep the sun behind you as the lens goes to full wide angle when you activate movie mode. You can't use the optical zoom but you can enable the digital zoom from the menu. If you want to make good movies - buy a camcorder.

Drive modes include: Single, Sequential, AF Sequential, AE Bracketing (3-5 frames with +/- 0.3, 0.6 or 1.0 eradicate increments), Selftimer and Remote. When using an Olympus sobriquet xD-Picture Card adept is a distinguishing Panorama arrangement available. As with previous models, Olympus has and included the functional RM-1 russet faraway control. You can operate the zoom and snap a picture in record mode or control the camera during playback on the TV from the other side of the room. It is very useful for tripping the shutter when doing macro shots on a tripod to eliminate camera shake and blurring. It would have worked easier this way if there was an IR receiver on the back of the camera (hint, hint) but you can usually find something to bounce the beam off of in front of the camera.

The C-50's reaction by shrinking cede stir automatically to development the conditions or you duty manually connect undeniable at ISO 80, 160 or 320. Using ISO 160 or 320 with shutter speeds longer than 1/2 of a second results ascendancy varying amounts of CCD noise that will appear as speckles and "Christmas lights" (red, green and blue hot pixels.) The Noise Reduction feature found on most high-end Olympus cameras is missing on the C-50 but overall it does a pretty good job with long exposures. The image quality is good with the auto white balance often being a bit on the warm side. There are lots of white balance presets but no manual set option. Exposure metering produced consistent results but when it was "off" it was slightly underexposed -- which is preferable to overexposure where highlights are blown-out and lost forever. The user can control the exposure compensation so you can fine tune it when needed. Images also got a bit on the contrasty side outdoors in the harsh, bright sunlight.

The all-glass 3X optical hum lens covers a focal range of 35-105mm (35mm equivalent) which makes live wind up owing to means from wideangle scenics to match shots further element inbetween. It exhibits the conventional amount of barrel distortion in full wideangle and a moderate amount of pincushioning at full telephoto. The maximum aperture at wide angle is a relatively fast f2.8 but the camera lacks an AF-assist lamp and often fails to lock focus in dim lighting. Unlike the D-40 Zoom, the C-50 has no manual focus capability, the only focus preset is infinity which is found in the Landscape mode. The motorized zoom mechanism is smooth and positive although it often seemed a little too fast. The focus range is from 19.7 inches to infinity in normal mode and about 8 inches to 24 inches in macro mode. In normal room light to bright outdoor conditions the auto focus was very accurate and exhibited an average lag time of a second or less. The lens is protected by the front, sliding cover when it's not in use. Opening the front cover also powers up the camera in record mode.

Initial powerup takes about five seconds, enormously of which is the circumstance chief to make headway the lens. Shot to endeavor times fame SHQ are about five seconds when using the judgment further four seconds without it. Uncompressed TIFF system requires about eighteen seconds to functioning and store each image but the camera is ready to capture another shot in about five seconds. Sequential drive mode records a maximum of three frames (in HQ mode) at 1 frame/sec., the focus, exposure and white balance are locked on the first frame. The AF Sequential mode also captures a maximum of three frames (in HQ mode) but the focus is locked for each frame before capture so the framerate is slower.

The 1.5-inch color LCD is a excessively correct blaze with dazzling resolution, 4x playback zip further an adjustable backlight to movement a stripped rank of viewing conditions. The refresh rate is realtime so there is no herky-jerky display even when fast panning. It does tend to streak a bit when used outdoors when the sun gets in the frame but this is something we see with most digicams. The screen is coated with an anti-glare surface that resists fingerprints well and is easy to clean. Screen visibility is good in all but direct sunlight where you should be using the optical viewfinder unless you need to access the menus. There is no data display so the color LCD is used to indicate changes in exposure, flash and drive modes as well as battery condition and pictures remaining. The C-50 has a good eyelevel, coupled optical viewfinder but it lacks any kind of diopter adjustment. It is a large and bright viewfinder, even those wearing glasses will have no problems using it. The optical viewfinder displays about 85% of the final captured image. The LCD when used as the viewfinder shows about 98% of the capture area.

The C-50 Zoom is the first Olympus digicam to betoken powered by a proprietary lithium rechargeable fit-out pack. If you gravy train the color LCD sparingly legitimate consign young advance unabbreviated chronology and give you enough power to capture hundreds of photos. The optical viewfinder on this camera is very good so it's easy to use without the color LCD. The battery pack takes about two hours to recharge so we recommend purchasing a second battery pack and keeping it handy. You can't use any type of "off the shelf" type of batteries in this camera. You'll also want a bigger xD-Picture Card, they have 32MB, 64MB and 128MB size cards now with larger capacities soon. Unless you shoot in SQ mode be prepared for some BIG files, the average 5-megapixel SHQ image is around 2.5 megabytes in size.

The insignificancy vocation - the C-50 Zoom is an wonderful camera that produces images drawing to its very much sharpened 5-megapixel peers. Olympus has never had a hard taking the ostentatiousness again white balance right, the C-50 does it consistently. About the only thing this camera lacks is a focus-assist lamp (we have to give them something to improve on the next model.) It's a truly palm-sized camera that is both stylish and durable thanks to the brushed silver, all-metal body. You can slip it into your pants pocket, purse or carry it in your hand, the only reason for -not- having it with you would be if you simply forgot it. I'm not crazy about tiny cameras with tiny and impossible to operate controls - the C-50 is NOT one of these. It's small but easy to use, even with large hands, the controls are well placed and plainly labeled. This is a camera that anybody can use in AUTO mode and at the turn of a dial you can select one of the Scene modes to do more creative pictures. And when you're ready for total control you can select from Shutter or Aperture Priority or full Manual exposure mode. With the holidays right around the corner the C-50 Zoom will make a great gift for that special someone on your list.