The Olympus C-765 and C-770 Ultra Zooms are updated versions of 2003's popular C-740 and C-750 cameras. For 2004, they've received a sleeker body, the TruePic TURBO engine (for better performance and image quality), MPEG4 support (C-770 only), and PictBridge. What differentiates the two new models beside their color? Have a look:
Today's review is somewhat unique in that I'm covering two cameras in one review -- and why not, as the two cameras have much in common. And, since the cameras share the same lens and CCD (thus photo quality will be the same), I will use one of the cameras for the test shots. With that out of the way, let's begin our review of these two ultra zoom cameras! What's in the Box? Both ultra zooms have average bundles. Inside the box, you'll find:
Olympus includes a rather skimpy 16MB xD card along with the cameras. That won't hold too many high resolution photos, so you'll want to get a larger card right away. xD cards currently come in sizes ranging from 16 - 512MB. On their 2004 Ultra Zooms, Olympus made the switch from AA to lithium-ion batteries. I was a bit surprised to see this battery being used, instead of the higher capacity LI-12B that the C-60Z uses. The included LI-10B has 4.0 Wh of energy, versus 4.5 Wh on the newer LI-12B. Regardless of that, Olympus doesn't publish any battery life information, but both cameras seemed above average based on my usage. The usual rules about proprietary batteries apply here. For one, they're expensive (at least $40 a pop). Secondly, if you're in a bind, you can't just toss in AAs to get you through the day.
When it's time to recharge the battery just snap it into the included external charger. It takes about 2 hours to fully charge the battery. The adapter uses a power cable, rather than plugging right into the wall.
If you buy the C-770, you'll get the RM-2 remote control with the camera. It's very basic, with just one button. You can take a picture with it, or view a slide show in playback mode. There's no zoom control or anything.
Olympus includes a lens cap and retaining strap along with the cameras, to protect their big lenses. The Ultra Zooms support a fair number of accessories, including conversion lenses. The WCON-07 0.7X wide converter ($125) brings the wide-angle end of the cameras down to 26.6 mm, while the TCON-17 1.7X teleconverter ($99) brings the top end up to a whopping 646 mm. Another option is the MCON-40 macro conversion lens ($110), which lets you get as close as 4 cm to your subject. All three of these lenses require the CLA-4 conversion lens adapter ($20), which also lets you use 55 mm filters. If you buy the C-770, you'll have the option of attaching an external flash to the hot shoe. For best results, you'll want to use one of Olympus' flashes. They have a few to choose from, including the FL-20 ($130) and FL-50 ($450). You can use your own flash, though you'll have to manually adjust its settings. Other accessories include an AC adapter ($40) and leather case ($20).
The cameras include version 4.2 of the Olympus Camedia Master software. The screen above shows you everything it can do.
The editing tools included with Camedia Master are impressive. You can change all kinds of things like brightness, contrast, and color balance. There are also red-eye reduction and "instant fix" options. If you don't mind parting with $20, Olympus will upgrade you to the "Pro" version of the software. This adds contact sheet printing, image e-mailing, HTML albums, panorama stitching, and slide shows. If you get the C-770, you'll also get VideoStudio 7 SE Basic for Windows only, which you can use to edit videos recorded by your camera. The Ultra Zooms continue Olympus' unfortunate tradition of including the camera manual on CD-ROM. The manual itself is decent, but it's a shame that you have to view it on your PC. A printed basic manual is included, but it lacks the depth of the full manual. Look and Feel Both the C-765 and C-770 have smaller, sleeker versions of the bodies used by their predecessors. The cameras feel quite solid, and the important controls are all within easy reach. I'm not 100% positive, but I believe that the back panel of the camera is plastic on the C-765 and metal on the C-770. How do the Ultra Zoom twins compare with the competition? Have a look at this chart:
The two Olympus models are the smallest of the bunch! For what it's worth, last year's C-750UZ had numbers of 4.2 x 2.6 x 2.7 inches and 305 grams. Let's begin our full tour of both cameras now!
While the majority of the items on the front of the two cameras are the same, there are some important differences to point out. One thing that's the same is the lens. It's an F2.8-3.7, 10X optical zoom model, with a focal length of 6.3 - 63 mm (equivalent to 38 - 380 mm). The lens has "ED" elements which help to reduce the purple fringing that is so often found on ultra zoom cameras like this. Conversion lenses are supported via the CLA-4 adapter. One of the differences between the C-765 and C-770 can be found just above the lens. This is, of course, the pop-up flash. For whatever reason, the C-770 has a different type of flash, resulting in a better working range at the telephoto end. For exact numbers, see the chart at the beginning of this review. The C-770 also supports an external flash via the hot shoe that you'll see in a bit. To the right of the lens is the microphone. The red circle at the upper-left of the photo (on both cameras) is the self-timer lamp. On the C-770 only, you'll find the receiver for the included remote control located to the left of that. Olympus continues to leave AF-assist lamps off their ultra zoom cameras. It's a shame, because more and more of their other cameras have hybrid focusing systems, AF-assist lamps, or both.
Both cameras use the same LCD and electronic viewfinder (EVF). The LCD is a 1.8" model with 118,000 pixels. It's bright, sharp, and motion is very fluid (thanks to a fast refresh rate). Brightness is adjustable in the setup menu. The EVF is basically a small LCD that you view as if it was an optical viewfinder. The one here is 0.44" in size and has 240,000 pixels. I must admit that I've been spoiled by the one on the DiMAGE A2 -- it makes others pale in comparison. But the one here isn't bad, except in low light when it (as well as the LCD) will be too dark to be usable. The EVF has a diopter correction knob to focus the image on the screen. Just above the LCD is the power button/switch that is different on each camera. On the C-765UZ, it's just an on/off button, while on the C-770 it's a switch (Off, playback, record, movie). Above that are three buttons that do the following:
To the right of those buttons is the release for the pop-up flash. Just to the right of the LCD you'll find two more buttons plus the four-way controller. The QuickView button is the way to jump to playback mode without using the mode dial, while the display button switches between the LCD and EVF. The four-way controller is used for menu navigation, adjusting the exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV, 1/3EV increments), and for the manual focus function.
Speaking of which, the manual focus feature lets you use the four-way controller to focus just where you want. A guide is shown on the LCD/EVF with the focus range, and the center of the frame is enlarged so you can make sure your subject is in-focus.
One of the major differences between the two cameras can be found on the top of the camera, and that's the hot shoe. The C-770 is the camera you want to buy if adding an external flash is even a remote possibility. The best thing to connect to the hot shoe is an Olympus flash, as it will be fully integrate with the camera. You can attach a non-Olympus flash, but be prepared to manually set both the flash and the camera. The camera syncs as fast as 1/200 sec with an external flash. On the opposite side of the closed pop-up flash you'll find the shutter release button with the zoom controller around it, as well as the mode dial. The zoom controller moves the lens smoothly from wide-angle to telephoto in under 2.5 seconds. I was impressed with the precision of it too -- quick presses translate into tiny movements of the lens. The options on the mode dial differ slightly between cameras, so pay close attention to this list:
Both of these cameras prevent you from using the slowest shutter speeds unless you're in full manual mode, which I don't care for. As you can see, the C-770 has a few more scene modes than the C-765.
Over here you'll find the I/O ports and the speaker (C-770 only). The I/O ports are kept behind a flimsy plastic door and include:
Much to my surprise, the C-770 supports an external microphone. You can use any commercially available microphone to add sound to movies or stills.
Nothing to see here.
Our tour ends with a look at the bottom of the camera. Here you'll find a plastic tripod mount, plus the battery/memory card compartment. The tripod mount is neither centered nor inline with the lens. The battery/memory compartment is protected by another door of questionable strength. The included battery and xD card are shown at right. Using the Olympus C-765 / C-770 Ultra Zoom Record Mode The ultra zooms take around 4 seconds to extend their lens and "warm up" before you can start shooting.  A live histogram is shown in record mode Focus speeds were generally good. At wide-angle or in very good lighting, the camera locked focus in half a second. At the telephoto end, or in more challenging focusing situations, expect a wait of a second or more. Low light focusing was not good -- an AF-assist lamp would've really helped here. Shutter lag is not an issue at faster shutter speeds, but at slower shutter speeds (e.g. 1/10 sec) it becomes quite noticeable. Then again, you should be using a tripod at those speeds anyway. Shot-to-shot speed is excellent, with a delay of just over one second, assuming you've turned off the post-shot review feature. Taking a photo in TIFF mode will lock up the camera for approximately 8 seconds. There's no easy way to delete a photo immediately after it is taken. You'll need to use the QuickView feature instead. There are tons of image resolution and quality choices on the Ultra Zoom twins. And here they are:
Now you see why I recommended buying a larger memory card! Something I didn't mention on that list is an "enlarge size" option of 3200 x 2400. That's a nice way of saying interpolation, which means that the camera "guesses" the information needed to make that large image. My advice: stay away, or do it in Photoshop. Olympus uses one of the more sensible file numbering systems that I've seen. Files are named Pmdd####.jpg, where m is the month (1-9, A-C), d is the day, and #### is 0001-9999. This way your file numbers are always unique (well, at least a year). File numbering is maintained as you erase and switch memory cards.
The C-760/770 use Olympus' customizable menu system. When you first open the menu, you're presented with four choices:
Don't like those options? With the exception of Mode Menu, you can put whatever you want in that menu -- they're all just shortcuts into the mode menu.
The Mode Menu is where most of the options on the camera are located. The menu is one of the more confusing systems out there, and it takes some getting used to. Here's what you'll find in the mode menu:
There are four continuous shooting modes on the Ultra Zooms. Regular sequential mode will lock the focus and exposure settings on the first shot, and take 12 shots at 1.6 frame/sec at the SHQ setting (based on my tests). High speed sequential took 5 shots at 2 frames/second. AF sequential mode will redo the focus and exposure for each shot, slowing the burst rate significantly. Auto bracketing will take 3 or 5 shots in a row, each with a different exposure compensation value. You set the EV increment (±0.3EV, ±0.7EV, ±1EV) in the same menu. Hopefully I explained everything else well enough up there! So now, let's talk photo tests. Since the cameras share a lens and CCD, image quality should be the same on both cameras. With that in mind, I used the C-765 to take the test photos, except for the redeye test where I used both cameras (since they have different flashes).
The C-765 took a very nice macro shot of our 3" tall subject. The image is strikingly sharp and detailed, and colors are pretty accurate (though the reds seem a little orange to me). The custom white balance option came in handy, as I have 600W quartz lights which sometimes don't do well with preset WB options. The Ultra Zooms have two macro modes: standard and super. In standard mode, you can get as close to your subject as 7 cm at wide-angle and 1.2 m at telephoto -- not bad at all. To get even closer use super macro mode, where you can get just 3 cm away from your subject. You can fill the frame with an object 40 x 30 mm in size. Do note that the zoom is fixed somewhere near the wide-angle position while in super macro mode.
I was impressed with the night shot that the C-765 took. It's once again sharp, with very little purple fringing to speak of. It captured plenty of light, though I don't like having to use "M" mode to get at the full range of shutter speeds. The noise reduction feature helped keep noise levels low. Here's a look at how the camera performs at different ISO sensitivities:
As you can see, as the ISO goes up, so does the noise. Even at ISO 400, it's really not horrible -- you may be able to get some use out of that image with noise reduction software.
The C-765 has very mild barrel distortion at the wide end of the lens, and there's no vignetting to speak of.
Despite having two different flashes, I got similar redeye test results from both cameras. There's more redeye than I expected, but it can be removed pretty well in software. If you buy the C-770, you can also use an external flash to eliminate this annoyance. I was very pleased with the images produced by both cameras (and they should be the same, as they're basically identical). The thing that stood out the most was the sharpness of the images. This does, however, add a bit of noise to your photos, but nothing worth worrying about. Color and exposure were good as well. The "ED" lens does a good job with reducing purple fringing, giving the Ultra Zooms better performance than most of the competition in this area. It's not gone by any means, just not as bad as older Olympus models or other ultra zooms. Don't just take my word for it -- take a look at both the C-765 and C-770 photo galleries and decide if the quality meets your expectations. Movie Mode Another thing that differentiates the C-770 from the C-765 is the movie mode. The C-770 uses the MPEG4 format to record movies at 640 x 480, 30 frames/second, with sound. You can record until the memory card is full. MPEG4 format allows for high quality movies that take up much less space than regular AVI or QuickTime movies. The included card only holds about 46 seconds of MPEG4 video, so a larger card is recommended. The C-765 doesn't have the MPEG4 mode -- rather, it uses the old QuickTime movie mode instead. That doesn't mean it's bad -- I think the quality's better (though choppier). The C-765 can record 640 x 480 movies at 15 frames/second, with sound, until the memory card is full (the C-770 can use this mode too). The included 16MB card holds just 17 seconds, though. Two lower resolutions are available on both cameras: 320 x 240 and 160 x 120, both at 15 frames/second. If you turn sound recording on, you cannot use the zoom lens during filming. The one exception is if you're using an external microphone with the C-770. Something else unique to the C-770 is a "reduce flicker" feature, which reduces flicker caused by fluorescent lights in MPEG4 movies. I did my best to record two similar movies with both cameras. The C-765's movie is in QuickTime format, while the C-770 movie is in MPEG4 format. Despite having a lower frame rate, I think the QuickTime movie looks a lot nicer.
The differences in file sizes show why MPEG4 can be desirable! Playback Mode
The Ultra Zooms have a pretty nice playback mode. Basic features include slide shows, voice annotations, thumbnail mode, DPOF print marking, image protection, and "zoom and scroll". The cameras support direct printing using the PictBridge system, as well. The zoom and scroll feature (my term) allows you to zoom in as much as 4X into your photo, and then move around in it. You can rotate, resize (to 640 x 480 or 320 x 240), and crop photos in playback mode. The cameras also have a unique "switch frame" feature, which plays back only "protected" images.
Normally, you don't get much information about your photos in playback mode. By going to the menu, you can activate one of two info screens. One shows exposure info (not shown), while the other shows that plus a histogram (above right). The camera moves through photos at an average clip, with a 1.3 second delay between each picture. How Do They Compare? The Olympus C-765 and C-770 Ultra Zooms remain at the top of my list for big zoom cameras, along with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10. I must admit, though, that the FZ10 and Canon S1 and their stabilized lenses make the Olympus twins a little less desirable than before. Even so, the "UZIs" take excellent, sharp photos that will be great for websites or large prints. The cameras aren't going to win any awards for performance -- they're average in most respects. The one area where they need improvement is in low light situations. Both the LCD and EVF were too dark to be usable, and the camera could not lock focus. If this is important to you, you'll want to look elsewhere (find a camera at least with an AF-assist lamp). Both cameras have compact bodies, with the C-770 having a little more metal on it than the C-765. Both cameras have a ton of features, including full manual controls. I do wish that Olympus would give you access to the full range of shutter speeds in modes other than just "M" mode. Enthusiasts will enjoy the ability to fine-tune white balance, and store up to four sets of camera settings on the mode dial. Both cameras have pretty good continuous shooting modes, as well. So if you've decided on one of the two UZIs, which do you get? What I'd do is take a look at the chart at the very beginning of this review. Are those features worth $100 to you? For most people, probably not. Don't get tempted by the MPEG4 movie feature, either -- the higher frame rate and smaller size are nice, but the quality is worse than traditional QuickTime or AVI. The only real reason to upgrade to the C-770 is the hot shoe, in this reviewer's opinion. Regardless of which one you choose, both of these Ultra Zooms are great cameras. What I liked:
What I didn't care for:
Other ultra zooms worth a look include the Canon PowerShot S1 IS (image stabilizer), Fuji FinePix S5000, HP Photosmart 945 (EVF usable in low light), Kodak EasyShare DX6490 (EVF usable in low light), Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2 (EVF usable in low light), Kyocera Finecam M410R, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10 (image stabilizer). As always, I recommend a trip to your local camera store to try out both of the Ultra Zooms and their competitors before you buy! Photo Gallery Want to see how the photo quality turned out? View our C-765 and C-770 photo galleries! Want a second opinion? Steve's Digicams has a review of the C-765UZ. C-765 Ultra Zoom C-770 Ultra Zoom Feedback & Discussion If you have a question about this review, please send them to Jeff. Due to my limited resources, please do not e-mail me asking for a personal recommendation. To discuss this review with other DCRP readers, please visit our forums. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
