Olympus FE-140 Review

The Olympus FE-140 is a six megapixel digital camera with a three times optical zoom lens. It is a simple, point and shoot camera. Its main attractions are its simplicity and the fact it offers so many megapixels for around £100.

As I had expected the FE-140 performs better in bright light than it does once the light begins to dip. In bright conditions the photos are acceptable. Even then there are some flaws that should be noted. The biggest problem in my view is that the FE-140 has difficulty with white and other very light colours. This is especially true when any light falls directly on them. This leads to a loss of detail in these areas of a photo. Examples can be seen in the first and third outdoor shots. In the first one the white wooden beams under the roof of the building show more as a white mass than individual planks of wood. In the third shot there are floats hanging over the side of some of the boats. These tend to show as glowing white blobs.

Purple fringing is also evident. This is where a thin purple line is added to the edge of light coloured object. This is noticeable in the first outdoor photo. Purple fringing is rare in a camera with only a three time zoom lens. It is far more common with super zoom cameras.

On the whole I would say focusing is better than many digital cameras with a similar price tag. I would not describe the photos as pin sharp, but in most instances focusing is good. The camera did tend to struggle more when the zoom lens was not being used at all as in the second outdoor photo. If you plan to make large prints you may also see a degree of pixilation in skies as well.

In terms of colour I think the camera does fairly well. The dedicated test for colours does show blue to be overpowering when compared to other colours, but some people may like the fact that this adds extra colours to skies.

Both the portrait shots were disappointing. The outdoor portrait was taken in the shade. Without any access to white balance controls the result is dull in my view. By using a cloudy or shade white balance setting you can normally add some life to a shot taken away from direct sunlight. In this instance the lack of a white balance option takes away that possibility.

Indoors where the light is not so good the camera is unable to focus properly. This leads to both the indoor portrait and the shot of bottles being out of focus. The portrait shot also shows a high level of red eye.

Compared with the other photos I have taken with the FE-140 the macro shot comes out well. It may not be the best macro shot I have ever taken, but it is sharp and clear.

I was able to take a single photo in 0.42 seconds. It took 9.67 to take five photos. The time taken for a single picture is a little above average, but fair enough considering the price of this camera. The time taken for five photos is about average.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The 3x optical zoom lens has a focal length equivalent to 38 - 114mm in 35mm format. There is also a digital zoom feature offering a further 4x zoom. In super macro mode the camera can focus from 5cm away from the subject.

For composing photos there is a 2.5" LCD screen. This is made up of around 110,000 pixels. There is no viewfinder.

The flash unit has a maximum range of 3.3m. This falls to 2m when the zoom lens is in use. The flash modes are Auto (automatic activation in low and backlight), red-eye reduction, fill-in (forced activation), off (no flash).

There is a wide selection of scene modes. When you select a scene mode the camera will use a set of pre programmed settings for the picture. This should help to produce the best possible shot. The scene modes are Portrait, Landscape, Landscape with Portrait, Night Scene, Sport, Digital Image Stabilisation, Night Scene with Portrait, Indoor, Candle, Self Portrait, Available Light Portrait, Sunset, Fireworks, Museum, Behind Glass, Cuisine, Documents, Auction, Beach and Snow.

Sensitivity (ISO 80 - 320), white balance, metering, lens aperture (f3.1 (wide) and f5.9 (tele)) and shutter speeds (4 - 1/2000 sec) are all handled automatically by the camera and you cannot adjust any of the settings.

One control you do have access to is exposure compensation (Yes, up to +/- 2 EV in 1/3 EV steps.). There is also a feature that helps you to stitch together panoramic type photos. In order to use this feature you must use an Olympus brand xD card.

After a photo has been taken there are a number of options available to you. These include changing the colour to black and white or sepia, creating a smaller copy, cropping, red eye reduction and correcting brightness and saturation.

Short movies can be recorded with the camera. The maximum resolution is 320 x 240 pixels and the top speed is 15 frames per second. This is below TV quality. The length of each movie is only limited by the capacity of the memory card. Zoom is available while a movie is being recorded, but there is no sound available and the movies are silent.

Olympus supplies all the necessary cables and software to connect the FE-140 to a television, computer and PictBridge compatible printer.

There is also a self timer for when you would like to appear in a shot. The delay time is around 10 seconds.

I have no complaints at all when it comes to ease of use. The fact that the FE-140 has less features than many other digital camera means that there is a lot less to get to grips with. Olympus have also added a useful guide to help you get the most out of the camera. This is available through the menu system and it is a very good idea.

You can pick up an Olympus FE-140 for around £105. This compares to around £110 for a Fuji Finepix A600, £140 for a Sony DSC S600 and £125 for a Kodak EasyShare C663.

As you can see the FE-140 is seriously cheap for a six megapixel digital camera. To be honest though I would pay that bit extra for the Sony DSC S600 if you can afford to do so.

Style wise the FE-140 is a pretty typical digital camera. It has a shiny silver body. One end is curved and this does help to give the camera a bit more of its own style. In terms of build quality the camera feels solid considering its price tag.

It has dimensions of 96 x 63 x 25mm and weighs in at 130g.

Power is supplied by two AA batteries. Batteries can run down quicker than I would like and it is worth considering picking up some rechargeable ones to go with the camera. If you do decide to do this make sure the mAh rating is at least 2000 and preferably in the region of 2500 - 2600.

Olympus have built 22MB of storage built into the FE-140. This means that the camera does not come with a memory card as standard. If you are looking to buy a card to go with the camera it is compatible with xD cards. I was able to take 18 shots in HQ mode before the memory was full.

Click here to save money on xD cards..

Ease of use
Low price

Picture quality

If you are looking for an inexpensive, six megapixel digital camera then the Olympus FE-140 is certainly that. I do have reservations about the picture quality of this camera though. If you are able to spend a little more there are better options available to you.

Olympus FE 140 Front View

Olympus FE 140 Back View

Olympus FE 140 Top View

Sample Menus

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Olympus FE-140