Olympus C-370 Review

The Olympus C-370 is a three megapixel digital camera with a 3x optical zoom lens. The zoom is equivalent to a 38 - 114mm lens in a 35mm film camera. Priced at under £100 it is an entry level model. The C-370 is likely to prove attractive to anyone who is looking for a relatively simple camera that is easy to use and can handle all the standard photo opportunities that you are likely to come across on holiday, at social functions and those that make up the family album.

Obviously it would be wrong to expect a set of professional quality photographs to be produced by a camera such as the C-370. Overall though, I would say that the camera makes a pretty good fist of taking photographs.

The outdoor shots produced in my tests are of fairly standard quality. I do feel though that the skies could have been reproduced with more colour. There is a small loss of detail in the darkest areas of the shots, but this is a common problem with digital cameras especially at the lower end of the spectrum.

The indoor shots are better than those produced by a number of other cameras I have tested. They do come out on the dark side and in low light conditions the C-370 does have a problem focusing perfectly. Again this is a fairly common problem with this type of camera.

The colour test shot is good though and suggests that in the majority of every day situations the camera will produce shots with a good colour balance.

Saving the best for last, the macro shot is impressive. Clear and bright it is better than the majority of macro shots I have produced to date.

Shutter lag is the time it takes to take each picture. A constant criticism of digital cameras is the delay in between clicking the shutter button, the picture being taken and also the camera being ready to take the next picture. From a pure shutter lag view the C-370 seems took over a second to take the picture. This is definitely on the slow side.

In terms of recycling times I was able to take five pictures in the space of 20.18 seconds. That works out at a rate of 4.04 seconds per picture. I am not claiming that this is the most scientific tests, but it should give you an indication of the recycling speed of the camera. At the time of writing this is a new test I have added for my reviews. Early indications are that this is very slow. My test is carried out indoors under standard conditions and it is possible that you would see better results outside.

For composing images and accessing the menu system there is a 1.5" LCD screen. The C-370 does not have a viewfinder.

The flash modes available to use are automatic, always on, always off and red eye reduction. The maximum range of the flash unit is 3.8m. This drops down to just above 2m when the optical zoom is fully extended.

Close up photography is catered for by two macro modes. The main mode allows you to get in as close as 20cms away from the subject. Super macro brings you in to 2cms away. The optical zoom lens is backed up by a digital zoom facility that gives you a further 4.1 times zoom power.

To assist the C-370 for potentially challenging shots there are four pre programmed scene modes. These are for Portrait, Self Portrait, Night Scene and Landscape. To help you get in the picture as well there is a self timer with a twelve second delay.

Short movies can be shot as well. These last until the memory card is full. There are two resolutions you can shoot at: 320 x 240 and 160 x 120 pixels.

All the necessary cables and software are supplied by Olympus to connect the C-370 to a computer, television set and a PictBridge compatible printer.

More advanced features include Centre weighted metering, shutter speeds between 2 seconds and 1/2000 seconds, exposure up to +/- 2 EV in 1/3 EV steps and sensitivity between ISO 64 and 250.

The biggest selling point of the C-370 is the fact that it is very easy to use. It is a very straight forward digital camera, with a basic set of features that you cannot get lost in.

You can pick up a Olympus C-370 for around £95. This compares to around £100 for a Fuji Finepix A330 and £95 for a Canon Powershot A400.

The C-370 is a standard shiny, rectangular digital camera. It fits well in the hand and has a small grip on the front to help you hold it steady when you are taking a shot.

It has dimensions of 87.5 x 62.5 x 38.5mm and weighs in at 140g.

Two AA batteries are required to run the camera. You may find that picking up a set of rechargeable batteries and a charger helps to keep the running costs down.

The Olympus C-370 comes with 12mb of memory built into the camera. 12mb is not a lot of memory to be honest and it will soon fill up (after 36 seconds of high resolution movie for example). Therefore you are strongly advised to pick up a high capacity xD Picture card to go with the camera. Click here to save money on xD cards

Easy to use
Good macro shots

Noticeable shutter lag
Slow recycle times

The C-370 is an entry level digital camera that does the job it sets out to do without any fuss or bother. I like the design of the camera and its build quality compares well with other similar models. The shutter lag is a problem, but again it is a problem you are likely to come across elsewhere unless you are able to pay more for a camera.

Olympus C-370 Front View

Olympus C-370 Back View

Olympus C-370 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 C-370