Olympus C-765 Review

The main attraction of the Olympus C-765 is its 10x optical zoom lens (equivalent to 38 - 380mm lens in 35mm format). This is one of the most powerful zooms available on a compact digital camera.

To back up the zoom lens the C-765 also has an impressive feature set including a fully manual mode where you can select your own shutter speed and aperture settings.

The camera can be used in fully automatic mode by anyone who is looking for a point and shoot camera with extended zoom capabilities, but it is likely to appeal more to someone who sees photography as a hobby.

The Olympus C-765 really is a camera for outdoor use. I was far happier with the pictures that this camera takes then the next one down in the series the Olympus C-725. The colours were very good indeed and the zoom moves and focuses quickly, so that you are ready to take the next picture. The quality if the lens means that the pictures are sharp too. On the whole I found the colours much richer and deeper than with the C-725.

The zoom lens obviously lets you get in close to the subject and even with the zoom fully extended I was pleased with the results. The zoom was also noticeably smooth and the camera was quick to focus even when it was fully extended.

Macro pictures were fine too. Nothing exceptional, but they compare well with other cameras that are available for a similar.

Indoors the camera performs well apart from in extremely poor lighting. In fact the standard pictures that I took in a variety of indoor situations came about above average. Where other cameras may struggle to focus the Olympus C-765 did very well.

The C-765 is packed with features. Starting off with the basic ones, the camera is a four megapixel model. There is also a 4x digital zoom feature to back up the 10x optical zoom. This gives you a combined total of 40x zoom.

The LCD screen that you use for working with the menus and composing and reviewing images is 1.8". You can also choose to use the electronic viewfinder with diopter correction.

The flash unit pops up and has a maximum range of 4.5m when the zoom lens is not being used. This drops to 3.5m when the zoom is fully extended. There is an intensity control for the flash as well. Flash modes are always on, always off, automatic where the camera decides if the flash is needed and slow synchro which is useful at night.

To help you take the best possible pictures in different lighting and composition situations there are four pre programmed scene modes to help you. These are portrait, sports, landscape and night scene.

Macro mode for close up photographer can focus from 7cms away. There is also a super macro mode that uses software within the camera in a similar way to digital zoom. This can get you in closer at 3cm, but there can be a loss of quality on the shot.

Movies can be taken. The duration is only limited by the capacity of the card. The resolution can be set to 640x480 and you can shoot at a rate of 15 frames per second. Sound can be recorded with the movie.

A self timer is available with a ten second delay for when you would like to appear in the picture yourself.

Olympus supply all the necessary cables and software to connect the C-765 to a computer and television set. It can also be attached to a PictBridge compatible printer. This allows you to make prints without the need to upload your shots to a computer first.

Moving on to cover the more advanced features exposure compensation, white balance and a variety of ISO equivalents between ISO 64 and 400 are all available. Shutter speeds very between 15 seconds and 1/1000 seconds. The aperture range is f2.8 to f8. You can also choose to focus manually.

Images can be stored as TIFF or Jpeg. Continuous shooting is catered for and you can reel off either seven shots at a rate of 1.6 frames per second or two frames at a rate of 2.1 frames per second.

As well as being able to adjust saturation, sharpness and contrast you can choose between ESP, multi point and spot metering.

The more advanced photographer can select aperture priority, shutter priority and fully manual exposure.

You can take the Olympus C-765 out of the box, load the memory card and batteries, turn it on and start taking pictures. For anyone who is looking to get to grips with the camera and make the most of its features it will obviously take longer to master.

The standard Olympus menu system is not my favourite, but once you find your way around it you can find what you are looking for.

The manual that comes with the camera is well laid out and explains the features in a way that anyone with at least some basic photographic knowledge should be able to understand. As a guideline I found this camera a lot easier to work with than the Nikon Coolpix 8700 which I consider to be the next step up in terms of complexity and feature set.

All in all for a digital camera with this number of features it is well thought out and you shouldn't face too many problems getting to grips with it.

You can buy the C-765 for around £220 including packing and postage.

This camera looks like a cross between a standard compact camera and a traditional 35mm SLR camera. One of the first points that I noticed on picking it up is that it has a much higher build quality than the Olympus C-725. It feels less bulky and also a lot less like a plastic box!

It weighs in at 280g and has dimensions of 104.5 mm (W) × 60 mm (H) × 68.5 (D) mm.

Power is supplied by a lithium ion rechargeable battery. Both the battery and a charger are supplied with the camera. You cannot use off the shelf batteries with this camera so you need to make sure that the battery is fully charged or that you have a spare battery before setting out on a shoot.


xD Picture cards are used to store images. The one supplied by Olympus with the camera is only 16mb. It will not store many four megapixel images and you will almost certainly need to buy an additional high capacity card with the camera. Just a thought, but shooting a movie will fill up the card supplied in 17 seconds! Click here to find cheap xD Picture Cards.

Powerful 10x zoom
Better build quality than C-725
Feels good in the hand
Diopter correction available
Excellent picture quality in a wide range of photographic situations

Indoor shots in very poor light

Every now again a camera comes along that stands out from the rest. The Olympus C-765 was one of those. It gave me a good feel as soon as I picked it up and the pictures that it took were very good especially outdoors. It has a very wide range of features packed into it for the price and the 10x optical zoom gets you in very close to most subjects.

It is a clear step up in class from the C-725 and well worth paying the extra to buy it in preference to the Fuji Finepix S3500. I would be more than happy to own a C-765.

Olympus C-765 Top View

Olympus C-765 Back 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-765