The Olympus FE-300 is a 12 megapixel camera with a 3x optical zoom lens. The lens has a maximum aperture of f/2.8 - f/4.7. The focal length is equivalent to 35 - 105mm. 4x digital zoom is available.

• Self timer with a 10 second delay
• Resolution for widescreen TV playback
• Add 5 seconds of commentary after a photo has been taken
• Correction of lighting
• Correction of Red-eye
• Panorama assist - only with Olympus memory card.

In super macro mode the FE-300 can focus from 10cm away from the subject. Face detection focusing is available for portrait shots.

The LCD screen is 2.5 inches in size. It is made up of around 230,000 pixels.

The flash unit has a maximum range of 6.1m. This falls to 3.6m when the zoom lens is in use. These figures supplied by Olympus are at ISO 400.

Flash modes are automatic, always on, always off and red eye reduction.

The scene modes provided are: Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene with portrait, Sports, Indoor, Candle, Self-portrait, Sunset, Fireworks, Behind Glass, Cuisine, Documents, Auction and Smile Shot.

Movie mode is limited. You can produce TV quality video clips at a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and a top speed of 30 frames per second. The problem is the maximum length of these clips is 30 seconds. You can shoot at 320 x 240 pixels and a speed of 15 frames per second for 29 minutes.

Sound can be recorded, but optical zoom can only be applied before shooting starts.

More advanced features include exposure compensation (+/- 2 EV / 1/3 steps), sensitivity (ISO 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, (3200, 6400 at lower resolutions)) and white balance (Overcast, Sunlight, Tungsten, Fluorescent 1, Fluorescent 2, Fluorescent 3).

Shutter speeds are set automatically by the camera in the range 1/2 - 1/1000 seconds. The speed is slowed to 4 seconds in night scene mode.

Cables and software are supplied to attach the FE-300 to a television, computer and compatible printer. Olympus FE-300

Description:	12 megapixels and a 3x optical zoom lens
Ease of Use:	9
Features:	7
Colour:	8
Macro:	6
Indoors:	8
Value for Money:	7
Style:	8
Movie Mode:	6
Image Quality:	8
Build Quality:	8
Total:	75
Verdict:	Competition is tough when it comes to pocket sized cameras. The Olympus FE-300 struggles to really stand out from the crowd. If the number of megapixels is important to you then it does offer more pixels than most cameras. Picture quality is good and the camera is easy to use.
Review Date:	December 2007
Click for:	Specification Sample Images Features

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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-300