Olympus FE-350 Review

The Olympus FE-350 is an 8 megapixel digital camera with a 4x optical zoom lens.

The lens is a wide angle lens helping you to squeeze extra detail into wide shots such as landscapes and groups of people. The FE-350 is a simple, point and shoot model and also has a large 3 inch LCD screen.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
The FE-350 struggles here. There is a lack of definition in the photo, especially around lighter colour objects such as the boats. Part of this problem is down to the way the camera has a problem handling the sunny conditions. This has also caused many of the blue lines on the boats to take on a purple tinge.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
For those of you who like vivid colours there is plenty of strength in the colours in this picture. The photo takes on a pixilated look. In places I can almost see the individual pixels. This is obviously not a good sign. There are also some purple lines visible on the edge of trees in larger prints.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
Right! Just in case you hadn't noticed I am not very impressed with my test shots. With the lens zoomed right in I have managed to produce another fuzzy shot lacking in clarity.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
With less colour and contrast in the shot the FE-350 is able to handle the scene better and produces a sharper shot than I was expecting. It is still some way from being perfect and the purple lines are back around the windows.

Outdoor Portrait
At this point I am usually able to say despite struggling with the most distant shots this camera makes a much better effort closer in. Well the picture is better, but not by much. I am still not happy with the sharpness of the shot and it is too dark for me.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
This is a better effort, although I find the lighting produced by the flash to be harsher than many cameras manage. There is also a loss of detail in the darker areas of the hair. In general I think the FE-350 struggles to cope with contrast.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
This is the best photo out of all my test pictures taken with the FE-350. It has a far more natural look than the photo taken with flash.

Colours
To be honest I haven't really noticed the colours all that much as I have gone through my tests. I think that is mainly because I have been preoccupied by the problems I have encountered. Even so the colours have a natural feel to them in most cases.

Macro
The macro shot has a blue colour caste to it. It lacks the clarity of some of the better digital cameras.

ISO 400 and ISO 640
Picture quality is o.k. at both ISO 400 and 640. The purple lines are back again and colours are starting to break up once you reach 640.

Overall
From time to time I come across a camera I simply do not get along with. The Olympus FE-350 has proven to be one of those cameras.

The Olympus FE-350 is slow! A single photo took 1.18 seconds and five photos took 18.09 seconds. Fortunately turning flash on does not make a great deal of difference. With flash a single photo timed 1.25 seconds and five photos took 19.9 seconds.

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

At 26mm wide the FE-350 is compact, but it begins to become a squeeze for anything other than a good sized pocket. The camera is available in silver and black and has a fairly typical rectangular look.

97.7 x 55.7 x 26.5mm

138g

Lithium ion (LI-42B). Both a battery and charger are supplied as standard.

There is enough memory built into the FE-350 to store in the region of 10 photos. The camera is compatible with xD cards.

Click here to save money on xD cards.

Very good. Olympus may not be my favourite brand when it comes to menu style, but the FE-350 is straightforward enough.

Ease of use

Picture quality - shutter lag times

There are plenty of wide angle alternatives in the Panasonic range. I especially like the Panasonic DMC FS20.

Verdict If you are looking for a camera that is slow to respond and takes a picture lacking in quality then this could be the camera for you. Otherwise I would suggest looking elsewhere.

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