Olympus FE-5000 Review

The Olympus FE-5000 is a point and compact camera. It has 10 megapixels and a 5x optical zoom lens. It also has a 2.7 inch LCD screen.

This is one of the cheaper digital cameras from a known brand. It scores well for ease of use and both the length of zoom and size of screen are a step up on the most basic models. The FE-5000 also offers image stabilisation.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
Even taking into account the lower price tag I am a little disappointed by the sharpness of the shot. Most cameras are able to create a sharper photo than the FE-5000 manages here.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
This is a better attempt. Sharpness is better and it is only when you reach the most distant parts of the shot where the FE-5000 finds it difficult.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
As with the first outdoor test I would like to have seen a sharper image. The softness of the images is not likely to be a serious issue with small prints I would not like to go too far above snapshot size.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
Maybe it is due to there being less contrast in the shot, but this photo is the best in terms of sharpness so far. Overall I would award around 6.5 out of 10 for sharpness.

Outdoor Portrait
Working closer in the FE-5000 has no problems with focusing. You should be able to real off plenty of standard portrait type shots.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
Cheaper digital cameras can have a problem getting perfect results when using flash. The good news here is that there is plenty of light right across the picture. The downside here is that the lighting is so bright it reflects back off the face. Although this is not ideal I would much prefer this to a dark photo where the flash has struggled to light the scene.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
This is a fair effort. Again with less expensive cameras you are likely to require more light for the camera to be able to focus properly and to reduce any noise in the photo.

Colours
Colours are inline with those from other Olympus digital cameras. They are true to the way the scenes looked when the test photos were taken.

Macro
My macro shot may not be quite top quality, but I am still happy with it. The FE-5000 should be able to produce decent close in snapshots, as long as you are not expecting true masterpieces every time.

ISO 400 and ISO 1600
Even with more expensive compact cameras noise will show in photos at ISO 400 and above. There is not too much to report here. Noise levels are inline with my expectations.

Overall
My outdoor scenic shots could be sharper. I was happy with all the other photos I took. If you are planning to use this camera more for general photography where the subject is quite near to the camera you are likely to see better results.

All shutter delay times were about standard. A single photo took 0.32 seconds while five clocked 15.08 seconds. With flash, times were 0.55 seconds for one photo and 16.09 seconds for five.

The FE-5000 was slow to turn on and take the first picture. The time taken was 3.98 seconds.

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

Olympus has made the FE-5000 smaller and more compact than most entry level digital cameras. It is a typical rectangular shape. It comes in two colours, black and silver.

97.4 x 56.6 x 25.5mm

137g

Lithium ion. Both a battery and charger are supplied as standard by Olympus.

You can use either xD Picture cards or micro SD cards for storing images. To get you up and running Olympus has built in 48mb of storage. This is enough for around 20 photos.

Click here to save money on SD cards..

Excellent. Part of the reason why the FE-5000 is so easy to use is that it offers less features than many digital cameras do. This makes it easier to find the setting you are looking for.

Ease of use - price for a small, compact camera

Photos could be sharper - slow turn on time

The Canon Powershot A480 may not look quite as good and you will struggle to fit it into a pocket, but I found picture quality that bit better.

It is a shame some of my photos are not sharper. If they were I would say the Olympus FE-5000 offers very good value for money. I like the fact it has a bit more zoom and a larger LCD screen than is standard. Ease of use is also a big plus point. Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menu

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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-5000