Photography (Dreaming of a XZ-2):
Our 7 year old Olympus C770 camera started to give us some trouble before Christmas. The internal battery had failed, so that every time you changed batteries, the settings were reset. The C770 had been a great travel companion, taking nice shots, in a small package, but we knew we needed to find a new camera.
On a spur of the moment trip to Cork City, and with little or no research done, we visited a few camera shop to see what was on the market, that could replace our beloved C770. There is nothing like handling a camera before buying.
After messing around in a couple of shops with perhaps a dozen different cameras, we settled on the Olympus XZ-1. We loved the wide angle, fast lens and the fact that the telephoto lens we bought for the C770 would also fit the XZ-1. (Only to find out that the simple adapter would be worth more than 10% of the camera!)
Now after a couple of months of real life, we’ve discovered two major drawback, which are really disappointing :
- In video mode, it constantly refocuses, making it useless at taking videos of the kids playing. Our old C-770 never had this problem. We’re not after HighDef or anything, just something to record family moments; and
- Doesn’t work well on Auto indoors. They tend to turn out blurred, dark or grainy. It can take great photos indoors, with or without the flash, you just need to mess with the settings.
Do I love my new camera? Yes, when I get the settings right. As a family point-&-shoot it fails miserably. 90% of my indoor shots, I have to fiddle with the settings and we’ve given up trying video. Not great when all your trying to do is capture the kids doing stuff.
Would I recommend this camera? Probably Not. If Olympus released a XZ-2 that addressed those two issues, I would recommend it as a great all round family camera.