Our camera has served us well for nearly a decade. The Olympus C-3000 Zoom was a state of the art camera in its day. We have brought it with us on many a vacation and recorded many happy memories.
Some of the features which were state of the art at the time, are now beginning to pale in comparison to the entry level cameras of today.
- 3x Optical zoom
- still gives many compact digital cameras a run for the money
- it just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore, I want more detail in my pictures
- 3.3 Megapixel
- Basically around 5″x7″ pictures without cropping
- Need to be careful with cropping or the image suffers
- Removable Media card
- SmartMedia cards have some limitations
- The cards are limited to 128MB
- The cards are no longer manufactured
- SmartMedia cards have some limitations
- Replaceable batteries
- This is always a good thing – It takes AA batteries either alkaline batteries or rechargeable
- USB
- Not full USB, inconvenient to download pictures without Olympus software
- A good Media card reader works around this limitation
- LCD display
- small display compared to other offerings in the same class
Will we replace this camera right away? NO; the camera still works.
When will I seriously consider replacing this camera? Here’s my criteria:
- 10x optical zoom or better
- 10 megapixel or better
- SD Card
- This means some of the cameras will be out of the running
- I won’t be caught again with a non-standard media card
- Replaceable batteries or battery pack
- Never get caught with your camera not charged
- Video
- Ability to record video in JPEG format
- USB
- Full USB support as a storage device
- Great user interface
- Easy to use, but access to power features for experienced users
- Affordable
- My current definition of affordable is below $150
There are some cameras that are approaching my criteria, but still have a little ways to go on price.
In the meantime, I’ll be looking for a camera that meets my critera to go on sale
