Olympus C-700 Ultra ZoomOlympus packs a 10x zoom lens into an amazingly small body, for an amazingly low price.<<Viewfinder :(Previous) | (Next): Exposure & Flash>> Page 5:OpticsReview First Posted: 5/31/2001 |
OpticsThe C-700 is equipped with a 10x, 5.9-59mm lens (equivalent to a 38-380mm lens on a 35mm camera) made up of 10 aspherical glass elements in seven groups. Aperture can be set automatically through the Auto exposure system, or manually adjusted in Aperture Priority or Manual modes, ranging from f/2.8 to f/8.0 at wide angle and from f/3.5 to f/8.0 at maximum telephoto. The C-700 employs a contrast-detection autofocus system, with an effective focal range from 4 inches (10 cm) at maximum wide angle to infinity, including the Macro range.
Holding down the Menu / OK button for more than one second pulls up the AF / MF menu as well as a distance scale, which reports the focus distance in meters or feet (adjustable in the Setup sub-menu). Once "MF" is selected (via the right or left arrow key), the up and down arrow keys are used to select the actual focus distance, which extends over two screens. Because manually focusing on an object can be difficult, the C-700 automatically enlarges the LCD display to help determine when the subject is in sharp focus. As soon as you've finished the focus adjustment, the LCD monitor returns to the normal display. The C-700 also offers a Fulltime AF mode (enabled through the Record menu, Camera sub-menu, Fulltime AF option), which sets the camera to continually adjust focus as it changes positions or scenes. In the normal AF mode, the camera judges focus only when the Shutter button is halfway depressed.
While the C-700 features a separate AE Lock button for locking exposure, focus can only be locked via the shutter button, by framing the portion of the subject you want focused in the center of the frame, and then halfway depressing and holding down the Shutter button while recomposing the shot. This manual focus lock can be combined with the camera's manual focus mode, to provide the effect of a separate focus lock option. If you half-press the shutter button, and then while still holding the shutter button halfway down, press the OK button on the camera's back, the camera will switch into manual focus mode, with the focusing distance preset to whatever distance the autofocus system had found was best. Once in manual focusing mode, you can reframe your photo or change the exposure parameters without losing the focus setting you selected.
In addition to the C-700's impressive 10x optical zoom capabilities, the camera also has a 2.7x Digital Zoom, which must be turned on through the Record menu (Camera sub-menu, Digital Zoom option). A zoom indicator appears on the LCD screen whenever the Zoom toggle is pressed, reporting the current position of the lens in the Optical and Digital Zoom ranges (optical is white and digital is red). Continuing to press the telephoto side of the Zoom lever after reaching the end of the optical telephoto limit activates the Digital Zoom. When enabled, the 2.7x digital zoom increases the C-700's zoom range to approximately 1000mm, though image quality suffers as a result of digital enlargement. (Digital zoom merely crops and enlarges the center portion of the CCD image, decreasing resolution.)
In our lab tests, barrel distortion was slightly higher than average (0.89%) at the wide angle of the lens' range, but not as high as might be expected from such a long-ratio zoom lens. At the telephoto end, pincushion distortion was almost unmeasurable. The lens did show more corner softness and chromatic aberration than its 3x cousins on Olympus' other camera models though.
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