Olympus C-8080 Wide ZoomOlympus enters the 8 megapixel arena with a feature-packed body and fast f/2.4-3.5 5x zoom lens.<<Camera Modes & Menus :(Previous) | (Next): Video, Power, Software>> Page 10:Image Storage & InterfaceReview First Posted: 02/12/2004, Updated: 05/07/04 |
Image Storage and Interface
The
C-8080 Wide Zoom saves images on either CompactFlash Type I or II cards, or xD-Picture
Cards. The memory card compartment offers slots accommodating both card types.
The camera ships with a 32MB xD Picture Card, not remotely adequate for a camera
with the resolution of the C-8080 Zoom, but upgrades are
currently (February, 2004) available as large as 512MB size, and CF cards are
currently available as large as 8 GB. The CF / xD button on the camera's
rear panel selects which memory card to use, and an option on the camera's playback
menu lets you copy images between cards. The C-8080 Wide Zoom does offer individual
image protection via the Focus / Protect button, but as usual this doesn't protect
against erasure due to card reformatting. It must also be noted that the camera's
Panorama function is only available when an Olympus-brand xD-Picture Card is in
use, a policy that I've long questioned the wisdom of.
A happy note though, is that the C-8080 Zoom does support the FAT32 directory format, so you can use memory cards larger than 2 GB in it. (I tested it with a Lexar 4GB memory card, and it read, wrote, and formatted the card properly.)
The C-8080 Wide Zoom can store images in RAW, uncompressed TIFF, and compressed JPEG file formats. The TIFF setting can be assigned to any one of nine resolutions through the camera's Mode Setup menu. JPEG compression levels include Super High Quality (SHQ), High Quality (HQ), and Standard Quality (SQ1 & SQ2). The myriad size options can be assigned to the camera's TIFF, SHQ, HQ, SQ1, and SQ2 quality levels via the Shooting menu, as shown in the table below. (Green table cells indicate image size options that can be assigned to each named quality setting.) Whatever image size/quality options are assigned to the five named quality settings can be quickly selected either by the "shortcut button" (see the earlier description of the user interface) or via the record setup menu. RAW format is only available for full-resolution images, but the camera can be set to also capture an SHQ, HQ, SQ1 or SQ2 JPEG image simultaneously with each RAW file.
| Size Options | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | � | � | � | � | � | � | � |
| | | | � | � | � | � | � | � | � |
| | � | � | | | | � | � | � | � |
| | � | � | � | � | � | | | | |
The table below shows all the available size/quality options (there ought to be enough here to satisfy anyone), the number of each that can be stored on the included 32MB memory card, and the amount of image compression employed for each.
| Resolution/Quality 32MB Memory Card | RAW | (TIFF) | | | |
| 3,264 x 2,448 pixels | Images (Avg size) | 2 12.1 MB | 1 24.0 MB | 8 4 MB | 16 2 MB |
| Approx. Compression | 2:1 (lossless) | 1:1 | 6:1 | 12:1 | |
| 2,592 x 1,944 pixels | Images (Avg size) | - | 2 15.1 MB | 8 3.8 MB | 25 1.3 MB |
| Approx. Compression | - | 1:1 | 4:1 | 12:1 | |
| 2,288 x 1,712 pixels | Images (Avg size) | - | 2 11.8 MB | 11 2.9 MB | 32 985 KB |
| Approx. Compression | - | 1:1 | 4:1 | 12:1 | |
| 2,048 x 1,536 pixels | Images (Avg size) | - | 3 9.44 MB | 13 2.33 MB | 40 790 KB |
| Approx. Compression | - | 1:1 | 4:1 | 12:1 | |
| 1,600 x 1,200 pixels | Images (Avg size) | - | 5 5.76 MB | 22 1.42 MB | 64 498 KB |
| Approx. Compression | - | 1:1 | 4:1 | 12:1 | |
| pixels | Images (Avg size) | - | 8 3.69 MB | 35 914 KB | 99 321 KB |
| Approx. Compression | - | 1:1 | 4:1 | 12:1 | |
| pixels | Images (Avg size) | - | 13 2.36 MB | 53 595 KB | 153 208 KB |
| Approx. Compression | - | 1:1 | 4:1 | 12:1 | |
| pixels | Images (Avg size) | - | 34 922 KB | 133 241 KB | 332 96 KB |
| Approx. Compression | - | 1:1 | 4:1 | 10:1 | |
The C-8080 Wide Zoom comes with interface software and cables for both Macintosh and Windows computers. It employs a USB Auto-Connect interface for high-speed computer connection. Like all of Olympus' recent digicams, the C-8080 is a USB "storage class" device. This means it can connect directly to Mac OS Version 9.0 or later (including OS 10.1 - also OS8.6, if it includes factory-installed USB Mass Storage support 1.3.5), or Windows ME, 2000, or XP computers, without separate driver software. For Windows 98 or 98SE, you'll need to load driver software to make the connection. Storage-class ("Auto-Connect" in Olympus' parlance) connections are generally faster than device-class ones, and the 8080 Wide Zoom is among the fastest cameras I've yet tested, supporting as it does the USB 2.0 "high speed" standard. I clocked it at 2.4 MBytes/second on my 2.4 GHz Sony VAIO desktop, running Windows XP when reading from an xD card, and at about 1.7 MBytes/second when reading from a 40x Lexar CF card. - This is fast enough that you can realistically use the 8080 without having to resort to a separate card reader, even despite the 8080's large file sizes.
RAW data files can be edited in-camera and
saved as JPEGs. This is convenient for quick processing, but the small size
and uncertain tonal and color characteristics of the 8080's LCD screen make
it difficult to judge the impact of any image adjustments you might make.
Still, you can adjust white balance, sharpness, saturation, etc. in-camera,
without having to download the file first, which makes it easier to print
RAW files from the camera to a DPOF device.
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