Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom

Sports Mode: Next in line on the Mode dial, this mode biases the exposure system toward fast shutter speeds to "freeze" action, good for sporting events or any fast-moving subject.

Landscape Mode: This mode uses a smaller aperture setting to increase the depth of field, keeping both the foreground and background in focus. It also adjusts colors to enhance blues and greens, as would be likely to be found in a landscape photograph.

Night Mode: This mode is best for capturing night portraits or night scenery, such as cityscapes. A slower shutter speed lets more ambient light into the image, but the exposure compensation and image contrast are dialed down somewhat, preserving color in neon signs or sunsets.

Movie Mode: Accessed by turning the Mode dial to the movie camera symbol, Movie mode allows you to capture movies with or without sound for as long as the memory card allows. Shutter speed is automatically set depending on light levels, although Olympus doesn't specify the range of shutter speeds the camera uses in movie mode.

My Mode: Sets up the camera according to a set of user-defined camera settings, specific to shooting conditions. A huge range of exposure variables such as aperture, shutter speed, white balance, etc. can all be saved. You can even save the lens zoom position. My Mode settings are made through the Setup menu.

Manual Mode: Allows the user to select both the desired aperture (f/2.8 to f/8.0) and shutter speed (1/4,000 to 15 seconds, with a Bulb mode) settings independently. The camera meters the scene, and indicates how over or underexposed it thinks the shot will be by displaying the number of EV units over or under in green numerals. If the settings are beyond the camera's metering capabilities or would result in more than a +/- 3EV exposure error, the display is fixed at plus or minus 3 EV, and the numerals turn red.

Shutter Priority: Allows the user to select the desired shutter speed from 1/4,000 to 15 seconds, while the camera adjusts the aperture to achieve the correct exposure. If the required aperture is beyond the camera's capabilities, the shutter speed / aperture status numbers in the LCD will flash red.

Aperture Priority: Allows the user to select the desired lens aperture (in varying increments, from f/2.8 to f/8.0), while the camera adjusts the shutter speed to achieve the correct exposure. If the required shutter speed is beyond the camera's capabilities, the shutter speed / aperture status numbers in the LCD will flash red.

Programmed Exposure: The camera selects both shutter speed and lens aperture, based on existing light conditions and certain camera functions. For example, it uses a faster shutter speed when the lens is in the telephoto position and a slower shutter speed when the lens is in the wide-angle position.

Playback Mode: This mode allows the user to view previously captured images using the Arrow Pad to scroll through frames stored in memory. The Zoom lever switches the image display to Index mode when moved in the wide-angle direction, and enlarges a single image when moved in the telephoto direction, zooming in to a maximum of 4x magnification. While zoomed in on an image, the Arrow buttons can be used to move the enlarged view around the full image area, allowing you to inspect all parts of it.

Set Up Mode: This mode allows the user to access certain camera settings not directly related to image capture or playback, such as language, date & time, warning tone volume, sleep time, file naming, power saving, pixel mapping, EVF / LCD brightness, measurement units, video signal type, AF illuminator, and USB connection destination.

Camera menu tab:

Screen 1:

• Flash: Controls the many options of the camera's flash system via a sub-menu. (See Flash Options below.)
• AF Mode: Controls the camera's autofocus system, via a sub-menu. (See AF Options below.)
• ESP/Spot: Selects one of four different metering modes. The default is ESP, Olympus' multi-segment "intelligent" metering algorithm. Other options include spot, multi-spot (which lets you select multiple spot metering points, from which the camera calculates an average exposure), and center-weighted.
• Drive Mode: Sets the camera's capture mode to Single Shot, Hi-Speed Continuous, Continuous, Continuous Auto Focus, and Auto Bracketing.
• Self-Timer/Remote: Selects either the self-timer or IR remote for shutter control, or disables both, for normal control via the shutter button.
  

Flash Options sub-menu:
(Per the note above, this sub-menu is reached from Screen 1 of the Camera tab on the Capture-mode menu)

• Flash Mode: Selects the main flash mode. Options are Auto, Red-Eye Reduction, Forced Flash (e.g., fill flash), Slow Sync, and Flash Off.
• Flash Exposure Compensation: Lets you adjust the intensity of the internal flash in 0.3 EV steps, over a range of +/- 2 EV.
• External Flash: Enables the flash hot shoe, allows use of the external flash alone, or in conjunction with the internal flash. A third "Slave" mode sets the internal flash to fire just once per exposure (disables the metering pre-flash), to facilitate triggering conventional slave flash units. This option also lets you adjust the (fixed) intensity of the internal flash to control the extent to which it contributes to the final exposure.
• Slow Sync: The slow sync flash option is selected via the external controls. This menu item determines whether the flash fires at the beginning or end of the shutter time when slow sync is active, or lets you combine red-eye reduction with slow sync flash operation.
  
  
  

  
  

Autofocus Options sub-menu:
(Per the note above, this sub-menu is reached from Screen 1 of the Camera tab on the Capture-mode menu)

• Focus Mode: Selects the main focus mode. Options are AF (normal autofocus), Macro, MF (manual focus), Super Macro, and Manual Focus Super Macro.
• AF Mode: Selects the autofocus mode, with options of iESP or Spot. iESP selects the subject nearest to the camera, across a fairly broad area of the frame, while Spot ties the focusing to the spot metering area selected.
• Fulltime AF: When enabled, causes the camera to continuously focus, regardless of the state of the shutter button. Fulltime AF may be helpful for moving subjects, but doesn't significantly improve shutter lag for stationary ones.
• P-AF: This option enables the 8080's phase-detect autofocus system. When this option is off, the camera focuses using conventional contrast-detection autofocus only. When it's turned on, the camera uses a combination of phase-detect and contrast-detect autofocus for faster focusing and reduced shutter delay.
  
  

Screen 2:

• ISO: Adjusts the camera's light sensitivity. Options are Auto, or a range from 50 to 400, in 1/3-EV increments.
• Digital Zoom: Turns the Digital Zoom function On or Off.
• Noise Reduction: When turned on, this function reduces the background noise in long exposures. (Evidently through the use of dark-frame subtraction.)
• Function: Allows you to select between Panorama, Portrait framing assist, Black-and-White, and Sepia modes.
• Frame Assist: Activates the grid framing guidelines.
  
  
  
  Screen 3:
  
• Sound: Turns the camera's voice caption recorder On or Off.
• My Mode: Turns My Mode on or off.
• 2-in-1: Enables the 2-in-1 shooting mode.
• Histogram: Turns the live histogram display on or off. This option also offers the +/- On and Direct settings, which extend the capabilities of the camera's histogram option a great deal. (secondary screen)
  
  
  

Picture menu tab:

Screen 1:

• White Balance (WB): Sets the camera's white balance to Auto, Preset 1 (Shade, Cloudy, Sunny, or Evening Sun), Preset 2 (Fluorescent settings 1 through 4, or Incandescent), Custom, or Manual white setting options. One extension of the earlier C5060's white balance options is that the 8080 allows you to "tweak" its color response in either Auto or any of the Preset settings towards red or blue, and then save that setting as a semi-permanent characteristic of the camera. On the 5060, this was a separate menu item, but the 8080 integrates it with the full range of auto, manual, and preset white balance settings. (A very handy feature, other companies take notice!) The Manual option lets you set a white balance based on a white or gray card, "tweak" it towards red or blue, and then assign it to one of four Custom memory slots. The Custom menu option then lets you select any of the four previously-stored White Balance memory values. This is great if you plan on shooting often under a unique light source, or want to switch back and forth between light sources without having to shoot a new white reference each time. Overall, the C8080 has the most sophisticated white balance system I've yet seen on a prosumer-level digicam.
• Quality: The 8080's image size/quality settings are also among the most sophisticated I've yet seen on a prosumer camera. Its RAW mode lets you choose to save RAW images alone, or to combine them with any size/quality JPEG image that the camera is capable of. When you select the "RAW"" option on this menu item, you can also select an option for the JPEG duplicate file of "OFF", SHQ, HQ, SQ1, or SQ2, and the camera will save a duplicate copy of the image as a JPEG file, with whatever size/quality settings you've chosen for the selected SHQ/HQ/etc type. As for the SHQ, etc settings, your options there include 3,264x2,448 or 3,264x2,176 (3:2) for SHQ. HQ saves the same the same size images, but at a higher compression ratio. SQ1 offers options of 2,592 x 1,944, 2,288x1,712, and 2,048 x 1,536 pixels, at either high or normal image qualities. SQ2 offers options of 1,600 x 1,200, 1,280 x 960, 1,024 x 768, and 640 x 480 pixels, also with high or normal quality settings. In TIFF (uncompressed) mode, the camera can capture images at any size offered for any of the JPEG options. In Movie mode, image-size options are SHQ (640 x 480 pixels), HQ (320 x 240 pixels) and SQ (160 x 120 pixels). (secondary screen)
• Scene Modes: Applies Scene mode properties to P, A, S, M, My, and Movie modes. Options are Normal, Portrait, Landscape, or Night.
• Sharpness: Sets the picture sharpness from +5 to -5 in arbitrary units
• Contrast: Sets the picture contrast from +5 to -5 in arbitrary units.
  
  
  Screen 2:
  
• Hue: Lets you adjust the color of the image from red to blue, in arbitrary units ranging from +5 to -5. (Somewhat redundant to the "tweak" adjustments in the white balance system, but the Hue option is more quickly available, and so more suited to temporary color shifts for creative effect.
• Saturation: Sets the picture saturation from +5 to -5 in arbitrary units.
  
  

Card:

• Card setup: Formats the currently-selected memory card (either the CF or xD cards), erasing all images, even the write-protected or Locked images.
  
  
  

Capture-Mode Set Up:

Screen 1:

• All Reset: Lets you Reset the camera to the factory default settings or to your own custom default settings if you've set them up via the My Mode Setup option.
• Rec View: Turns Rec View On or Off. Rec View displays the most recently recorded image while it is being written to the memory card.
• Beep: Turns the camera annunciator beeps off, or selects between "beep" and "plink" sounds, at either low or high volume. (secondary screen)
• Shutter Sound: Selects one of two different shutter sounds, with volume adjustments, or turns the shutter sound off. (secondary screen)
• Dial: Configures the operation of the main control dial. Normally you can control exposure compensation by pressing the +/- button and rotating the control dial. This option lets you adjust exposure compensation with the control dial without pressing the +/- button. It also controls a wide range of control dial behavior when used alone or in conjunction with the up/down or left/right arrow keys, in a variety of camera operating modes. By selecting Custom 1, 2, 3, or 4, you select various combinations of behavior in different exposure modes. (I'm going to leave the details of this one to the instruction manual.)
  

Screen 2:

• EV Step: Sets the exposure compensation step size to one-third or one-half EV units.
• Custom Button: Lets you set the Custom button to whatever menu item you want it to represent. (secondary screen)
• Short Cut: Lets you set the three short cut arrows on the initial record-mode menu screen to whatever menu items you want them to represent. (secondary screen)
• My Mode Setup: Sets up the My Mode settings, or resets them to the defaults. (Long sub-menu, not shown here.)
• Control Panel: Enables a "Control Panel" display on the rear-panel LCD. When this option is enabled, pressing the display-mode button on the rear panel cycles between a viewfinder display on the rear-panel LCD, a viewfinder display in the electronic viewfinder, and the rear-panel control panel display.
  
  

Playback Mode
Playback Mode is available by turning to the green Playback symbol on the camera's Mode dial, or by depressing the Quick View button in any Shooting mode. The top level of the Playback Menu has three options, which differ slightly between Shooting (Record) playback and Movie playback:

Still Playback:

• Slide Show: Sets up the camera to run an automatic slide show playback of all single-frame recorded images.
• Guide Line Display: Displays image-framing guidelines over the image. For some bizarre reason, these are restricted to either vertical or horizontal portrait outlines, which frankly seem fairly useless, at least to my mind. A gridline display might be useful for checking whether the camera was aligned properly or not when the image was captured, but there didn't seem to be any option for this.
• Sound Recording: This option lets you add approximately four seconds of sound annotation to a previously-captured still image.
• Mode Menu: Takes you to the main menu for playback mode. (See below for full details.)
  
  

Mode Menu:
The main playback mode menu has three sets of controls, organized and accessed via tabs on the left side of the display. (Note that a variety of functions and options, such as histogram and info display, DPOF print setup, image protection, and image rotation are now handled via external camera controls, rather than through the menu system.)

Play

• RAW Data Edit: Lets you edit RAW data files in-camera, adjusting white balance, sharpness, etc. You can then save a copy of the new file in JPEG format. This is a very unusual feature, that extends the usefulness of the RAW format to in-camera modifications of the files, as well as later changes on a computer. I'm not sure just how useful it will be in practice (as the camera really lacks the ability to show you the results of changes you might make), but it still seems like a nice feature to have. (This option is only available if the currently-viewed image is in RAW format, hence it's greyed-out in the screen shot above right.) (secondary screen)
• Resize: Reduces the resolution of the image and saves it as a new file. Resolution options are 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 pixels. (Handy for shrinking images for emailing.)
• Crop: Lets you crop part of the image and save it as a new file.
• Copy: Copies the selected image to or from another memory card. (Useful for transferring images between CF and xD Picture Cards, that may be in the camera at the same time.)
  
  

Card:

• Card Setup: (No screen shot.) Allows you to erase all images on the memory card, except write-protected files, or format the memory card, erasing all images, even the write-protected or Locked images.
  
  

Setup:

• All Reset: Lets you Reset the camera to the factory default settings or to your own custom default settings if you've set them up via the My Mode Setup option.
• Beep: Turns the camera annunciator beeps off, or selects between "beep" and "plink" sounds, at either low or high volume.
• Volume: Adjusts the playback volume for any recorded sounds.
• Thumbnail Index: Selects the number of thumbnails displayed onscreen in the thumbnail index playback mode. Options are 4, 9, or 16.
  

Movie Playback:

• Movie Play: This leads to a sub-menu system with a variety of playback options (see below).
• Copy: Copies one or more images or movies between memory cards, if more than one card is inserted.
• Mode Menu: Takes you to a (very abbreviated) menu for Movie Playback mode. (see below)
  
  

Movie Playback Mode Menu:
The Movie Playback mode menu has only two tabs in it, Card and Setup:

Card:

• Card Setup: (No screen shot.) Allows you to erase all images on the memory card, except write-protected files, or format the memory card, erasing all images, even the write-protected or Locked images.
  
  

Setup:

• All Reset: Lets you Reset the camera to the factory default settings or to your own custom default settings if you've set them up via the My Mode Setup option.
• Beep: Turns the camera annunciator beeps off, or selects between "beep" and "plink" sounds, at either low or high volume.
• Volume: Adjusts the playback volume for any recorded sounds.
• Thumbnail Index: Selects the number of thumbnails displayed onscreen in the thumbnail index playback mode. Options are 4, 9, or 16.
  

Movie Play sub-menu: This replaces the Play option in the Playback mode's top menu (sorry, no screen shots):

• Movie Playback: Plays the movie currently displayed on the LCD monitor.
  • Frame by Frame: Sets up manual movie playback in which you can scroll through the movie with the left and right arrow buttons.
  • Capture: This option lets you capture single frames of SHQ-quality movies and save them as separate 640x480 still-image files. (Option is enabled for movies recorded in SHQ mode only)
  • Exit: Takes you out of the Movie Playback function.
• Index: Creates an index of individual frames from the movie and displays it in a 3x3 matrix on the screen. This makes it easy to see what's contained in the current clip. By pressing the right and left arrow buttons, you can move "virtual cursors" to set the beginning and end of a portion that you're interested in. You then have the ability to extract the action lying between the two end points as a separate file.
• Edit: Allows you to scroll through the movie and clip frames off the beginning and end of the file. This function works a lot like the Index option described above, but you view only the beginning and end frames of the clip that you're interested in, full-screen. Index is good for getting an idea of what's coming next, or what went before the time of your cut, while Edit is better for seeing the details of what's going on in the specific moment in time where you're making the cut.
  
  

Main Setup Menu:
On the 8080, many setup options that appeared in the mode setup screens of the 5060 have been moved to a separate "Main" setup menu, accessed only via the mode dial. Within this main setup menu, three sub-menus are available, accessed via a tabbed interface. The first menu offers only card formatting, and is called, logically enough, "Card". The second tab is labeled with the universal "setup" icon of a person and a wrench. I didn't see any verbal label applied to the wrench-icon menu in the manual, so I'm just going to call it the "Mode Setup" menu in the text below, since it basically just duplicates entries from the Record and Playback mode setup menus. (It looks like the Record-mode setup menu, with the addition of playback volume and thumbnail index display options from the Playback-mode menus.) The third menu tab is called simply "Set," and seemed to contain items associated with camera management that aren't directly associated with a particular operating mode.

Card Menu:
No surprises here, this just lets you format the card. (No screen shot needed, I don't think.)

Mode Setup Menu:
As noted above, this is just a duplication of the setup menu options from the Record and Playback modes. I thus won't bother repeating its description of it again here.

"Set" Menu
The "Set" menu contains the various options that were removed from the Record and Playback mode setup menus from the 5060. I suspect that the multiple setup menus of the 8080 are a little confusing to some users, but overall, I think moving these setup items to a dedicated spot on the command dial was a positive change, as it simplifies and shortens the setup menus in the camera's operating modes. Here's a description of the screens here.

Screen 1:

• Menu Language: Sets the menu language to one of several. (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, and Japanese.) (secondary screen)
• Date and Time: Sets the camera's internal calendar and clock
• Beep Volume: Sets annunciator beep volume to high, low, or off.
• Sleep: Sets the period of inactivity after which the camera will put itself into sleep mode. Options are 3 seconds, one, 3, 5, or 10 minutes.
• File Name: Lets you choose between Auto or Name Reset for recording file names.
  
  
  
  Screen 2:
  
• Battery Save: Turns the battery save option or off for more aggressive battery power management.
• Pixel Mapping: Checks the CCD for dead pixels, maps them out so they won't appear in images.
• Monitor Adjustment: Adjusts monitor brightness using an on-screen scale.
• Meters / Feet: Allows you to choose between feet and meters for distance measurement.
• Video Out: Sets the video signal timing to NTSC or PAL on the video-out port.
  
  
  
  Screen 3:
  
• AF Illuminator: Turns the AF assist lamp on or off.
• USB: Sets the USB mode to PC or Print/Direct Copy.
  
  
  
  

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Select a topic Reference: Datasheet C-8080 Sample Images --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Executive Overview 3. Design 4. Viewfinder 5. Optics 6. Exposure & Flash 7. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 8. Operation & User Interface 9. Camera Modes & Menus 10. Image Storage & Interface 11. Video, Power, Software 12. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments on C-8080 Review --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index

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