Olympus FE-110 Optics

Zoom
A 2.8x optical zoom range with pretty good performance. High coma distortion at wide angle with soft details, but sharper results at telephoto.

The Olympus FE-110 zooms over the equivalent of a 38-106mm range, which is about average. Details are soft at wide angle, and coma distortion is a bit high, extending fairly far into the frame. However, at telephoto, details sharpen quite a bit. The 4x digital zoom takes it out to 12x total, with some loss of quality.

Macro
A large macro area in normal mode, though with good detail and high resolution. Flash exposes fairly well, but flash illumination is uneven up close. Super Macro mode captures a very tiny area, but with very soft details.

The FE-110's macro setting performed slightly worse than average, capturing a large minimum area of 4.86 x 3.64 inches (123 x 93 millimeters). Resolution is high and detail strong, with moderate softening in the corners from the lens. (Most cameras have some softening in the corners in macro mode.) The flash throttles down pretty well, though its lighting is uneven. (Plan on using external lighting for your closest macro shots with the FE-110.) The FE-110 offers a Super Macro setting, which captures a much smaller minimum area of 0.91 x 0.67 inches (23 x 17 millimeters), albeit with very soft details.

Distortion
Moderate barrel distortion, though low pincushion.

This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel--usually at wide angle) or inward (like a pincushion--usually at telephoto). The FE-110's 0.8% barrel distortion at wide angle is average among the cameras I've tested, although I personally feel that this level is too high. At the telephoto end, the camera's 0.03% pincushion is very low.

Chromatic aberration
High, noticeable effect on images at edges, particularly at wide angle.

Chromatic aberration is rather high at wide angle and telephoto, showing about 10+ pixels of coloration on either side of the target lines. The effect is quite bright at wide angle, though much more dull at telephoto. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.)

Corner Sharpness
Fairly strong softening in the corners of the frame, with the strongest effect in the left corners.

The Olympus FE-110 produced soft corners in most shots, though the strongest softening appeared in the left corners at both wide angle and telephoto.

Coverage
A fairly accurate LCD monitor, though slightly tight at telephoto.

The FE-110's LCD monitor was fairly accurate, though less so than I'd ideally like to see. Framing was about 98% accurate at wide angle, and only about 95% at telephoto. I generally like LCD monitors to be as close to 100% accuracy as possible, so the FE-110 has some room for improvement here.