olympus

At last, here is an all-purpose, easy-to-use camera that provides a variety of built-in accessories. The Olympus Stylus Zoom 115 QD camera is a great find at a reasonable cost. Best of all, the learning curve is short. After 30 years of using a 35-mm Pentax with six exchangeable lenses, and another 15 years of using one of the first one-step Minoltas, I began to look for a simple camera that was lightweight and not fussy.

I needed a camera that could take excellent quality, in-focus shots of my craft booth set up, because show juries demand them. The camera needed to be small, durable, tough, and take the same quality shots indoors and out, with natural lighting and under fluorescent and indoor stadium lighting. If the same camera could take some close ups of my jewelry so I could scan the shots and send them to clients to give them an idea of a design, so much the better. And I didn't have a lot of money to spare, either.

After some in-person and on-line research I decided on the Olympus Epic Zoom 115 QD. I read through the instruction book once. I made one mistake loading the film (if you don't load it right the first time, don't push "rewind" -the tail end of the film will be sucked into the roll). That was it. My first roll produced some good shots and some excellent shots, and the second roll had no throw-away shots. The variable focus provides a lot of flexibility. No red eyes on flash, not even on the cats. No complaints. For the price, snap this camera up.

I've only used this camera so far for black and white photos, but these have surpassed my expectations. The clarity is close to professional quality. The automatic focus is right on target, producing great shots indoors or out. I did not use a tripod at all. So it must be the camera, because it definitely isn't the skill of the photographer! This camera has lots of features and the size is just right to slip into a pocket. In fact, I carried two cameras with me on my last trip--this one for black and white, and another for slides, and they both fit into the same case--the Olympus in the film pocket. I like the metal protective lens cover, too.

The camera is compact, solid but light, and very easy to use. The images are very good to excellent. All the features seems to work just fine. The telephoto lens really brings images in. Its relative resistance to water-spray helps with boating photography. So far it has worked without a hitch. Though I own a digital camera, I believe that a film camera like this is still preferable for travel or for taking many pictures in a short time. All you have to do is plop a new film in and keep going, and then drop it off for development and you will end up with photos that will not fade out in a few years. I highly recommend this Olympus for an uncomplicated way of handling photography in an economical fashion and ending up with excellent results.