Product: Olympus Camedia C-770 Ultra Zoom Price: $4,280 Pros: 10x zoom lens, mpeg 4 video support Cons: Uninspiring design
The first thing you notice about the Olympus Camedia C-770 is not very much. This camera will not win any design awards.
The C-770 has a basic, silver rectangular body with few frills on the front (there is a black version available overseas, which looks a little nicer). Flip the camera around and you get a bit more character, with a set of straightforward colour-coded controls and a 1.8-inch display.
But Olympus is not selling the camera for its looks. The main focus of this camera is its impressive 10x zoom lens and advanced mpeg 4 video capabilities. The 6.3mm-63mm zoom is apparently made up of 11 separate lenses. Combined with the camera's 4x digital zoom, the result is the ability to capture pictures over a surprisingly long distance without worrying about finding a new lens.
Olympus claims this gives you the equivalent of 38mm-380mm on a 35mm camera. Pictures can be captured in jpeg or tiff formats in eight optional resolutions, ranging from 640x480 to an impressive 3,200x2,400. You also get spot metering and five white balance modes. But don't let that put you off - the on-screen menus are easy to master.
No matter how hard manufacturers try, video and still cameras continue to be distinctly different beasts. A dedicated video camera may take adequate snaps and a still camera may take passable video, but the two are still a long way from converging. Adding mpeg 4 capability does help close the gap.