Look-alike model packs some snappy features

Product: Olympus Camedia C-60 Zoom Price: $4,380 Pros: Compact, simple, six megapixels Cons: Limited menus

The latest model in the Olympus Camedia range manages to squeeze 6.1-megapixels into a familiar, compact body.

On the face of it, the Camedia C-60 is identical to previous models in the range and the unit we reviewed was lacking a manual, so it is possible that we missed some features.

However, the C-60 is no doubt a good-value camera.

Users can take pictures of up to 2,816 by 2,112 pixels in jpg format, while the C-60 also records Quicktime movies with sound, and the duration is only limited by the size of your memory card.

Olympus claims the camera's built-in dual autofocus system, which supports constant auto-focusing, and the TruePic Turbo image processor, make for high-speed focus and image processing. While the camera operates reasonably quickly, the speed does not seem exceptional.

As with all Olympus cameras, the C-60 uses xD Picture Cards for storage. The camera comes with a 32MB xD card.

As far as output is concerned, the results are quite satisfactory. The colour quality is good and the camera has a 7.8mm to 23.4mm 3x optical zoom lens, and a special Super Macro Mode that lets you zoom in on objects from as close as 4cm away.

On the back of the unit is a 1.8-inch, 134,000 pixel LCD. The menu system is fairly easy to get the hang of, although some users may find the range of menu-driven options somewhat limited.

But there are conveniences. For example, while viewing pictures, a single-button press will give you a wide range of information on the photograph, such as its size and settings. The camera supports PictBridge so that users can connect directly to a PictBridge-enabled printer without requiring a computer.?