Review: Olympus FE-3010 Digital Camera

About a year ago I was shopping for a gift for my boyfriend. We were planning a vacation back to the Bahamas, and I knew he was envious of my Olympus 1030SW Digital Camera. This sweet camera goes underwater, and he was jealous that he did not have one.

Although the Olympus FE-3010 is a standard digital camera, you can purchase a housing case, which will allow you to bring it down under with you. However today we are reviewing the camera, not the housing unit.

The FE-3010 is a slim, sleek lightweight camera, it makes use of Olympus' XD cards, and features 12 mega-pixels. 12 is better than the 10 Mega-pixel camera I had, so I had a feeling he would enjoy the 2 mega-pixel upgrade compared to my 1030SW. Yeah, bragging rights.

The FE-3010 has a 2.7 inch LCD screen which is bright, and makes viewing photos instantly a cinch. The Olympus FE-2010 also comes packed with 19 photo modes, which makes getting the perfect picture a lot more easy. The interesting thing about the available shooting modes is that it comes with 3 underwater modes. Don't go tossing this one into the sea though without a housing case (the PT-46).
Now neither of us really ever toy around with the extra shooting modes, as we have both found the auto mode to take the best photos.

The first thing I noticed about this camera immediately after taking a few pictures with it, is that on the cameras LCD screen, the photo looks fantastic. It is sharp, high in quality, and the colors are vibrant and beautiful. The downside however is that when I posted the photos onto my PC, using the included USB plug, I noticed many of the pictures that looked great on the 2.7 inch screen looked slightly faded and blurred. Not to the point where the photos were ruined, but definitely noticeable. I was able to fix them up using my photo editing software, but it was a bit disheartening to have to do such.

Now the plus side about the FE-3010 is that those blurred photos only occur when there is poor lighting in the room. The camera will take wonderful shots with good lighting. It just lacks if the room is darker, or if the lights are dim.

The macro mode is stellar though, and we took many photos using the macro mode. Shots are crisp, clean, and details are not lacking.
The camera is also capable of taking video with sound. The quality is decent, but the sound is a little muffled and lacking. It's mediocre, but a nice addition for when you wish to film something and do not have a video camera with you.

Pros:
 
The Olympus FE-3010 is lightweight, so toting it around with you will not become an issue.
The camera seems to be very durable.

We have used it underwater in the proper housing case with very nice underwater photos as a result.
You can have up to 800 photos or more (depends on what quality setting you use) using an XD card.
Photos taken in good lighting turn out spectacular when viewed on a PC.

The camera comes with 19 different shooting modes.

You can find this camera for sale for less than $200.00. You can even buy it in a bundle which includes both the camera, and the underwater housing case for under $300.00.

Cons:
 
Poor lit photos contain a bit of blur and fading in quality.

The lag is a bit ridiculous. It takes a bit for the camera to allow you to take another photo, as it is still processing and saving the last one. The lag could cause you to miss some really wonderful shots.
Video camera is a bit sub par as far as sound quality goes.

The battery is rechargeable, but the battery life is not very long. We get around 150 photos before the battery bar begins to blink red to warn us it needs to be recharged soon.

Overall:
 
The Olympus FE-3010 is a decent digital camera. It's not the best camera we have used, but for the lower price it gets the job done. The numerous photo modes is a nice plus, and the fact that this camera fits in an underwater housing, and allows you to take it into the water with you, it's a real gem for beginners who do not want to invest too much money in a camera.

The camera does of course have flaws that I hope Olympus irons out, but all in all the camera does a good job for the price.