Gizmo

Olympus C-5060 Wide Zoom Digital Camera

So it's opening night at Sakai Sushi, a new Japanese restaurant in Burlington, Ontario, and there's I am with a hot new camera in hand: the Olympus C-5060.

When my brother snaps pictures he take nice shots of his thumbs, so any new camera gear is sent to me for testing.

Tonight, however, I am dutiful son-in-law. My father-in-law was opening his new restaurant and I was greeter, busboy and official photographer.

Before the opening, I shot some tests with the C-5060 and so far so good.

Built with a magnesium alloy body and a 4X wide angle optical zoom lens (equivalent to 27mm to 110mm on a 35mm camera), the C-5060, feels like an SLR (Single Lens Reflex). It has tons of manual controls that allow you to tailor the shot to your needs, but also has several program modes which will do most of the thinking for you, taking consistently decent shots in almost any light conditions. The sushi promo shots were impressive.

Note that a 3 megapixel camera captures enough resolution to print an 8x10, so this 5.1 megapixel camera provides loads of resolution for a mini poster of a tuna roll.

Favorite features on the C-5060 include the 1.8 inch adjustable swivel color LCD display where the picture appears after it's snapped. Apart from how bright and clear it is, it also has the ability to reverse, so that the screen is protected against the inside of the camera. The screen also lifts up and turns around so that it can be seen from the lens side of camera when doing self portraits.

Another great feature is a frame assist function that overlays the outline of a human form on the display. This helps cut down on too much head room in the shot. This feature is great for coaching beginner photographers to take better portrait shots.

The camera can also be fitted with conversion lenses. Olympus sent the WCON-07C Wide Conversion Lens. It increases the magnification by 0.7X and also allows you to take great wide angle shots. When taking indoor pictures of a room, it is always a challenge to get everything in without making the space look smaller than it really is. This was the challenge when taking pictures at the restaurant. But with the Olympus C-5060 Wide Zoom and the WCON-07C Wide Conversion Lens, the dining hall looked as large as it felt in person. Honored father-in-law was impressed — well, for the moment.

The C-5060 also has a hot shoe for an external flash, which is necessary for taking indoor flash shots when using the conversion lens. This is an unusual feature on a digital camera and really expands this camera's capabilities beyond the more pedestrian point and shoot variety. You can begin to play with the light in a shot, and controlling light, photo geeks say, is 80 percent of good photography.

The camera comes with a 35MB Olympus XD memory card and also has an extra slot for the older Compact Flash Type I and II memory cards. With this, you can spend a whole restaurant opening without changing memory cards.

The rechargeable battery lasts a long time, too. Days would go by, and scores of photos taken, and the camera always seemed to have juice left in it.

Downsides? Well the C-5060 is no small camera. At over a pound, it's hefty. But it's a decent compromise between a digital SLR and a point and shoot digicam.

So, the camera was positioned on a tripod near the door and I held the included wireless shutter release remote control a few steps away.

When the first patrons, a gentleman and his wife of retirement age, walked in, the staff vigorously called out "Irashaimase!" — a customary welcome, even if it sounds like you're being told to get off the flowerbed.

I pressed the C-5060's remote shutter control and fired the flash. POP! IRASHAIMASE! The gentleman stepped backwards gasping and toppled into his wife, who squealed, turned around and walked straight out.

Net result: Honored father-in-law not impressed. Two restaurant patrons soothed with green tea and a whole lot of hysterical laughter, when the mayhem was over.

Price: $899, $499 (U.S.)
More info: Olympusamerica.com
Buy it: Most high-end camera stores as well as TechDepot.com and Henrys.com.

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