The Design: Olympus D-540
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Click to enlarge.
The front of the Olympus D-540 features a 3x optical zoom lens. Directly above the lens is the viewfinder window. To the left of this are the built-in flash and the self-timer lamp. The flash has a working range of 0.7 - 11 feet in wide angle and 0.7 - 7 feet at telephoto.
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The back of the D-540 features a 1.8" LCD monitor with 85K pixels. Right above the LCD monitor is the viewfinder, which protrudes a bit from the body. To the right of this is the main power switch. The positions are Off, Play, and Record. To the right of the LCD monitor is the "Quick View" button. This button can be used to view previously taken pictures without sliding the power switch to Play mode. Below the Quick View button are 4 directional buttons and a separate OK/Menu button in the middle. The directional buttons serve to navigate menus as well as perform one additional purpose. For example, the up button toggles the macro mode, the right button toggles the flash mode, and the down button toggles the self-timer. The left button opens the main shooting menu where you select the desired shooting mode.
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The top of the camera is fairly simple. On the right side are the shutter button and the zoom controller. The zoom controller has an odd, round shape.
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The bottom of the D-540 simply features a plastic tripod mount.
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 Click to enlarge. |
On the right side is a spring-action hinged door that reveals the battery compartment. The D-540 takes 2 AA alkaline/Ni-MH batteries or a CR-V3. Although the kit comes packaged with alkalines, we highly recommend picking up some Ni-MH rechargeables for longer battery life. Just to the left of the battery compartment is the compartment that stores the xD-Picture Card. The slot is protected by a swinging door that snaps shut. Above the flash card slot is a rubber tab that fits in place to cover the USB port. Just to the right of this is a post for the included wrist strap.
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 Click to enlarge. |
The only thing on the left side is a rubber tab that covers the 3.4V DC port for the optional AC adapter.
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Jeff7181 - Friday, December 31, 2004 - link
Nice article... would have been nice to see it BEFORE the holidays though ;)stephencaston - Friday, December 31, 2004 - link
#4,Unfortunately, when it comes to digital cameras, it is impossible to cover every camera at a specific price point. We had to make choices when picking which cameras to use and ended up choosing three cameras at $150 with very similar features to make the comparisons more relevant.
I did not mean to imply that this article will determine the best camera at $150. The article was meant to compare these three cameras to each other. I have amended the title accordingly to reflect this.
We always encourage people to do as much research as possible before buying a camera. There are so many different things to consider when reviewing digital cameras and each review site focuses on different areas.
PrinceGaz - Friday, December 31, 2004 - link
I'd take the Minolta DiMAGE X31 over any of the cameras reviewed any day; it's a lot more compact than them which is what many people desire when out and about, is reported to give a good picture for it's price and size, has lots of features, and at $150 is just as cheap as them. My DiMAGE X20 is a lovely little camera that does everything you could ask of it, and from what I've read the X31 makes a good thing better.I will reiterate a point I made when digicam reviews first appeared on AT, which is that unless you can review *every* model in depth to find which is the best in that category, then you are doing a dis-service to your readers by potentially not even looking at what might be the best camera in that range.
Specialist digicam websites review all cameras so that they can give an informed opinion on any new models, even if that means buying one themselves like AT might do for a computer product that free review samples weren't available for. What AT is doing with digicam reviews is just picking two or three models out of the many available and saying one of them is the best, when better ones you didn't even look at are available. AT does excellent reviews of computer components, but I'm afraid you'd have to be a fool to only use your recommendations when buying a digicam.
orenb - Friday, December 31, 2004 - link
The best digital camera at this price point is the Ricoh Caplio RX. 28-100mm zoom. Metal body. Almost no shutter lag. These three don't even come close.Prog.
Joony - Friday, December 31, 2004 - link
The Canon A400 should be in this review...cosmotic - Thursday, December 30, 2004 - link
Again, Kodak EasyShare is turned into an ad link and blends into the background of the table cell.