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Background
I paid $350 [03/04/2001] for mine at CompUSA and consider it a great deal.
The offer was a one week only sale in a flyer in the March 4, 2001,
Sunday newspaper. The local stores were sold out by early afternoon (no
surprise there). I went to compusa.com
where they still showed the camera as "in stock" and ordered it
on-line.
The current equivalent is the D-510 and it's available for $299 at a number of dealers.
The biggest difference is the D-510's USB interface for transferring
images to a PC.
I had looked at the D460Z, a couple of Fuji models and a couple of Kodak models
and decided the D-490 was the best deal for my intended uses - your mileage
may vary...
Transferring images to the PCBack to top
The serial transfer is (as expected) slow, but the free USB
reader (delivery took 5 weeks, to the day) takes care of transfer speed.
(60MB via serial port: 1 hour and 45 minutes using a 486/50 laptop. 60MB via
ZiO! USB reader: 1 minute and 45 seconds using an AMD K6-2/450 PC). I also
purchased a $41 [04/27/2001] Ratoc PCMCIA reader from
provantage.com for moving images to a
laptop PC. (About 5 minutes for 60MB on an ancient 486/50 IBM ThinkPad.)
Don't have a USB port or PCMCIA slot, but still want something faster than the serial
connection? Two other options are the FlashPath adapter (reads SmartMedia in a 3.5"
floppy drive) and a parallel port SmartMedia reader.
The FlashPath adapter can only transfer data as fast as the floppy interface allows. A
rough estimate is about 2MB/minute or 30 minutes for a 64MB card (about 4 times as fast as
the serial connection). For an exact figure
on your computer, time your floppy drive by putting a 1MB file on a floppy, then copying
it to the hard drive. This will give you the approximate time to transfer 1MB using
the flashpath adapter. If you decide to use a FlashPath adapter, check the prices
at provantage.com (search for flashpath - there's a DaneElec unit for $52 [05/12/2001]).
Parallel port SmartMedia readers are not as fast as USB, but are usually faster than
the FlashPath adapter. provantage.com has an
ImageMate parallel port reader
for $48 [05/12/2001]
Both devices are "sort of" portable: you can take them with you to use on another computer,
but you must also take the drivers for that computer (Win95 vs Win98/NT/ME/2000 for
parallel, Win?? vs Mac for FlashPath).
The one advantage of the serial interface is its portability and there are several free
programs for downloading images under DOS/Windows. The smallest of them will run from a
floppy, so nothing needs to be installed on the destination computer. There are also
programs for the Mac. You can find most of the programs at
Steve's Digicams.
The automatic functionsBack to top
Flash pictures are evenly illuminated at 8 feet (lens at widest zoom setting)
and don't wash out in macro mode (even with a white coffee cup filling the image).
Flash closeups are sharp - want to count hairs in an eyebrow?
The autofocus system wants a vertical line
to focus on, so watch what's behind the subject in your pictures.
Automatic white balance under fluorescent light is good but not perfect: there is some green in the shadows (check out More samples below).
Macro mode automatically turns on the LCD display for composing (parallax prevents you from
getting correct composition in the rangefinder). Sample macro image.
Additional goodiesBack to top
You can show the pictures on a TV - the slide show displays each image about 15 seconds -
who needs paper prints when you can put hundreds of images on a single video tape?
This is also an area with a dislike - the camera cannot orient the images during display,
either on the LCD screen or an external video display. If you never use the camera vertically,
this won't affect you. I use the D490 vertically for head and shoulders shots and find this
oversight annoying. Image rotation is available in some of the newer Olympus digital cameras.
Manual controlsBack to top
There is limited manual exposure control (forcing the "ISO speed").
Don't buy accessories from Olympus or most camera dealers. The Olympus
64meg SmartMedia card has the panorama
mode enable code on it but is otherwise a generic SmartMedia card. If you're
not shooting panoramic pictures, other brands cost much less.
NewEgg.com has a Mr. Flash USA 64MB for
$21 [12/10/2001] (plus $5 FedEx shipping).
The Mr. Flash card arrived correctly formatted - instant plug and play!
CompUSA had a Memorex 128MB card for
$39.95 after rebate [5/26/2002]. Although the camera manual indicates 64MB is
the largest memory card supported, the 128MB card works fine.
If you do frequent shooting, get NiMH batteries and a charger.
Thomas Distributing has a
MAHA MH-C401FS intelligent charger (for NiCD and NiMH batteries) for $40 [10/22/2006]. This charger comes with a set of international plug adapters. A
set of 2700MaH NiMH is $12 [10/22/2006].
The charger comes with the AC adapter and a car cord. Considering the price of
4 lithium AA batteries, three sets of lithium throw-aways cost about the same as
two sets of NiMH and a proper charger. Thomas has international versions of the AC adapter.
Also check www.igo.com for NiMH rechargeables.
Their special is
$4.99 for four 1550mah AA's.
Using the MAHA 1550mah batteries, I took 89 pictures (about half with flash) in
HQ mode (1600x1200 with compression) and transferred them to a laptop using the
serial cable. The battery indicator in the display still indicated OK and there
was no obvious increase in the flash recycle time (it was ready when I was ready
to shoot again).
You can get a DigiPower AC adapter for the D-490 from
Thomas or
your local Circuit City for $30 (same package) [03/30/2001], or from
BugEye Digital for
$22.95 [05/19/2001]. The unit is rated 100-240
volts AC in, so it should work in most of the world if you have the proper cord.
Whether you need an AC adapter depends on how you use the camera.
DislikesBack to top
The camera is not perfect. When the lens cover is open, it's right where my
fingers expect to grip the camera (many hours with a Nikon SLR). Occasionally the
viewfinder goes out of focus and the camera starts retracting
the lens because I've moved the lens cover just enough to turn off power. This
is especially annoying because of the 5 or 10 seconds required for the camera to
retract the lens and then extend it again when the lens cover is fully opened.
The camera's exposure control prefers long exposures -
1/10sec at F4.4 really should be F2.8 and a faster shutter speed. I consider
the 640x480 mode as "head and shoulders" or closer only, unless you're
reducing the images for casual web use.
Getting paper printsBack to top
There has been much discussion on rec.photo.digital about the various online photofinishers.
I've started my own comparison study with prints from ofoto.com and walmart.com. The same image
files were submitted to each vendor and 4x6 prints obtained. The
matching prints were scanned
together at 75dpi.
Be patient - there are 5 paired images and each is about 250K, plus a copy of the original 1200x1600 images resized to
match the size of the scanned prints. Prints are on order from photoaccess.com and
and colormailer.com and these will be added when they arrive.
Print Prices
ofoto.com has $0.49 4x6 prints and $3.99 8x10's
(minimum shipping is $1.49 US, $2.99 Canada, $4.99 international). They offer
free shipping on your first order for signing up with them.
dotPhoto has $0.29 4x6 prints and
"bulk" packages of 400 prints for $69.95 (17.5 cents/print).
They also have monthly membership plans. The paper dotPhoto uses isn't as
heavy as the paper Ofoto uses, but the print quality is similar.
photoaccess.com has
$0.45 4x6 prints and $2.95 8x10's (minimum shipping is $1.50 US/Canada,
$4.99 international). Slides from digital images are $3.95.
walmart.com has
$0.26 4x6's and $2.86 8x10's (minumum shipping is $0.96). No freebies, but you can pick
the prints up at a local Walmart store.
ofoto.com, dotPhoto, and photoaccess.com appear to offer unlimited free storage time.
walmart.com gives 30 days free storage, and sells long-term storage for $1.48 a year.
colormailer.com has
branches in Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and the UK. 4x6 or 4.5x6
(4:3 screen ratio of many cameras) prints are $0.40 and 8x12's are $3.20.
Shipping to the US is via International Priority Mail for $3.90. They are
truly an international site, as the pages are available in 10 languages!
There is a free upload program for getting images to colormailer
for printing.
If turnaround time is not a factor, colormailer.com is less expensive than some US-based
photo printers (photoisland.com with a $5.00 minimum shipping charge).
Other resourcesBack to top
An excellent on-line magazine on all aspects of digital photography
(news, info, tip & tricks, reviews and lab tests of cameras and printers) is
digitalkamera.de.
Consider this tip on
optimum print size.
The Digital Photography for What it's Worth page at
http://www.cliffshade.com/dpfwiw
has a lot of good info on digital photography (software, batteries, tips and
tricks, links) and Olympus gear (the more expensive models) in particular.
If you're looking for more digital camera information,
try Steve's Digicam
page. He also has links to many items of support software for PC's and
Mac's (image viewers and editors, multiple prints on a page when printing,
alternative camera to computer image transfer, computer control of the
camera, etc.).
ImagesBack to top
Big image (1600x1200, about 350K) of the
Kennesaw State University campus green in the rain.
1/80 at F2.8, ISO equivalent of 100, lens at 5.6mm (equivalent to 35mm
lens for 35mm film camera)
Note the reflection of the fence in the puddle beside it and the lack of
"jaggies". You can see the power lines behind the rotunda on the right.
More samples - some of these are big files, so be patient.
PricesBack to top
All prices are listed in US dollars. Some rebate and discount offers may
be available only in retail stores or to US customers.
The date a price was verified is in this format [03/30/2001]. You need
to check all links for current pricing and availability - any link more
than 30 seconds old is subject to change.
My only connection with the companies listed is as a satisfied customer,
except PhotoRescue, for whom I was a beta tester, and
BugEye Digital, which has been mentioned in the rec.photo.digital newsgroup
as a source of accessory lens adapters, lenses, and filters.
Image recoveryBack to top
Your camera's memory card is suddenly unreadable in the camera and/or the
reader on your PC. Perhaps you intended to erase one image but erased the entire
card. How do you get "lost" or erased images back?
The folks at DataRescue now have
PhotoRescue to recover
images from digital camera media (smartmedia, compactflash, memory stick,
microdrive, etc). I was one of the beta testers because the
original demo version that was available online did not work with my ZiO!
reader. They sent me a new version to test in about 24 hours (other software
vendors should be so responsive!) PhotoRescue recovers from *almost*
any memory problem (physical damage NOT included).
Photo: Olympus
