Average Rating: 
Rating: - Extremely pleased with this camera!
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The best selling points of this camera (for me):
- it works on AA batteries, and if needed, you can buy them in any country. (Buy rechargeables!)
- it has an awesome zoom (when coupled with the digital zoom)
- the pictures are beautiful, and can blow up to 8x10 on high resolution
- even when you shoot the shot at a high resolution, you can change it later to a lower res if you want to. But be careful, you can go down, but not back up!
- it has a panorama function that works pretty good, and it includes stitching the pictures together
- it fits on a tripod
- it is quite practical in size
- it is very affordable for what you get and the quality of output.
- you can view your pictures immediately on a television with the video cable
- you can view the image on the TV while you are shooting the picture (works great for family portraits so you can see the shot before it is taken and fix things that don't quite look right)
- I like the rapid fire shooting it has The things I can live with but wish were better:
- it takes any smart media card, but the panorama function only works if you buy the Olympus smart media card
- If you plan on using it for extended periods, you really need to buy rechargeables
- the digital zoom is not very clear when viewing the image UNTIL you actually take the shot. And you really need a steady hand. But the shot comes out perfect. The thumbnails look blurry, though the picture really isn't.
- The pics take a long time to load onto your computer if you try to load them through your camera. I bought the DAZZLE ZIO! SMART MEDIA READER and it downloads the images boom-boom-boom-boom...instantly! Excellent feature, but sold separately.
- Doesn't come with a carrying case (good carrying cases are expensive - also sold separately)
- it only comes with a 16mb smart media card, YOU NEED MORE! (cha-ching)...for a 128mb, which by the way is about all you need for a week vacation. Takes 167 pics at high resolution.
- It sometimes takes a long time to focus and I did miss a few action shots because of this, but if you are prepared and pre-focus the camera it works great. You can also use the rapid firing option and just delete the ones you don't want. I did that too and it worked great. Overall, this (in my opinion) was an excellent choice. I have had the camera for 2 months now and I LOVE IT! It was quite affordable if I were only buying the camera at... but when you add in the rechargeables, the recharger, smart card, carrying case, cleaning rags, media card reader, and tax, you do need to think of it more like an investment than a toy. The final bill came out to... OUCH! Would I do it again? You bet! Considering the stock market, it was the best investment I made all year. Do I regret not getting the 4.0 mp? No way, the zoom is not nearly as good as the 3.1, and when am I really ever going to print out an 11x14 picture (which is the only reason you ever need to go bigger than a 3.1.) besides, my printer isn't even big enough to print it, so I would have to have a shop print it - not realistic. Don't waste better options for more mega pixels, unless you are a professional, you really won't have the need for them.
Hope this helps!
Rating:  - Keep your subject still!
This was my first digital camera and I was very encouraged by the positive reviews I had read. My biggest problem with the camera was motion blur. I got blurry motion in auto mode and sports mode from very simple movements (hand or head). I phoned Olympus and they agreed that there is motion blur and attributed it to the line of Ultra zoom cameras. They suggested going to manual mode and increasing the shutter speed. That made the auto point and shoot mode worthless. My wife is not a photographer and would never be able to handle that, especially in the short moments you get to snap a picture. These blurs occurred without any zoom. It was worse with the zoom, optical or digital. It would be great for still subjects and a tripod, but not for a simple picture of my dog. I have since gone to the C-4000 and am very pleased. I took a picture of a moving ceiling fan and it froze the blades perfectly. I have also used the C-3030 in the past and was able to take pictures out of a moving car. Not with the C-720. If you are considering this camera, make sure you try it out for yourself first.
Rating: - Zoom, greatest advantage but Olympus is unpredictable...
When pictures turn out good, they turn out really good (great, excellent, so much better than with other digital cameras) with vivid colors and great sharpness. However, in low light conditions they don't turn out that good.
I bought this camera only for it's great optical zoom which is the greatest advantage of this camera so you can compose what you really want. 8x optical is more than twice as much as what most digital cameras offer and I don't know how those other cameras sell with such a useless zoom (3x optical is nothing!) 3x optical is just ridiculous when 8x is already available.
The autofocus is sometimes very disappointing. It might let you down when you need it the most. For example, African Safari, great opportunities missed because the autofocus just took too long or just didn't focus at all! Very frustrating. Like if you went to Africa every day!
I had the c700 model before this one and I'm not sure if selling it to my brother was a nice thing to do with a brother. Had the same problems. Big surprise when I found that the C-720 doesn't have sound capability in the video mode. C700 had. Why would Olympus come up with a newer model with more resolution but decrease the zoom to 8x and take out the sound capability? Go figure!! Bottom line: if you don't care about having sound on your video clips, don't care missing some once in a lifetime photo opportunities because the autozoom didn't work, then go for it! But, if you don't mind spending [a more money], maybe the c730 will not have all the flaws of it's predecessors. However, that's what I thought when I upgraded from the c700 to the c720 so we are back to the beginning and Olympus is unpredictable. Lets be positive and think that maybe they get it right this time.
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