Olympus FE-190 digital camera review
| Design |
| The Olympus FE-190 comes in an attractive small frame. The body is thin and a silver metal with stylish curves on the edges. We said it was light and the FE-190 only weighs 4.5 ounces and only measuring 58.5x90.5x18.5 mm this really is a small camera and you’ll be able to put it in your pocket without feeling the slightest unseemly bulge. At the front there’s very little to see other than the 3x zoom and the small flash just above it. Turn the camera around and there’s a 2.5 inch LCD with a scene wheel and navigation wheel to the right, a menu and delete button below these, the zoom cradle above and button to move from video to picture right at the top. On the top part of the camera is the power on button and shoot button. There are facilities for a tripod at the bottom but it’s very fiddly. |
| Setup/Installation |
| Setting up is a synch. The whole idea behind limited features is that anyone can start playing with this camera and the handy menu guides you through everything. |
| Features |
| With a small frame and a smaller price tag, Olympus's FE-190 hopes to attract the fashionably frugal. This 6-megapixel shooter doesn't offer the manual controls more advanced photographers desire, but its other aspects make up for its automation. When it comes to features the FE-190 won’t go the top of the class – it is limited but it’s these limited features that make it ideal for beginners. The 6 megapixel sensor comes with a 38-to-114mm zoom lens. There’s a helpful guide mode and several scene settings as well as a 30 frame-per-second VGA movie mode as well as macro, flash, and EV compensation. The Olympus camera automatically sets its sensitivity from ISO 64 to ISO 1,000 but there’s no way of manually setting the ISO yourself. While it is limited the Olympus FE-190 does come with a hand digital image stabilization mode which is so helpful at reducing blur. The FE-190 also uses a proprietary battery. |
| Performance |
| For a cheap camera it’s not bad. It only took 2 seconds from switching the camera on to being able to take the first shot, and then an additional 1.9 seconds before we could take the next picture. When using the flash (which you really have to do as it’s not very good in low light) it took just under 3 seconds. We love the fact there’s hardly any manual settings and the camera automatically controls aperture, shutter, focus, ISO, and white balance. Colours of pictures were really rich and without blurring. There was slight lens distortion on the widest end of the zoom lens but nothing too serious. |
| What's In The Box? |
| Olympus FE-190, battery, software. |
| Overall Opinion |
| The Olympus FE-190 is a fantastic ultracompact digital camera for those on a budget and who don’t want too many features. If you’re looking for a camera that automatically does everything for you and leaves you to think about other things then this is a good choice. It’s affordable, it’s compact and it’s easy to use, what more could you ask for? |
|
Pros + Ultra compact + Solid images + Basic features |
Cons - Not good in low lighting |
|
Picture Quality 7/10
|
Battery Life 8/10
|
|
Setup Simplicity 9/10
|
Build Quality 8/10
|
|
Ease of Use 9/10
|
Overall Rating 
|
3/11/2006
at 5:00:19pm
Read Olympus Reviews
