CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
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Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 05/31/2006
- Released on: 02/08/2006
The Olympus FE-115's chunky plastic body is about the size of a large bar of soap. It won't win any beauty contests, but it feels reasonably solid, and it fits well in the hand. The top side of the camera holds a large shutter-release button and a recessed but accessible power button. The back panel holds a puny 1.5-inch LCD and the rest of the camera's controls. Don't expect many options here, but the few settings you can change are accessible through the camera's mode dial; four-way-plus-OK pad; and five additional control buttons for shooting, playback, trash, menu, and flash. A large indentation between the zoom buttons and the mode dial gives you a comfortable place to rest your thumb when shooting one-handed.
Olympus has taken the bare-bones feature set to new highs--or lows--with the FE-115. Even basic image settings such as ISO sensitivity and white balance are absent from this camera. Once you've selected one of the six still-image modes, the only image options are resolution, flash, macro focus, time, and exposure compensation. The image modes are extremely basic but cover most situations. Besides full auto mode, the FE-115 includes presets for portrait, landscape, night-time shooting, and even self-portraits where you hold the camera facing you. The camera also includes a separate digital image stabilizer for reducing blur. Video fans will likely be disappointed with the FE-115's movie mode, which shoots choppy 15fps, 320x240-resolution QuickTime clips.
Surprisingly, the Olympus FE-115 includes one handy feature now standard on Olympus's cameras: pixel mapping, which analyzes the camera's sensor and records any bad pixels that might come out too light or too dark. Once the FE-115 records these pixels, the camera can compensate for them when it processes pictures. It's a capability rarely seen on low-end cameras.
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