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Olympus FE-170
Reviewed by
Will Greenwald
on 10/11/2006
camera on top sides back

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Price:

$299.95

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Add to my list Product summary

The good: Simple to use; inexpensive.

The bad: Terrible performance.

The bottom line: The Olympus FE 170's price is hard to beat; its performance, not so much.

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CNET editors' review

  • Reviewed by:
    Will Greenwald
  • Edited by:
    Philip Ryan
  • Reviewed on: 10/11/2006
On paper, the Olympus FE-170 is almost identical to its brother, the FE-180. Both have the same 6-megapixel sensor, the same 38mm-to-114mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens, and the same emphasis on simplified, automated photography. In actual use, however, the FE-170 is far inferior to its bigger brother. The approximate $30 difference between the two cameras represent some heavily cut corners in this cheaper model.

Both cameras share the FE series' emphasis on simplicity over control. Besides macro, flash, and EV compensation, the only way you can change the cameras' settings is through its various scene presets. They automatically control aperture, shutter, focus, and even ISO sensitivity and white balance. Basically, the camera runs almost completely on autopilot. Casual shooters may find this convenient, but more advanced photographers will miss tweaking their shots.

Automated shooting isn't necessarily a bad thing if the automated aspects work well. Unfortunately, this is where the FE-170 parts ways with the FE-180. While both are automated, the FE-180 uses Olympus's TruePic Turbo image processor. The FE-170's unbranded image processor is the main cause of its performance woes. The camera takes 5.7 seconds from power-on to first shot, and every shot thereafter suffers a wait of 4.8 seconds without flash. With the onboard flash enabled, that wait becomes an even-longer 5.5 seconds. Shutter lag was almost as painful, taking a full 1.3 seconds from shutter release to shot. These numbers are more than double what we saw with the FE-180, which offered a 1.6-second shot-to-shot time and a shutter lag of just 0.6 second.

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Reviews from around the WebPowered by alaTest

  • alaTest.com

    Editors' rating: 83

    Summary: alaTest has collected and analyzed 256 reviews of Olympus FE-170 from international magazines and websites. Experts rate this product 58/100 and users 71/100. Comparing these reviews to 573831 other Digital Compact Cameras reviews gives this product an overall alaScore™ 83/100 = Very Good.

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  • tech2.com

    Editors' rating: 30

    Summary: The thing is, even if the FE-170 had the best features ever to grace a digital camera, it's all a waste if the photo quality end up being bad. The drawback in its image quality makes the FE-170 very hard to recommend to anyone.It's available at a ...

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Olympus FE-170

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