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The C-7070's 4x optical wide zoom opens up a whole new world for photographers with its 35mmequivalent focal range equivalent of 27mm-110mm. If a wide view, rugged body, excellent feature set and exciting assortment of optional accessories sound appealing, listen up. While we like all the bells, whistles and dedicated buttons, the herethere- and-everywhere control layout can be confusing, and most photographers will need to go through the CD manual.
An advanced feature set--including manual exposure control--delivers everything you'd expect from a camera in this class and more. As always, Olympus provides photographers with a huge roster of resolution and compression options, and the C-7070 also supports TIFF, RAW and JPEG. Built-in redeye fixing, predictive autofocus and the ability to save four custom modes are an added plus. There's also a selection of scene modes-- including two special underwater settings for use with the camera's optional housing.
In addition to add-on lenses, filters and external flash units, the C-7070 also accepts a power grip (which holds two batteries), a ring flash for macro shots and an underwater housing. The camera comes with a 32MB xD card, but also accepts CompactFlash cards in its dual media slots.
Overall performance was mixed, with unremarkable continuous capture and movie modes. Low-light autofocus and shot-to-shot time was average, although the C-7070's autofocus was responsive in bright light, and there's little shutter lag.
We have very few complaints about image quality. The camera delivers low image noise and accurate exposures, but our test shots could be a little crisper and more saturated on default mode.
With its advanced feature-set, the C-7070 isn't for everybody, but photographers with a penchant for manual controls - especially those with a love of landscapes-will find everything they need.
-THEANO NIKITAS
C-7070 Wide Zoom: 
Olympus America | www.olympusamerica.com | 888-553-4448 | $600
Pros: Wide zoom, advanced feature set with lots of extras, above-average battery life, broad selection of accessories, dual media slots for xD and CompactFlash.
Cons: Learning curve, images could be crisper and more saturated, movie capture limited to 20 seconds in high resolution (30fps).
Requires: Power Mac, USB port, OS 10.2 or higher
macHOME recommends: High-capacity, high-speed CompactFlash card
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