Olympus C-5500

Viewfinder (4.0)
There is a real image optical viewfinder on the Olympus C-5500. It is incredibly small and somewhat inaccurate; it is above and to the side of the lens, and doesn't see the same picture. The LCD is the better viewfinder on this camera for sure, but it's nice to have the option when the battery is running low.

LCD Screen (6.0)
The 2-inch TFT LCD screen contains about 110,000 pixels. The LCD screen takes up a large portion of the back of the camera and seems to be adequately sized, though the displayed image is sub-par and will take a bit to adapt to.

 


Flash (6.5)
The built-in flash must be manually opened. It is easy to open, but tricky to close. The joints seem a bit rickety; it feels fragile. The flash can reach from 7.2 to 12.5 feet. The C-5500 has only three flash settings available on the designated Flash Mode button: Auto, Red-Eye Reduction, and Fill-in. Within the camera’s recording menu, users can also turn a slow sync option on and off. It is unclear why these options are grouped separately. Overall, the flash on this camera is sufficient. But if it breaks, it's no good to anyone, so be careful. Also of note: this flash does not work in macro mode, which is common for digital cameras.

Zoom Lens (7.0)
The Olympus 5x optical zoom lens measures 7.9-39.5mm, which is equivalent to 38-190mm in 35mm photography. The lens protrudes slightly from the camera, but sticks out even more when turned on. Two more segments extend from the camera body. The lens has apertures from f/2.8-f/4.8. It also has 4x digital zoom; however, the 5x optical zoom should be sufficient for most users. The digital zoom can be turned on and off in the camera’s recording menu, and it’s available as a shaky version in the movie mode.