1.3The Olympus FE-230, announced in late January, is one of four slim, pocket-sized cameras that overhauled Olympus' line of entry-level point-and-shoots. This model boasts a 7.1 megapixel 1/2.5-inch CCD, 3x optical zoom lens, 2.5-inch LCD screen, and Bright Capture technology. Other features include 19 preset shooting modes, a built-in help guide, and a simplified and quickly navigated menu structure. The FE-230 is geared specifically and almost exclusively toward the point-and-shoot digital camera market, with extremely limited manual controls. The initial retail price of the Olympus FE-230 was $199.95, but it can be found online for about $50 less.
The image quality and size options for the Olympus FE-230 are located within the shooting menu. When opened, the image quality sub-menu displays a list of options navigable with the four-way control. The FE-230 has the following size options: 3072 x 2304 SHQ, 3072 x 2304 HQ, 2048 x 1536 SQ1, 640 x 480 SQ2, and 1920 x 1080 16:9. There is a Resize option in the Playback mode that reduces images to either 640 x 480 or 320 x 240, sizes suitable for quick e-mailing or posting on the Web. In the Movie mode there are 640 x 480 at 30fps and 320 x 240 at 30fps.
Picture Effects Mode(0.0)
There are no in-camera picture effects options when shooting, and only rotation and size reduction when in Playback mode. For control over hue, saturation, red-eye correction, tone, balance, and features like sepia and monotone, the user will need to transfer images from the camera to a personal computer with the included Olympus Master 2 software package.
