Olympus FE-5000 in Digital cameras

A little higher up the price scale than the FE-45, the FE-5000 immediately feels like a much better put-together proposition. Its metal body is solid and cool to the touch, and the dumpy looks of the FE-45 are replaced with something a good deal sleeker.

And things immediately feel a little more sprightly, with a shot-to-shot time of about five seconds; a distinct improvement. Looking at the rear of the body, the controls between the two cameras are identical, as is the onscreen navigation system that appears on a press of the menu button. We were hoping for more manual control than what's actually on offer here, though, as you get only white-balance and ISO sensitivity adjustments.

Quality-wise, it fares better than its cheaper cousin - the lens pulls in more real detail with less artificial sharpening. Colour balance is good too, and the only problem for outdoor shots was a tendency to over-expose. Low-light performance comes into the "usable, but only in emergencies" category, with heavy noise, although to its credit not too much detail is lost to excessive noise-reduction processing.

Taking the price into account, you're getting a fair amount of camera for your cash, including the lithium ion battery and charger missing from the Canon PowerShot A480. Despite all that, though, we can't recommend the FE-5000: it still feels like too much of a compromise. There are better offers to be had both at the low end and by spending a little more cash.

Author: David Fearon