Olympus Camedia c-900 Zoom review

The Olympus Camedia C-900 Zoom builds well on the strengths of the C840-L and, although it isn't revolutionary, it marks a solid evolution in terms of functionality. Technology moves on quickly, however, and even though the C-900 Zoom is much cheaper than its rivals from Canon and Minolta, it has been left behind in the quality stakes.

Once you've taken your pictures, it's fair to assume that you'll want to print them out. There are plenty of inkjet printers claiming photographic quality capabilities, but they're not the only solution as there are also several specialist printers aimed specifically at producing hard copy directly from digital cameras.

The Camedia P330-E, a dye-sublimation printer, is one of the most recent offerings in this area and is intended as a companion product to Olympus' similarly-named range of cameras. Unlike most inkjets, the printer doesn't demand that you own a PC; instead, you insert your SmartMedia card into a slot in the front, connect the printer's video-out feed from your TV or video, select the image you want, hit the print button - and away you go.

The process is clearly simpler than going via a PC first, but what of the print quality? It is generally believed that the dye-sublimation process used by the Olympus P-330E is capable of producing photographic quality that is better than anything inkjet technology can muster. To investigate this, I pitted it against the Epson Stylus Photo 750 (reviewed p165).

Comparing the same grassy park scene showed that the Olympus had the upper hand in that the greens, browns and stone colours were more natural looking. The Epson, although impressive, looked a little washed out and pale by comparison. Detail, too, was sharper on the Olympus, and very close examination revealed that the Epson possessed a slightly grainy quality.

However, the Olympus did miss some of the tonal variation in the clouds and could only produce very small images, just 113 « 84mm in size. The Epson is also far more flexible. Furthermore, at £340 compared to £232 for the 750, the Olympus P-330E is more expensive to both buy and run, with costs of 57p per print compared to the Epson's quoted bottom line of 33p.

From a purely practical point of view, the Epson generally represents the better option. It's both a capable office workhorse and an excellent printer. More pertinently, it also costs less than the Olympus.

Author: Martin Cooper