The Camedia C-350 Zoom is grouped at the Olympus Web site with other cameras under a heading of 'easy', where the alternative groupings are 'creative', 'stylish' and 'high end'. This, as much as anything else, indicates that Olympus sees the C-350 Zoom as a beginner's camera. Still, at £250 it is not a pocket-money gadget, so it is important to know that you are getting value for money.
The camera's photography specifications are reasonably strong. It manages 3.3 million pixels, which is enough for standard sized prints and fair quality A4 prints. You can choose between four image qualities, the lowest of which is 640 x 480 pixels.
There is a 3x optical zoom, with digital zoom taking this up a further 3.3x. Optical zoom is the one to concentrate on as you lose image quality with digital zoom. The move between optical and digital is seamless, so you might not know when you shift from one type of zoom to the other. The answer to this issue is to disable digital zoom, which is easy to do from the camera settings menu.
The camera is equipped with a flash, and can capture movies as well as stills. It also supports sequential shooting - that is taking a series of pictures in rapid succession. You can grab up to 11 images at 1.5 frames per second using this mode. There is a macro mode for close-ups, too, and a self-timer.
Olympus provides a rechargeable NiMH cell comprising two AA batteries in a single container. You can use standard AA batteries too, which means it is possible to keep spares on hand for use as and when required.
Included in the box is a 16MB xD-Picture Card, which will store a maximum of 165 images. Bear in mind, though, that if you want prints from this camera you'll be using it at its highest quality, in which case the 16MB card will accommodate just 6 images. Where video is concerned it will manage up to 48 seconds at the highest quality on offer (320 x 240 pixels), and 211 seconds at the other, lower quality (160 x 120 pixels).
The xD-Picture Card is a small format memory card, not widely used at the moment, but you can get a 128MB card for around £40. This should be large enough for most purposes. Getting images into your computer will require either a reader or the provided USB cable.
Olympus seems to have taken pains to make the C-350 Zoom as easy to use as possible, and kept buttons to a minimum. There is no power button, for example; instead power is switched on by sliding the lens cover away from the lens, and off by reversing that procedure.
The LCD monitor, which can be switched off to save battery power, is, as usual, your route to all on-camera settings and controls, and its feature are accessed by just five buttons. We barely needed the manual at all to get to grips with it, and newcomers to digital photography should not find it too intimidating. The only other buttons on the casing are the shutter button and a rocker which invokes the zoom mode.
