Olympus C5050z digital camera resource

Latest additions: Nov. 16th, 2006 Nov. 16th: Auxiliary lenses section updated Nov. 16th: more photos about how to repair the mode dial Sept. 4th: RAW section updated July 20th: Links section updated May 14th: Technical data and user manuals section updated Apr. 5th: RAW and Camera control sections updated Mar. 13th: underwater photography section updated

Technical data and user manuals

• Olympus Europe specifications
• The basic manual is available for download here.
• The complete reference manual can be downloaded here.
  
• The CCD used in the 5050 should be this one manufactured by Sony:
• ICX452AQ
• Chip size is 8.23mm x 6.68 mm; diagonal is 9.04 mm (1/1.8")
• Pixel size is 2.78 x 2.78 micrometer
• Complete specifications are available here

• Here you will find a PDF with a complete list of parts of the 5050, with part numbers and detailed exploded parts diagram. Here is a price list with the parts prices (the prices service shops centres).

Reviews

• May 11th: Brief review of the Olympus C5050 by digitalkamera.de (in German)
• Mar 20th: Digit.no, a Norwegian site, published their own in-depth review of the 5050. The review is excellent, but is written entirely in Norwegian.
• Mar 1st: see this interesting comparison of the Olympus 5050 and Nikon 5700 digital cameras on the belgiumdigital site
• Jan 9th: Imaging Resource have released their review of the Olympus C5050Z
• Jan. 1st: Megapixel.net have posted their review of the 5050 - the most complete review so far.
• Dec. 20th: Jeff Keller has posted his full review of the C-5050Z on his DCResource site.
• Dec. 16th: final review of the 5050 on Steve's Digicam's site.
• Dec. 4th: Howard Creech posted his review of the 5050 here. Interesting to read, it doesn't however contain test results.
• Nov. 30th: see the Olympus 5050 site of J. Andrzej Wrotniak. It contains a detailed technical review, image samples,  a noise test, a page about accessories, a memory cards speed test and depth of field tables.
• See what other Olympus 5050 users have written about the camera. Go to the users' reviews page.
• Somebody wrote his own review of the C5050 (one HTML page) and put it into the Internet together with some test images. Page in German (English not available).
• See this brief reviewof the 5050 done by PCWorld.

User comments

• Battery life comparison between C5050 and the G3 (by Davor Petric, a journalist)
• Battery comparison: LCD monitor is constantly on, flash is fired for each picture (not red-eye), program mode, solid (but not perfect) sharpening targets, single AF, distance of targets 1-2 meters in a room lit with 60w bulb, zoom to other end position for each shot, if possible AF assist light is off.
Results (note that the battery power in Watts is the same for G3 and c-5050z with 4x1700 NiMh):
• Canon g3: 550-600 pictures with one charge of well formed battery.
• Olympus c-5050z: 525 pics with quickly charged (2h20min) Olympus 1700 NiMh batteries
• Olympus c-5050z: 700 pics with perfectly charged Olympus 1700 NiMh batteries
• Olympus 5050 vs. Canon G2/G3 (comment by bcatwilly)
• I am by no means a photo expert, but I have been following all of the discussions of noise, CA, aliasing artifacts etc. In reading the Canon forum and looking at some of the G3 galleries that have been posted, I must say that I cannot see any glaring difference (5050 looks to be a little more 'noisy', but apparently the camera lets you change sharpening setting).
I have also seen plenty of CA and aliasing examples in the G3 shots too. I don't think the 'noise' is much of a concern for printing pictures even at large sizes, and I did notice that some of the Canon shots had a more artificial look in certain areas of the picture, sort of 'processed' looking even though straight from the camera.
So I am probably going to lean toward the camera that seems to have even more 'cool' features, such as a Super Macro mode and unlimited movie length (obviously limited by the media :) ).
• Battery life   (the brief report of a journalist who is reviewing the 5050):
• It happens that I have c-5050Zoom on review. Therefore, I did the battery test and it was very boring - that means that I finished the test before the camera get me the low battery signal. So I stopped with 95 shots with flash and 120 without flash and there was still energy in abundance. The camera was set on continuous AF and I delete manually all 215 shots. All flashed shots were done with flash assisted light. I believe that this is more then enough. And again, the batteries were still there with lot of juice.
I used Olympus NiMH 1700mAh batteries.
Moreover, about the details: It is really a PRO. I specially liked the live histogram. In addition, another PRO thing, it has F1.8 glass!!!!!!!
• Also see Bob Kaune's very informative page on the Olympus C5050.

Sample images

Note: this is simply a collection of links to Olympus 5050 samples posted by Olympus 5050 users. Some of the links below may no longer be active (most were added at the end of 2002 or early 2003).

• Goddy published an interesting comparison of images from the Olympus C5050, 2100 and E-10 (all images are complete with EXIF data).
• See this interesting gallery of 5050 samples by Mr. Charles Albrecht-Loyns. You'll find samples in which saturation, contrast and sharpness are variated from -5 to +5 in 1-increments (useful to see the effects of these controls). In addition there is a serie of samples in which the flash intensity control is changed (-1.7 to +1.7 in 0.3-increments). There are also test images done with the Olympus flash-film scanner and some samples with the Starblitz 1000 Auto ringflash.
• Jan 13th: Liz Zoob created a gallery of 5050 samples. You'll find indoor and outdoor images.
• A comparison of images from the Olympus C-5050, Canon G3, Minolta D7Hi, F71, Fuji S602 and Nikon 5700 is available here (Japanese site):
• http://home.impress.co.jp/magazine/digitalcamera/03_01/t1_ksh/index.htm
• http://home.impress.co.jp/magazine/digitalcamera/03_01/t1_hkk/index.htm
• http://home.impress.co.jp/magazine/digitalcamera/03_01/t1_hkb/index.htm
• Dec. 10th: DCresource posted a gallery of samples of the Olympus 5050
• Dec. 2nd: Henry Chiu uploaded a gallery of 5050 images to pbase. There are various images: some infrared, some of a baby, one nightshot with remarkably low noise, some with FL-40 flash. His comments:

"The camera has very impressive near no light AF accuracy with the help of both AF assist lights (in-cameara and in-flash). Live histogram is nice too. You can see even with my fast moving little model, the focus performance is not bad (both iESP and Spot)."
 
• Dec. 1st: Alexander Gruener posted a gallery with macro and supermacro samples of a watch. ISO values from 64 to 400 at sharpening values -5, 0 and +5. Very interesting to see how ISO and sharpening settings affect sharpness and noise. Full size samples available.
• Nov. 29th: Hiro put up a page of samples on pbase; there are outdoor and indoor images at different sharpening levels (full size samples available)
• Nov 23rd: Kevin Atkins posted a gallery of Olympus 5050 images taken at different settings. Basically he varied sharpening, contrast and saturation. Very helpful to see how different settings affect the image quality. Full size samples available.
• Nov 22nd: Hollie reorganised his Olympus C5050 samples gallery. The gallery now contains
• a selection of outdoor and people images taken at different settings (sharpening, saturation, contrast),
• a gallery with images of the Olympus 5050 and the 2100 UZ for comparison
• macros and supermacros of flowers taken with a 5050
• and miscellaneous outdoor C5050 images
• Nov 21st: Bob Kaune added more samples and some interesting comments to his Olympus C5050 page.
• Nov 20th: Kane posted some night shots (as well as two day shots). Full size originals available.

Comment: exposure times seem a bit long.
• Nov 19th: Manny Gomez posted a comparison of Olympus 5050 and 3030 photos on his site. No full size samples; images taken in a photo store.
• Nov 19th: Bob Kaune created a page with very nice samples of the 5050. All images however are resized - there are no full size samples. Images taken at ISO64, contrast -2, sharpening -5, saturation -2.
• Nov 17th: two C5050 images of a dog available here - taken with ISO 400 and flash. By Joann Miller.
• Comment: the dog photo is very sharp, even at 100%. Noise seems less of an issue, even if the image was taken with ISO 400.
• Nov 16th: more samples here  - photos by Dave
• Comment: noise seems less of an issue; I'm impressed by the sharpness of the images (they are quite sharp even at 100%) - seems like the aggressive in-camera sharpening is not so bad after all.
• Nov 15th: samples with flash and/or teleconverter available here. Other samples with a Hoya HMC polariser filter available here. All samples taken by Kane.
• Nov 15th: here is a comparison of images taken with different in-camera sharpening settings. These samples were taken by Tan and are hosted on his studioq.com site:
• Artificial lighting:
• studioq.com/P1010276(0).jpg    default in-camera sharpening
• studioq.com/P1010279(-3).jpg    in-camera sharpening set to -3
• studioq.com/P1010278(-5).jpg    in-camera sharpening set to -5 (lowest level)
• Outdoor sunlit:
• studioq.com/P1010256(0).jpg    default in-camera sharpening
• studioq.com/P1010255(-5).jpg    in-camera sharpening set to -5 (lowest level)
• Comments:
• It appears that the 5050 has a very aggressive default in-camera sharpening, which increases noise. Just compare the images with default sharpening with those with sharpening set to -5.
• Setting the camera to ISO64 and sharpening -5 should produce clean, noise free images.
• There is some chromatic aberration, but there are easy ways to get around this problem. Either shoot at F4 instead of F1.8 or see here for a procedure to remove CA after the fact.
• Some sample images are available here. It's a site from Hong Kong and full size images are available (just click on the resized images)

 

Questions ? Comments ? Put them in the Olympus 5050 user group

General tips

• Shoot with in-camera sharpening turned off (sharpening set to -5). This reduces substantially the noise in the images.

White balance settings

• I've settled down on auto white balance as the default white balance for the 5050. It is not perfect and will sometimes produce a slight pinkish colour cast, but is very usable is almost all situations.
• Here is a comparison of 4040 and 5050 automatic white balance

Camera exposure modes

• The 5050 offers a number of automatic exposure modes (portrait, landscape, sports, night etc.). For each mode the Olympus C5050 has a different way of choosing aperture and exposure settings.
• Alan Fleming performed a test to see how the 5050 chooses aperture and exposure depending on the mode. The detailed results are available.
• His conclusions:
• All of the modes indicated the same "exposure value characteristics" in low light conditions - i.e. up to approx. 1/50th at f1.8
• "Program - P" Mode, "Landscape + Portrait" Mode, & "Landscape" Mode all display the same (or very similar) exposure evaluation characteristics - i.e. Maximum f1.8 aperture below 1/60th; at 1/60th go from f1.8 to f4 as quickly as possible; then hold at f4 for shutter speeds above 1/60th up to 1/800th.

As expected these settings are biased to smaller aperture for greater depth of field. The camera no doubt does other subtle things internally - which will probably vary from one mode to another.
• "Portrait" Mode & "Sports" Mode both display the same (or very similar) exposure evaluation characteristics - i.e. Maximum aperture of f1.8 until 1/800th; then hold at 1/800th and stop down the aperture. As expected these settings are biased to a larger aperture + faster shutter speed for less depth of field (Portrait) and to stop action / movement (Sports). Again the camera no doubt does other subtle things internally - which will probably vary from one mode to another.

 

 

Questions ? Comments ? Put them in the Olympus 5050 user group

Noise and JPEG file size

What follows are the results of a test I conducted. Noise is measured with the standard deviation in an image area with homogeneous colour (see the image to the right). In the test noise and file size are measured at different ISO and sharpening settings. I did the test with two scenes (results on this page are shown only for one scene). The complete results are available here.

 

• Noise at ISO 64 is substantially lower than at ISO 100, 200 and 400.
• Noise increases as the sharpening level is increased.
• In this test, at ISO 400 noise is surprisingly lower than at ISO 200 for almost all sharpening levels. It is even lower than noise at ISO 100 for sharpening levels greater than 0. Perhaps there is some kind of noise reduction mechanism which gets activated at ISO 400, but not at ISO 100 or 200. However this ISO400 noise reduction filter is only applied in image areas which contain no detail and the noise in the other parts of the image is not reduced. In other words it still makes sense to use ISO 100 and 200 - the ISO400 filter simply helps reducing the noise where it is most visible.
• Compared to an Olympus 2000, a 2MP camera with larger pixels (4x4 micrometer vs. 2.8x2.8 for the 5050):
• at ISO 100 the 5050 has more noise at all sharpening levels
• however at ISO 64 the 5050 has the same noise level as the C2000 at ISO 100, if sharpening level is low (below -1)
• at ISO 400 the 5050 has less noise than the C2000
• at ISO 200 the 5050 has more noise than the C2000 at all sharpening levels except the lowest ones
• Concerning the file size:

• File size increases with increasing ISO and sharpening level; for instance at ISO 64 and sharpening -3 the file size for this particular image is 2120 KByte, while it is 3025 KByte at ISO 400 and sharpening 0.
• Therefore you can save a lot of memory space if you shoot at low ISO and sharpening levels.
• Detailed test results are available.
• The C5050 vs. the C4040: I ran a test to compare the noise levels of the C4040 and C5050 digital cameras.

Test details available here

RAW file format

• Give a try to Silkypix's Developer Studio RAW converter. Not free, but it is getting very good feedback from those who are using it. It seems to be THE raw converter with virtually any control you can imagine. Some feedback from Jerry Beggs:
• "I have tried the Silkypics raw converter - it is the best I've found and importantly, it runs on old pc's; I use Windows ME on a PIII 800 processor with 256mb RAM.  It works perfectly and is fast enough.  Many of the new RAW convertors like Pixmantecs Rawshooter Essentials and Phase One's Capture will not run on less than 500mb RAM and Windows XP. "
  
• Give a try to the RAW converter from Pixmantec (RawShooter Essentials - free so far), which has received very positive reviews.
• Another Free program that can view RAW is Picasa2 available from www.picasa.com
  
• See this comparison of RAW vs SHQ JPEG. It will give you an idea of what can be achieved with RAW.
• The XNVIEW program allows you to view and convert Olympus 5050 RAW images (freeware - thanks to Gordon Bakker for informing me about this).
• I assume that you know that Adobe created a powerful RAW plugin compatible with 5050 .orf files for Photoshop 7. Note: you'll have to upgrade to Photoshop 7.0.1 before being able to use the plugin.
• Karl Johnson created this page comparing RAW, TIFF, SHQ and HQ images. For RAW conversion he used the Adobe Photoshop RAW plugin. Comments:
• Interestingly HQ is more smooth than SHQ.
• (The output of Adobe PS) RAW is smoothest and contains the least noise, but also less detail compared to SHQ.
• A RAW converting program for Linux is available here.
• With the Camedia Master 4.03 that comes with the 5050 you can browse, open, and save the 5050 .ORF RAW file as an Exif TIFF (8 bit). You can set saturation, contrast and sharpening The ExifReader software is able to open the TIFF and read the Exif header.
• Photoshop plugin: this plugin works with Photoshop 7.0:
• "I tried the new photoshop plug-in and it worked OK for me with a RAW .ORF from my 5050. One thing to note is that you must unzip the ORFImport.8ba file to the photoshop plugins folder (normally C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop 7.0\Plug-Ins). Then you must use Import, not Open, to convert the file. It opens the file in 16 bit mode."  (Doug Haluza)
• "You can import 16 bit Olympus 5050 RAW files either unprocessed, with a white balance adjustment or with an auto-correction. For the white balance adjustment you can specify a point in the image. There isn't more information, no help." (from a German poster in a German newsgroup)
• More links to information on RAW format:
• Converting RAW to TIFF and the pros and cons of processing/saving 16 bit vs 8 bit TIFF.
• Discusses RAW format with a Canon D30 yet may still be enlightening in regard to using RAW format for C-5050 digital photographs.

 

Questions ? Comments ? Put them in the Olympus 5050 user group

Memory cards

• Card speed tests
• Jens Birch organised a memory card speed test for CF and other memory cards. Here are some results (time needed to write a RAW image (7.3 MB) to the memory card:
 

Brand	Type	Speed	Size (MB)	Write time (sec)
Transcend	CF	30x	512	3,8
Lexar	CF	12x	256	3,9
Transcend	CF	30x	512	3,94
Sandisk	CF	Ultra	512	4
Ridata	CF		512	4
Transcend	CF	20x	256	4
PNY (Toshiba)?	CF		256	4,2
Transcend	CF	30x	512	4,2
Lexar	CF	12x	256	4,5
Viking	CF		256	4,5
No name	SM		128	7
Olympus	xD		128	7,5

• Comment: since a 30x card is not faster than a 12x card, the bottleneck is the 5050 which apparently is not able to write faster than 1.7MB/s to the card, no matter how fast the card is.
• The complete results of the memory card speed test are available here.
 
• J. Andrzej Wrotniak tested the write speed of different CF, Smartmedia and xD memory cards in the 5050. He measured the time required to write a RAW file to the memory card. The complete results are available here.
• Also see the CF speed test of Rob Galbraith.
• See also the threads on this topic ("Great Difference in Compact Flash Cards with 5050") in the Olympus 5050 user group
• Compatibility issues
• Beware of CF cards, especially if the firmware of your camera is v77 or older. There have been lot of cases, in which people reported total loss of images and frozen 5050.
• See here for a table showing the compatibility of different CF cards and the 5050.
• I bought a Transcend 30x 512MB CF card and my 5050 has firmware version v77. The card froze the camera a couple of times and in a couple of times the card became unreadable. To be able to use it again I had to reformat it.
Note: a user reported no problems with a Transcend 512Mb and a 5050 with firmware v76.
• To avoid compatibility issues use either Smartmedia or xD cards.
• Enabling the Panorama function on non-Olympus Smartmedia cards
• See this page: Olympus Panorama Smartmedia feature
• See the Olympus Digital Accessories compatibility page: lists all accessories and tells if they are compatible with the 5050

Firmware

• The firmware of the Olympus 5050 (and this holds for all Olympus cameras since at least the C2000 which was launched in 1999) can be upgraded by the user.
• The procedure is very simple:
• First of all you need the firmware file. The firmware files are not available for download in the Internet - only Olympus has them. The latest firmware is v83. (This firmware is only available from Olympus - you'll have to send the camera to Olympus for servicing to get the new firmware. It probably won't be worth the effort however.)
  
• Take an xD or Smartmedia memory card and format it in the camera.
• Create a "firmware" directory in the root directory of the card (the one containing the DCIM directory).
• Rename the firmware file to "firmware.bin" and copy it to the firmware directory in the memory card.
• Set the camera into playback mode and insert the memory card.
• Switch on the camera.
• A menu will appear, showing the current firmware version and giving you two menu options ("yes" and "no").





• If you choose "yes" (use the arrow buttons) the camera will update the firmware.
• IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE THAT THE BATTERIES ARE FULLY CHARGED OR USE AN A/C ADAPTER. If the camera loses the power during the flash operation, you'll have to send the camera to Olympus for servicing.

Macro and Supermacro

• Jens Birch tested chromatic aberrations and depth of field with close-up lenses (diopters) and super-macro. Results available here.
• Jens Birch built a TTL ring flash with plastic, screws and optic fiber cable. See here for more information.
  
• Alexander Gruener performed a test with the C5050 and posted macro and supermacro samples here. The (full size) images were taken at ISO settings ranging from 64 to 400 and sharpening -5, 0 and +5.
His comments:
• The pictures have been all taken in program mode. The differences of the pictures are just the ISO levels (64, 100, 200, 400) and the sharpening levels (-5, 0 , +5). So the first picture series are 12 pictures. Click on an image and you will get the full original size (HQ) incl. EXIF header (about 1 MB each).
The second test was free hand. So the pictures are not focused to exactly the same point. You can see three pictures with super macro and different sharpening levels from -5 to +5. I did the photos at home. I photographed my watch (Omega Speedmaster Professional) from the back. There is glass on the back so there might be some problems with the focus. So far I am quit satisfied.
• The images are sharpely focused in all sharpening settings. With increasing ISO the noise level gets bigger as expected. However the noise is relatively low even at ISO 400. The shapening setting -5 does indeed reduce the noise level, but also reduces image sharpness. It's is up to you what sharpening setting you want to choose. Personally I found sharpening 0 to be the best setting.
• In Supermacro mode the depth of field is extremely shallow. In subjects which are not flat only a small part is properly focused, the rest is more or less out of focus. The focused part shows more detail which you would normally need.
• Supermacro vs. diopter (macro lens): in supermacro mode the 5050 will produce pictures with some barrel distortion. To avoid this, use a diopter lens (macro lens). See the test of Charles Dilks.

Chromatic aberrations / Purple fringing

• See "How to deal with chromatic aberrations" by Philipp Sanke. Philipp describes a number of ways to avoid or remove chromatic aberrations.
  
• To remove chromatic aberrations with an image editor:
• It is very simple to remove chromatic aberrations from an image. Simply use a photo editor and set the saturation level of magenta (also green where this makes sense) to the minimum. In some images you might have to set the saturation level of red to the minimum. It might also make sense to limit the processing to the affected area (i.e. select the affected image area and only process that).

 

Questions ? Comments ? Put them in the Olympus 5050 user group

Polariser filter and other filters

• A polariser filter helps to obtain deep blue skies and to remove unwanted reflections. Consider the following example (both images taken with the polariser filter):

 

Perhentian island image

Same image with polariser rotated by 90 degrees

• See the difference ? In the picture to the right, the polariser filter substantially reduced the amount of light reflected by the water surface making the sea ground more visible and made the sky more dark.
• Polariser filters are also useful when the lower part of the image is dark and the top (the sky) too bright.
• To connect a filter to the 5050 you'll need an adapter. I'm using a CLA-1 adapter tube 41 - 43mm from Olympus (other adpters are the Tiffen one for instance):

• It is possible to directly mount a 43mm filter onto the CLA-1 adapter, but not any filter. Some users have reported that the lens crashed into their filter. Personally I'm using a 43mm polariser filter from Hama without any problems (no lens crash, no vignetting).

• You can use step-up ring and connect a filter with a larger diameter, but keep in mind that the larger the filter is, the more you obstruct the viewfinder.
• Have a look at Darwin Wigget's page on filters for further information on polariser, blue-yellow polariser, graduated neutral density and other filters
• See also Jeremy McCreary's page on filters

Infrared photography with the Olympus 5050

• Generally speaking the Olympus 5050 is less sensitive to infrared radiation than the Olympus 2000. As you can see in the following images the infrared LED of the camera remote control is much brighter in the Olympus 2000 image. Probably there is an infrared-blocking filter in the 5050, as silicon CCDs in general are quite sensitive to infrared radiation.

 

Oly 5050 photo of the remote control  (no infrared filter used)

Oly 2000 photo  (no infrared filter used)

• Here is an image taken by Henry Chiu:

• Henry Chiu's  comments:
• "... put on the Hoya R72, knowing the IR sensitivity shouldn't be as impressive as the old 2MP CCD, but tried anyway. After PS7 auto level, auto contrast, and auto color, the result came out to be presentable.

Camera setting: F1.8, 1/2s, ISO64, Spot metering, aperture priority, 0 EV compensation."

• The site Infrared photography with your digital camera contains interesting information about infrared photography with Olympus cameras and an overview of infrared filters with their spectral characteristics.
• See this gallery with infrared images taken with a 5050 by Bob Hesse.
• These sites contain useful information about infrared photography with digital cameras:
• Echeng.com: Digital infrared photography - site devoted to digital infrared photography with image galleries, information about filters and equipment and links.
• Wrotniak's Infrared Photography page - excellent information resource devoted to infrared photography with Olympus cameras. Information about infrared filters, exposure settings, focus, post-processing, sample images and links.
• Also see the Infrared photography page of the Apogee magazine: this is an interesting general introduction to infrared photography with digital cameras.

Auxiliary lenses

• A comparison of the B-300 vs. the TCON-17 teleconverter is available here (test images with an Oly 2100 however).
• Some comments of Olympus 5050 users:
• Raynox DCF FE180Pro Fisheye lens
- Needs raynox adapter 41-52
- Incredibly large and bulky for a lens. Heavier than the camera. I built a crude holder for camera + lens, so I don't have to worry about breaking the threads.
- Quite noticeable blurring towards the edges, but sharp in center.
- I would therefore not recommended it for large print purposes.
- I use it only in SQ1 resoultions (<=1280)), when edge-blurring is not very noticeable. (For 360 degree panoramas.)
- At full wide, vignetting is visible in corners. There is a considerable offset from center (see example photos at raynox). I assume the sensor chip is misaligned inside the C5050, compared to the lens threads..? (Anyone else noticed such alignement problem?) No such misalignment on other cameras.
- See some test images here
By keops_777, Olympus 5050 users group
• Olympus TCON-14
Brief description: 1.4 x magnification of picture.
Picture quality: Superior to using digital zoom for the same magnification (less noise).
Image sharpness: 2 samples in JP folder of photos section of group (pictures 5 and 6).
Level of chromatic aberration (if the lens increases it): did not notice any significant increase
Vignetting: normal zoom must be at maximum else vignetting visible.
How satisfied: Pretty satisfied but would like more magnification - intend to buy one of the new Eagle Eye zooms when available
By John Patston, Olympus 5050 users group

Excellent quality...I discern no difference in image quality with lens on.
No vignetting between approx. 85mm and 105mm
Lens not quite long enough, but it comes in handy when I need that little extra reach (but then I'm not a real long lens addict...the longest lens I have for my 35mm is a 200mm).
The lens mount is a little tenuous...it is with 2 snaps on the side of the lens...I'm always worrying about it falling off.
Andrew  

• Olympus TCON-17
Brief description: 1.7 x magnification of picture.
Kevin Venator has a test with the TCON-17 on his site.

• Olympus C-210 1.9x teleconverter lens
(with a Raynox adapter) I'm not real trilled tho, I knew there would be vignetting, I've looked at test pics, and it seemed little enough.  I think I'm seeing more tho, the biggest effect is in the bottom left corner, a little less on the top left, least on the top right, and some on the bottom right.  The weird thing is that it seems to vary, some pics were really apparent, some not so much.  Daylight was on it's way out, but I did try a few using different metering - multi, spot and esp.  I thought at first that might be it, but it did seem random.
Chris E, Olympus 5050 users group
• EagleEye 5x teleconverter
OK but not real happy, some tests at http://www.rkrenn.com/photos/lens/LensTests.htm
I'm hoping the new CrystalVue LX Lens from www.ckcpower.com will be better. They should have test photos in a few weeks.
Richard Krenn, Olympus 5050 users group
• Raynox DCR-1850 Pro teleconverter
I have now compiled my tests of the Raynox DCR-1850 Pro teleconverter on a C5050. I compared it with another cheap teleconverter, digital zoom, and going closer to the subject using the original lens at full zoom.
Jens Birch, Olympus 5050 users group
• Olympus WCON 08-E Wide Conversion Lens .8X
I have a Olympus .8 X wide angle which works great, but only at 28mm. I've been looking for a good lens in the 18-20mm range. So far I have not found one that doesn't have "vignetting". I have a Tiffen .56X (need step down ring to 37mm to attach). It vignettes at wide open position. You need to zoom to approximately 28mm to eliminate shadows.
Lynn Neal

Quality  only fair to OK...lots of image distortion  (fuzziness, fringing, etc) except in the center of the image. I still use it when I really need to, especially on images where image detail isn't that important or I am going to use distortion. Sometimes I'll convert these images to B&W, add grain and noise to get a high-speed B&W look.
Zoom range not of any import, since I want the wide end of the scale. No vignetting at the 35mm end of the scale. I have never even tried to zoom with this lens.
Would love to find a WA auxillary lens that had much better quality than this lens...either that or maybe Oly will make a 50x0 with a 24-70 or 28-85 version (sort of like the Nikon 5000 compared to the 5700)
Andrew
 

• Nikon WC-E68 wide angle lens
  - See the samples taken with the Nikon WC-E68 and a 43-46 step up ring by Paul Barker. Page with 40 images, 300x400 pixel size, no high resolution originals
  
- Here is a report by Ali Boyacioglu:

I have finally bought a WC-E68 for my C-5050. The 0.68 multiplier makes the C-5050 lens at wide open to a 23.8mm equivalent in 35mm format.
First, a few words about the WC-E68 wide angle converter: I'm absolutely in love with this piece of equipment. It's very well
built. The Nikon supplied case is of good quality. The rear lens cover is screwed to the rear thread. The front cover cannot be screwed or held via clips, hence can get easily lost. I will have to think of something not to loose it.
The size and weight of the lens is superb. I haven't seen any wide angle converter  as small as the WC-E68 yet. This makes it easy to carry in a bag, and attached to the camera.
Compared to an WCON-08 which I also had owned, the WC-E68 has 6.6cm lens diameter whereas the WCON-08 has 10cm. It's really a lot smaller then the WCON-08 and probably also the new WCON-07. WCON-08 is a lot of glass and weights accordingly.
I had thought of two ways attaching the WC-E68 to the Oly C-5050. Once with the standard Oly CLA-1 lens adapter and a 43mm to 46mm step-up ring, and once with the Raynox 41mm to 52mm lens adapter and a coplanar 52mm to 46mm step-down ring. I could not test the latter one, because I couldn't find the Raynox adapter yet.
Attached with the CLA-1 and the 43-46mm step-up ring there is practically no vignetting. On a couple of pics I could detect a very slight amount of vignetting in the corners. But, as I said only slightly, hence it's not a deal breaker at all.
The Oly lens at wide open requires for the correction of the barrel distortion, the PS Spherize filter set to -6%. I haven't tested yet with an appropriate target, but Spherize set to -13% seem to work with the zoom at wide open and the WC-E68 attached at same time. The WC-E68 seem to add a considerable amount of barrel distortion, but a lot better than I had expected.
The quality of the pics are so far OK. I have only shot a few JPEGs. I will have to make dedicated test shots when we have the sun shining again. So far I can only comment that the shots with the lens seem a little more flat in colors, and seem to cause a little more noise, because maybe the processor is tricked by the WC-E68's flatter response. I will do a lot more tests, shot in RAW format and converted with Adobe Camera RAW. I could post them here if there should be any interest.
All in all, the WC-E68 is a very good built lens in terms of quality and size. It's a keeper, kudos to Nikon.
Ali Boyacioglu, Olympus 5050 users group

• Crystalview 8x converter: some test photos available here
• Some interesting links:
• Michael Meissner's page on wide angle lenses for the Olympus C-2100UZ camera contains an overview of wide angle lenses with different thread sizes (43 - 62 mm). Although I can't confirm it, these lenses should also be usable with the Olympus 4040 with an appropriate adapter.
• The page of Jeremy McCreary  Auxiliary lenses for Oly Camedias contains an in-depth analysis of the topic.
• Olympus Digital Accessories compatibility page: lists all accessories and tells if they are compatible with the 5050

External flash

• August 03: I bougth a Metz 32 MZ 3 external flash (guide number 37 in tele, 32 in wide angle). This external flash unit offers everyting the more expensive FL-40 has (TTL mode, manual mode, tiltable flash lamp for bouncing, AF illuminator, motorised zoom etc.) at a substantially lower price (145 Euro including the SCA 3202 Olympus digital adapter).
• Other flash units would be for instance the Metz 54 MZ3, the Olympus FL20 (no bouncing) and the more powerful FL50.
• See Michael Meissner's excellent page on Olympus External Flash Support. It contains an overview of external flash units which can be used with the 5050 (as well as with other Olympus digital cameras).
• Maximum allowable flash trigger voltage across the 5050 hotshoe (by Dave Grant)
• "I intend to use the 5050 with studio strobe units and was concerned about damaging the camera with excessively high trigger voltages. This is the answer I got back from Olympus:
• "The C-5050 incorporates a voltage filter to guard against voltage spikes when using external flashes or strobes.  You should be able to use the strobes with no worries about the trigger voltage." "

• See here for how to measure the trigger voltage of your flash.
• See this interesting thread on external flashes "Olympus FL-40 or PROMASTER 5750 DX ?"
• See Jeremy McCreary'page on external flash for Camedia cameras.
• See the Olympus Digital Accessories compatibility page: lists all accessories and tells if they are compatible with the 5050

 

Questions ? Comments ? Put them in the Olympus 5050 user group

Controlling the Olympus 5050 with a computer

• Try these software packages (they work with the Olympus 4040 and possibly also with the 5050).
• Thanks to Peter Huebner for reporting that Pine Tree Camera Controller works with the 5050:
• "I installed the Pinetree Camera Controller on my PC. Open Media door on the camera, turn on, press OK/Menu button and QuickView button simultaneously for a few seconds, a menu pops up on the LCD screen - put camera in to control mode. Close Media door, plug in USB cable and fire up the software (the software won't work if the camera is not in control mode!). First time round the software asks you to select the camera, they then engage in a lengthy dialogue (I felt quite left out) and then it simply works! I found the software had set my camera to something like 640x400 resolution - and the next time I went to use it in the field it was still in that resolution, and I didn't notice until later! Beware :-)."
• Cam2Com: see this information.
• Akond.ru are developing a software for camera control. It's not free, but you might give it a try.
  
 

Travelling and storage

• August 03: I just bought a Vosonic X's Drive 2. Without HD (I had one already) the price was below 100 Euro. This thing comes with a fast USB2 interface and will read Smartmedia, CF I and II, Memory sticks and SD/MMC cards. As far as I know this external storage device is currently the lowest cost device available. Quality and performance are good.
• Update 09.06.03: new portable storage devices (do a Google search to find the manufacturers' sites):
• the Archos Multimedia Jukebox w/photo attachment 20 gb - also plays mp3s. Costs more.
• SuperDigibin - includes ac charger / car charger - 30 gb
• Disc Steno - burn cds from flash card
• Nixvue Vizor - burns cds from flash cards, spans discs for large cards, playback on tv.
• Tripper - similar to digibin
• Flashtrax from smartdisk (not out yet) - 2.5 inch lcd, plays mp3s, image playback on device, costs more.
• EZ DigiMagic: burns CDs directly from the memory card (but how do you know that the burning process was successful? ...)
• When travelling I use a Toshiba subnotebook (P1 133MHz with 64 MB RAM) to store, catalog and process  the images. There are also portable storage devices, but the advantage of the subnotebook is that all image processing (i.e. deleting bad ones, sorting them etc.) can be done while travelling. That's especially relevant on long trips. The disadvantage is that a subnotebook is bulkier and heavier than a portable storage device.
• Portable storage devices:
• Digital Wallet - a portable HD with a card reader with 3 - 20 GB capacity
• ImageTank - a portable HD with a card reader with up to 40 GB capacity
• Nixvue - same as Digital Wallet, ImageTank etc. but has a small colour LCD screen to view the pictures - up to 20 GB capacity
• Reto's Image Tank review  has a comparison of these different solutions

The camera bag I'm using

I'm reusing the bag I used for the 4040 (as most other accessories I used with the 4040). It's a relatively compact bag from Cullmann (next to it a CD to get an idea of the size). The bag can also be carried with a belt.	The inside of the bag with the 5050 with CLA1, polariser filter and lense cover; next to it a transparent plastic container (originally this was the container of the polariser filter) in which I put the Smartmedia cards. The smaller side bag (with a zip) contains two sets of spare batteries, the remote control, a lens cleaning stick and a tiny tripod.

Underwater Photography

• This page contains information about how to set up an Olympus 5050 for underwater use. Very interesting, very detailed.
  
• These pages contain photo galleries: see the photo gallery 1 (photos taken with an internal strobe) and the photo gallery 2 (taken with an external flash)
• Olympus has developed a new underwater housing for the 5050. It's the PT-015 and it is rated up to 40 meters depth. The PT-010 can't be used.
• A review of the PT-015 is now available here.
• The site Digideep.com is an online directory for digital underwater photography.
• Joshua Boger reported that Ikelite is creating an underwater housing for the Olympus C5050 (available in Jan 2003).
• Interesting forum for underwater photography: DigitalDiver.net
• Also see the Wetpixel.com forum for underwater digital photography

Data recovery / Smartmedia problems

• Convar's PC Inspector Smart Recovery tool now supports JPEG, TIFF and RAW. Freeware - highly recommended.
• Check this site: Digital image recovery
Christian Grau has some software tools to fix damaged Smartmedia cards. The software used to be free, now costs $39.
• Datarescue also has a software tool (Photorescue) for repairing damaged Smartmedia cards, although it's not free.
• Also have a look at PC Inspector's File Recovery. It's free.
• Jpegdump, by Kurt Stege, is a free tool to recover deleted images from a memory card.
• Photorecovery is another tool. Price is $39.95.

Noise reduction

• In addition to the 5050's inbuilt noise reduction, you can post-process the images with NeatImage. This software packaga produces surprisingly good results.
• Here there is a comparison of different noise reduction software tools.

 
 
 

Questions ? Comments ? Put them in the Olympus 5050 user group

Exposure information data (EXIF)

• The picture files of the Olympus 5050 contain the complete exposure information (aperture, exposure time, focal length, white balance and so on).
• This data is usually lost when you edit the pictures; but some modern image editing software packages keep the data intact when saving the processed intact.
• To read this data you can use these software tools:
• ExifReader, by Ryuuji Yoshimoto. Haven't tried the software myself, but it looks interesting. Freeware.
• Exif Image Viewer, by Michal Kowalski. This is the one I'm using. Quoting from his homepage:
"EXIF viewer is a simple image viewer application for photos taken with digital cameras. It's capable of reading EXIF information embedded in photos as well as little thumbnail. Because small thumbnail is already present in most photos displaying it is really fast.
EXIF viewer can also provide detailed information about photos (shutter speed, aperture, etc.) and conveniently list them for comparison purposes.
EXIF viewer also displays image histogram. It also features copying/moving and deleting of selected photos. Single photograph can be displayed in separate window or in a full screen mode."
• Exifer, by Friedemann Schmidt. I'm using this one too. It can rewrite EXIF data to images which lost it due to processing with a software package which doesn't support EXIF. Quoting from his site:
"Exifer is a nearly free software (you only should send me a postcard if you're using Exifer frequently) with which you can manage the metadata (EXIF/IPTC) of pictures taken by digital cameras. Because many image processing software destroys this metadata when saving such files, the idea was to create a backup of the metadata before editing it in any software, and then, after that to restore it back into the processed file. With Exifer you can do this very easily. "

Panorama shots

• Some interesting links:
• http://www.skipwilliams.com/panos/panorama_links.htm
• http://www.htu.at/~sascha/ptguide/
• http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/tutorials/360/calibrate/
• http://homepage.ntlworld.com/j.houghton/pttute.htm
• http://www.panoguide.com/software/reviews/panotools_v21.html
• Stitching software: http://www.vrtoolbox.com/vrthome.html
• Tripod specific for panoramas: http://www.kaidan.com/

Linux and the 5050

• Brian Miller created a page about using a Olympus C-5050Zoom Digital Camera with Linux. Tons of detailed information on how to interface the 5050 with Linux.
• The page Using the Olympus Camedia C-3040 Zoom Digital Camera with Linux and USB by Micheal Schubart contains a description on how to download photos from an Olympus 3040 to a computer running Linux with USB. The procedure described there should also apply to an Olympus 5050.
• See here for a RAW converting program.

Replacing the mode dial on an Olympus 5050

• The mode dial is on of the most fragile parts of an Olympus 5050. If it breaks, expect an expensive repair bill by Olympus.
• Steve Newcomb did it himself. He ordered the mode dial part, disassembled the camera and inserted it himself.
  
• The complete procedure is described here.
• More photos about how to repair the mode dial are available here.
  

Astrophotography with the Olympus 5050

• See Alexander Gruener's test: he used a 5050 to take photos of the M45 starfield with different ISO and sharpness settings (ISO 64 .. 400, sharpness -5 .. +5)
• Astrophotography users's group here
• This may be also a good source.
• And last but not least this site has enough links and information to keep you plugged for several lifetimes.

FAQs

1. You can be prepared beforehand by 1/2-pressing the shutter button (and keeping it 1/2-pressed) while aiming at the subject before the actual moment when you want to take the picture. The autofocus (AF) and the aperture will be set and the camera will then take the picture with no time lag when you press the last 1/2-way.
2. By having the LCD switched on, the time to activate the cameras AF and metering will be reduced by about 2 seconds.
   
3. Set the camera to manual focus (MF) at the subject distance you intend to take the picture at. This is most easily done by aiming at an object at the distance you want to use and 1/2-pressing the shutter button. While keeping it 1/2-pressed, press the AF/Macro/MF button. That fixes the focus at the desired distance and the camera is set to MF. This will significantly reduce the shutter lag.
4. Set the camera to manual exposure (M) which further reduces the shutter lag.
5. When it is tricky to catch the moment, use Hi-drive sequential shooting and start taking pictures just before you think the action starts. Use the optical viewfinder in order to follow the action when the camera's LCD is occupied while taking the pictures.
6. Turn off the "REC-view in the "SETUP" tab in the "Mode Menu". That will minimize the time that the just taken picture is displayed and you will be ready for the next shot as soon as possible.
7. Use fully charged batteries if you are using the on-board flash. Otherwise it takes a long time to re-charge.

• Wide = 1.41 inches = 35.9 mm
• Wide + WCON-08 = 2.31 inches = 58.7 mm
• Tele = 0.279 inches = 7.1 mm.

Links

• MyOlympus.org photo sharing site: similar to Photosig, here Olympus 5050 users can upload images and give/get feedback
• Yahoo Olympus C5050 discussion group: a discussion group dedicated to the Olympus C5050 digital camera

• Olympus 4040 online resource: an in-depth information resource on the predecessor of the Olympus 5050
• Olympus 5060 online resource: an in-depth information resource on the Olympus 5060
• Olympus 8080 online resource: an in-depth information resource on the Olympus C-8080
• Jeremy McCreary's dpfwiw site: Excellent site on the Olympus Camedia cameras
• Christian Couderc is developing a site dedicated to the Olympus 5050 digital camera - in French
• Here you'll find a book in German about the Olympus C5050.
• Rob Galbraith's site has an article on Alex Majoli ("Alex Majoli points and shoots"), an award winning photojournalist who uses Olympus point and shoot cameras, the c-5050, -5060, and -8080.  Interesting reading.

Olympus 5050 Photo Galleries

• Check the photo gallery of Kane on Pbase
• See Hollie's extensive photo gallery on Pbase.

Back to my Photo Galleries

 

© Copyright 2002-2006  Alfred Molon