Olympus C5000

[TedJ]

There have been tons of questions about the firmware of the 5050 on the dpreview Olympus forum. Most of them were generated about 3 months ago. If I could summarize my understanding of the results they are:

Olympus does not recognize that any general upgrade of the firmware is necessary. I also received this message when I emailed Olympus myself.

The latest version is 79.

There is speculation that the sharpening setting was altered between 76/77 and 78. I don't know if this is true as I have only used the default setting. But I've read many posts indicating that people used to use -3 before and now they use the default. Who knows?

If you have a problem with your camera, send it to the official Olympus Repair Center, ask for an upgrade and you are likely to get it upgraded. Use the facility in California rather than New York as folks have related better service stories from there.

That;s about all I've been able to discern from all the stuff that's been generated. I have no problems with my 5050 and I'm not sending it anywhere unless I do.

Hope this helps and if anyone knows anything more definitive I'd love to hear about it. Thanks TedJ

 

[Finesse]

Ted ....That’s interesting .... Only because of that thread over on DD about Spot vs. iESP ...... I'll have to play with the sharpness levels now ......Although in general I get very sharp photos

 

[Dee]

Thanks, Guys. I'm always leery of upgrades because they seem tio cause more problem than they fix! At least that's true on my PC.

Like Ted...it ain't broke and I'm not fixing it!

 

[ssra30]

Talked to a friend of mine, when he ran out of the batteries, he said that the low battery warning sign came on only about 1 minute before the camera shut down. At the time, he also made a little mistake about his batteries by putting in 2x 1700 mAh and 2x 1400 mAh (not sure where he found 1400 mAh batteries but that was what he told me). May be the batteries may make some differences as well.

One more thing about the firmware, if I am not mistaken, firmware version 76 or earlier also may have problem with larger capacity CF card if I remember correctly.

 

[ReyeR]

I don't think there have been anything significant with the different firmware versions, at least nothing I've noticed. Mine is (or hopefully was) v558-77, bought in Dec 2003. My buddy's is v558-79, bought in May 2003 and I haven't noticed any difference. In shooting mode the battery cops it pretty soon after the low indicator comes on because of the drainage by the zoom, flash and viewfinder. My camera's gone in for a service - it was forgetting the settings on a normal battery change - so I've requested a firmware update - hopefully they'll oblige.

Regarding the CRV3 batteries I was actually more interested in whether the battery indicator did it's job better because of the nature of the battery itself - ie more gradual drop in voltage.

 

[CuriousMe]

I checked out the Olympus site and saw they also added a C-5060 Wide Zoom.

It's a 4x optical zoom and a total of 14x including digital zoom.....looks interesting...oh and the Estimated Retail Price is the same as the C-5050....although it doesn't seem that it fits in the PT-015.

Peace,
Cathie

 

[Dee]

Cathy....the 5060 is going to require a different housing, the PT-20. It isn't planned to be released for a few more months.

The digital zoom may be ok for topside but it's useless for U/W.

The wide zoom sounds interesting but not enough. I'm glad I didn't hold out for it! I'm liking my 5050 more and more.

 

[ReyeR]

The digital zoom may be ok for topside but it's useless for U/W.

Dee, I would say the digital zoom is useless, period
You'll be able to do a better job in a program like photoshop or elements.

 

[Dee]

ReyeR once bubbled...

Dee, I would say the digital zoom is useless, period
You'll be able to do a better job in a program like photoshop or elements.

Well I thought so, too, but wasn't sure if it was just me or for real! Since I knew absolutely it was useless U/W I was safe!

 

[TedJ]

ReyeR once bubbled...
I've requested a firmware update - hopefully they'll oblige.

Let us know what happens and if you can detect any change in the operation of the camera. thanks TedJ