Steves Digicams - Olympus C-5500 Sport Zoom

Features & Controls

The C-5500 features a 5x optical Olympus zoom lens with a 38mm-190mm (35mm equivalent) focal length and a maximum aperture of f2.8-f/4.8. This is an all-glass lens constructed of 9 lenses in 7 groups.

Equipped with a low-light AF-assist lamp, the contrast detection autofocus system has a range of 1.9’ (0.6m) - infinity in wideangle and from 3.9’ (1.2m) - infinity in telephoto. The Macro mode coverage is from 3” (0.08m) – 1.9’ (0.6m) in wideangle and from 1.9’ (0.6m) – 3.9’ (1.2m) in telephoto. The Super Macro coverage is from .07” (0.02m) – 3” (0.08m) and the lens is locked in wideangle.

The C-5500 employs an eyelevel real image zoomed optical viewfinder. There are two LEDs to indicate flash and auto focus status. There is no diopter adjustment.

The manual popup speedlight has modes for: Auto, Red-eye Reduction and Fill-in. The maximum working range in wideangle is 12.5ft (5m) and 7.2ft. (3.5m) in telephoto. The flash squelches down nicely for macro exposures.

The high resolution 2-inch color LCD has 110,000 pixels and can be used for preview, review and accessing the camera's menu system. The monitor can display a realtime histogram or be turned off using the menu.

Controls on the back: Quick View for reviewing the last image captured. The AEL is used to lock the exposure, in review it is used to rotate images. The Quick View button is for fast review of the image taken last. The Flash mode button in review will Protect or Unprotect images. The Macro focus button selects either normal Macro or Super Macro closeup modes. The 4-way controller is for navigating menus, changing settings and selecting playback images. The OK button accepts menu selections and calls up the menu.

Top controls: The shutter release/zoom lens control (functions as the index and zoomed playback in review mode.) The Power on/off button. Angled off the back edge is the Mode Dial with positions for: AUTO, Program AE, Aperture priority AE, Shutter-speed priority AE, Manual, MyMODE, Scene, Movie and Playback.

Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom

On the left side are the I/O ports:

A/V output, video is NTSC or PAL, audio is monaural and USB 2.0 (full speed, not high speed) data port.

DC INput for optional AC adapter

The C-5500 stores its data on xD-Picture Cards and comes with a 16MB size card. xD cards are currently available up to 512MB with 1GB size cards available very soon.

Number of Storable Photos

	Quality Mode	Pixel Resolution	16MB xD-Picture Card (included)	512MB xD-Picture Card
Still images (w/o sound) Unit: shots	SHQ HQ	2592 x 1944 2592 x 1944	4 shots 12 shots	139 shots 409 shots
	SHQ1 HQ1	2592 x 1728 2592 x 1728	4 shots 14 shots	156 shots 456 shots
	SQ1 SQ1	2288 x 1712 2288 x 1712	5 shots 16 shots	178 shots 523 shots
	SQ1 SQ1	2048 x 1536 2048 x 1536	6 shots 20 shots	221 shots 652 shots
	SQ1 SQ1	1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200	11 shots 32 shots	363 shots 1030 shots
	SQ2 SQ2	1280 x 960 1280 x 960	17 shots 49 shots	560 shots 1597 shots
	SQ2 SQ2	1024 x 768 1024 x 768	26 shots 76 shots	863 shots 2457 shots
	SQ SQ	640 x 480 640 x 480	66 shots 165 shots	2129 shots 5324 shots
Still images (w/sound) Unit: shots	SHQ HQ	2592 x 1944 2592 x 1944	4 shots 12 shots	138 shots 399 shots
	SHQ HQ	2592 x 1728 2592 x 1728	4 shots 13 shots	155 shots 443 shots
	SQ1 SQ1	2288 x 1712 2288 x 1712	5 shots 15 shots	176 shots 507 shots
	SQ1 SQ1	2048 x 1536 2048 x 1536	6 shots 19 shots	218 shots 626 shots
	SQ1 SQ1	1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200	11 shots 30 shots	354 shots 968 shots
	SQ2 SQ2	1280 x 960 1280 x 960	16 shots 45 shots	541 shots 1452 shots
	SQ2 SQ2	1024 x 768 1024 x 768	25 shots 66 shots	819 shots 2129 shots
	SQ SQ	640 x 480 640 x 480	58 shots 124 shots	1879 shots 3993 shots
Movie (w/o sound) Unit: min.	HQ SQ	320 x 240 320 x 240	approx. 24 sec. approx. 48 sec.	approx. 774 sec. approx. 1548 sec.
Movie (w/sound) Unit: min.	HQ SQ	320 x 240 320 x 240	approx. 23 sec. approx. 46 sec.	approx. 762 sec. approx. 1503 sec.

All capacity figures are approximate.

The C-5500 is powered by either four AA type or two CR-V3 type batteries. We recommend rechargeables for both financial and ecological reasons. For infrequent use, the disposable CR-V3 lithium batteries are the best choice as they offer a very long shelf life. Check out our Rechargeable Battery Page for info and prices on high-capacity NiMH AA cells and the rechargeable RCR-V3 battery packs.