Olympus C-2500L

Click on the C-2500 for a 360-degree QTVR tour

The Olympus C-2500L is a true SLR (thru the lens) digital camera with a 3X optical (36-110mm equivalent) f2.8-3.9 zoom lens. It features a 2/3-inch progressive scan 2.5 megapixel CCD that yields brilliant 1712x1368 images. Pictures are stored in one of three JPEG compression levels or as an uncompressed TIF image.

The SLR viewfinder shows you a 95%-centered view of exactly what the lens sees even in the Super-Macro mode with a subject less than an inch away. Feel a need for speed? The C-2500L has a 16MB RAM buffer to allow you to shoot up to five photos without waiting on them to be processed. The burst mode can be used in any resolution and captures up to five images in less than three seconds.

The physical size of the C-2500L is almost the same as the D-620L but the lens barrel sticks out a little farther. With the batteries in the camera it is several ounces heavier than the D-620L. It is a fairly small camera that always seems to look much larger in the pictures. Pictured here next to the Olympus C-2000Z.

On the back we have a 122,000 pixel high resolution color TFT (HAST) LCD that is a definite improvement over the displays used on the D-600 and D-620 cameras. It still not very useable in the bright sunlight but other than that it is gorgeous. During Playback you can zoom-in 2x or 4x and then pan around the whole picture.

For those of you who have used the Olympus C-2000Z camera -- The mode dial/power switch is now on the back and a good distance from the shutter button -- thank you!   After using the C-2000Z for many months I still accidentally turn it off when pressing the power on/off switch instead of the shutter button (argh!)

The LCD can not be used as a viewfinder, all framing and aiming is done via the SLR viewfinder. There is a diopter control on the side. Shown here with both LEDs illuminated, the green one indicates focus condition and the orange one is for flash status.

The business end of the C-2500L -- its aspherical, all-glass 3x F2.8-3.9 optical zoom lens of 9.2mm-28mm (35mm film equivalence of 36-110mm).   It's threaded (43mm) for filters and auxilliary lenses.

If you like shooting closeups you'll love the Macro and Super-Macro settings that let you get as close as 0.8 inches.

Note the red area below the lens, this is the new focusing system which employs an infrared-assist beam. The C-2500L can focus in total darkness and is very accurate unlike the often finicky D-600 series.

Finally a digital camera that was made to be used on a tripod. It has a flat bottom and properly centered, metal-threaded tripod socket. You won't have any problems keeping this camera level on your tripod.

You can remove or change memory cards while on a tripod but changing the batteries, while not impossible, would but quite tricky.

Most of the advanced features are accessed through the menu system on the LCD so the number of buttons and dials is fairly minimal. See the nest page for the controls located on the top of the camera.

Next to the viewfinder is the SM/CF button that switches between the SmartMedia and the CompactFlash card slots. Then we have the menu button that brings up a four-page menu during record operations. The command dial lets you switch the camera's operating modes and in the center is the power on/off switch. Below that is the 4-way rocker switch used to navigate the menus and finally the "OK" button for making selections.