The C-3040 Zoom sports an incredibly fast F1.8 - F2.6 lens with a 35mm equivalent of 35-105mm focal length. It is an all-glass, aspherical lens constructed of 10 elements in 7 groups. Further enhanced by a digital zoom function with 1 - 2.5x (5x VGA only) possible.

Auto or Manual focus with 240 steps and a magnified LCD display for critical focusing. Normal focus range is 0.8m - infinity and Macro mode 0.2m - 0.8m.

Add-on lenses and filters can be attached if you purchase the optional Olympus CLA-1 lens adapter. Shown here is the Tiffen equivalent, the OLYC2000AD. It comes with a 49mm to 55mm stepup ring, using the larger diameter filters avoids vignetting when the lens is at the full wide angle position.

The C-3040 has a large and bright optical finder complete with a diopter control adjustment knob on the side.

The green LED indicates a focus lock and the amber LED tells you the status of the flash.

Builtin multi-mode intelligent speedlight; Auto (automatic flash activation in low light and backlight), red-eye reduction, fill-in (forced activation), off (no flash).

Working flash range: Wideangle 0.8 - 5.6 m. Tele: approx. 0.2 - 3.8 m (at ISO 100).

External TTL connector control for Olympus FL-40: ON/OFF, auto, forced activation. Slow synchronisation (first-curtain synchronisation effect, second-curtain synchronisation effect). When using the FL-40, the C-3040 Zoom can make use of its onboard focus assist illuminator and work in complete darkness.

On top is the mode/power dial with positions for Playback, Off, Program AE, ASM (Aperture priority, Shutter priority or Manual - depends on which option is set in the menu system) and Movie mode. The shutter release has the zoom lens control mounted around it. The zoom lever also functions as the index and zoomed playback control while in play mode.

The monochrome data LCD is shown here with all possible icons illustrated. Unfortunately it is not illuminated - we will keep pointing this out until all of the manufacturers take the hint and add this much-needed feature!

On the back are the flash mode (delete in play mode) and metering/macro mode buttons (DPOF in play mode) next to the 4-way jog switch that is used to navigate menus and control various camera settings. The OK button accepts menu selections, functions as the AEL (auto exposure lock) in record mode and is used to protect/unprotect pictures in Play mode.

The big button in the middle controls the color LCD and also lets you quickly switch from Rec to Play mode. The bottom button calls up or dismisses the MENU system.

On the left side are the I/O ports:

DC INput for AC adapter or battery pack

A/V output, video is NTSC (PAL in European models), audio is monoural

High-speed USB data port

RS-232 serial I/O port

External TTL flash connector for FL-40

The C-3040 stores its images on 3.3v SmartMedia cards. On the back side of the handgrip is the card slot which is the "push in and pops out" type that makes removing cards a breeze. Olympus includes a 16MB card with panorama function and any size up to 128MB may be used.

The C-3040Z is powered by four AA size batteries (NiMH prefered but not supplied) or two of the Olympus CR-V3 one-use lithium. The battery door has a safety latch and thanks to the side by side design, battery changes can be swift.

Although they didn't include a set of NiMH rechargeable batteries, they did include the handy RM-1 infrared remote control. This allows you to control the zoom and trip the shutter in record mode and control playback while connected to a television.