You can playback captured images by pressing the MONITOR button when the lens barrier is closed or when in record mode you can quickly push the MONITOR button twice to enter the quick review mode.

In the playback menu (see below) you can enable the INFO option to display the information shown above which includes the quality (SHQ), image size (1600 x 1200), the file folder and file number and the date.

Press the zoom lens control to the wideangle position toggles the index playback mode. In the menu you can select the number of images to display per screen as 4, 9 or 16. Using the 4-way jog control you can select a picture to display, delete, mark for DPOF printing or protect or unprotect.

Pressing the zoom control to the telephoto position will enlarge the image on the screen. There are several magnifications available from 1.5x to 3x. Once the image is enlarged you can scroll around inside of it using the 4-way jog control.

Movie clips can be played back on the LCD screen. On the bottom is the running time and total time (2 secs / 15 secs).

If the INFO option is enabled the movie clip will look like this as you scroll through the saved images.

Pressing the MENU button while in playback mode brings up this screen of options.

Slide Show playback

Mode menu - see previous page

Erase - Delete images

INFO - Select whether or not to include image information

Steve's Conclusion

The D-520 Zoom can capture up to 1600 x 1200 size images in JPEG or TIFF format as well as 320 x 240 QuickTime motion video clips at 15fps. Up to 15 seconds can be captured at HQ (320 x 240) resolution or up to 60 seconds if using the 160 x 120 email mode. Also new is the USB Auto Connect feature which when used with the newest OS like Windows ME or XP needs no drivers at all to download images to the host computer.

No camera is better than its lens and the D-520 Zoom uses a fast F2.8 all-glass 3x optical zoom with a focal length of 38-114mm (35mm equivalent). There is also a seamless 7.5x digital zoom feature to further extend the zoom's range. The builtin popup flash comes up as soon as you open the lens barrier and fires when needed if in the default "auto" mode. It has the usual fill and redeye reduction modes but it also has a front curtain slow snyc and a redeye plus front curtain slow sync mode.

Like all the other Olympus cameras we have reviewed in the last year, the D-520 employs the TTL digital iESP metering with spot option and an excellent white balance system that consistently produces realistic colors in a wide variety of normal lighting conditions. The ISO sensitivity is automatic and will be varied between 80 and 200 as necessary.

Even though this is a relatively inexpensive camera it is equipped with a sizeable RAM buffer that allows for up to 5 frames in JPEG at SHQ, 16 frames in HQ and up to 86 frames in SQ mode to be captured in sequential drive mode. There are lots of other high-tech features in this easy to use camera so it will please even those that like to play with settings other than fully automatic. It accepts any size SmartMedia card right up to the latest 128MB size. Battery power is flexible, use two NiMH type AA cells or alkaline or use one of the Olympus CR-V3 lithium batteries that last forever when stored away in the gadget bag

I see Olympus selling a lot of these cameras, they're reasonably priced, loaded with features, produce excellent picures, small enough to slip into your pants pocket and most importantly - they're very easy to operate.