Olympus D-600L User Review
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I have had the Olympus D-600L for six days now and have shot and
saved about 295 photos.  The following are my experiences with this
interesting but quirky digital camera.  Some may say that my opinions
are hyper-critical but please bear in mind that I am trying to be
as honest as possible in my judgements.  Olympus has taken a GIANT
step in the *right* direction of merging the digital and 35mm film
camera world into one consumer product.

The first thing that both shocked and surprised me was the size and
weight of the box that the Olympus D-600L came in.  It was very small
and only weighed maybe a pound and a half and I had a hard time
believing that my new $1300 digital camera was inside of it.  But it
was, and most of the contents of the box literally sprung out at me
as I lifted the top flap open with the box sitting on its side.
Somebody really engineered how to get ten pounds of "stuff" into a
one and a half pound box!

The Olympus D-600L was much smaller than I had imagined after having
onwed an Olympus IS-2 35mm ZLR camera.  The Olympus D-600L and
D-500L resemble the Olympus APS Centurion film camera in size, shape
and weight.  The D-600L is very comfortable in the hand and the
built in grip allows you to easily and securely hold and operate
the camera.  Unlike the Kodak cameras, it comes with a lens cap!

The user controls have been labeled and placed in all the RIGHT
places.  On top of the right hand grip is the combination shutter
release and tele/wide control lever.  You can easily operate the
zoom controls without taking your eye away from the viewfinder and
after being set where you want it you simply move your finger over
to the shutter button to take the picture.

The Olympus D-600L and D-500L are true SLR cameras, you look through
the lens to frame and take the picture.  The viewfinder is big,
bright and shows 95% of the image being captured.  There are no
readout displays of any kind in the viewfinder, only a center circle
that indicates where the autofocus will perform its magic.  The
center circle also indicates where the camera will base its exposure
when you use the "spot" metering mode option.

The all-glass lens used on the D-600L is an excellent example of
the world-reknown Olympus optics found on their 35mm cameras and
produces extremely sharp and colorful images.  Both the D-600L and
D-500L have a 3:1 zoom lens, the focal lengths are not the same
because the size of the CCD imager used in the 600 and 500 are not
the same.  The effective ISO speed rating of the cameras is
also different because of the CCD imagers, the D-600L is rated at
ISO 100 and the D-500L is rated at ISO 180.

One of the really "cool" aspects of these new cameras besides the
fact that they are SLR is that they use the new SSFDC memory cards.
If you thought that Compact Flash memory was small just wait until
you see an SSFDC memory card.  It's about the size of a big postage
stamp and as thick as your credit card.  In fact the memory itself
is simply laminated on the top of the thin plastic card -- it's
really COOL looking.  Especially when you show one to a friend and
say, "Hey, look at my roll of film!"

The SSFDC (solid state floppy disk card) is fast becoming the new
standard for storage for digital cameras.  Toshiba is making most
of them now but other vendors are jumping on the bandwagon daily.
Currently the SSFDC cards are available in 2MB and 4MB size and I
have been told that Olympus will have the 8MB card out in mid
November and will also be distributing the PCMCIA adapter at the
same time.  For now all you can do is hook the camera up to your
serial port to download the stored images for storage, printing and
manipulating on the computer.

One of the interesting things about SSFDC memory is that it will
be cheaper than compact flash memory of the same size because it
does not have an onboard controller built into every one.  The
controller will be built into the full size PCMCIA adapter so you
only need to buy one no matter how many SSFDC cards you have.
Supposedly sometime after January or February 1998 Olympus will
also be selling a floppy disk drive adapter for SSFDC cards and
at that time they will really become solid state floppy disk cards!

Depending on camera model, image resolution and compression, the
amount of storage varies on SSFDC cards.  With the Olympus D-600L
you can store 4 images in SHQ mode, 12 images in HQ mode and up
to 50 images in SQ mode on a single 4MB SSFDC card.  Actually the
number of images stored in HQ mode varies due to the amount of
compression used, sometimes you can only get 12 images but often
times I was able to store 18 or 19 images before getting a "card
full" display on the readout.

Both SHQ and HQ mode deliver an image resolution of 1280x1024
which is stored as a standard JPG image.  The difference between
these modes is simply the amount of JPG compression used but it is
extremely hard to tell the difference between them when viewing them
on the screen.  The file size however is drastically different with
the average HQ image using about 250K of space and the average SHQ
image taking up about 900K.  Needless to say this makes a great deal
of difference in the speed of downloading individual images via the
slow serial port cable.  I had no trouble getting the Olympus Camedia
software to "talk" to my laptop's serial port at 115,200 baud so it
usually took about 7-10 minutes to download a full 4MB SSFDC card.
That same transfer will take about 40 seconds when accessed via the
PCMCIA slot once I get one of those new adapters.

The SQ (standard quality) mode produces images that are 640x512
pixels in size which is exactly half the resoltuion of HQ and
SHQ images.  It also drastically cuts the size of the stored
images down to 50-75K per image.  This is good when you are
running low on space but need to take more pictures than the
current mode will allow.  The Olympus D-600L lets you change the
picture mode at ANY time you want, mix-n-match on the same card
until it is full.

The D-600L's user controls are clearly marked and ergonomically
layed out on the camera body.  The top of the camera has a big
switch near the center that puts the camera in either RECORD or
PLAY mode and has a push button in the center to activate or
deactivate the camera's main power.  Once the camera is turned on
the small display LCD shows the condition of the batteries, shots
remaining (at current resolution), flash selection (auto, always on,
off [disabled] or red eye reduction mode), self timer mode and the
condition of the camera, if the display is on the camera is on.
The camera goes to "sleep" quickly to save battery power and can be
awakened by pressing the shutter button or flipping the zoom lever.

On the top edge of the back of the camera above the preview LCD
screen is four buttons that serve dual purposes depending on
whether the camera is in RECORD or PLAY mode.  These buttons allow
you to activate the self timer, erase a picture, select slide show
mode, print pictures (directly to the Olympus P-300 printer) and
more.

Around the preview LCD screen are four more buttons that let you
activate the on-screen main menu where you can set the resolution
SHQ-HQ-SQ, set the exposure compensation +/- 3, set the time/date,
time/date display format, erase all pictures on card, adjust LCD
brightness and do a zillion other things that I have forgotten
about.  The menu system is very easy to follow and allows you to
set all the modes and features.

Enough of a report on the camera controls, how does the thing
really work?  Again, please bear in mind that I have been using
the camera continuously for six days and have shot almost 300
pictures before writing this user review.

The Olympus D-600L is capable of taking GREAT pictures when the
lighting conditions and the subject(s) are nearly perfect.  Under the
normal day-to-day lighting and subject conditions that we encounter
the camera does its best to produce optimal images but it doesn't
always do this.  There's a variety of reasons why the camera does
not always produce a sharp, well focused and white balanced image.
The autofocus takes a lot of getting used to, you don't just pick
this camera up and start firing off one great image after another.

At first the autofocus was my main area of dissatisfaction as you
sometimes have to move the camera around your subject until you
find an area in the center of the viewfinder that the focus can
properly operate on.  As with most all autofocus type SLR cameras
the key to focusing is to find a vertical line for the system to
match up electronically in its little computer brain.  This isn't
always possible and therefore the camera frequently will fail to
"focus lock" on your subject and the green light will continue to
blink indicating lack of focus lock and it keeps you from taking
the picture.  Most of the time you can move the camera a couple of
inches off the initial framing area and find something that the
autofocus system can work on, sometimes you can't!

Olympus engineers knew this and two of those buttons on the back
of the camera are called "quick focus lock" buttons.  One sets the
camera for a range of 1.3 feet and the other is set for 8 feet.
You press either button and then half-press the shutter which will
override the autofocus and give you a lock and allow the picture
to be taken but only at the preset distances of 1.3 or 8 feet.
I found these quick focus lock buttons to be of little use in
actual "real world" operation of the camera.  The 8 foot lock
is most useful when you need to take a picture in total darkness.

After several days of taking picture after picture I finally got
the hang of the autofocus "quirks" and was able to work around
most of them.  Sometimes however even when the camera had locked
the focus and the image in the viewfinder looked sharp and clear
the image still came out blurry or out of focus.  After you snap
a picture the preview LCD screen lights up and shows you a close
representation of the final image but it is often lighter than what
is really captured on the SSFDC card.  To be sure what you think you
got and what you really got you often need to switch the camera to
PLAY mode and look at the LCD screen image again.

I don't have perfect 20/20 eye sight but it's fairly normal and I
had a hard time telling whether an image was sharply focused or not
by simply viewing it on the little TFT color LCD screen.  The real
proof is what it looks like on a 15" or 17" color monitor later.
I will say that the LCD is fairly usable in the outdoor world but
often needs to be shielded by a hand to see it in the bright sun.
Indoors it is easily viewable as would be expected.

After overcoming the autofocus quirks I soon discovered the biggest
problem with the Olympus D-600L and one that will probably plague
the D-500L as well.  The autoexposure system is heavily weighted
to the lower portion of the center.  Any bright object or glare in
this area will tend to throw off the overall exposure, especially
in flash pictures.  Even though Olympus claims that the flash unit
is intelligently controlled from 11.3 inches to 10 or 11 feet I found
it quite easily "fooled" by bright background objects (i.e. white
walls) or bright foreground objects (i.e. white shorts, white
t-shirts etc).  It also tended to wash-out most closeup shots I
took of brightly colored subjects at a range of under 3 feet.

Although I got many properly exposed and extremely sharp people
type pictures indoors, I also got a lot of pictures that were either
under- or over-exposed due to bright objects or the flash being
reflected from a glossy surface and coming back into the lens.
Once I thought I had a handle on the way the autoexposure system
worked I was still ending up with more bad pictures than I really
thought I deserved.  I do NOT expect any camera, digital or film
type to be perfect but I do expect them to be reliably unreliable
under similar circumstances if you know what I mean.  No matter how
hard I tried to "control" the subject and background I could not
obtain reliable results.

The ONLY manual control of the exposure comes by way of the
+/- 3 EV override control.  You access this from the main menu
on the preview LCD screen on the back of the camera.  It helps
sometimes but it is usually a hit-or-miss way of getting the
camera to produce a properly exposed image.  It is most useful
when working with a strongly backlit subject or when the camera
is on a tripod and you're shooting interior shots sans the flash.

Aside from this major shortcoming the next biggest complaint I
have about the D-600L is a total lack of manual control for just
about everything as far as a camera is concerned.  You can not
manually focus, you can not manually select a shutter speed, and
you can not manually select an aperature setting.  This would be
fine on a $500 digicam but on a $1300 camera with resolution
approaching that of what a professional can use -- this lack of
manual control is simply not acceptable.

On all of Olympus' 35mm ZLR cameras like the IS-2, IS-3, IS-10
and etc., you can set one of several pre-programmed modes that
lock either the shutter speed for action or lock the aperature for
depth of field.  You also get a digital readout of the shutter
speed and aperature in the viewfinder even when operating in total
automatic mode.  With the D-600L you NEVER know what the camera is
doing, there is no display of anything in the viewfinder.  Off to
the side of your eye you see a green "focus" light that indicates
a lock or no-lock condition and an amber "flash" LED that tells you
when you need to use the flash.

With most decent automatic 35mm cameras (Olympus' included) you can
set a given shutter speed and make the camera match the appropriate
aperature or set a given aperature and make the camera match the
proper shutter speed.  These are things that we expect but do not
get with this new high-end consumer digital camera.

I can only hope that Olympus is working on the next "new and
improved" model of the D-600L as I type this.  The D-600L is
truly a ground-breaking digicam because of its TTL design and
retail price.  But, the lack of real camera controls pretty
much kills it as far as I'm concerned and relegates it to being
a fairly expensive "toy" that delivers unpredictable results.

Luckily I bought mine from a dealer that allowed a 14-day return
if unsatisfied.  Mine went back today.  I never had any intentions
of simply "renting" this camera to try it out, I sincerely wanted
it and fully expected to keep it.  But the bottom line is that I
just ended up with too many images being deleted due to poor focus
or exposure problems.  I did get many really great images that
printed well on my Epson Stylus Photo printer, even at a size of
8x10 inches.  The Oly 600 images print marvelously at a 4x6 or 5x7
inches and it's very hard to tell them from real film-based images,
even by semi-pro photographers.

One of the biggest dissapointments was when trying to use the
camera indoors without the flash.  I guess I got spoiled by the
way my Ricoh RDC-2 can take excellent pictures in low light
conditions without the use of the flash.  The Olympus D-600L only
has an ISO rating of 100 and therefore needs considerable light
to take a picture.  When the flash is disabled it picks a very
low shutter speed of 1/4 or 1/8 of a second and even the steadiest
hands in the world have trouble taking anything but a blurry
picture at those speeds.  Of course you can always mount the
camera on a tripod but one doesn't always have a tripod handy
and it tends to ruin a "natural" or candid shot using the flash.

All things being equal, Olympus has built a very nice digital
camera here but I definitely expect more for the price of $1300
and I think other buyers will expect more as well.  Here's hoping
that Olympus listens to our complaints and suggestions and fixes,
improves and adds them to a future D-6??L model.

On a side note about features, if you're looking for video out
capability you need to look at the Olympus D-220L or D-320L
cameras.  Neither the D-500L or D-600L has the video out option.
A lot of people don't care about this but it is a really nice
option for those who need to put on a multimedia dog-n-pony
show for work-related meetings.  Video out is also a very nice
way to allow you to send slide shows of your photos to other
people by simply recording a series of pictures on video tape.
Maybe your grandmother doesn't have a computer but she probably
has a VCR and a TV set.

(more text added 11/8/97)

I got several emails asking me about the battery life of the
D-600L.  I never used alkalines in it as I have several sets of
NiMH rechargable batteries that I use in all of my digicams.
On day 1 the camera got quite a workout and on one single set of
batteries it took 73 pictures, a mixture of indoor flash shots
and outdoor non-flash shots.  Four times the 4MB SSFDC card got
filled and downloaded to the computer and after all of that the
batteries were still going strong.  I did NOT use the LCD screen
too many times other than when it came on automatically after
each picture was taken.

Someone also asked me to comment on the spot metering system and
how well it worked.  I didn't use it that much but when I did it
was readily apparent that it functioned as it should have and
set the exposure perfectly for the small area that I had in the
center focus area of the viewfinder.  I intentionally picked a
very contrasty scene (my dark grey minivan parked out in the
bright, afternoon sun with the side door open.)  I pressed the
Spot metering button and then aimed into the van through the
open sliding side door and then shot the picture.  The image was
properly exposed for the amount of light inside the well-shaded
interior of the van.  Another time I used it for a shot of a fellow
fishing in the late afternoon, he was strongly backlit by the
setting sun.  I set the flash to the "always on" position and then
pressed the Spot button and centered on the fellow's upper chest
and face and fired away.  Another perfectly exposed picture.

See my Olympus D-600L sample pics at:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/oly600sample.html


-Steve Sanders

Visit my Digital Camera pages at:
http://www.steves-digicams.com