It may look like an optical viewfinder but it's really a tiny color LCD display like those found on modern camcorders. You get the benefit of true TTL viewing plus all exposure and camera data is also displayed on the screen.

(actual viewfinder display in movie mode)

You can switch back and forth between the viewfinder or the color LCD by pressing the button on the back. You can review still images or movies in the viewfinder the same as the big color LCD.

The C-2100 sports a monster 10x optical 7-70mm (38-380mm 35mm equivalent) image-stabilized zoom lens. It has 13 elements in 10 groups with 2 aspherical glass element.   f/2.8 to f/3.5 iris with a 7-bladed aperture for true depth of field control. The lens is threaded for 49mm filters and add-on lenses.

Auto or Manual focus with 240 steps and a magnified display for critical focusing. Even in poorly lit areas, sharp, focussed images can be achieved thanks to the camera’s autofocus illuminator.

Normal focus range is: Wide: 60 cm - infinity / tele: 2 m - infinity. Macro mode: Wide: 10 cm - 60 cm / tele: 1 m - 2 m.

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

Working range of flash: Wideangle 0.3 - 4.0 m. Tele: approx. 1.0 - 3.2 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).

On top are buttons for macro mode, metering mode and drive mode. The mode dial has positions for Playback, Program AE, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, Manual, Special-Program AE and Movie mode. The shutter release has the zoom lens control mounted around it.

The power On/Off/Reset switch is built into the base of the Mode dial.   My biggest complaint is the design of this switch, it's too easy to push it to the Reset position when turning it on. This could be easily fixed if you had to hold it in the Reset position for 5 seconds for it to actually reset.

On the back are the flash mode and INFO buttons next to the 4-way jog switch that is used to navigate menus and control various camera settings. Upper right is the AEL (auto exposure lock) button. The OK button accepts menu selections, selects auto or manual focus in Record and 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:

Serial port and external TTL flash connector

High-speed USB data port

DC INput for AC adapter or battery pack

external MICrophone input

A/V output, video is NTSC or PAL switchable, audio is monoural

The storage media is the SmartMedia, an 8MB card is supplied and any size up to 64MB may be used.

The C-2100UZ is powered by four AA size batteries, NiMH prefered and supplied (see below). The battery door has a safety latch and thanks to the side by side design, battery changes can be swift.

You can also use alkaline, lithium or NiCd type as well as the new long-life CR-V3 lithium batteries. There is a built-in lithium back-up battery for the calendar system.

Here's some "extras" that don't cost extra!   One of my favorite accessories for any digicam is a remote control and Olympus has been supplying this little gem with all of their top of line cameras for a while now.

Every digicam needs power and what better power than a set of four high-capacity 1600mAH NiMH rechargeable batteries and a rapid charger.

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The Olympus C-2100UZ and the Sony MVC-CD1000 for size comparison. Both of these cameras have 10x optical stabilized zoom lenses. The Sony is larger and heavier due to its builtin 3" CD-Recorder.