Olympus CAMEDIA C-800L: 27 YEARS later! RETRO review
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- Опубликовано: 12 мар 2023
- Trying out the C-800L, the first Olympus CAMEDIA digital camera from 1996!
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#digitalcamera #vintage #camera 
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Trying out the C-800L, the first Olympus CAMEDIA digital camera from 1996!
Buy Gordon a coffee: www.paypal.me/cameralabs
Gordon's In Camera book: amzn.to/2n61PfI / Amazon uk: amzn.to/2mBqRVZ
Cameralabs merchandise: redbubble.com/people/cameralabs/shop
Check eBay to find vintage gear: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=1&pub=5574908462&toolid=10001&campid=5338329149&customid=&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229466&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg
Check MPB to buy and sell used gear: bit.ly/3ULU9yL
Lost photos? I recover mine with: www.dpbolvw.net/click-100568658-13808570?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.stellarinfo.com%2Fphoto-recovery-software.php
Equipment used for producing my videos
Sony A6400: amzn.to/3hul53c
Sony e 24mm f1.8: amzn.to/2TqWNzk
Rode NT USB mic: amzn.to/3AdHcUp
Rode Wireless Go II mic: amzn.to/3xkCvGo
Rode Lavalier Go mic: amzn.to/3ygzzKY
Godox UL150 light: amzn.to/2VpVbXE
Godox QR-P70 softbox: amzn.to/3yQfGdF
MacBook Pro 14in (16GB / 1TB): bhpho.to/3HiafJL
Music: www.davidcuttermusic.com / @dcuttermusic
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
#digitalcamera #vintage #camera
Olympus was one of the last brands to still produce water resistant digital cameras. I was always intrigued by their stylings, especially the ultra long-range lens and their use of champagne gold.
Their waterproof cameras were also some of the best around - I have reviews of them all at my cameralabs.com website
i have the FinePix XP50 from around 2012, it's 14 megapixels, and takes full HD video!! i love it so much
@@sparksfly13 nice!
Always enjoying your retroreviews Thanks and looking forward to the next one.
Thankyou, glad to make a few in a row here.
Always a enjoyable review of these classic digital cameras. Thanks for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it! More to come.
Hi Gordon,
lovely review. Like your retro views. Keep on going.
Thanks Michael, and lovely to see you here!
Thank you for the retro review curiosity. Appreciate the image samples while the downward loading image display on the camera brings vintage memories =) /All the Best
love these videos, keep up the good work! 🙂
Thankyou!
Nice work Gordon, Thanks!
You're welcome!
Thank you, this video re-activated a few dormant neurons. ;)
This was my go-to line (800 to 3030...I think) of digital cameras for uncomplicated everyday snapshots in the mid-to-late 90s. I carried them with me everywhere.
Are you tempted to pick one up for old times sake? They're available quite cheaply on eBay...
Enjoying your proper British retro reviews.
Why thankyou!
This looks substantially better than i remember of a random 640x480 Olympus of mid 90s that i was able to try back in the day. That one had bad colour artefacts, stair stepping in a 2x2 pixel pattern around anything bright red.
Back then among the cameras i tested many were much too expensive, but the choice for me came down to Fujifilm DX-7 and Yashica KC-600. I took the Yashica.
Thanks to your videos, I dug out our old Pentax Optio 230 and Canon Ixus 75. The 2MP of the Pentax is pretty tough going but surprisingly it can shoot TIFF! The Canon is much more usable but can only shoot JPEG and is a bit clinical IMO. I also shot the same photo with the Pentax and a 24MP DSLR. That really shows how far we’ve come in 20-odd years
Glad they got to have another outing! Try taking them out for a day's photography, it can be a fun project to work around their limitations. Kids also love them.
I just sold a 1.3 megapixel camedia. They take amazing pics and the color accuracy was basically perfect
Great review as usual! Yes, it seems they just repurposed the analogue design, not that it is a bad thing, as it is rather sleak. Also nice to have your personal experience from back then included. Image quality looks ok for that age.
Great vid. I’m not sure why, but I guess I thought my D-600L was Olympus’ first digital camera, but it looks like there were a few out before. They didn’t keep the “normal” looking style for long as the D-600L looks like a little spaceship.
Loved that camera, really wanted on at the time. I noticed the flower as a macro indicator and wondered if the origin of the universal icons that everyone uses might be a topic you'd want to cover on this channel. Cheers!
That's a great question - I've no idea what the origin of the flower icon for macro is - it's always been there as far as I've noticed, but it had to start somewhere!
I had a MUSTEK MDC-800 back in 1999, was my first DC, loved it.
I don't remember their cameras, but I do remember their scanners...
Hi Gordon - Keep going with the Retro series, very interesting early Olympus models. I have a still working E10 with wide angle adapter lens mains lead and cards. First camera I could use for simple website pictures. I can still read the Raw files on a modern computer. Richard Ball.
Thanks, and yes I have an E10 here waiting for some attention!
I've just purchased the C-5050, which I am waiting to arrive any day now. An "advanced" compact digital with a magnesium body and F1.8 lens and tilt screen from 2003. l am looking forward to seeing how those 5.0 mega pixels are going to perform!
I remember reviewing it, and fondly recall the lens too! Let me know how you get on with it,
Well, thanks to this video I placed a 1eur bid on a C-400L and won. 16euro total with postage. But now I will have the same fun you had trying to source a cable and software. I think you said mini-din to d-sub, but any more info would be appreciated! I also feel that these cables have a non-standard wiring which will further add to the fun. Great video as always!
Thanks, and good luck! I used the same cable I did for my Apple QuickTake 100 video, so there may be more info there. I ordered it from eBay
Back in the day I remember Pentax used to make Digibinos and Casio had a watch with built-in digicam, would be interesting to see how they still work today nearly 2 decaded later.
Great review Gordon. My first digital camera was an Agfa CL18, it had no screen and just VGA resolution. Even though the photo quality is rubbish I still enjoy looking at the memories I captured with it. It would be great to have a modern version of these early digicams. I miss the simplicity of a standard fixed focal length and just having the viewfinder for composition. I know most just use their phones these days but the lenses are too wide and there's no viewfinder. I can feel an eBay purchase coming on 😄
I agree, the simplicity and form factor can be very appealing! Hope you find something fun!
@@DinoBytes Thank you Gordon.
Hi Gordon. I loved the video as usual and have just bagged a non-working (fingers crossed) C-820L for 99 pence on you know where, plus £2.75 postage. I hope it has an SM card, though I do have a spare if not.
99p!!! That's amazing! Let me know how you get on...
hi! thanks for the review. i've just bought one of these to go travelling with. do you know where the charging hole is and waht cable is needed to charge the camera? thank you
It uses AA batteries which you charge outside the camera yourself. You don't charge them in-camera.
Interesting camera!
You reminded me of the time when canon DSLR:s used to throw away the written data to the memory card if you accidentally opened the side door, thankfully canon fixed that so that you don't loose your data!
Keep up the good work!
I guess the OG fix for this was not to have memory cards at all, so no door to worry about!
Heck, if you switched the Nikon D1 off while it was saving images to the card, it would immediately lose all power - and any images that hadn't finished saving to the card! The power switch was a real switch, not something that electronically suggested to the camera that it should shut off once it was ready to do so.
My first digital camera was Panasonic Lumix DMC-fx2. It was a fantastic tiny camera with 4 megapixels image. I loved it, though the battery life was very short and it didn't have any manual control as far as I can remember. Maybe it had A, S modes.
This is my family's first digital camera and I still have it! After watching your video, I bought some batteries and put them in, and it powered on and it still works! Pressing the green button showed there is one photo. A photo of my father sitting on a chair, smiling at the camera, a couple of years back before he passed away. Almost broke down in tears when i saw it. I really want to get this photo on my computer. What should I search for to get that cable? Thanks a lot for this video!
I know what you mean. When I buy or borrow these old cameras, I always find old photos on them, and contact the seller to see if they want me to send them! As for this camera, you will need 3 things: the cable, the software, and a 90's era computer, as described in the video. It's tough but not impossible.
That really is of its time.
I bought an Olympus Camedia C-900 Zoom back in 1998 when that came out. That wasn't even my first digital camera, I remember I had some very weird HP (or was it Epson?!) digital camera before for a short amount of time that I sold to finance the Olympus. I still have the Olympus, it still works. Was it worth it in 1998? No, most certainly not - I should have bought a premium 35mm film compact back then - that would have served me better.
After one of your last videos I tried to get my old 820L up and running again and it just worked flawless like back in the day. The addition of a memory card was nice in theory but I haven't found a card reader yet that accepts the old card. I still have the original serial cable and the CD so maybe I give it a try on an old machine or a VM some day. BTW: My C-820L came with an Olympus charger for 4 AAAs and it works fine with modern Eneloops. So after all these years I can walk into a Homedepot, buy a pack of fresh rechargeable batteries, fill them with the original charger and put them into the camera. I doubt that I can do this with any current camera in 30 years.
Yeah, SM card readers can be hard to find and in fact for roughly similar money you may be able to buy a newer Old,pus model which took SM and also has a USB port. So you use it as a card reader, but also get another camera to play with!
Hey! please do a video about the sony mavica cd 400 if possible.
YES! I'd love to do one of the CD Maniacs. Hopefully you've seen my video about the floppy Mavica, which also mentions the CD versions at the end.
My first digital camera was a Sony DSC-P50. I still have it, and it still works, I also still have photos I took from 2002 when I bought the camera. The image quality was fine - the two main problems were shocking battery life from a pair of AA batteries, and how expensive Sony Memory Sticks were.
I remember the P50! Hopefully you've seen my P1 retro review...
@@DinoBytes I have. Fairly similar design.
1024x768 is probably the beginning of usable digiphoto resolution .) When I bought my first Casio I used 1280x960LQ mode for some time to be able to store more pics into internal 10MB memory although camera had 4Mpix sensor. Later with 64MMC card I switched to 1600x1200 medium when I needed more pics. Only later with 128MB card and especially 2 years later with 1GB card I switched to full res HQ only :D
Funny today, but those were dark ages when even that 64MB card was roughly equivallent to $50 and my monthly income from part time job during uni studies was roughly $200 :D
My cousin had been a big Olympus fan, he had an early one with the smart media card and ended his run with Olympus with the XZ-1 big sensor compact. Olympus never made a follow up for the XZ-1 however and was supplanted by the Sony RX100.
Yep, the XZ1 was a nice camera, I remember it.
What are you talking about? Olympus followed up with the XZ-2
Have you considered reviewing later Sony Cybershots with similar sliding lens covers and internal zoom lenses? I remember they looked amazing and felt great too, though the optical quality of some cheaper models left much to be desired.
I was already making videos about them on RUclips when they were new! Have a look at this vintage video from the archives! ruclips.net/video/Xcpqjssx9Bg/видео.html
@@DinoBytes Oh, right! Thank you for the link, off to watch!
1996 is already 27 years ago... crazy
I know, right?
'Are we not in a hands of a lunatic?' 😃(Orbital quote) anyway, this proves we are beyond spoiled today, with smartphones, action cameras, etc. I use Nikon D810, which is 'ancient', but still takes amazing photos...
Yes, the D800 series was fantastic. I'm actually planning a series of other videos exploring these more recent classics on my main channel, so keep an eye open!
My Pentax K200 and Fuji HS10 don't work too good on AA bateries after so many years.
Looks like she has gotten a bit foggy since she rolled off the line. That aside, holds up fairly well.
I'd also point out, if you want that sliding lens cover vibe on a new entry level point and shoot, case manufacturers make cases with camera cover sliders for both iPhone and Samsung devices 😂
Yeah, I think it's a little foggy too...
@@DinoBytes Was it fairly common to use plastic lens elements in those early low rez days?
@@POVwithRC some cameras certainly used them yes. Plus there were lots of third party companies building cameras or lens assemblies for other companies, so it was all over the place.
The C-400L was my first and the C800L my second digital camera. I thought both were awful even back then 🙂. I then upgraded to a 2MP Canon S110 Digital Elph. It was much much better.
Yes, there was a big difference between the very first models and those even just a couple of years later. The first 2 and 3mp models were mostly pretty good.
@@DinoBytes I found these early Canon pocket cameras had very pleasing colors. A bit over-saturated but pleasing. My first DSLR was a Canon D30 3MP camera (bought years later when they became cheap). It also was not very impressive from the picture quality perspective. It too produced strange colors with some kind of a hue on the blue side. I tried them all. Next came the 10D, then the 20D. The 20D was the first DSLR I was kind of happy with, when it came to picture quality right out of the camera.
If my memory does not play me a trick, the C800 was the first digital camera I sold when I started to work in a camera store. Directly converted from Norwegian Krone to USD it would have been sold for somewhere around 1200 USD 😂 The Casio QV10 I sold at sale the same autumn should be forgotten in silence.
I'm still hunting down a QV10 for a future video!
@@DinoBytes I'm interested in seeing the QV3500 and QV4000 which I believe received excellent reviews at the time?
@@cmdrvex I always Strat with the first models in a series, so it'll be the QV-10 first, but I'll try to include more Casios later!
Did you ever use the c7000, c70
I used most of the old Olympus cameras at some point!
Ah, that's were it started for me. 🙂
Happy memories I hope!
@@DinoBytes Got the cheaper no screen ‘400’ in my 2nd year on art school. Remember using it for a project where during an open house of our visual art department. It was located in a former factory and to outsiders might have looked quit ‘artsy’.
At the entrance I gave the camera to visitors who came in and asked them to take pics and return the camera upon exit. There i loaded the pix (12 high res) onto a Mac that was displaying a slideshow of all the pics taken by visitors. After a while new visitors would only watch the slideshow and then leave without ever visiting the rest of the artist studios. Don’t think that project would have been possible without this sweet camera. For many visitors it was their first ever time using a digital camera.
@@BastiaanSlabbers nice! The screen less 400 is quite rare now... and it's funny to see some high-end digital cameras now toy with the idea of removing or hiding the screen!
@@DinoBytes Still have that 400 in my collection and last time i checked it still worked! (only no cable nor screen so no idea how to actually see the pix it takes).
@@BastiaanSlabbers I know, it's the leap of faith that makes it appealing - a bit like the Apple QuickTake 100.
Very nice câmera, and the image quality is "almost there".
Personally I think models like this made by Olympus where the better looking cameras that age.
The original Camedia's (and Minolta Dimage's) were the first digital cameras I sold in the mid to late 90's when I was at Jacobs' Regent St branch. All dreadful. I saw the writing on the wall, even in the early days - and left Photo retail in 2000. I still shoot a lot - and digital is terrific now...but I dont miss those Camedia's...or 'comedians' as we would call them.
I remember visiting Jacobs and Jessops on new Oxford St...
@@DinoBytes Yup, Jacobs were there too, but I opened the first one on Upper Regent St, right by the BBC. Good times. And some amazing cameras too.
@@francochamps3855 ah yes, I remember there being one up there too - probably went in while I was working in Soho.
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the results from this camera until I remembered that it cost nearly a grand at the time. Who were the consumers that were buying these, or was it just colleges and the like?
Lots of schools or people who needed images for newsletters, listings, real estate, used cars etc
I have a C-820L which I run with a pair of 2MB SM cards. I did send you an email by he way, about the microdrive. It may be in your junk.
Oh, I see I told you about the camera already!
@@moviebod sorry, I did receive your message, but have been away!
Literally two days ago I bought an Olympus CAMEDIA C-840L at a thrift store. What are the odds? 😁
NICE! Have you used it yet? That one uses smart media, right? Did it come with a card?
@@DinoBytes I have indeed. It did come with a 16 mb card, but with no cables. Luckily I have a Camedia C-3040Zoom with USB, so I can use that as a card reader. The photos came out super hazy/foggy, so today I disassembled the lens/shutter module and cleaned all of the lens elements. The lens element closest to the CCD sensor was almost completely gray, and it was on the "inside" (between two elements), so I had to pry the element off the thing it was attached to to be able to clean it. It was a daunting task, but the camera was borderline useless otherwise. I managed to put it back together without destroying anything, and the photos it produces now are surprisingly crisp! No haze at all!
I wonder why it was like that tho. There were some photos on the memory card, dated mid 2005, which had the same haze issue, so clearly it had been like that for a while. I've noticed that some watch crystals also get this haze after a while. I wonder if some types of glass are "secreting" some sort of oil with time. I also notice that some of your images has a similar (albeit almost unnoticeable) haze. Like the image against the sky at 8:55. Maybe this issue is starting to happen to your C-800L as well? I don't know, but I'm super happy with the results from my cleaned C-840L.
@@krissjacobsen9434 I think you're right, I certainly see some foggy images from older cameras, so something is deteriorating in there. I'm really glad you got it back to life!
Aku baru pertama kali melihat kamera ini dan bentuknya keren seperti kamera analog, aku suka model kamera seperti ini. Tapi aku belum pernah melihat ini di negaraku Indonesia
Low contrast, lots of haze, and sadly not very filmic. More of that cheap digital feel that proved then that film was still king. I do love their classic clamshell design. My first digital was a Toshiba PDR-M61 in 2001. A decent camera with a price tag better than most others at the time. I've often thought of buying it again after selling it off in 2007.
I must try and include an early Toshiba in this series.,..
@@DinoBytes I purchased the Toshiba PDR-M81 from 2001 last year. It was the top of the line for Toshiba which sports a Canon Lens and was compared to the Powershot G2 at the time. Check them out! The M81 is a battery hog but love the photo quality.