Olympus FE-4020

Category:	Type:	Image Sensor	:
Point-and-Shoot	Compact	Optical Zoom	:
Beginner	Ultra Compact	Image Stabilization	:
Serious	Ultra Zoom	Display	:
Advanced	DSLR	Shooting Mode	:
Pro	DIL	Movie	:
		Price check…	:

“My first digital camera.” The Olympus FE Series digital cameras are well suited to be a first digital camera for a child, grandparent or yourself, if you are brand new to digital photography. The Olympus FE-4020 is Olympus’ started digital camera with a wide-angle zoom. It features a 4x wide-angle optical zoom (26-105mm equiv.) in an ultra compact JeansPocket™ Certified body. The wide-angle is ideal for capturing wide vistas and large group shots.

The FE-4020 has 14MP resolution (1/2.3-in. CCD), a 6.9-cm (2.7-in.) LCD display screen (230k-dot), and shoots VGA movie 640×480 pixels at 30fps with monaural sound.

Intelligent Auto (iAUTO) can identify five common scenes (Portrait, Night + Portrait, Landscape, Macro and Sports) and automatically selects the appropriate settings. For more challenging shooting situations, match the scene yourself to the appropriate Scene Mode. For those who desire a bit more control, switch to Program AE (P) mode and dial in an exposure compensation to compensate for scenes that are too bright or too dark. To allow you to see precisely what the resulting image will look like, you can preview live the effect of applying different levels of exposure compensation on a multi-frame window before snapping the shot.

You can take up to 10 shots and then stitch them together in the Olympus [ib] software to create one panoramic picture. Note that the FE-4020 does not have In-Camera Panorama which captures three images by simply pressing the shutter button and slowly panning across a scene; the camera automatically takes the next 2 pictures and then stitches them together to create one panoramic picture. To get this nifty feature, you’d have to upgrade to at least the Stylus 7030.

There is no true (mechanical) image stabilization (either Lens-shift optical or Sensor-shift). What the FE-4020 does have is High ISO (aka “Digital Image Stabilization”) that uses a high ISO and fast shutter speed to help counter the blurring effects of camera shake and subject motion. The downside of using high ISOs in most compact digicams is reduced image quality with the presence of more noise in your pictures. You should be fine as long as you stay at standard 4×6 in. prints and Web sized display.

The Magic Filter allows you to record your pictures as Pop Art (vivid colors), Pinhole (simulates the use of a pinhole camera), Fisheye (emulate the use of a fisheye lens), or Drawing (turn your image into a sketch outline for children to color). Beauty Mode softens shadows and smoothes wrinkles and blemishes on your subject’s face. Shadow Adjustment Technology retains detail in the shadows in high contrast shots.

Enhanced Help Guides are built right into the camera and display a brief description of camera settings and features on the screen.

A new OLYMPUS [ib] software includes photography workflow, browsing, editing and a photo organizing function that allows you to organize photos by person with automatic face recognition technology, by location with a Geotagging function or by event.

As part of Olympus’ environmental commitment to reduce its carbon footprint, the instruction manual is now on the camera’s internal memory, always available at your fingertips. [There is no paper or CD-ROM Instruction Manual.] The FE-4020 uses the SD/SDHC (up to 32GB) memory card.

The Olympus FE-4020 is an easy-to-use digital camera that is ideal for first-time users who just want point-and-shoot functionality. It has a double-layered crystal shell that utilizes silk printing and a pearlized mirror finish to give the camera an elegant, transparent feel. Available in Light Blue, Warm Gray, Light Pink, and Pearl White, priced at about US $150 (CAD $180).