I'm not familiar with that particular model, but I had an Olympus C4000Z, a very underrated little camera before I got my 20D. Once I learned where the sweet spot in the lens was and some tips, I got some wonderful photos with it, won a contest with two of them. Some of their models are better than others. I'm really impressed with the 8080. A professional photographer in Iraq uses one, but it's only 3X zoom. I was thinking of getting it for a backup camera. Do your homework, and you'll be fine. Before I bought each camera and the ones I got for my daughters and grandson, I read and read and asked a zillion questions and kicked it around for months. The net is the best source of information. Few people in the world out there know much of anything about digital cameras, even the camera store salespeople in some cases. On my 20D I got some things dirt cheap when a major computer online retailer broke into the camera market, had great discounts and coupons they threw out on the net plus rebates. They don't deal with Olympus, mostly Canon and their deals aren't so good any more. If you can afford it, I wouldn't have before, but now I would not hesitate to recommend a Canon or Nikon dslr with the interchangeable lenses camera to anyone. A few basic settings and you can use it just like a point and shoot digital camera and then grow into the more advanced features. A lot of people like the Panasonic FZ series, but I have never been too impressed with them although they seemed to have corrected some of the fringing. I just didn't think they produced that sharp of photos and the color was nothing to write home about, but some people love them. Some of the Kodaks are pretty nice, too, as well as Fuji. Oh, I left out Sony. They had serious problems with one, DSC-F828, rushed it to market before they got the bugs out, but I have been impressed with *some* of their models. Some I would advise people not to buy certain other ones. You might want to look at the specs for the Canon Pro 1. It doesn't have such a powerful zoom, 5X optical if I remember correctly, ignore digital zoom; it's worthless, but has a wonderful lens and color. My granddaughter bought that one and gets wonderful photos with it. I have seen some posted by others that have blown me away.

I started my interest in photography while stationed in Germany from 1968 till 1972. i came back from Europe with two Pentax Spotmatics & 19 Takumar lenses, plus a Minolta C330 Twin lens med format camera, a 4x5 century graphic press camera, and a complete color darkroom but unfortunately a year after i returned it was all stolen. When i retired in June I decided i wanted to get back into nature photography as a retirement hobby, however I had no equipment and being on fixed income i had very limited financial resources. Needless to say, at $1000 and up, a DSLR was way off in the future, but with the advent of digital the price of 35mm film cameras has dropped to peanuts. With a little research I discovered that the Pentax DSLR's are compatible with nearly all Pentax lenses ever made so I decided to get a good Pentax 35mm film camera and collect a few lenses and accessories to get me going. I found a website for an online auction sponsored by Goodwill Industries and in reviewing the site I discovered that they have loads of photo gear, and it generally goes for a song. By example, I bought a Pentax ME super with a 50mm normal lens, 28-70mm zoom, 70 to 300mm zoom, a flash unit, camera bag and a long list of misc. goodies for the whooping sum of $62 +S&H. i continued watching for those combined sets and within three months I had acquired 5 cameras and 11 lenses including as 1000mm tele, plus an auto bellows, a ring flash for macro, and on Ebay i got a nice padded luggage style case. Total investment to that point was under $400. Three weeks ago I was checking Craigslist for my area, and by mistake I hit a tab for a neighboring state. When i looked under photo gear, what did i see, a Pentax *ist body in like new condition for $200. Now I will admit that i dont have auto focus, but that is the only feature of the DSLR that i don't have, and considering that when i learned photography through the lens metering was still in its infancy, i am fully comfortable with using depth of field and manual focus. Now i have the full enjoyment of the hobby and i can set a few dollars aside each month until i can buy a Pentax K20 or K7 in the spring. Oh yes...today I bought a Pentax 35mm film camera that has auto focus so when it arrives I will have two auto focus lenses too, not bad for another $45 investment.

Of course you can have an opinion. Interestingly enough, the same document that gives you the right to free speech also gives our judicial procedures. Casey was innocent until proven guilty and they couldn't prove her guilty so she's innocent in the eyes of the law. That's how it works. That's our system. And, like wildchild said, if anyone needed defense they would sure be thankful we have the system we do. Many countries will just shrug and execute without any sort of due process or caring if you did it or not. I, myself, am incredibly grateful that I live in a country where my innocence isn't determined by my gender, religion or how much I can bribe the judge. If people judged on what they "think" happened then we'd have quite a mess. No verdicts would ever be reached because people would vote based on their opinions over the facts. Did she do it? I don't know. I wasn't there. And if any of you were there, it's probably time to say something!

The vast majority of photos I post here were taken with an 8 year old Olympus C-740 3.2MP with 10x Optical Zoom digital camera. It took superb pics but with the lower Mpixel count, terrible shutter lag and 256Mb memory card limit, it definitely had its downside. I dropped and broke my first Olympus about two years after buying it. It had been discontinued so I went on eBay and bought the exact same camera for $55. It too took exceptional photos. But, when it became so slow on a recent trip to Panama that I missed a sloth photo op (a sloth!!! for heaven's sake!), I decided it was time to find a new camera. :-) I did lots of research. I didn't want an SLR quite yet as it would be more camera than I can currently handle. I seriously know next to nothing about manual settings but I do know that I really don't want to be lugging extra lenses and the weight of an SLR around with me...yet. :-) I finally order the Panasonic Lumix FZ100 and wait for it to arrive. Low and behold there is a box on my doorstep the next day! But it was for my DH. Turns out he bought another Olympus exactly like my old one since it takes such great pics. He paid $30 for it. I've only been using the FZ100 since June but I'm pretty happy with it so far. I start a 10 week photography class next Monday. Hope the teacher can break through my thick skull and help make F-stops and aperture settings and depth of field all make sense. Well, actually in theory it all makes sense it's just they made it more difficult than it needed to be with all the wanky numbers you need to remember. LOL Oh, and I missed my old Olympus so much that I bought a new Olympus Stylus 9000 to carry around in my backpack when I hike. Jodi-