As
with other Olympus cameras, the menu system of the C-5050 is long and
detailed. Moreover, a few options only appear according to the mode
in use, unavailable options showing as greyed.
The
options listed below are those of the still image mode, many of
which are common to all modes. To indicate which options belong to which
mode, options are preceded by coloured dots: red •
options are from the still image mode, blue •
options are from the movie mode and green •
options are from the playback mode.
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All
Reset: On or Off. Returns the camera to its defaults.
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Language:
Interface language selection. English, French, German, Spanish,
Japanese.
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PW
On Setup: Controls the image displayed on the LCD monitor and
the sound when the camera is powered-up. 2 sounds or Off can be
used, and either an Olympus logo display or an image that has been
registered for that purpose (see below).
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PW
Off Setup: Same as above, but for power-off.
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Screen
Setup: Serves to register an image for display on the LCD monitor
as the camera powers up or down.
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Volume:
Sets the playback volume.
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Rec
View: On or Off. Shows a just captured photo as it is being
saved.
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Beep
Sound Adjustment: Off, Low, High. Controls the volume of the
warning beep.
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Beep:
Controls the type of sound produced when buttons are pressed. Off,
Sound 1 (high or low), or Sound 2 (high or low).
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Shutter
Sound: Off, or 2 types of shutter sounds can be used. Off, Sound
1 (high or low), or Sound 2 (high or low).
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My
Mode Setup: Present, Reset, Custom. saves settings into up to
8 "My Mode" memories for easy recall.
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File
Name: Reset or Auto. Auto increments file numbers.
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Pixel
Mapping: The Pixel Mapping feature allows the camera to check
and adjust the CCD and image processing functions. It is not necessary
to operate this function frequently. Approximately once a year is
recommended.
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LCD
Monitor Brightness: to adjust the screen's brightness.
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Date
and Time: To set the date and time on the camera.
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m/ft:
Selects either meters or feet as the distance unit used for Manual
Focus.
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Video
Out: NTSC or PAL.
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ShortCut:
to assign different functions to three of the recording mode Shortcut
screens.
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Custom
Button: assigns a different function to the Custom
button.
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Dual
Control Panel: provides an in-depth screen that shows all camera
settings (see photo at left).
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AF
Illuminator: On or Off. Controls whether or not the AF-assist
light is allowed to operate automatically.
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Thumbnails:
decides how many thumbnails will be shown on the screen in playback
(4, 9, 16).
As
has been the case with most recent Olympus cameras, the operation manual
is supplied in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format. Running over 230 pages, the
manual is partially interactive and the page numbers indicated in its
index lead to the correct page of the manual.
Overall the explanations are clear — with a few exceptions —
and although it requires a computer to be consulted, the manual covers
all aspects of the numerous features of the C-5050.
Software
In
North America the Olympus C-5050Z is supplied with a single CD-ROM containing
Olympus Camedia Master 4.3 and the camera manual's PDF files in
English, French, German and Spanish.
Camedia
Master 4.0 is the "light" version of Olympus' Camedia Master
Pro. The program is designed to handle retrieving the images from the
camera or a hard disk, browsing, printing (photos or index prints), editing
images and creating panoramas. In addition, it can also be used to create
instant wallpapers (screen backgrounds), calendars, postcards and albums.
Image
editing is well-rounded, even with this non-pro version, providing tools
to:
Rotate,or
flip.
Resize,
or crop.
Insert
text or superimpose a template.
Fix
distortion.
Adjust
contrast, brightness, gamma.
Alter
colour balance, or hue and saturation.
Sharpen
or Blur.
Remove
red eye, or do an instant fix.
Convert
the image to sepia or black and white.
Moreover,
the program is able to read the Exif metadata as part of the image properties,
and shows all the shooting data. We noted however, that information
on the C-5050's focal length was somehow incorrectly displayed by Camedia
Master, as was the ISO setting of images captured in ORF (RAW) format.
Although
Camedia Master is able to read and display Olympus RAW files (*.orf),
the manipulation it offers for RAW files is no different than what it
offers for all other formats. For
example, opening a RAW file does not provide specific RAW-related function
for altering shooting parameters for such things as white balance.
Olympus also provides an Adobe Photoshop Plug-in to import RAW files into
Photoshop. The Plug-in can be downloaded from Olympus
America's site and is installed by simply copying into the Plug-in
folder.
Although
the plug-in is supposed to provide some functionality to correct white
balance, at this time we found that the best results were obtained if
it was used with the RGB, Auto Image Process setting.
button.
