Olympus VR-340 is a compact, affordable camera. It costs $99.99 directly (or $249.00 on Amazon). Although the 16-megapixel camera uses a CCD sensor so video only supports 720p resolution, it packs a powerful 10x zoom lens as well as an LCD in its small, sturdy chassis.
If you're looking for a compact camera on a strict budget you could do a lot worse—the VR-340's performance falls right is in line with some of the better sub-$200 cameras we've tested, including the 8x-zooming Canon A4000 IS. Neither the Olympus nor the Canon equal our Editors' Choice point-and-shoot, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX150( at Amazon) in terms of image quality—but budget-minded shoppers will have to stretch to make that purchase.
Editor's Note: At Best Buy, the Olympus VR-340 can be purchased as the VR-350. The cameras, apart from their model numbers, are virtually identical in design and performance. The VR-350 model was used in our tests.
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Features and Design
At 2.4 inches by 4.1 inches by 1.1 inch (HWD), the VR-340 measures in at 6 ounces. Its body is metal, and feels quite sturdy—a nice touch for such an inexpensive camera. The 2.2-by-3.7-by-0.8 Samsung DV300F is slightly larger, a smaller compact camera that features a 5x zoom lens but also integrates Wi-Fi and a front LCD to take self-portraits.
This zoom lens is small and compact, making it even Continue reading remarkable. The lens is 24mm wide and can cover an equivalent of 240mm. Its lens is wider than most in this class—the Canon A2400 IS starts out at 28mm—so you can capture more of a scene in your images without having to back up.
Its rear display measures 3 inches. This is standard for higher-end cameras, but it is a nice addition to an entry-level model such as this. The resolution of this display is 460k dots. This makes it twice as sharp than the A2400 or A4000.
The screens of top-end point-and-shoots are often sharper, however I was impressed with the clarity displayed by the VR-340 LCD. It's very bright, and the viewing angle is wide so you can look at it from the left or right—but it is a bit harder to see if you tilt the camera up or down.
There's an Intelligent Auto shooting mode that controls almost every aspect of the camera's settings for you—you can enable or disable the flash, set the resolution, set a Self Timer, and zoom the lens, but that's it. Advanced shooters may set their camera to Program mode. This allows them to adjust the Flash output, Macro mode, ISO, drive mode and exposure compensation.
Physical controls are sparse—there are buttons to navigate through the software menus, to start video recording, and to delete photos during playback, but everything else must be controlled via the software menu. If you'd like to take more control over settings, consider a more advanced camera like the Samsung EX2F( at Amazon)—it's anything but budget, but it gives you almost as much control as a D-SLR.
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Conclusions and Performance
In terms of speed, the VR-340 is slower than other compacts. The VR-340 takes 2.1 seconds to set up and take photos. It also has a 0.6 second wait between each photo and records a 0.5 second shutter delay. It is possible to miss an important shot due to these delays. Although the Canon A4000 IS is slower to boot up (2.2) and takes you 1.4 seconds to take a photo, it has a shorter shutter delay of 0.2 seconds.
We use 1,800 lines per image height to determine if a sharp photo is in our testing. The VR-340 was slightly lower than that. Imatest shows that the largest angle images have 1,733 lines. This score is below our threshold due to the corner and edge performance. Sharpness in the middle of images, however, is excellent. The Canon A4000 IS has a much sharper lens—at its widest setting of 28mm it records 2,301 lines.
Imatest can also check for noise. Images may appear grainy if you raise the ISO sensitivity in order to capture more light. While the VR-340 reduces noise to less than 1.5 percent from ISO 800, images are affected by this setting in terms detail. To preserve details, we recommend that the ISO 400 setting be maintained.
The lens is optically stabilized, so you should be able to get away with a lower ISO in darker situations—assuming that you are shooting a static subject. Sony WX150 has a CMOS sensor that performs well at higher ISO settings than the VR-340's more expensive CCD sensor. The noise level is less than 1.5 percent at ISO 1600 and it does an excellent job of preserving detail through ISO 800.
The video capture limit is 720p30 for AVI. It is not terrible, but it's good enough. The quality is a bit grainy even with studio lighting. You can't zoom in and out when rolling video footage. The audio quality is good—voices are clear and, as the lens doesn't move when recording, its presence on the soundtrack is not a concern. The USB port is a unique port that doubles as a charger. This port can be found on many modern point-and shoots. Videos and photos can be saved on standard SDHC, SDHC or SDXC memory card.
The Olympus VR-340 makes a great point-and-shoot choice if you don't have much money. It doesn't have the sharpest lens in the world—the Canon A2400 IS and A4000 IS both beat it there—but its 10x zoom lens is more ambitious on both the wide and telephoto end when compared to the Canon models.
If you understand its limitations—it's a bit slow to shoot, and for best results you should keep the ISO at 400 or below—the VR-340 will reward you with very good images—and it can capture wider views than your phone's camera, and zoom in for tight shots as well. Although it is not an Editors Choice winner, budget-minded photographers might consider the VR-340.
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