Looking back at the Olympus CAMEDIA C-2000 Z from 1999! 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 Lost photos? I recover mine with: www.dpbolvw.net/click-100568658-13808570?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.stellarinfo.com%2Fphoto-recovery-software.php Smart Media card reader: amzn.to/3hAb8Sp 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

I love these videos! I'm in college so buying expensive cameras is simply out of reach for me, but G.A.S. is real so these cheap old digital cameras are so fun, and being able to watch a camera reviewer I already watch and trust is nice.

I love this niche ! Im a retro lover and photography lover so this hits home for me!

I remember the 2MP cameras being the first stated to do quality 8x10 prints. I had the Olympus C2100UZ and loved that optically stabilized 10x zoom. I recall at the time how expensive the memory cards were and it was frustrating there were so many different types (CF, SM, MMC, MS, etc). It is a total blast to go back through these retro camera reviews as you have the best and most interesting videos. Thanks for the work you put into these!

My very first digital camera was a Camedia C-4000. It was OK except for horrendous shutter lag. I remember the frustrating experience of trying to get a shot of my nephew on a carousel! I still have the camera and a few Smart Media cards somewhere. You’ve inspired me to dig it out. Thanks!

What a world we used to live in. Thanks for the throwback review of this! I’d love to see you review the Panasonic DMC-LC5, from 2001 and a great little camera!

This C2000Z was my first digital camera. I believe it is down in the basement nearly forgotten. Your review has me going through and reminiscing over the photos it took back 20+ years ago. Thank you for the post.

Congrats on the video! I own an OLYMPUS C-4000 ZOOM camera since it was launched in 2002. I have taken thousands of beautiful pictures with. I bought a few years ago an OLYMPUS E-PL6 mirrorless camera for my daughter. After that I somewhat ”forget” about my OLYMPUS C-4000 ZOOM CAMERA. I took photos with my phone. But I think now that I will bring up again my OLYMPUS C-4000 ZOOM CAMERA and take great pictures with again! Congrats from Romania! Keep up the good work!

These older cameras remind me of how much easier things are today when I can pick up a SD of CF card very easily! Good work and have a good week!

Love this channel. Love the colors coming out of these old cameras. Back in the days they are still trying to mimic film in their images output.

Thanks Gordon, my first digicam was the C2100UZ with the same sensor and 10x zoom.

Wonderful review as always. I recently picked up a handful of smart media cards for some old cameras and don’t actually remember them from the 2000s at all. I am still in awe of how thin they are!

First of all thank you for your nice video. I owned an Olympus C-3030 and I still remember the day, I got this camera. For a while it was my to-go cam - but in 2006 I switched to my first Canon EOS 350D. While typing these words I look at my A7RIV and my E-M1X and I wonder, how time flies. Thanks for taking us back in the early days of digital photography 🙂

The timing of this video is amazing, a few weeks ago I picked up the later C3040 to review on my channel (a video for later this month). I'm not surprised you got such good shots with the C-2000 as they were a good camera back then. Back in 2001, the Olympus C3040 was camera I used in my job as a Graphic Designer in a small marketing team and it was a great little camera. We bought it after our Nikon Coolpix 900 broke in two (the twist joint failed) and decided to get something a little more conventional. At the time 3.3 megapixels was more than enough, the images were pretty sharp and the fast lens meant it wasn't too bad in low light. Today, getting the files off the camera is a challenge - I did get all the manuals and CD software with my example but even on my oldest PC running vista it doesn't work well using the software and the cable. I do have a Smart Media Card reader on the way - to save my sanity. Another great review Gordon, keep them coming.

Still impressive and that for it's age. I have a old Nikon D1x which I still use in B&W. I love it.

These videos are wonderful! I used a C-3030 when I first learned digital photography. We can only download the images with the Camedia Master software, very resctricted to use but greatly made cameras. Very pricey too! My photo teacher had an E-20P which we can rarely touch :D Thank you for making these and bringing back memories!

I just picked up a c4000 last week, and should be here tomorrow. Can't wait to play around with it. I love old digis as they bring me back to the good days lol

Very interesting Gordon!

This video was a nostalgia trip for me, I actually worked for Olympus back in the early 2000s and used to be able to borrow cameras to take out and shoot on the weekends. The C series cameras always stick with me because I remember the Stylus lines coming out after them and having to explain to so many people that just having more megapixels didn't make for having better photos. I also am currently trying to find someone a good used C8080. :)

Really enjoyed that flashback, thanks. I owned either this Camedia model, or the successor. What I remember most was the terrible battery life and I ended up ditching it for my film camera. It wasn't until I got the Canon Ixus 400 that I felt digital had finally became seriously viable.

Just found my Olympus C765 from about 2004. Had to buy a replacement battery from eBay before I am able to test it. Thanks for an interesting video.

Great retro review as usual! Yes, Mignon batteries are indeed more handy for older devices, not only for cameras. I can use some old Psion handhelds even 30 years later, but my HP Jornada 680 from 2000 or so is tied to the AC adaptor because nobody makes these rechargeables anymore 😐. I owned some Olympus gear(E1 and E520 IIRC) for a brief period. Smartmedia is indeed a bit tricky, I only was able to read the pics from USB connection on my odd ancient Praktica cam I once had. Have the same Hama card reader, too, but yeah...not so useful for that.

My first digital camera was an Olympus D-360L which I purchased in 2000. Being able to see the picture I just took on the back was mind blowing! The next year I got an Olympus D-490Z, which had a zoom which I absolutely loved. Resolution went up to 2MP. Lastly in 2002 I got an Olympus D-40, which was incredibly compact, and went way up to 4 MP! Loved all the Olympus cameras, but my streak ended in 2005 when I jumped ship to Canon, and the DSLR world with the Rebel XT.

That was fun! I was surprised the pictures were as good as they were. Reminded me a bit of the first pics from the early iPhones.

This was a great little camera and brilliant for infrared without any modification other than screwing an infrared filter on the front of it. Thank you so much for the review, I found it this afternoon after I was inspired to grab it for the first time for some years to take some infrared photos of sun drenched trees with interesting cloud formations behind them. Foliage comes out with a pale green tint but with a quick conversion to B&W they look awesome.

Many Thanks for the video. I still have a working C-2020 which I bought in 1999/2000. It is my very first digital camera. I used to have a built in SM reader on my old Dell. That Dell has been replaced. Just ordered the same reader shown in your video. Will definitely take the camera out and do some shooting soon.

Lovely review as always, thank you for mentioning the SmartMedia voltage differences! Gotta agree with your sentiment about cameras gradually becoming the same shape back then, previously there were so many weird from factors running around. :(

I'm on a digicam GAS right now, buying up all of the Olympus sliding door P&S cameras. I remembered them fondly as the family camera, so here I am grabbing up these ancient things before the price sky-rockets. I learned that the D-100 was a smart media card camera, and had to go down that weird rabbit hole. I was familiar with xD picture cards, but not these.

Brilliant video as always, love seeing these cameras getting love again, Suggestion for an odd camera is the Pentax Optio X or the Pentax Optio MX4. Both have a unique and different style! Had the same problem finding a cheap memory card for a Fuji FinePix A500, but eventually found it, lucky the camera can hook up to a computer via a usb cable!

Good stuff Gordon. The C-3030 was my first digital camera. Man I loved that camera!

Nice Photos !

Had a C 2020, very nice!

I still have a C-720 which was a similar form factor but with an 8x zoom and an EVF. It was the EVF on this camera which convinced me that they were the future. With a whopping 3Mp you could make a decent 10x8 print. I got a portfolio of photos taken with this camera published in Digital Photographer magazine which I was very chuffed about at the time. It cost me around $1000 AUD which was a phenomenal amount of money. I still take it for a whirl every now and then.

I love the Camedia Cameras. I owned the C-2000, C-4000 and the C-5050.

The Olympus E20 was my first digital camera. By that time (2001) the Camedia series was on the C5050. I still have it and need to get it out and shoot with it again sometime. A great camera with nice lens, just enough resolution for decent sized prints and a really tough build. But boy is it sslllloooowwwww!!! Even by 2000\2001 standards the E10/20 were slow. But it takes regular AA as well as proprietary batteries so powering it today is not an issue like some vintage digitals. The reason I kept it was the slowness of it made me take photos in a really considered way and I got some great landscapes as a result.

Another enjoyable dinosaur video. The pictures look just as washed out as the ones on my C800L did. Good to see that it wasn't me but the camera.

So incredibly interesting Gordon😄 I purchased an Olympus C 5060 from 2003 and i am loving it so far!!😍 I am constantly being amazed at the photo quality❤ I have been playing around with the settings to see which was work for me.😊I just just discovered that if you change the photo to example a raw the 32mb card only allows 4 photos at a time.🤣🤫 Where has if i go to the last setting in that section, i can take a total of 330 photos.😍😊 I would love you to do a review on this camera, from when i was 13 haha Best wishes from Australia.🙂

I still have my c3000 zoom that I bought for 750$ in 2002-2003. I gave it to my mother. It takes nice pictures. I guess you can get one for 10$ nowadays. CCD sensors are special, look a bit like film.

Nice! I would love to see you reviewing Casio EX-750 ! I still have it and use by pure joy. At base iso the pictures are fantastic.

Excellent review Gordon! My first digital camera was a Kodak DC5000 -- I recently bought a clean working copy for about $50, just for nostalgia sake. My first Olympus digital camera was the outstanding E-20 -- a huge leap forward for the time (Actually, I had two of them). I used those cameras professionally to shoot weddings and portraits. The problem with that camera was that the shutter life was pretty limited, and since it was a 'Leaf Shutter' built into the lens, which was built into the camera body, when it died your camera was pretty much 'bricked'. It sure produced wonderful images. One of the biggest frustrations with the older cameras is not so much image quality as it is the painfully slow reaction and processing speeds -- we have been truly spoiled by modern high speed cameras.

I feel like a very late starter hearing about all these cards and having never needed anything other than SD in my old TZ3 or memory stick pro duo in an old Sony 😂 Great review Gordon 👍

Great review, I still have my original Olympus 3020 bought in 2002 from Adams Photographic in Tunbridge Wells. I went in to buy a Minolta 2mp camera a weird slim boxy camera with an internal optical zoom. Adam talked me out of it and said the Olympus had much more control and a whole 1mp more! Smart media was expensive back then so I had mostly 64m cards and the original 8 or 16mb card that came with the camera. I have recently taken it out a shot some images with it in HQ and SHQ. Olympus had quite nice colour science and the images still show this despite the noise present at 200 iso. The prices on eBay seem to have really risen in the past year or so. I did manage to buy a working c 2020 with a 128mb card last year for under a tenner to go with my other Olympus cameras. XD media is also a challenge to get at realistic prices.

That is interesting, I had a C-4000 4 megapixel model, and the lens looked exactly the same but it only was f2.8 throughout the zoom range, it didn't have the flash sync port but rather a proprietary ttl sync port, and it sported an M mode as well as some scene modes. I really like the camera, it was my first "serious" camera but I didn't like the very slow operation speed and slow focusing.

I bought a brand new Oly C 2000-Z in December 1999 as a Xmas present for myself, an impulse buy from my local Dollonds. The multi-disciplinary property practice where I worked had just spent a small fortune on a 'suitcase' of Nikon SLR and lenses for the staff to use, who then had to visit a local shop, then return to collect prints and take B&W photocopies or go back to order (colour) re-prints. This was the digital camera that made them realise they should have gone digital and the big box of film SLR gear was ever used by staff. I still have that camera.

STILL have my C2100z, in working condition, as well as the E100rs! 🙂

Still got and started to use again, the c 3000 zoom and its fun to use again after its been stuck in a drawer for years

Great video! I believe the later c-4000 model can be used as a usb card reader for smartmedia cards.

Great show! I found an old Olympus Camedia Digital C 2500 L. The box and instructions are long gone. Can you do a review of that camera?

I would love to see a Pentax or Casio camera in this series. They were incredibly compact with their rectangular Altoids tin form factor.

I have a c2020z i picked up around a year ago in a 5$ lot I purchased for a (relatively) newer olympus tg-2, and interestingly I purchased the lot for the tough camera, and I ended up spending most of my time with the c2020z. It sort of got me into the vain of older cameras because of how charming it was, and now I have picked up a lot more of the older ccd olympus cameras since I love the colours from them. The second one I acquired was the c8080 because I wanted something that was closer to modern cameras in terms of image quality with the same charm of the c2020z, and from there I fell into the e1 and the dslr system. I blame the c2020z for my current gear acquisition problems, but also the start of an amazing journey into ccd sensors. On another note, I purchased a smaller lot that included a canon a630 with an 8mp ccd, and my friend has been glued to that camera for the last half a year. There's something charming about these cameras, even 15-20 years later.

2 megapixels and images are so sharp that not many could tell the difference from a modern camera. I'd like to suggest the Casio Exilim EX-S1 for a future review!

Just dived into the cupboard to find my C-3040Zoom 3.3 Megapixel Olympus. Put some batteries in and it powered up without an issue, still had a Smartmedia card in it with pictures from a Queen and Paul Rogers concert in 2005

The first digital camera in my family was an Olympus mju-300.

Just found a boxed C-50 for £7 in a charity shop. Even included a 128mb card! Hoping it works ha. Love videos like this

I still have my C-7070. Can't find the charger for it. I'll have to buy one on eBay so I can bring it back to life. Want to try the macro function.

Lets see, in terms of the old Olympus fixed lens cameras, I started with the Olympus D-510Z. Around that time period, we were doing a trip to Disneyworld in Florida (USA) in 2001. As was the style back in the day, rather than using a credit card, I got cash and traveler's checks out. Somehow I was able to leave Disney with about $400 in cash. Their cash sensors that verified you had spent everything must have been on the blink then. Anyway, when we got back, rather than just putting the money back in the bank, it was burning a hole in my pocket, and I had heard about digital photography. So after looking around, I settled on the Olympus D510Z. It was certainly a departure from the 35mm SLR camera I had used in high school and college, and the point & shoots I had used for vacations. However, I quickly outgrew the D510Z, since it was just essentially a point & shoot camera. For my birthday in 2002, my wife allowed me to upgrade the camera. After searching around, I settled on the Olympus C-2100UZ. At the time, 3MP cameras were just coming on the scene, and Olympus dumped their 2MP cameras at the big box retail stores, and I was able to get it for a very good price. It had support a lot of special features, it could support external flash (using a special cable), it had a 10x zoom with a f/2.8 lens (38mm to 380mm equivalent zoom). I spent quite a few years with that camera before upgrading to the DSLRs and micro 4/3rds cameras. In fact, roughly 20% of the 54,000 pictures I've saved in my albums since 2001 were taken with that camera. Unfortunately in 2018 when I last took it out, I lost some pictures as my smartmedia cards seem to be decaying in the ability to save files. But for the 11 years that I actively shot with it (2002 - 2013), it was a trusty companion. Lets see, the other fixed lens Olympus cameras that I've owned: D510Z -- as I said, pretty basic point & shoot. D40Z -- one of the few cameras I threw away because it seemed to actively destroy SM cards and the pictures weren't that good. C-8080WZ -- I bought this because people kept raving about it, but my model seemed to have color balance issues, and I sold it. VG-120 -- Cheap and forgettable. I bought it for a vacation, and I used it, and promptly put it down and gave it away. SP-550UZ -- I bought this as a smaller super-zoom, but without stabilization and a slower lens, you needed bright light. I eventually gave it away once I had a superzoom micro 4/3rds lens. Stylus-1 -- Of all of the fixed lens cameras, this is the one I still shoot with today. Having stabilization, 11x zoom (28-300mm equivalent), f/2.8 lens, and it fits in a large pocket, it is very useful when I want more than a cell phone camera, but not carry all of the gear with the micro 4/3rds setup. Olympus TG-2, TG-5, TG-860 -- These are nice for having a photography option when rain is present, and I don't want to take out the big splash resistant Olympus gear.

suggestion, Olympus E-1. i still have a minty example, still love that Kodak sensor for mono shots. review that!

Nice video ! I remember that my old HP Photosmart came with fantastic Lithium AA batteries, very light weight and super durable. That disappointment first when using alkaline, and then again, when the NiMh alternatives had half the capacity, and also depleted them self in two weeks. Some things weren't better in ye olden times. 😏

Gordon Please Do A Review Of The Olympus C-70 Zoom, I had one, if you cannot do that, then do a review of the Pentax Optio 750z which I also had.

Hey Mr Gordon have you ever tried smart media cards adapters? They seem to make them now. Much appreciated

I still have a 4040, 7070 and 8080 stashed away in the cupboard - all excellent in their day and would be surprisingly good for some purposes even nowadays. Most of my prints are up to A4 only and 3Mp and above produces decent results compared with film. (Not much cropping scope however).

I still got mine in its original box as new.....😊

I had the C5050, very sharp lens.

Back in the day, I had a C4000. It produced decent image but was horrendously slow! My favorite though of the Camedia series was the C2100 UZ. Affectionately referred to as the 'Uzi'. It was reasonably fast and sported what I believe was a 10x Canon zoom lens making it the first of the 'super zoom' cameras. I must say though, i was happy to say goodbye to smartmedia cards.

I have a slightly newer c-2040 model which technically has video capabilities but it seems the only video it can take is 4 seconds long, 240p and it does not record audio!

The pics are perfectly fine even for today and it's running by AA batteries which I love to use for a camera if you're only using it for taking pictures... Had you reviewed Canon powershot sx100IS before? It was my everyday carry camera before smartphone camera getting better, it's a good all-rounder camera

unless i am mistaking this camera for another i believe this 2.1 MP sensor has a weak IR filter and with a R72 IR filter handheld IR photography can be done on a sunny day

I've got this Hama reader. I'm covered!

Collecting old digital cameras can be addictive. I now have three Nikons (Coolpix 950, 990 and 4500) and also a Canon Powershot G5. They all work and give good results. Also recently acquired an Olympus Camedia C3000 which is similar to the one in your review. One point to note though is that video recording is not the best on these older cameras. I am currently looking at a Kodak C120 digital camera on ebay. Might be a model for you to review in the future !

Got myself a C-3030 today for 15$, but the most valuable things in that bag was FOUR smartmedia cards (2x128Mb and 2x64Mb) so that’s a steal 😂

Sister has Oly 5060WZ.. quite capable camera in 2004.. But I liked my small Casio QV R40 :D btw it operates on AA batteries and can use 2GB SD card, so it is still easy to use it.

Just picked up a c5060

Got a minter of a c2040z from ebay with 4 smart media cards and all manuals boxes etc for £3.99. winning bid. A bit of nostalgia from 2000 when i had a c2000 it is blurry by todays standards but colours pop when using indoors with the flash

This is really crazy cause I just pulled out my C-4000 2 days ago

Have you done infrared with any of the 2000-5050+ cameras?

Pictures are actually very decent

Do you have any idea how can you download the pictures? What kind of cable do you need 😭

I made good pocket money on Olympus Camedias at around the break of Y2K. In fact Cx0x0, was a guaranteed good choice for image quality, unlike say, Fujifilm (omg!), at that time. The SmartMedia card was a death of many storage dependent devices though - at least with CF cards handling wasn't an issue. I still have a couple of those cards as my KORG ESX sampler uses them. This video (like many on this channel) also reinforces the fact that photos as an end result rely on the eye of the photographer - did anyone care that there was no 14bit depth 13stop dynamic range 45megapixel here? No :D (...there is chance I still have a C2020 hiding in the storage somewhere :)

OMG. I have the Camedia C-2040 Z, slightly different lens and (cof) "improved" user controls, does have M-Manual and (cof) video. Same 2 megaton sensor "half inch" 6.4mm x 4.8mm. Takes surprisingly good photos in base ISO 100, don't dare use anything higher. If you want to make a cup of coffee, take one in TIFF ... and ... wait ... I use it for IR now. It will not work with all IR filter wavelengths and does need a custom WB set. Try IR 720nm. The necessary Olympus oddball thread size 41-43mm extension tube is a fraction too short and needs a couple of thread adapters stacked so the lens does not collide.

I found an old camedia at a thrift store a while back and didn't pick it up. This video gives me fomo but at the same time those memory cards sound like a nightmare 😂

Hi Gordon... dont old point and shoot cameras have fungus or dirt or whatever on their lenses? i never bother with them because no one would bother to service them... ive been wnting to ask this question for a while now...

My first digital camera was a 4 MP Pentax which I bought around about 2004. I was splashing out because most cameras on our market at that time were only 3.2 MP, and quite a lot cheaper. It had a beautiful rectangular brushed aluminium body, and a black custom leather case that it slipped into. To me it was a little jewel and my pride and joy. I kept it until a recent clearout and only ditched it because it developed a fault in which it constantly claimed that the batteries were flat and shut itself down. I read on the internet that this is a common fault with Pentax cameras of that time and no one could suggest a solution. It was a great shame because it was otherwise in pristine condition and, as you have demonstrated, one can still take decent photos with a low MP camera.

Fujifilm SuperCCD would make a interesting review :)

I have a shiny C-5050 😍

Almost certainly all those lenses were made by Seiko Epson... Also, motor drives were Sony or Mitsumi

Urgh, SmartMedia cards 😂 I never had a camera that used them, thankfully, but did own a Zoom PS-02 PalmStudio that used the cursed format. Getting set up with a useably large 128Mb card and USB reader was quite an expensive investment on top of an already pricey unit, which of course came with an unusably small 8Mb card. Man, solid state media was expensive then! I try to remind myself of that fact these days when I’m dwelling on whether to spend an extra $10 or so to get double the capacity on hugely capacious SD or mSD cards!

I have the 5050!

do the C-3100 plsssss🤎🤎

Smartmedia, what a Fail as a Mediacard, in my Opinion. As a Retro digital Camera Collector as myself, I feel forced to have many of the lying around. Some Cameras are only accepting cards up to 16MB, some to 32 or 64MB. All this only to cheap out on the Controller on the Card. A few Years Ago, I also made a Smart Media "Rescue Kit" with a specific SanDisk Card reader and an old Windows XP Laptop. It's not always fun, but then I remember the Cameras witch only Build in Memory and everything is forgiven.

Missing an i “camedia” in the title 😉