Olympus's Camedia C-200 Zoom follows the lines of previous Olympus digital cameras. It's a bit wider and lower than most, but is still comfortable to hold. The controls are easy to use, as there are surprisingly few of them. Four buttons arranged in a circle navigate the menu system and just two others, for menu selection and to turn the LCD display on, are set into the back panel. On top is the 'shutter release' and a toggle switch which triggers the modest 3x digital zoom, complementing the built-in 3x optical zoom.

You turn the camera on by sliding the lens cover across the camera's body and in doing this you release a pop-up flash head. You can line up pictures using the colour LCD display on the back panel or the optical viewfinder, which has focusing linked directly to the main lens - though not SLR.

Image transfer involves a USB connection or a separate SmartMedia card reader. Olympus and Fujifilm are the two main users of this thinner memory card format and an 8MB card is supplied with the C-200. This can take only five of the highest resolution images the 2.1Mpixel CCD can capture.

Pictures taken with the Olympus Camedia C-200 Zoom were well-defined, but lacked the vibrant colour of the Canon and the Fujifilm cameras. They needed some correction to boost the mid-range hues, too, in the Camedia Master software supplied with the camera.

This is a capable digital camera, though elements of its design, like its three-position lens cover, are strangely idiosyncratic.